kitchen toolsYou know it's time to get rid of some of your kitchen gadgets when you can't open your kitchen gadget drawer. That's where I'm headed. I have a teeny-tiny kitchen and I just don't have room to collect a million different tools -- especially if they do only one thing.

That's why I love double-duty kitchen gadgets: Tools that do more than one thing for you. Gadgets that justify the space they take up in your drawer. They're nothing special, either. In fact, you probably have all of these in your own kitchen right now.

Vegetable peeler: Shave cheese and chocolate. You know those pretty chocolate curls you see on cakes? You can do that with a peeler. This is also a great way to get long shavings of Parmesan that look great on salads.

Colander: Steam vegetables. Just nestle above a pot of simmering water and cover with a lid that more or less fits. Clearly this will only work with a metal colander.

Wine bottle: Rolling pin. Okay, technically this is not a gadget. But it is a really good reason to justify buying wine. "But I'm making pie!"

Cheese grater: Garlic mincer. If I'm in a hurry sometimes I'll just grate a clove of garlic rather than chopping it. Watch your fingers, though. ALSO! Bread crumb maker. If a loaf goes stale on me, I'll toast it a little in the oven and then grate it into crumbs.

Melon baller: Cookie dough scooper. It gives you a neater "ball" of dough for cookies than a spoon does. You can also use it as an ice cream scoop for fairies. Or 4-year-old girls, as the case may be.

Potato masher: Bean masher. Not rocket science, I know. But you can use the same tool to make re-fried beans.

Scissors: Cutting herbs, butterflying a chicken. Really, the list just goes on and on. I do a lot with my kitchen shears.

Cheese knife: Tomato knife. This knife seems like an indulgence but hear me out. I have one and it's perfect for slicing through cheese because that hole in the middle means the knife isn't dragging through it. But it's also brilliant for tomatoes. It's serrated so it pierces through the skin instead of half-mashing the tomato before it cuts. And it's a good size -- my other serrated knife is a bread knife and it's kind of big and heavy for tomatoes. Loveitloveitloveit.

What multi-purpose kitchen gadgets do you have?

 

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