I bought a piece of 1.5 inch stiff foam to try to fix a sag in a bed. It didn’t work but having that thick piece of solid foam around has been a life saver.
Need something flat to put a laptop on? Throw it on the foam. Going to be doing something that requires you to be on your knees for a while? Get the foam!
It went from stupid purchase to something I’d gladly replace if it broke.
Egg boiler. On the surface it’s just the most gadgety pointless product invented but I literally wore it out because suddenly I could have hard boiled eggs and no risk of setting my apartment on fire because I forgot about the eggs. After I move, it’s the first thing I’m getting for my kitchen because low-risk hard boiled eggs are totally worth it.
There’s a lot of seemingly ‘useless’ kitchen gadgets like this: full size food processor, waffle maker, breadmaker, even my ridic large instapot. I don’t use them every day or even every week and no, I don’t need them for daily life. Yes I can mince fifty thousand vegetables for this really complicated soup by hand or make bread from scratch or do whatever you do to make a pot roast without them–but I won’t do those things. I know me pretty well now; if I want to make that soup, make some fresh bread, or do that thirty-step fancy pot roast, I need those tools or I’ll default to frozen pizza and maybe have fresh Italian bread if I went to Central Market recently and remembered to grab it from the bakery.
The bread maker we got when my fiancee and I moved in together has been the best purchase ever. Haven’t bought bread except like twice over the last couple years. Store bought bread just sucks now. Add in the feature that lets us throw everything in and have it wait until it will finish right when we get home and I don’t know why people ever buy bread.
Similarly, the stand mixer probably did the question op asked better. Makes making so many things so much faster and easier. Can put a couple lights off banana bread together and in the oven so quick now. Great for when I want to make merengue. And not having to hand kneed dough just makes those special things I make on occasion more a every now and then and not just for big special occasions.
Bread maker I could not stand. It was like Schrodinger’s box - dump stuff in and either it makes bread or doesn’t. About 50/50 chance. It drove me crazy. Gave it to the neighbor.
Still haven’t bought bread in years but I make it by hand (and mixer) and out where I can see it and adjust it. Sourdough starter was my bread revelation. So much more robust than dry yeast, not as fussy, so reliable I use it for all leavened goods.
I just got a 5 in 1 grill/griddle with removable plates and a set of waffle plates to go with them. I already had a Foreman grill and waffle maker, but a) they both suck to clean, so removable plates are nice, b) I’m replacing two small appliances with one, so overall save space, and c) the new one has better temperature controls and can open up flat to serve as two cooking surfaces instead of just being an open or closed press cooker.
Also, a waffle maker is far from useless. You can make those other things manually, but in my experience, if I try to make waffles without a waffle maker, I just end up with pancakes. The batter refuses to stay in the grid shape no matter how much I yell and swear at it.
Yeah honestly, wafflemaker is one of those things that if you want waffles not in frozen form, that’s pretty much your only choice. If there is a manual way to do it, I’m honestly scared of the person who worked out how and what they have to do to make it happen.
I am tempted by your grill, though. Hmm.
If you do get one, I just noticed that the one I got doesn’t have a double hinge, so I’m not sure how effective the top plate will be (it was just delivered yesterday and I haven’t used it yet). I’ll try it, but I wish I had looked more for a double hinged one (or is it a loose hinge I want? Not sure what it’s called, but my Foreman grill can lift a bit on the hinge side so that it can sit more flat on top of food).
That said, the market for multi function heating presses with changeable plates is disappointingly light on options right now.
The “manual” way (aka not electric) was just one of these that goes on your stove top. :)
waffle irons are the “old school way” , just a iron waffle press that goes on the stove