The best kitchen gadget ever!

Every December I visit the Christmas Markets with my mum and a couple of years ago we came across what is possibly the best gadget I have ever used in the kitchen.  We promptly snapped one up for ourselves and a couple as Christmas presents.

Can you tell what it is yet? I'll give you a clue, you can use it with garlic like this.....

 

Yep its a grater - you dampen the plate a little, rub the garlic over the little spiky bits and you are left with a lovely little pile of finely grated garlic which adds loads of flavour to your dishes. You then add any little bits left over to a bottle of oil to create a lovely garlic infused oil.

Take the brush and use it to get all the garlic into a little pile at the side of the plate making it easy to add to your food.  No more fiddling about chopping garlic into small pieces or using a crusher that wastes half of your garlic clove!

The best (and cheapest) cookbook around

When i was younger I used to spend time with my grandma and my mum in the school holidays baking cakes, scones and helping to make bread.  Neither my mum or my grandma really needed to refer to a cookbook to make a cake but if there was ever one out when we were baking it was always the Be-Ro cookbook!



The Be-Ro cookbook originated in my native North East and was given out for free at exhibitions and door-to-door.  It was designed to feed hungry families on a low budget and started off with just 19 pages.  Today it has 86 pages of recipes and costs...wait for it...£1.50! That includes p&p, what a bargain!

My favourite recipes from the Be-Ro cookbook were always the butterfly cakes and the Banana and Chocolate cake..yum! The book also had blank space for you to write your own recipes at the back.  When my grandma passed away I was given her Be-Ro cookbook (as well as a secret recipe for Banoffee pie) which takes pride of place on my shelf of cookbooks and when I have my own children I will continue to use it with them.

Be-Ro