What's your favorite kitchen utinsel?

Tongs and kitchen shears. I use my shears for everything from cleaning chicken to dicing up celery to cutting sandwiches for the kids. Love them.

I love my microplane zester. It gets used for A LOT! I also love wooden spoons and tend to use them all the time. It's not uncommon to find a lot of them in my sink after I'm done cooking dinner.

Use a pasty blender to break up hamburger and this can opener...love it!

www.qvc.com/Kuhn-Rikon-Ultimate-Can-Opener-with-Auto-Attach-Feature.product.K18779.html?sc=K18779-Zone&cm_scid=zone&cm_sp=MERCHZONE-_-Featured:+Top+Rated-_-3

Thank you for the suggestion, I just may have to try that one out!

my Shun knives. I have quite the collection - ach one purchased separately and for a specific purpose. Couldn't cook without them because for me there is nothing worse in a kitchen than a dull knife, or one that's too small / large for the task.

Oh gosh, I'm just like Lurking as well, love them more than shoes! Ditto everyone else, but let me see if I can think of other things to add variety to this thread

Williams Sonoma spatulas in all colors!
Pamp Chef Bamboo spatulas

tuna can plastic drainer (love that thing draining every thing!)
chop stick for whisking eggs for scrambled eggs/omelettes
I bought a rectangular shaped small frying pan at Daiso that I *love*



here is a pic of it I found in action <<that is not my pic, that is not mydir ty stove!>>. Not only can you make great little egg rolls w/it, I like to make my eggs in it and then slice in pretty ribbons for fried rice, etc. It is also the perfect size pan to make a quick grill cheese, too! I keep that pan handy, it gets lots of use! And well, since I bought it at Daiso it was super cheap. I can't remember if it was $1.50 but if it wasn't it probably wasn't much more. I've had it a few years now, still works great!

actually, the more I think about it, Daiso in general is great for wonderful cheap kitchen gadgets. I also buy these neat soup skimmers..the look like thick giant coffee filters that you float on to the top of a pot of soup and it sops up all the grease and scum while the soup cooks. Daiso is my happy place

I'm sure there is more but that's what came to me off the top of my head!

My apple peeler. We love apple pies and apple sauce and my peeler peels, cores and slices all at one time and it is fast. If I had to peel apples by hand I would never make apple pie.

Wow you are going to make me pick just one....... 

Well, I will have to say my wood spoon. I have had it for 18 years. I bleach it every couple months to keep it healthy. I have looked for replacements and have bought replacements but they are not the same. I really like this spoon because it is small with a really long handle. I wish I could find one like it.... I did how ever find a wooden spoon that I like almost as well but it is larger with a shorter handle but it is a fat handle and I really like it. I have a drawer full or wooden spoons. 

I also like my tongs. I have a drawer full of them. from really tiny ones(used for serving) to very long ones used for bbqing.  

I used to have a whisk that I liked but it broke and haven't found another one that I like as well. 

But I think that out of everything in my kitchen I would have to say I like this one new pan that we got when we bought our new set of pots and pans this summer. It is the size of a frying pan but it has 2 short handles. it isn't very deep but you can cook anything in it. I use it daily. I think it will be the first one to ware out. It was the bonus pan got it free with the set. The thing I like about it the most is that I can cook in it on the stove and then put it in the oven to finish cooking and or keep stuff hot in it.  

I think my favourite would be old tongs that DH and I "borrowed" from a friend's student flat back in 1984. I use them just about every day, and even though I have bigger, smoother and less rusty ones, none of them work as well.

My Pampered Chef garlic press.  I put fresh garlic in almost everything I cook.  I have a spare, new in the box PC garlic press, for when mine wears out because I don't want to ever be without one. 

My ricer for mashed potatoes. It really does work well (learned about it here). Also the heavy round silver thingie from I believe Pampered Chef, I believe, that smashes things; I used to to smoosh chicken breasts.

We had a local kitchen supply store called Harper's Ferry. They had them in stock but they went out of business a couple of years ago.

Dang!  You got me all excited about a new store to check out and it's only in Australia!     Don't you know, only we people living in America are allowed to sing the praises of stores that only we can go to?  

My mandolin, love to make super think slices of veggies and shred and cut with it, way faster than a knife!