A super sweet friend of mine from BYU gave me $25 at Williams-Sonoma as a wedding gift and I went crazy adding completely awesome yet somewhat silly items that cost somewhere around $25 to my cart. You know, something like The Great Cupcake Cake Pan, which I would pay a ridiculous amount of money for and use a handful of times. Happily I decided to use some sense and browse through items that would prove a bit more useful to me on a daily basis, which is how I found the VeggieChop. Pull the ring and the blades go round, chopping your food up into little chunks much faster than can be done with a knife (unless you are Julia Child of course, don’t you love when she chops up that enormous pile of onions?). Even That Husband loves this little device and when I listed off the givewaway items for the week he said this one was the best I was giving away.
I’m sure you get the idea, but I found this nice little promo video on YouTube so you can see exactly how it works in practice:
Amazing no? You’ll love it I promise. Just answer the question below to enter:
What’s one of your must-have items in the kitchen?
Comments close at 11:59 pm on 2/25/2010, and the winner will be announced on Saturday. Entries that don’t answer the question will be deleted because I like when people follow directions. 
Microplane zester! Couldn’t live without it!
I love my Pampered Chef Garlic Press. Nothing like a lot of fresh garlic in everything!
My garlic press is my must-have! I use garlic in everything I cook and mincing is no fun, so my garlic press makes my life easier.
This VeggieChop would do wonders for me when chopping onions. I absolutely hate chopping onions. I hate how it makes my mascara run down my face and I always make my husband do it.
I hope I win!
I was going to say our Slap Chop, but this makes the Slap Chop look like a lot of work!!!! This looks much easier to clean too. What a find!
A good chopping knife! When we got married my husband’s only gift wish was a good Wusthof, and he was right, it’s all you need!
Fun gadget! This sounds completely extravagant, but I couldn’t imagine living without my Kitchenaid Mixer. I’ve had it for years! I would consider registering for a second now that I’m getting married!
My KitchenAid mixer! I can’t live without it!
My Bosch. I love it. I need it. I can’t live without it.
A big chopping knife. I use it just about every day!
Wow, this contraption is so cool! I have never seen one before!
A good set of knives is a must-have. And LOTS of prep bowls and cutting boards!
oh yes. it looks like an amazing item to have! it would be so useful!!
i have to have my steamer.. i love steamed anything!
My Pampered Chef pitcher! It has a built-in plunger to mix the drinks, and so you can give your drinks a quick mix before pouring. I don’t think I would ever make concentrated juice or lemonade without this thing, yet we always have some in the fridge because of it!
A good chef knife and my KitchenAid stand mixer. I use both nearly every time I cook!
My kitchen-aid mixer! It’s a hand-me-down from my mom, it’s 70’s yellow but is still going strong. I really enjoy baking so it’s wonderful.
My must-have item in my kitchen is my KitchenAid stand mixer!
Oh definitely my pampered chef kitchen spritzer!!! it takes regular olive oil and makes it spray-able… such a healthier way to add oil when I don’t want a lot!
My must have is our Cuisinart 4 in one griddler. I use it to cook all my chicken, beef, make our grilled cheese sandwiches, and so many other great things! I use it more than any other thing in my kitchen.
My santuko knife that hubby got me for Christmas a couple years ago. I love that thing!
Santoku knives get more use than anything else in our kitchen.
my Wusthof knives.
They’re awesome.
I love my microplane grater/zester. So much I’ve been known to gently correct my man when he doesn’t clean it with the care and respect it deserves.
a salad spinner. I dont know why but before we had one, if we ever made our own salads it was the salad iin a bag. Now that we have the salad spinner we buy the lettuce by the head (soo much better value)!
My favourite is the Magic Bullet. We use it for everything!
My meat tenderizer/pounder is surprisingly my favorite. I have such a hard time knowing how long to cook chicken breasts, but with the pounder I am able to get the thickness consistent. It also helps getting the meat thinner so it doesn’t have to cook as long. Just a few minutes on each side. Granted, you could also use a can of soup or any other hard, heavy surface, but it is so much fun using the meat tenderizer and it gets out a little bit of the angst as well
It’s boring, but I love my brita filter. I can’t imagine water without it.
I worked in a locally-owned gourmet kitchen shop like WS all through college…so I have a lot of favorites! I love my set of glass mixing bowls, as well as my microplane, and a le creuset spatula that I can never do without!
Wow! I’m looking at everyone else’s comments and I *wish* I could say my favorite was my KitchenAid mixer! That’s high up on my wishlist. I’m a newlywed and don’t have many gadgets at all. My husband and I, however, currently live in a sad little apartment with a pathetic excuses for appliances. We’re renovating a house and I’ll have new stuff soon. So, really, I’m going to say my must-haves are good appliances. It’s no fun when your dishwasher doesn’t do the job or fireworks shoot out of the old oven (true story)!
In terms of big-ticket items, I pick my flame-colored 6.5 quart Le Creuset dutch oven. My husband and I routiney say that it’s presence in our life is one of the best things about being married.
For gadgets, I pick my Oxo Good Grips tongs. I love those things!!! I use them every single night for cooking.
phruphru Reply:
February 25th, 2010 at 2:27 pm
that’s “its” not “it’s” ugh, sorry.
I agree with TH this is my favorite give away yet. I agree with a lot of the ladies above. I need a good knive. It will pretty much do anything!
We got new knives from our wedding registry and they are my favorite. I don’t know the brand name, but they’re actually sharp and cut things! Genius I know, but they’re so much better than the cruddy ones I had from college.
I love my salad spinner…I hate wet, slimy lettuce!
My standalone mixer I use it for everything!
PS My uncle makes the greatest salsa with a contraption like that so now I’m going to have to beg that recipe off of him and then go buy one of these so I can make it too! I hope I win!
Hmmm the item that probably gets the most use in our kitchen is the Bullet. My husband makes himself smoothies all.the.time!
Garlic peeler, hands down.
I love my kitchen aid mixer. I have in it a little baking nook on our counter and use it several times a week for all sorts of stuff, not just baking. The salad spinner is also used quite frequently.
That kitchen gadget is so cool! I have never seen anything like it
I would have to say my favorite is my kitchenaid mixer. i use it for everything!
My steamer for fresh veggies!! yummy!!
My Good Grips veggie peeler!
My favorite is my baking stone from Pampered Chef. I use it every week for home make pizza night. But you can cook basically anything in those pans: cookies, brownies, cakes, casseroles. Love it!
I love my kitchenaid mixer. Just looking at it makes me want to bake something delicious!
KitchenAid Mixer for sure. I love that thing!!
My must have is a really good chefs knife.
Definitely my new shun knife that was a Christmas gift—it is amazing!
Love your blog!!
I love my magic bullet! It’s so handy but also easy to store. I use it all the time
I would have to say my Kitchen-Aid mixer! I grew up using one, and one day I was at my husband’s (then boyfriend) house and had to mix a recipe by hand with a wooden spoon. Terrible!
I love love love my kitchenaid hand mixer! Always handy in a pinch
My husband is kitchen gadget crazy, but the most important things to me are a good knife and good pans.
It sounds super basic but I have some metal mixing bowls with tupperware-type covers, and they are soooo useful. You can use them for mixing and for fruit and then you can cover them and put them in the frig or use them as storage….
Oh my goodness, I totally need this little tool! My favorite kitchen gadget is a garlic press..makes adding fresh garlic to anything so EASY!
Rubbermaid Professional 13-1/2-Inch High-Heat Scraper. It does EVERYTHING, folding, sauteing, mixing, stirring, scraping, spreading… I could go on and on….