Gotten any fun stuff lately?

[Kim Shook]

Neither @Smithy or I could find/think of a topic on the subject of showing off minor kitchen/cooking stuff that we'd gotten.  Not major purchases - just stuff you've treated yourself with or someone else has treated you with.  I'll start.  Mr. Kim ordered me a set of little Oxo tongs the other day.  I was complaining that the ones I had were unwieldy and possibly dangerous due to super flexible silicone tips:

 

In another thread @heidih recommended this book:

I found it for less than $6 at abebooks.com and got it.  It looks really interesting and has a decent section on Soul food for it's time (1971).  I'm very much enjoying reading it.  Thanks, @heidih.  

 

On yet another thread, I mentioned that I'd stumble across a book by Mary Berry and our @marlena spieler.  I got it at abebooks for just over $6:

 

We'll see how much it gets used.  I'm not a fan of this style of layout:

Multiple recipes per page and not much chit-chat about foods and recipes.  I'm a fan of chit-chat.  

 

Hope you all will jump in.  

 

Edited September 9, 2022 by Smithy
Adjusted title (log)

[Darienne]

Alas.  I haven't gotten any fun stuff...but I wish I had.  Life has been distinctly lacking in fun recently.  Although we did eat fish and chips today at a local chip wagon.  We sat at picnic tables.  Observing social distancing.  Now that was fun.  First time eating anything out in many months.  

[kayb]

Since the topic does not say exclusively kitchen stuff, I'll note the only fun stuff I've gotten lately is two new, sorely needed bookshelves. Which had to be put together with an (included) Allen wrench.

 

I hate an Allen wrench worse than God hates sin.

 

[heidih]

3 minutes ago, kayb said:

Since the topic does not say exclusively kitchen stuff, I'll note the only fun stuff I've gotten lately is two new, sorely needed bookshelves. Which had to be put together with an (included) Allen wrench.

 

I hate an Allen wrench worse than God hates sin.

 

 

Only if it is not the right fit for the job in my experience - and I am a klutz

[BeeZee]

Silicone popsicle molds, two sets of 4 with wood sticks, found on sale on Amazon for under $6.

[kayb]

5 minutes ago, heidih said:

 

Only if it is not the right fit for the job in my experience - and I am a klutz

 

You're a better woman than I. 

[Captain]

An Aeropress and a milk frother.🙂

[Tri2Cook]

Would probably not be all that exciting to most who can just run to the local store and get it but I searched for a long time (years) waiting to find a good Canadian online source for the over-the-top, way overboard, should have used some restraint, ridiculous amount of Mexican cooking ingredients I recently received... so it's pretty fun to me. 

[gfweb]

1 hour ago, kayb said:

I hate an Allen wrench worse than God hates sin.

 

Cut off the angle and put it in your drill. Only need to do this once since furniturr uses the same wrench size

[heidih]

1 hour ago, kayb said:

 

You're a better woman than I. 

 

I obtained a mechanical mentor late in life versus the bozos who would say I was just not paying attention. There  ARE good men!

[Kerry Beal]

Two recent toys - 

 

 

Incubator

 

 

Chefman hot plate - you can hold this at less than 40º C - it's a beautiful thing. Mold sitting on top because I sent a picture to @Chocolot to show her the size and convince her she needed one!

[KennethT]

13 hours ago, kayb said:

Since the topic does not say exclusively kitchen stuff, I'll note the only fun stuff I've gotten lately is two new, sorely needed bookshelves. Which had to be put together with an (included) Allen wrench.

 

I hate an Allen wrench worse than God hates sin.

 

I LOVE allen keys!  They're so much better than either slotted or phillips screws. You don't get runout (where the screw driver slips out of the slot), the cross of the phillips can get damaged and then you're stuck, you can put a lot more torque on a hex key too.  The biggest problem is the key that's usually provided stinks - it's cheap, usually too short, etc.  If you have a lot to do, do yourself a favor and get a ball-end hex key - they work on an angle which is great for starting and doing the majority of the 'screwing' even in hard to reach areas.

[dscheidt]

11 hours ago, gfweb said:

Cut off the angle and put it in your drill. Only need to do this once since furniturr uses the same wrench size

 

 

Better, just get a set of bits for your drill.  Not only is cutting the bit in half a pain (do you think people have hacksaws and vises handy?), but most bits that come with furniture are made of cheese, and there's always one fastener which requres using the short side of the L key, because of clearance.  I'd also recommend spending $20 and buying a set of decent allen wrenches (these are very good, made in the USA, and fairly cheap https://smile.amazon.com/Bondhus-20199-Balldriver-L-Wrench-1-5-10mm/dp/B00012Y38W/ Currently $18 for a set of both metric and SAE sizes.)

 

 

[Darienne]

As of yesterday, I do have a 'fun' thing on the horizon.  A friend and her husband from the GTA are coming to dinner on the 14th.  She is bringing me her castoff long sleeved jerseys to pick through...and her castoffs are better than my first runs.  No, I am not a clothes horse. 

 

Last time round she offered me her castoff short sleeved tees.  She brought...wait for it...79...SEVENTY-NINE... t-shirts, many of which had never been worn.  I went through them.  The neighbors went through them.  Friends went through them.  The Dog Weekend folks went through them.   And the rest went to a women's shelter.   What did she have left at home I wondered...

[lemniscate]

A Blendtec with the Wildside jar off woot!.   Now this thing is fun.

[MokaPot]

Cooking chopsticks (used sort of like tongs). The tips (skinnier ends) are silicone-coated. The silicone runs about 2.5 inches up. When I ordered them, I thought the chopsticks were going to be fully-coated in silicone. I use them in nonstick pans and just general use as well.

 

[teonzo]

9 hours ago, Kerry Beal said:

Chefman hot plate - you can hold this at less than 40º C - it's a beautiful thing. Mold sitting on top because I sent a picture to @Chocolot to show her the size and convince her she needed one!

 

She needed a photo to be convinced to buy a new toy? Where are we going???

 

 

 

Teo

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

10 hours ago, Kerry Beal said:

Two recent toys - 

 

 

Incubator

 

 

Chefman hot plate - you can hold this at less than 40º C - it's a beautiful thing. Mold sitting on top because I sent a picture to @Chocolot to show her the size and convince her she needed one!

 

You didn't even need to send me the picture.

 

[kayb]

--@Kerry Beal -- What does it incubate?

[TicTac]

53 minutes ago, kayb said:

--@Kerry Beal -- What does it incubate?

Whatever fits!

 

😛

 

[teonzo]

13 hours ago, kayb said:

--@Kerry Beal -- What does it incubate?

 

Easter eggs.

 

 

 

Teo

 

[heidih]

3 minutes ago, teonzo said:

Easter eggs.

Teo

 

 

I think it should be eggs for Easter chicks. That is how we roll round here. 

[andiesenji]

A small thing but surprisingly effective.  I had one of the "claw-type" strawberry hullers a couple of years ago but it required pushing with my thumb to open the claw and I have severe arthritis in my right thumb /see photo enlarged joint that doesn't work/ and after a few strawberries, I was in agony.  So I tossed it.  And most of you know how much i LOVE gadgets. Just not this one.

 

A few weeks ago I received this gadget from Amazon to test and it is amazing.  So much easier for me to grasp against the base of my thumb/palm and operate with my fingers.

 

And you should see what a job it does on tough pineapple "eyes" and so easy.  It took me only 3-4 minutes to de-eye a large pineapple, a job that usually takes me at least 20 minutes - or longer.  

I went through 3 pounds of strawberries in short order and could use it to nip off the white parts in those that weren't fully ripe.  

Also tomatoes - I got some of the "ugly" tomatoes that are odd shaped and have very large stems and cores.  Not a problem with this gadget. 

 

This is the review I posted on Amazon:

 

 

andiesenji

TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE VOICE

5.0 out of 5 stars THE BEST STRAWBERRY HULLER

Reviewed in the United States on August 10, 2020

Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

I have purchased and thrown away more strawberry hullers than I can count. None worked really well.
THIS ONE IS IT! It works easily, even with my arthritic hands, to neatly core/hull strawberries and does a fantastic job removing the "eyes" on a pineapple. (Watch the video)
I bought a pineapple and after the outer trimming, used this huller to remove all those eyes in a FRACTION of the time it usually takes me using a paring knife.
A really efficient and reasonably-price gadget THAT DOES WHAT IT IS SUPPOSED TO DO!

 

Edited September 7, 2020 by andiesenji (log)

[Kim Shook]

@andiesenji - If you can manage it, I'd love to see a picture of it in your hand.  

[andiesenji]

1 hour ago, Kim Shook said:

@andiesenji - If you can manage it, I'd love to see a picture of it in your hand.  

 

No problem.  As you can see I don't have to put stress on the joint itself and I have good control of the huller.

That joint at the base of my thumb is almost 3 times the size of the joint on the left.  The enlargement has caused the joint to dislocate so the joint doesn't move.  That is the result of 30 years of holding and using engraving tools when I was engraving and carving in glass and crystal and doing gemstone carving.

Otherwise my hands don't look bad for 81 years.  

 

Edited September 7, 2020 by andiesenji (log)