This OXO Good Grips Ground Meat Chopper ($12) quickly breaks up hamburger meat when making tacos or pasta sauce. Just chop away with the three fins until the ground beef is the way you like it. — MF 

I don’t deep fry food every day, but when I’m in the mood for some sweet potatoes fried in coconut or avocado oil, I am glad I have this $25 Fry Daddy deep fryer. It’s small so it doesn’t need a lot of oil and it heats up quickly. I keep the oil in the fryer and put the lid on once it has cooled down and use the same oil the next time I use it. — MF

This OXO Ice Cream Scoop ($13) makes serving dessert painless. The pointed scoop makes it easier to break into frozen ice cream and the eject trigger just drops it right in your bowl. I like to run it under warm water right before I scoop to soften the ice cream. — CD 

I came across Menagerie wine pourers/aerators at a winery and wish I would have bought more. They’re made from stainless steel and they definitely feel heavy and high-quality, but mostly they’re just really cute. They have almost 100 different creatures to choose from — animals and make-believe — I chose an octopus. – CD

I love drinking sparkling wine, but unless I have guests over it takes me 4-5 days to get through a bottle. I’ve tried a few different champagne stoppers, and this Fantes Champagne Stopper is the best designed. Others have broken or don’t seal as tight. Even on the fifth day, my champagne will still be bubbly. — CD 

One of my favorite hacks helps to quickly chill a bottle of bubbly — very useful when you are a dinner guest. Fully wet a paper towel, wrap it around the bottle, then place it in the freezer. In about 10-15 minutes, the paper towel should be hardened and the wine will be chilled. — CD

I’ve had the same lever-style bottle opener — like this one — for years now, and compared to the classic corkscrew or electric openers it’s definitely the easiest to use. I’m always surprised when I find that my friends and family don’t own one yet, so I’ve decided it’s what I’m gifting from now on. — CD

My mother-in-law had these metallic markers ($10) on hand during the holidays to keep track of whose glass is whose. We had a full house of more than 10 people staying overnight, so this was perfect for keeping track of our wine and water glasses, and coffee mugs. — CD 

I drink coffee every day, and I use the Bialetti 6-Cup Espresso Coffee Maker ($40) more often than any of my other coffee making machines (I have a few). I fill the lower chamber with water, add ground coffee in the funnel, screw on the top, and put it on the stovetop. In about three minutes I pour a cup of strong, delicious coffee. — MF

Backyard eggs really do taste better than farm-raised ones. At least ours do. It may be because they get a more varied diet: we include our kitchen scraps, which they devour. Chickens will eat anything. I had always resisted raising chickens because of what I imagined would be a daily chore. But they are really very low maintenance. We’ve had half a dozen chickens for 6 years now. Their feed trough can hold a week’s worth of feed, and an automatic water feeder keeps them watered indefinitely, so we can leave them alone for days at a time if we need to. We can always find someone willing to pick up some free, yummy backyard eggs. You can buy chicks from a mail order like McMurray Hatchery, but most feed stores, even urban ones, will sell chicks one by one. The best intro book is Raising Chickens for Dummies. — KK

Gimmicky kitchen tools are usually worse than the knives, graters, and other kitchen tools you already own. This little strawberry huller is an exception. The spring-loaded jaws make it a breeze to remove stems, making short work of baskets of berries. I’ve used this $7 tool dozens of times since I bought it in 2015. — MF

We bought an OXO Good Grips Silicone Sink Strainer ($8) last year and it does a good job of keeping the kitchen plumbing clog free. It’s easy to clean too. Just hold it over the trash can and pop the rubber filter inside out. — MF

I got rid of all of our flimsy floppy pan turners. They were useless. Why does anyone even make them? We have two of these $19 nylon turners and use them daily for everything we cook in a pan. The nylon won’t scratch the pan, and the stainless steel handle looks nice. — MF

These magnetic measuring spoons are handy because they have two sides for each measurement. The oval side fits into smaller jars, and I can alternate between wet and dry ingredients without having to wash a spoon. Also, the magnets keep them together so I never have to search for the one I need. — CD

Everyone can use a perfectly balanced, lifelong kitchen knife. It’s an ideal gift. One I like to gift is the Kuma Chef Knife which gets rave reviews from kitchen knife aficionados who normally review two-hundred dollar knives, yet the Kuma only costs $25. It’s ergonomically optimized for your hand, easy to keep razor sharp, and will last generations. When I lift mine, I smile. — KK

This $18 8-inch Winco knife is the first knife I reach for when preparing food. It sharpens well, holds an edge, and is heavy. Read the Amazon reviews to learn how many people swear by this workhorse kitchen tool. — MF

If you are lucky enough to stumble across these lightly dried herbs by Gourmet Garden in your grocery store, give them your money. I always buy up basil, cilantro and parsley. They last more than a month longer than fresh herbs and taste just as good. Here’s a store locator. — CD 

During the summer, we barbecue a couple of times a week. I have the classic Weber charcoal grill. I grill beef and chicken directly over the coals, but I’ve been using these grill mats to cook vegetables and fish. They are so thin that they look like they would incinerate in a second, but they are impervious to high heat. They are easy to clean, too. Nothing sticks to them. — MF

Amazon Fresh is Amazon’s grocery shopping and delivery service. They sell everything a large supermarket sells, often at better prices. You can sometimes get same day delivery, but it usually takes 24 hours. This is a huge time saver for our family. You must be an Amazon prime member. — MF

Buying in bulk does save, but when we buy the large plastic container of mixed greens from Costco, it usually gets slimy after 4-5 days. I tried the paper towel hack and placed one sheet in the middle and one on top and it extended its shelf-life by one week! — CD