My Very Favourite Kitchen Gadgets

My kids call me "the gadget queen of the west" because I love kitchen gadgets. I have a specialised tool or gadget for every job in the kitchen.

It started because I have trouble doing some jobs, because I had my left index finger amputated after an accident. My first gadget was a great jar opener.

Now I have gadets for so many things that you can almost suggest a task and I have a gadget to help with it.

They save me time and money and frustration

On top of that, they make cooking and food preparation easier, and I enjoy it more.

Without some of my gadgets, I would struggle to do my kitchen tasks, as I have a damaged left hand.

My children love to buy me more, especially unusual ones.

Besides the egg display stand (one of Bobby's love tokens):

• Onion saver
• Food saver
• Strawberry huller
• Avocado slicer/peeler
• Egg topper
• Apple peeler and corer
• Jar popper
• Lemon saver
• Tomato saver

It keeps your cut onions fresh for weeks.

How do you use it?

The gadget comes apart with a simple twist to become two halves. The top is a lid, while the bottom has a grid built into it. On the edge of each half is a small black arrow, used for matching the two halves to close the gadget.

1. Place the onion cut side down onto the grid.
2. Position the lid and bottom together so that the arrows point exactly to each other.
3. Give a light twist to lock the two sides together.
4. To open: Lightly twist to separate the lid and the base.

Now you can put your Onion Keeper into the refrigerator until you need some more onion.

Waste foodstuffs no more

• Seal with a vacuum seal that keeps bacteria from multiplying.
• Use and re-use until the food is all gone.

Save other items

• Stop screws and nails from rusting.
• Open beauty products, such as creams, will last longer if 'saved'.
• Paint cans can be sealed from the air.
• Tubes of glue can last longer.
• Save your best silverware from tarnish.

I'm sure that once you start thinking about what you could use the FoodSaver for, you will have many more ideas.

A very simple to use gadget, see how it works in this video:

Do you have lots of trouble opening new jam jars or pickles? Have to ask someone for help? No more!

Try using a Jar Popper.

My friend Marie noticed the trouble I was having with a jar lid one day and, because she has arthritis, she decided to surprise me with a present. She saved my life. Well not my life, but from frustration.

You position the popper on the edge of the jar's lid so that the 'claw' is under the lid edge and the ring is on the top of the lid. Lift the popper upwards and you will hear a 'pop' — hence the name — and the lid will unscrew effortlessly.

It is such a simple little device, made of plastic, and comes in several colours.

Once when I was using a paring knife to take off the green tops of a punnet of strawberries, I remarked that there had to be a gadget somewhere that could do it more easily.

Way before the Internet, you had to physically search as you around the big shopping centres and at specialty kitchen shops. My lovely daughters remembered that I had said that and each time they went shopping, they look for a gadget that would work.

Imagine my delight when I opened a tiny package to discover the very gadget.

A stainless steel strawberry huller. It looks like a small tea bag squeezer, or tiny ice tongs, but its edges are so sharp.

Works a treat. Thanks girls!

Want to stop wasting the rest of the fruit?

Here's some great news for you. There's gadgets for those jobs, too!

First, you need to cut the avo in half. Living for some time in Queensland, where avocados are very inexpensive, meant that we ate these fruits often.

The best way is to hold the avocado in the palm of your non working hand, and press the blade of a reasonable sharp knife into the skin along the length of one side.

Pressing with the knife into the fruit, turn the avo around while holding the knife still, until you reach the start of your cut.

Using both hands, twist the two halves in opposite directions, and they will separate.

If you want to keep half, place the one with the seed into an Avo Keeper, seed side down, attach the strap, pull firmly to seal, and place into the fridge. It will stay fresh for days.

Now for the slicing

Again holding the half avocado, skin side down, in your non working hand with the rounded end at your fingertips, position the peeler/slicer at the rounded end and push into the flesh of the fruit.

Draw the slicer towards you and lift out of the skin.

Perfectly sliced avocado for you to relish.

Because I have had part of my left hand removed after an accident, I have trouble with various kitchen tasks, especially opening cans. Soup cans, sardine cans, ham cans, meat pie cans…

My late husband Paul continuously looked for different types that he thought would help, brought them home, only to find he was still asked to open the tricky ones. We tried electric can openers, benchtop can openers, hand held openers of various types, none were right for my hands.

I was invited to a Tupperware™ party some time after Paul was killed, and only went for the company. Guess what I bought?

The best one ever.

By asking them what they think your most unusual gadgets are.

I always stump people when I show them my prawn peeler, and ask if they know what it is for.