Kitchen gadget mania: The Thanksgiving edition

November 17, 8:35 AMChicago Dining ExaminerEmily Szopa

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Didn't know you needed one 'til just now, did you?

I'm in love with the idea of kitchen gadgets, but I can rarely justify spending my hard-earned cash on a tool that does something slightly faster than I could do it myself. What's wrong with working a little for your food, right? Of course, this has been taken to extremes at times, such as the years I lived without an immersion blender or hand mixer. I thought, 'Hey, who needs one of those when you already have hands and a whisk? I'm gonna have awesome arms!'

On the other hand, I do live in a house that has a spaetzle maker, three different kinds of madeleine pans and a 12" bamboo steamer, so it's obvious I'm not entirely immune to the charms of kitchenware (or impulse purchases). After all, I've been lusting after a Kitchen Aid stand mixer for longer than I can remember. All those attachments! All the possibilities! All that...money. Seriously, it's not cheapness that's holding me back from gadget mania, it's these darn losing lottery tickets.

So, overall, I'm fairly ambivalent on the subject; I do come across a lot of tools that look pretty neat, but my true kitchen obsessions are knives and dinnerware, not gadgets. I'd rather have a great knife (or a Kitchen Aid stand mixer) than a Chop-O-Matic. But because right now we're all getting ready for Turkey Day and we're all looking for a few shortcuts, I want to share with you a couple of links to some sites featuring Thanksgiving-inspired gadgets. You might already have a stand mixer, but do you have a Stuffing Cage?

• Jessie over at TheHungryMouse.com highlights five kitchen gadgets that made her "raise an eyebrow." The three-tier baking rack looks like it could come in handy, but how often are you going to use a Food Loop? Click here to check out the whole list.
   
• On CNET, we've got more of the silicon trussing, but also an electric knife (admittedly handy) and fat separator, among other gadgets. My favorite on the list? The fire extinguisher. Click here for the whole list. (Or click here for a freaky knife block that's pretty cool)
   
• Meanwhile, over at Camp Chef, we've got theTurkey Cannon, which encourages home cooks to "Enjoy the flavor of your favorite wine, beer or soda in the grill or kitchen oven." It looks...weird, but it comes with instructions (lots of instructions), which is good because surely everyone's gonna want one of these bad boys. 
   
• Gadgetgrid's got Onion Goggles, which are also fashionable enough to wear anywhere. After all, you never know when you might run into an onion that needs chopping.
   
• And--although it's not technically a kitchen gadget--my favorite of all: Season Shot. It's "Ammo with flavor"...literally. As in, you shoot your turkey with a gun loaded with these bullets and it auto-seasons them. I'm not kidding. As they say at seasonshot.com, "Forget worrying about shot breaking your teeth and start wondering about which flavor shot to use!"

 So what are your favorite gadgets? What sorts of tools to you rely on to get you through Thanksgiving? All I need is a brining bag and a sharp knife.