What tool have you received as a gift, thinking it would sit on your shelf gathering dust...

Hunh. How much do those run for?

Lately, my apple corer has been seeing a lot of usage, unexpectedly. I was somewhat bullied into buying tongs, but they were only a dollar so I went with it, and they have proved to be useful.

The good ones start at about $100 or so.

Tongs are U&K

As mentioned on the other gadgets thread my meat grinder, which I expected to see very little action has proved an absolute boon.

My mum sent me one of those rubber/silicon sheets for my birthday along with a silicon loaf pan. Havent used the pan, but after I got over my "omg I cant put RUBBER in the oven!" weirdout I used it, and wow is it ever amazing. NOTHING sticks to it, it doesnt scorch, and afterwards you just rinse it off and its good to go again. Great for baking bikkies, for oven crumbed fish, baked pastries - anything that'd likely stick to foil or baking paper.

The most useful things in my kitchen (apart from knives etc) are indeed tongs (cost £1.50), a handheld blender thing (great for soups) & an Adnams bar towel (cost nothing), which is the perfect size for holding hot pots & pans, drying hands etc.

I am deeply suspicious of gadgets, whether they are things that perform only one function (eg garlic crusher) & so not very useful, or things that perform many different functions (eg big food processor with lots of different attachments that takes up lots of room & is never used). What they have in common (apart from lack of use) is that they're a pain to wash up.

noodle maker .. press .. not sure what its really called. but you can make and cook fresh spaghettis in the time it takes to cook the dry stuff.

im anti gadget too - but this is changing my mind.

I made egplant with black bean sauce yesterday, and just for yucks used the Graef -- my God, that thing is brilliant.