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Nifty!  Did the tool start its life as an avocado lifter, or was it something like a frosting spatula converted by curving the tip?

pgarcia,

I'm back to report on the fan. :)

It worked really well. I just chopped up two really large onions and didn't have a tickle of a tear while I was chopping. I had tried it a couple of days ago with a sweet onion, put that didn't seem like a fair test, so this morning I did it with pungent ones.

Instead of redirecting one of the fans I had ordered for the seedlings I bought a new one just for the kitchen when I saw they had some little USB rechargeable ones. It's great - I charged it up and then was able to position it wherever I wanted on the counter without a cord getting in the way.

One little thing...you want to remove the papery peel before you get to the cutting board or the fan will blow those all over the place...ask me how I know. :)

I'm with you bittrette on the jar openers. I had to start using one in my late 30s - I have neck problems stemming from a long ago car accident and some days if the nerves are pinched just so, I can't even hold a spoon in my right hand, much less open a jar. I once had a "friend" openly mock me for using an electric jar opener at a party at my house, she almost fell over laughing, then of course shared the "joke" far and wide. I'm not sure why they are so derided, but I love my jar openers. I have a silicone grabby strip that usually works,  but my never fail is one I bought a few years ago - an old timey toothed "V" type screwed to the underside of a cupboard - that sucker will open anything from stubborn nail polish bottles to huge warehouse store jars. :) Once I got that one I was able to get rid of almost all of my various jar openers, just keeping the strips because they are a multitasker and two together can be used as a trivet, or to put under a cutting board to keep it from sliding about.

Was the joke because it was an electric tool, or because it was simply a tool other than your hands? Electric jar openers seem to me like an unnecessary complication, like electric can openers - why use a 'lectric when there are so many good manual ones? But if you have a pinched nerve, then anything that opens the jar without inflicting pain will do. I have four types of manual jar openers: one shaped like a truncated cone, one a porous "sheet" of silicone, one that has two long handles that you squeeze together, and the JarKey that you use to pry up the lid and break the airtight seal. No one variety does all the jobs but every jar will open with at least one. It's the same with manual can openers. One non-culinary implement I use as kitchen tool is for leveling dry measurements. Some sets of measuring spoons come with a leveler; most don't. Food writers usually advise to use the back of a table knife as a leveler, but those who design flatware design for looks, not usefulness as a straightedge. I use a 6" or 7" ruler.

Originally Posted by: bittrette

Was the joke because it was an electric tool, or because it was simply a tool other than your hands?

If you have hand strength or pain issues things like opening jars and using a can opener can really be a challenge, so electric versions definitely have their place. It took up counter space, but for me, at that time, it was either that, or wait for my husband to get home from work, or not use anything in jars. It really made a difference for me, and many meals would have been late or undone without that helper. Thankfully things have improved and I can use less space hogging options but back then I may have said that was my most useful gadget. :)

I use my bench scraper for leveling dry ingredients. Now, that's a useful multi-purpose gadget! It can clean up the counter after a dough session, cut dough, cut brownies in the pan, level, lift, scoop, trim, frost...

Funny how our life experiences influence how we think of things. For as far back as my memory goes my dad has always had a "bench" in the garage. It's his primary work surface, so when I hear bench I first think work surface (most people probably first think of a place to park their tushy), so a kitchen bench scraper made perfect sense in my mind. I have occasionally seen the term bench or workbench show up referring to food prep areas in a kitchen, most frequently it seems to apply to stand alone work tables or islands.

The place where it really excels, and the reason I originally bought mine, is scraping off the bits on a smooth counter or work surface left after working with bread or pastry dough. It used to take me forever to get my granite counter cleaned up after working with yeast dough. If I use the scraper first it makes cleanup a lot faster. 

I have also found a bench scraper very useful -- I always cut scone dough into wedges with mine -- among other things!

I’m a utensils addict so it’s a hard question! I have things like strawberry spoons, gherkin tongs, a Dutch pancake maker, a salt slab for cutting meat, and many many funny stuff which make me happy :) But my favourite is a French jam funnel. It’s a large mouthed funnel which turns your jam making, pickling, preserving or just dumping stuff in a jar a really clean affair. Super simple. Life changing :)

I would say my push on garlic press, my small zester, my rotary grater and my "econome" knife