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I think I have found the perfect little liquid measuring tool for me at Marshall's and Home Goods.  It is the Joie small plastic beaker measuring cup.  It is marked in tablespoons up to 10 tablespoons, ounces up to 5 ounces, cups up to 2/3 cup, teaspoons up to 30 teaspoons and milliliters up to 150.  I have started using it to combine all the liquid ingredients that will go into a recipe at once, for example, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 2 tablespoons fish sauce, etc.  It is so much easier and less messy than using the individual measuring spoons.  I absolutely love this little measuring cup and now cannot do without it.  But beware when shopping online for one of these.  I found that Amazon only had them for about $12 each while I paid $3.99 at the discount housewares stores.  I also ordered from the company's website when I wanted to get several of these for gifts and they were only about $5 each.  They come with different colored bases so you could have several in different colors and designate one for oils only and others for other ingredients.  I gave one to each of my adult children and they love them too.  My son uses one for cooking and one for mixing drinks.

If you can get one at a local houseware or variety store, so much the better.

I haven't found a beaker like that in my own neighborhood, but I got one across the East River at a well-stocked indie store. And I put it to use, measuring vanilla for muffins.

Now about another gadget: I don't eat grapefruit as much as I used to, but a grapefruit knife is just the thing for cutting  away the inedible core in pineapple chunks. It has just the right curvature and cutting ability.

Another handy gadget I use all the time just occurred to me -- the Zyliss Zick Food Chopper. I have an older model which I've probably had for 20 years. I use it all the time. It's great for mincing garlic or onions, and chopping hard cooked eggs or nuts. Because the cutting blades automatically rotate after every chop, it's really quick to use -- you just pound away at the plunger. And because you can use it directly on your cutting board, it's easy to do pile after pile in quick succession.

Things I've found it doesn't work well for are mincing ginger or hot peppers.

Sad news: Some of my favorite gadgets disappeared in a junk-removal project that I wasn't around to oversee -  including the chopping bowl with the one-handed mezzaluna, and the one-handed magnetic peppermills :,( 

But I have another favorite kitchen thing: Sleeve garters!

Here in this old-fashioned New York apartment, there are times, like now, when it is too warm outside for the landlord to have to provide heat, but not warm enough to be comfortable in the apartment. That calls for wearing something warm, like a robe or sweatshirt. But those garments usually have long sleeves,  which can get wet or dirty - or worse, catch fire. You can roll up the sleeves, but they unroll by themselves.

Sleeve garters are the answer. The set I ordered from Amazon come 6 pairs to a package, and I keep one pair in a kitchen drawer.

I would love a link to those you like- there are so many different options. 

Sorry, they're 5 pairs to a package. You caught me at just the right time,  because I just learned how to paste on this site. Here is the link (I hope):

https://www.amazon.com/g...ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

https://www.amazon.com/d...e=ogi&th=1&psc=1

egg piercer makes perfectly easy to peel boiled eggs every time if cracked and peeled in water.  No more guessing.

I love my ceramic Kyocera knife. It never, ever gets dull. I use it constantly, mostly for  vegetable prep where fine slicing is necessary.  It is especially wonderful for slicing tomatos and ripe stone fruit without damaging them.  My husband worked in the Kyocera knife factory may years ago and he said the sharp edge will last about fifteen years(!) But the blades can be brittle so you shouldn't use them for cheese (the pressure and twisting motion can break the blade) and you can't just throw the knife into the sink with other items piled on top. I usually wash it by hand and put it away when done. This sounds fussy but it is so worth it to have a knife that is always razor sharp! It's probably my #1 favorite kitchen tool.

I love mine too.  And I use it to slice cheese all the time.  I don't know what you mean by using a twisting motion to cut it.

I recently broke mine while cutting a big block of chedder.  The knife got caught in the cheese and when I tried to saw through it or wiggle the blade, it snapped in half.  My husband said it shouldn't be used with cheese or in a situation where you are creating any sideways force.  You want it to slide/cut straight through.  I think it woudl be fine with soft cheeses.  That said, if it works for you then keep doing it! 

When I was last in Tokyo one of the items I wanted to bring back home was a set of Kyocera ceramic knives. After settling on a set was talking to the salesman about packing them securely for the flight back to the UK. He said that you can't take them to the UK as they are illegal. He said or what I took for what he said is that Kyocera put a small metal bar in the UK versions so they show up on metal detectors whereas the Japanese versions don't have the metal. Being rather expensive I left the knives. I've never found out if this is true or not but knowing what things are like in the UK its wouldn't surprise me. 

Anyone know?

That sounds odd to me

You can take packed kitchen knives on most flights as long as they are in hold luggage, I really can't see why ceramic would be different, though obviously if they were in your cabin luggage, were found on hand searching having not shown up on X-ray then you would be under deep suspicion. 

You could ask Kyocera UK?

https://uk.kyocera.com/p...ucts/prd/ceramic_knives/

I have taken kitchen knives and longer katana type in my checked baggage without any problems on several occasions going from Japan to US.   Perhaps he meant not with carry on. 

lepa, that's what I'm afraid would happen if I had a ceramic knife. Either that, or I'd drop it and it would break.

I have a new gadget that I love, not to replace my other favorite gadgets but to join them.

It's the Oxo One Stop Chop manual food processor, and it's just the thing for puréeing vegetables for a soup. When I read through a soup recipe I wanted to make I saw the instruction to purée the broth & vegetable mixture - with what, I thought? Get out the blender, or use the food mill or immersion blender, or the Oxo thing I'd just bought in a BB&B shopping spree. I used the last thing, and if I hadn't I might have thought I'd paid through the nose for it. But it puréed the vegetables so quickly and easily I was very happy I'd succumbed to temptation (when you go into a BB&B store you're asking to be tempted).

It didn't produce a completely smooth purée but that wasn't what I was hoping for anyway. No strength required, and no plugin problems in my weirdly shaped kitchenette.

https://www.oxo.com/oxo-...nual-food-processor.html

After years of smelly counter top compost crocks, I switched to BioBags, compostable 'plastic' bags. Toss your scraps in as you go, tie it up and put on the compost pile.

I can't believe I've neglected my silicone garlic peeler. It is a tube about 5 inches long and 2.5 inches in diameter. Pop in 2-3 garlic cloves, vigorously press and roll the tube and the papers are removed by a combination of mechanical forces and static cling. The static is the primary mechanism, because if the tube has too much of the paper inside it does not peel. I just peeled about 16 cloves in less than 3 minutes, with none of that shaking the garlic around in large metal bowls. This is definitely a single use tool I would not give up.

Spotted Michel Roux Jr using a bowl in his recent TV series. I don't use a bowl but do put a sheet of kitchen paper beside my chopping board for all the peelings which I then fold onto itself and put it straight in the compost bag. The bag later gets taken to the compost heap.

Piggy backing on a different thread about precision of measurements and metric vs Imperial, I am in need of a new kitchen scale. I am resigned to ordering on Amazon as my neighborhood stores have closed/ gone bust.

I'd love suggestions because they all look similar and claim similar features but range in price from < $10 to > $50...