Favorite Kitchen Gadgets

Despite having married the world's pickiest eater, I enjoy cooking, baking, and spending time in the kitchen. It truly is the heart of the home, isn't it? When I make a new treat for my family, I put love into it. That being said, there's nothing wrong with making life a little easier with some cool kitchen gadgets.

My friend Kate asked bloggers to share some of their favorite kitchen gadgets today, so I'm joining in the fun. These might not all be "gadgets," but I do enjoy having them around!

First up are these three guys- my Sunbeam breadmaker, a Mr. Coffee espresso machine, and a 1970s era GE food processor:

I use the breadmaker several times a week to make our sandwich bread. I crank it onto "dough setting" (which it is in for this photo), and I just bake the bread in the oven when the dough is ready. One of these days I'll try out some new recipes! 

The espresso is handy for making my world-famous cafe mochas. Okay, so they aren't exactly world-famous, but people who try them sure seem to like 'em. I can save a bundle making them at home, and it's so fun to be able to offer a specialty coffee drink to your guests.

The GE food processor came from my grandparents' house, and it gets a good work out in the summertime. I use it to shred zucchini from our garden--which is used to make zucchini bread, of course! You'd never know she is an old appliance...sometimes I think that older appliances work better than new ones.

Next up are my two Kitchen Aid mixers and my Sony iPod dock:

I can't say enough good things about my little 3-speed Kitchen Aid hand mixer. We (okay, I) received it as a wedding gift 10 1/2 years ago, and it does just as good of a job now as it did before. 

I'll be completely honest and tell you that the Kitchen Aid stand mixer scared the begeezes out of me and I didn't use it for a good 5 or 6 years after we received it as a wedding gift. I grew up watching my mom and dad use one, and they raved about how great it was, but I was fairly certain I would lose an arm or finger in it or something horrible like that and it would end up on YouTube and I'd be famous for it. 

So when I did work up the courage to use my stand mixer, I was pleasantly surprised to find that not only did I not lose an appendage, but it made heavy mixing jobs so much easier! It makes baking a breeze, especially during the holidays.

Last, but not least, is my little Sony iPod dock that T gave me this past Christmas. It's small, but the speakers are fantastic. I love to plug my iPhone in and blast a little Pandora while I clean or get dinner started. I can't wait to play some Christmas tunes through my iPod next holiday season.

I'm sure there are all sorts of other goodies in my kitchen I could share with you, but these are a few that popped into my mind first. We live in a smallish, older home, so storage space is limited. If I'm going to keep a gadget, it has to be good!

What kitchen gadget do you own that you can't live without?

Linking to Centsational Girl