to wish I'd bought one of these years ago

[NutElla5x]

So I've just made myself poached eggs on toast for lunch using my new microwave egg poacher-which cost me the princely sum of 70p using a voucher-and it did the job perfectly,cleanly and soo quickly. If it hadn't been on special offer I probably wouldn't have bothered to try it out because I think mostly the old fashioned ways of cooking things is best,but I can see me and the kids getting a lot of use out of this thing. What cheap and cheerful gadget have you bought that's made your life that bit easier and made you wish you'd bought it years ago?

Frozen mash is the way forward!!!

Pizza cutter

It always surprises me when we go away to a cottage or similar how few have a pair of kitchen tongs in the drawers!

Frozen mash is the way forward!!!

Hell no.

A lemon squeezer with a pot underneath to catch the juice.
It was an impulse buy from the pound shop and I use it every single day.

But you didn't have poached eggs. I'm not sure what the technical term is for dry-cooking cracked eggs is but I was doing them in cups at uni decades ago
Technically maybe not,but as that is how the contraption is described on Amazon that is how I will describe it on here. As for you doing them in cups years ago,that is probably why you made it to uni and I didn't

I regularly do mashed potato for 6 people with a ricer, I find it much easier than using a masher.

Nah. Use a hand mixer - if it's good enough for Delia, it's good enough for me.

www.kenwoodworld.com/en-int/products/blenders/hand-mixers/hand-mixer-hm535

I have an egg pick (also called an egg picker), which puts a little hole in the bottom of an egg so that air can escape when you put it into hot water to boil it. This means that it doesn't crack and release egg white into the cooking water and you don't waste eggs.

DH bought this dicer thingy. Looks like a clear shoebox, the lid has interchangeable different sized ultra sharp grids that snap in. You put your veggie/fruit on the grid, slam down the heavy top and you have perfectly diced onions, apples, etc. Saved me a tonne of time at Thanksgiving and Xmas.

I've been considering buying one of those Neverender, but my 3 teenagers have hollow legs, so I think all in all mashing the mound of tatties I have to cook is probably quicker for me.

I very rarely saw mashed potatoes when growing up - my mother would have croaked at the thought of peeling enough potatoes for a family of six - all with big appetites - to have mash. She'd give them (the spuds) a perfunctory wash, then boil them up very carefully. They had to be done just right - strained while still slightly undercooked, then put back on the heat for another five or ten minutes with a tea towel on top to dry them out. We'd then take what we wanted onto a side plate, and peel them ourselves. Much better division of labour It's still my preferred way to cook potatoes, mash makes me heave a bit.

I had an egg poacher thingy for the microwave but they never came out right so back to the pan with 'cups'. I can't do the swirly water in a saucepan trick to save my life.

Another shout out for using a hand mixer to whip potatoes into The Best Mash Ever ( according to my kids).

My best ever purchase was ceramic hob cleaning gel and a glass scraper. Was £6 delivered on ebay and oh my gosh, the satisfaction! was great to clean the glass hob to brand new standards and worked a treat on the amber coloured oven door too.

kitchen tweezers

Brilliant 😂😂😂

NutElla5x

You can take him for free for a while if you like, he's doing my head right in. I can love without the poached eggs for a bit

Pizza scissors. Far superior to a rotary pizza cutter.

😂 tongs would make more sense , sure Ikea was calling them tweezers though.

www.lakeland.co.uk/18908/Masha-Electric-Potato-Masher

Not that cheap but defiantly worth it! Creamy mash potato is seconds and never leaves any lumps, its amazing!

Ah ha! See you all had me doubting myself there but Ikea calls them tweezers, I can't argue with Ikea, I bloody love the place.

so if you do mash with a mixer, you create somethign that is NOT ordinary mash potato (you may prefer ti though!)

Because if you use a mixer, you break down the something or other (probably the starch) in the potato, and it changes texture. Potato puree is a different taste and texture to mash.

I happen to prefer mash to puree

What even is a potato ricer?

Agree about the apple slicer/corer. Plastic cover forbplate when reheating in the microwave - used to use a piece of kitchen roll but this really does the job.

I love my crinkle cutter , no sore hands chopping potatoes. Can now buy cheap versions online.

Seconding the Masha. Even my husband who hates cooking loves this because of the results.

so if you do mash with a mixer, you create somethign that is NOT ordinary mash potato

It's slime 😄

Not a gadget, just time saving food items - frozen chopped onion, frozen slided mushroom, jars of 'easy' garlic and 'easy' ginger. No more cutting, eyes watering, peeling .