Update--I now have a stiff block of kind of rubbery cheese. :) The press worked great, but I needed an extra block for the small amount of cheese. I finally lit on a group of four little boards banded together. They'd been a beautiful trivet my father made, which fell and un-made itself. Those on their sides on top of a folded cardboard on top of the "followers" on top of the cheese was perfect.

So, in looking up what a "large package of cream cheese" meant in my great-aunt's recipe--I thought a pound had to be too big, then remembered how popular the half sized blocks were in my youth--I found this cool page which summarizes the origins of Philadelphia cream cheese. It also explained, by the way, why the recipe says "neufchatel" in parentheses.

Annie, that's great! I have a modern butter dome I've used for cheese rather than butter, so the world is back in balance.

The hoop cheese--which I made some mistakes on, but came out well enough (if rubbery) for a first attempt, is going into blintzes. There's a holiday starting tomorrow (in English it's called the Feast of Weeks) at which dairy foods are traditionally eaten. The cheese could use to dry longer. It usually has a more crumbly texture, but I think I can compensate.

The new gadget I have yet to take out of the box was a gift over a month ago. It's the sifter attachment for the KA mixer. I wish there were interchangeable meshes, but it looks useful. I'm going to do a trial run of rolled out marzipan ahead of the Princess cake in August. It should get a good trial on that. I do have a huge sifter with a crank for such projects, but it's still terribly tedious work, sifting almond flour. I'm hoping the electric one is worthwhile.

Today, I got the e-mail from Anova offering an insulated, enclosed box to go with the immersion circulator. It's very tempting. It's supposed to have very little evaporation, which would be a boon for these three day cooks that are so great, but I think would be fab on an ordinary basis because it doesn't need to be watched and watered. :) It's family sized, more than catering size, which means it would be a nice thing to use instead of the ice chest for smaller crowds. Hm... I think I've talked myself into it. It makes me laugh because the great allure of the original stick style, which this is, was that any vessel could be a sous vide bath so why pay for a bulky tank. :) The ol' styro chest with hole probably works just as well, for a tenth of the price. :) Maybe I'm talking myself back out of it?

I have this useless potato slicer, supposed to be used to cut potatoes into french fry shapes but it's way too small for most potatoes that I have so therefore, it's useless for that task. So, there it sat in the drawer taking up space until I realized that it's perfect for chopping up boiled eggs. I'm using one of those dough scrapers that is metal for browning hamburger meat and chopping it into small little pieces for taco meat. Have to use a stainless or cast iron skillet though, can't use it with non-stick. Oh and you can find these at Dollar Tree...also useful for dough...HA! Can be used to scrape stuff off the cutting board too.

I have this thermometer spoon, which I use when making crème anglaise, which I make mostly for ice cream, but also for other custards, and I find it much easier to use than having a candy thermometer attached to the side of the pan. Since I make this custard frequently (or at least I used to, when ice cream was more in my diet), I find this to be a very useful tool.

This the the mandoline that I use most frequently.

I have a wrench I use to hold the side of a roasting pan when I’m making gravy on the stove top. And I often use my olive pitter to pit cherries.

I keep a pair of pliers in my kitchen junk drawer and use it frequently to open pull tabs on glued down plastic/foil caps.

I've mentioned this before, but I use my potato ricer to squeeze liquid out of spinach. I also use a potato masher to crumble ground meat or poultry when browning it. Works best if you wait for the meat to brown a bit first.

I have an old wire French fry cutter that I use when I make egg salad too. It's also good for cutting butter into small pieces when making pastry or biscuits.

I often use my dough scrapers instead spatulas as well.

And I have a neat pair of fish bone tweezers I got at Daiso. They're great for pulling stray feathers from poultry, and bones from fish, of course.

Thanks all who posted! I love your stories and gadgets.

Lars, that's just the one I was looking at, I think it would be very good for making jam, so I would know when I was reaching jell stage (or is that gel stage?)

pllog, I talk myself into and out of things all the time. "Boy, this would be perfect". "Yeah, but where will I put it, and how often would I actually use it?" "But it would be great for (fill in the purpose/event here)" It's like the good guy and the bad guy on the cartoons, one on each shoulder, poking me, LOL.

Annie

The cheese came out so well, I went for the box! It's a different shape and doesn't shed undecaying balls. :) I'll still use my real ice chest (insulated plastic) for bigger amounts, but the counter top box would be great for cheese. :)

I was looking at some stainless containers. Some are meant for kimchi, and others are kind of like humidors for "herb". I don't know that they're water tight, though. Maybe the kimchi one is. If it fits in the sous vide box, I might try it. Regular vacuum seal bags won't work because one has to tend the curds. But if I really get into cheesemaking, I'm going to need a "cave", too. I was looking at a marine cooler that does freezing to 60° F, so could alternate between cheese and ice cream, but it's too expensive for a toy, and the only place I could plug it in is the entry., so then I'd need a table to hide it. Sigh.

Chloebud, you just reminded me I use my salad spinner to dry shredded potatoes for potato cakes and my spritz gun for making spaetzle.

Lars, your 'spoon' made sense so I ordered one.

A friend of my daughter thought I needed a Pot Stirrer.... no directions... nothing about it.

I found it on a web site and now know how it's suppose to work. I'm not sure I even want it, but may try it at some point just because:

I have very few gadgets and I frequently forget to use the ones I have. I suppose the oddest gadget I have is

For my Anova Sous Vide, I use a small cube-sized cooler sealed at the top with Press ‘n Seal. It is so hot and humid here, I generally sous vide on the back porch to slow down evaporation and to keep the humidity out of my house. I’ve never done a long sous vide.

bbstx, my husband came home from Bed Bath and Beyond a few years ago with one of those those chopper gadgets. I've never used it, but he does whenever he makes salsa...which is fairly often in large batches. The brand on ours is The Sharper Image, but it looks exactly like your photo....same white and green colors, too.

Colleen, great idea for the salad spinner and spritz gun! :-)

Many years ago my uncle made a couple of these oven rack push/pull gadgets for me. I was only about 12 at the time and remember him laughing when I tried to guess what they were for. Still have both of them but tend to use oven mitts more. Guess I should think of other uses for these things.

I'm not a kitchen gadget lover; I do rely on a larger chefs knife for almost all cutting tasks. I have non-kitchen uses for some kitchen tools. A salad spinner is excellent for spinning dry cashmere sweaters and an old style nut cracker does a perfect job of unstucking a nail polish bottle cap

Lisaam, your salad spinner for cashmere sweaters is so much more elegant than my wrap them in a towel, throw it on the bathroom floor and stomp on it. I’ll have to remember to be more ladylike while doing my laundry. :-))

I used to walk on the rolled up towel, bbstx!

I bought an old-fashioned looking glass round sugar dispenser (BB&B) like you sometimes see in restaurants, with a tiny flip lid. I put honey in it. Take the metal cap off and nuke it a few seconds for a smooth pour ... less than five bucks ...

sugar pourer

Does a door jamb count as a kitchen gadget? One of my door jabs has metal edgings on it and I stick the lid of my juice in it and tighten the door against the lid and turn the container. Works every time. Mostly I use a bottle opener or hot water for jar lids but I can't gain any purchase on the juice lids. I have some particularly difficult to open juice containers.

I use my food processor mostly for zucchini and things like that. I do a large quantity at a time though. Usually about 20 or 30 zucchinis or eggplant Etc.

I think a door jam as a bottle opener is dead on target for the alternate use category, and it's certainly a kitchen gadget given its use. :) Cool! I have an Italian bottle wrench (much like this one, but less snazzy) which is one of the first kitchen gadgets I ever bought. It takes some hand strength to use, though, and isn't nearly as cool as the door.

I just got this from Amazon, I’ve always had trouble scoring the top of my bread dough before baking without deflating the dough.

well my pic won’t copy but basically it’s a razor blade on a long handle.

For Louise, this is my lame.

Thank you, that’s the idea!. I can’t figure out why my pics won’t show up. They do until after I’vei pressed send and then they disappear.

To release the vacuum in jar lids, I give the gap between the jar and the lid a little twist with my oyster knife.

My toast rack to drain poppadoms.

Oh, Tina.

But since this got spumped (I made up a word!) hopefully CA Kate will see as I’m so curious about how the stirrer worked out. I seem to remember a discussion about these years ago (I believe when they first came out) and speculation that they wouldn’t work well with anything but the thinnest sauces.

Spumped! What a great new word! Thanks for that one!

Sous vide works well in a crock pot. It holds the temp well.

Spam plus bumped= spumped

That's what you met right?

Love it!

I have an Anova sous vide that I keep meaning to break out, especially with being home during covid. You've inspired me.

Foodonastump, funny you should ask.

I never did use the stirrer thing. Upon inspection I decided that it was too whimpy for anything but the lightest of sauces/batters. A whisk works just fine and doesn't require batteries.

The spatuala thermometer has never been used because I can't pull-out the platic strip protecting the battery that powers the thermometer. I tried taking out the battery box, and can't get that out either. Right now it is laying on my side cabinet in hopes that someday the grandson who loves such challenges will come to visit and get it to working.

yeonassky: I have a tool called a 'seal breaker'. You use it like a can opener to break the seal on too tight lids and it works every time.

Kate, do you have a small pliers? They're great for pulling little tabs.

Because I only have one fully functioning hand, it got very difficult for me to break a seal on jars. So DH bought me a battery-operated one. Surprisingly it does work. Makes a very loud POP when the lid comes loose. My only issue with it is that when it's straining to get the seal broken it tends to spew the batteries. But as long as I keep a couple of fingers tight against the battery door but follow the rotation, it works just fine.