Am I the only gadget sucker to have a cupboard full of ( "It sounded good at the time" ) stuff?

Heres a few to start with

A plastic Orange Juicer, screw it into the Orange squeeze the orange into a glass...yeaaa.

Fondue set lazy Susan. Used once back in the year dot.

sauce pan with a clockwork stirrer in the lid, I Kid you not (and I was a moderator on a internet Chef site for 6 years )

Bet you have a few to.

I have a wok that I've not used for 18 years.

Handy things Wok's. You could use it as a satalite dish, a gong, bailer or a rain hat

Or you could use it as a cymbal and play some wok n roll

Wok on Solie

I have a thing for kitchen gadgets:

Have a £99 mandolin, which I have used once and since found out my veg peeler does the same job (for about £4.99!) and also a mini burner that caramelises sugar for creme brulée and never used!

Also a frothie which basically just froths milk but only if you add sugar, it's rubbish... the list could go on and on!

That is an excellent idea!!


Steve

I had a cappucino maker. It was fiddly to operate and had to be dismantled and cleaned thoroughly between brews. I think I used it about 6 times in total.

I like that idea

Most useful gadgets over the years: proper expresso coffee maker, electric screwdriver, spring removing/inserting pliers for woodwind instruments, mp3 player with video screen, cheap laser thingy for straight lines in DIY, dremel set.

Most recent is a spy pen I bought last year that doubles as a USB memory stick, charges from USB and takes pictures and video. Bought after a car accident where I wished I had a way of taking photos/video without being too obvious. Sound recording is quite good and is fantastic for meetings where I want to remember what was said later. I can also write with it!

Steve

Sounds like a great gadget Steve. Where did you get it from?

Whoops, silly me. I realise now the thread was about gadgets we didn't need!

The spy pen was from Ebay. Do a search and you'll find loads of them. I got mine from a UK seller, not from Hong Kong. About 24 pounds. 4Gb memory, and fully charged, lasts for about 90 minutes. I use it for voice recordings and USB file transfer. I did try the video and it's actually not bad considering the pinhole camera, but I keep it on the photo setting because this would be more useful in an accident.



Steve

Was given an electric potato peeler by the MiL one year - it took up space in the garage until we finally decided that enough time had elapsed and it would be safe to dispose of it.

Try a 'Dolce Gusto' - they are quick and efficient, minimal cleaning. In fact quicker than boiling a kettle.

We have a Yoghurt making system thats not been used for 20 yrs, also a mechanical mincer.
The Bread maker packed in about 3 yrs ago and is still on the kitchen surface.

A teeny tiny miniature Casio television set. Can't see any detail on the screen, but it seemed good at the time...

I've seen a wok be used as a signal-enhancing dish for a wireless internet dongle before now...

Stupid things we've never been able to use: melon baller, butter curler, lazy susan, aerolatte frothy milk thing. Was debating turning the lazy susan into a piece of furniture - a rotating hall stand, but otherwise it seems pointless.

Things we have used in the past but found annoying to have around - slow cooker, cappuccino machine, and odd plastic storage boxes designed for a single and never-quite-useable-for-that purpose, like the tub for half an onion, or the sandwich box with a freezer pack built into the lid which doesn't quite fit normal bread.

Things other people seem to find a pain which we actually use a lot and like - bread maker, yoghurt maker, food processor.

Much as I love our coffee machine, as it grinds the beans for each brew, I do find it a pain to clean, so am waiting for it to break so I can get the updated version.

Sounds like our juicer, now gathering dust for the last few years. Great toy when we first got it. Fresh juice from just about anything.

But the cleaning and taking apart and.....!!


Steve

Trying to figure out what a small stringed instrument related to a lute is doing in the kitchen. Or how one could play mandolin music on a veg peeler

I won a food processor in a raffle, but I already have one that I only ever use for grinding biscuits for cheesecake bases, so I offered it to my sister. But she already has one that she only ever uses for grinding biscuits for cheesecake bases!

I had a chocolate fountain given to me last Christmas. For all the hassle i'd rather just eat the chocolate!!!

I seem to use mine mostly for grating carrots. I like cooking, and I live alone and work reasonably long hours so I don't really want to have to cook in the evenings but I can't bring myself to eat supermarket ready meals on anything other than a very occasional basis. So I cook big pots of food at the weekend, portion them up and freeze them to heat up in the week. The meals are usually casserole type things and I try to make them so that, possibly with the additon of some toasted pitta bread, they're whole meals in themselves. This means that they tend to contain rather more vegetables and pulses than I would to put in if I was making them to be served with separate helpings of vegetables. One meal that's a regular is chilli with the addition of a fair amount of grated carrot to the mince / tomatoes / kidney beans. Every time I make it and go through the palaver of getting the processor out and assembling it to take approx 30 secs to grate the carrot I wonder if it's worth it. Then, occasionally I just use a hand grater and the amount of time and effort it takes me reminds me why I usually use the food processor!

My parents have a slow cooker that they use a lot and have done for years, my granddad used to use one all the time too (it was a present from my parents), but although I've also been a recipient of one at some point in the past I can't say I've ever used it much.

When I was a child I used to have a fork specifically for pickled onions. The prongs had barbs on them to stop the onion falling off, and there was a button and pusher device to remove the onion from the fork when it was safely hoverng over your plate.

Thanks Steve

Has anyone ever managed to use one of those biro pens that have about 12 different spring loaded colours in them, without it breaking within seconds of use?...

Our sodastream was used quite a bit, although it never turned out properly fizzy drinks. But it's been standing idle for at least 12 years now. Perhaps I should take pity on it and throw it out.

I really resent those things being called lazy Susans. All the Susans I know are anything but lazy.

They still exist??

I dimly remember that they were everywhere...long ago.....very long ago!

The answer is..No! I remember that they wre far too thick to be used correctly.

...a bit like MEPs.

Steve

I have a sandwich maker in the back of a cupboard that I seldom use but which got hammered in my student days when times were hard. Tinned fish sarnies make wonderful energy food. I think that the other gadgets are in regular use.

We've got a whole drawer-full of pretend chopsticks - sounds ridiculous I know, but they have the two sticks joined together at the top by some flexible plastic so that you don't have to learn to use them properly. You can just sort of squeeze the tip and they pick up the food. Thing is, everyone I know can use chopsticks properly or dislike food that should be eaten with chopsticks, so I'm not quite sure what they're for! I also have a piano-shaped memo dispenser, which has to be shaken and thrown onto the floor for a corner of the paper to even begin to poke out of the end of the stupid machine!