I am the original kitchen gadgeteer. I was born in the era of hand held implements to do anything from opening a can to mashing potatoes. So when people started inventing a better way to do something in the kitchen I was all over it.

To date, there are actually two favorites in my kitchen and I will use both of them this evening to prepare a succulent roast chicken dinner for my husband and me. One is my Silver Bullet that will make pesto for under the chicken skin in an instant, and the other my Ron Popiel Showtime Rotisserie - you know the one. Ron grins at you with his blindingly white-capped ivories and says, "Just set it and forget it".

That was the siren song to me. I had a Farberware rotisserie given to me when I first was married 40 something years ago. It was open at the top and awkward. It never seemed to hold the meat or bird quite right so that it dragged and screeched its way around. I put in on newspaper on top of my washing machine out in the garage because it spat grease and bits of flesh in a fine spray around its perimeter. Most inconvenient, sort of messy and it made just cooking something into an insurmountable chore. It went to the Salvation Army after a few years of gathering dust.

Over the years I have also tried a variety of electric grinders and choppers. Blenders were OK for drinks, but they don't chop the ice finely enough. Food processors don't seem to distinguish the difference between finely chopped and pureed and one second too long makes the food into paste. Then I heard an infomercial for the Silver Bullet. You could use either the large or the small container and chop or grind away. Wow! I was sold and since then I've owned two of them with another sitting in the garage that I purchased just in case. I'm that impressed.

Of course there are a few close seconds to my kitchen collection. I love my potato ricer - the better way to make mashed potatoes. I'm fond of my Vita-Mix that is more like a blender on steroids. Naturally I couldn't live as abundantly without my microwave because it isn't just something to reheat a cup of coffee. For me, it is often the right choice for meal preparation. I also own a sorbet maker that I found at a garage sale. Silly little tool, but it certainly makes a good sorbet in about 15 minutes at the end of a summer meal.

These days I'm just grateful for all of the innovative kitchen appliances I could own and I only wish I had a kitchen large enough to hold everything I might ever want.