Sally's Peeler

My Beloved's mother loved gadgets. One might even call her a gadget hound. In her Scarsdale kitchen, she covered the entire back of the kitchen door with pegboard so she could hang all her gadgets close to hand. When she moved to the Madison house, there wasn't a convenient door, so instead they were all crammed into drawers. When she moved into assisted living, she downsized her gadget collection but retained several favorites.

When she died, I was the one who closed her kitchen, packing all those gadgets into boxes for donation, but this one was simply too much fun to give away.

It's an apple peeler/corer. It's really quite clever. It clamps down to any smooth surface with an ingenious suction device. Then, you force an apple, blossom side in, onto three strong prongs that hold it in place while you crank the handle, peeling the apple in a thin strip as the threads on the bar pass the apple under the peeler. The peel comes off in one continuous ribbon, a feat I was never able to achieve with a paring knife. In theory, it is then forced through the corer, a sharp ring of metal that cuts out the core. In this model, however, the corer isn't strong enough and it bends down rather than cuts. Still, it's a good deal faster than hand peeling and it makes me smile each time I use it. Who do you suppose thought this one up?

I was making apple butter this week, so it came in mighty handy. Cousin Jan gave me about a half-bushel of her apples and My Beloved was watching a NASCAR race, so I had the apples all to myself. In very short order, all were peeled, chopped and in the pot. While I cranked and smiled, I was thinking of Sally and wishing she was there to watch me use one of her favorite gadgets.

Have you a favorite gadget, kitchen or otherwise?