The Unitasker Registry
February 25th, 2008 @ 3:39 pm by Mrs. Penguin
Are you a girl that has it all, but needs much, much more? Is your kitchen a vast amount of empty space? Are your cupboards begging to be of use? If so, you may consider adding a few Unitasker items to your gift registry.
While steaming your asparagus in a normal, multiuse steamer, do you often sit and wonder: “There HAS to be a better way?” Well, there is. For a little under $50, you can own this lovely Asparagus Steamer. It Steams! Asparagus! Say hello to this Unitasker Item:
photo credit: williamssonoma.com
Do you find yourself constantly having to wait in line to use your microwave? Are you just SICK of having to trek all the way to the kitchen to warm up food? Well, now you can microwave anything, anywhere, with the Iwavecube Personal Microwave. Complete with a carry-anywhere handle, you can keep this 12 pound beauty by your side at all times. Plug it in anywhere: in your bedroom, next to your built-in microwave, or even, on the ledge of your bathtub.
photo credit: SharperImage.com
Do you find yourself missing out on the party because you’re stuck at the wetbar, making drinks all night long? Do you notice yourself becoming incredibly fatigued while shaking martinis? You’re not alone. The fab folks over at Waring Pro have introduced their infinitely handy Electric Martini Shaker. For the low retail price of $100, you can kiss those days of cold, frozen fingers goodbye. Just measure the correct amount of alcohol, add crushed ice, make sure the martini shaker lid is on tight, carefully position the shaker into the electric shaker housing, plug in the device, select which speed you’d like the martini shaken at, push the button, let the machine go, make sure you wait until the machine is completely spun down, take the shaker out of the housing, and Voila! As simple as that. Taste the evenness of an electrically-shaken Martini today!
photo credit: SurLaTable.com
And, finally, kiss using a knife to slice off a pat of butter goodbye. Throw those ridiculous butter knives away, because now you can have perfectly even pats of butter with this incredibly useful Butter Cutter. Oh… wait. Pull those butter knives back out of the trash. You’re still going to need them to actually spread your butter onto your bread. But long gone are the days of hideous, uneven pats of butter. And at $15, they’re a steal at twice the price.
photo credit: WilliamsSonoma.com
I do admit to having a few Unitasker items laying around my kitchen. The most useful is my Grapefruit Knife (since a retired item) from The Pampered Chef. It cuts your grapefruit slicing time in a quarter, and spares you from getting squirted in the eye! I do admit to using it less than once a month however, but oh man, when I do… what a great time saver 
photo credit: Ebay seller racecarlin
Unclutterer is a blog that is dedicated to getting and staying organized. Every Wednesday is dedicated to “Unitasker” items, where they poke fun at single-use items. Thanks Jenny Lou-wheeze for sending me this highly amusing blog site.
Whats the most useful/useless Unitasker item in your Kitchen?
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24 Responses to “The Unitasker Registry”
Hey! Don’t knock the asparagus steamer! I looooooooooooooove mine (although my fiance always threatens to accidentally throw it out, since he hates asparagus, which is coincidentally my favorite vegetable so it finds its way into our kitchen ALL the time).
Haha you guys Funny enough, we purchased this same asparagus steamer for our friends off of their registry just last year. If you’ve got the room for it, why not? In their thank you note, they said they steam asparagus ALL THE TIMEEEE, just like you guys!
Call me crazy, but I love the way the uniform pats of butter look!! Although I wouldn’t go so far as to actually BUY it, hehe =) I only use butter for baking and not spreading on toast…
This post cracked me up! (Especially “Oh wait, pull those butter knives back out of the trash…”) But I think that personal microwave is dangerous - the last thing we need is something that makes it easier for us to eat whenever and wherever! Or maybe that’s just me.
You’re a funny one, Miss Penguin! I love the variety of your posts! I have to agree with Mrs. Emerald - there’s nothing like uniform pats of butter awaiting guests at the dinner table! Couldn’t that gadget also be used to slice soft cheese or even bananas, if they are cut in half first? Oh, the possibilities!
My mom has one of those butter slicers. But we used it more often for cutting small bricks of cheese into a bunch of slices for cheese n cracker afternoon snack. Before we were allowed to use the sharp knives this was the way we could make a whole plate of cheese slices.
So it may be a unitasker-plus.
Kinda like those hard boiled egg slicers. I don’t even eat hard boiled eggs but I use mine all the time for slicing mushrooms.
Unitasker items were banned from our registry. We just don’t have the room. However, we did receive plenty of zero-tasker items like desktop fountains, metal plaques and ceramic doves. Curse those off-registry buyers!
I first heard about single task kitchen thingys from the Contessa. I then promptly went home and looked through all my cupboards. This post is going to make me do that all over again.
Do I have a butter slicer? But it’s an antique. Which I’m not sure what that means….maybe it only works on old butter. 
i love the butter gadget! haha
I have a pickle grabber (get your minds out of the gutter!) that spares you the indignity getting brine all over your fingers. It was a joke gift, but is actually kind of useful.
I am also the proud owner of TWO fondue pots. I do WISH it was possible to live on melted cheese and chocolate (with tiny irrelevant bits of food to guide said melty paradise), but mostly they take up space and make me think if caftans, key parties and other 1970’s legends.
I do wish there was a unitasker for opening and slicing my elderly dogs’s special canned food. It’s my vegetarian hell shaking the tube of god-knows-what onto a plate and then dicing it for his tiny mouth.
I own an egg slicer, much like the butter slicer, but I use it, not SUPER often, but I use it. I also have a garlic press, which according the Food Network is the LAST thing you should be doing to Garlic. LOL the asparagus pot though.. could be useful.. I mean other long veggies could be steamed in there… whole zuchinnis perhaps ?!
beanchar, you can use your fondue pot for broth too…we cook up chicken and salmon all the time in ours, and it’s fast!
I bet a lettuce slicer would work…but they’re kind of spendy.
haha i just put an asparagus steamer on my registry a few weeks ago…i felt a little silly doing it, but i really like asparagus and steaming it in a pot just doesn’t work well!
we own a mushroom slicer…we bought it at one of those “as seen on tv” stores. i think it came with a mushroom cleaning brush too! =)
My butter cutter was like, $2.99 and we actually bought it to cut tofu. Works pretty well for that.
My father has an asparagus steamer (and a big kitchen) and he swears by it.
My favorite unitasker is actually probably my apple-cutter.
I think ofter the people who rail on unitaskers don’t consider that for some people, they make total sense. If its a unitasker, but you use it every day and it saves you time, then there is no reason to knock it.
alton brown would have a field day with this post. lol. and funninly enough, i was just reading about an asparagus steamer in an old copy of raley’s something extra magazine the other day.
i wonder if one would be able to mix small cans of paint in the electric martini shaker. hmm.
tea, that sounds like something Tim “the toolman” Taylor would do. 
It’s so funny because when we were registering I kept joking about how we should register for all of the items that can only be used for one thing.
I think it’s getting out of control how many things only have one use.
My FSIL gave us a quesidilla maker for Christmas. While it was a nice gesture, we don’t make quessedilla’s that often, and I’ve never had a problem using a good old fashioned skillet.
I love the butter cutter! But we do asparagus in the microwave - single layer, in a glass dish, drizzle olive oil and salt and pepper, about 2 minutes for a 9 x 9 dish. Its waaaay better than steamed - try it! You can also do it on the grill in the summertime… And its like the Washington State vegetable, you know. We eat it all the time.
That portable microwave cracks me up! 
However, as a lover of asparagus, I would actually consider buying that.
I know what you mean Suzanno! Last Spring, we practically lived off of them. I “grill” them in the over with a drizzle of oil, salt and pepper and then broil them for about 2-4 minutes with some grated parmesan. Delish!
this post is seriously late, but i showed this post to my FI and he vehemently defended the butter cutter!! i couldn’t stop laughing! (although using it to cut uniform pieces of tofu would be mighty handy!!)
[...] about identical as well. …http://www.philly.com/inquirer/food/20080403_They_ve_got_steam_heat.htmlThe Unitasker Registry Are you a girl that has it all, but needs much, much more?? Is your kitchen a vast amount of empty [...]
Mrs. Penguin, Sacramento
Age and Occupation: 26, Video & TV Producer/Director/Editor
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Engagement Date: January 29, 2007
Wedding Date: June 7, 2008
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About Me: I'm a silly mess of a girl who, above all else in this world, LOVES the Spice Girls. I eat sushi at least 3 times a week, and feel guilty about how much it costs the other 4 days a week. I love designer jeans and cheap accessories. I don't like sweets, but I love the UCLA Bruins!
Ok, so I agree to the illogicalness of most of thesse items but we eat asparagus at least once a week in season (fall and spring) and we also use ours for brussel sprouts. and the Grapfruit segmenter is totally cool. I bet you can use it on Lemons and oranges too!