What Stupidly Specific Kitchen Gadget Can't You Live Without?

Flipped through the William Sonoma catalog lately? It’s basically a glossy, overproduced database of hilariously specific kitchen gadgets. Pans just for frittatas, garlic presses out the wazoo, ice-cream makers, this fucking handheld strawberry slicer. Then again, one person’s dust-covered mistake is another’s prized possession.

For instance, you can take my cookie sheets, my saucepans and my paring knives, but don’t you dare touch my panini press. Acquired to do the work of a George Foreman grill, it’s seen nothing but increasingly elaborate sandwich experiments. Those things turn sad turkey on wheat bread into magical deliciousness. It’s like having my own culinary Rumpelstiltskin, and I didn’t even have to promise my firstborn.

Erin loves her lemon zester, her boyfriend’s Sodastream and her parents’ food dehydrator. Kate is partial to her garlic press and her immersion blender, plus her regular blender, even though that’s used for nothing but margaritas. She also has “a thing to cut the potatoes with” while making french fries. For Hillary, it’s her popcorn maker. Julianne has a robotic litter box which isn’t a kitchen gadget, but it deserves recognition nonetheless for being awesome.

So: What’s the kitchen tchotchke that you love, even though it’s the sort of thing people laugh at while strolling through Bed Bath & Beyond? Pasta maker? Bread machine? Deep fryer? Fess up.