I love my candy thermometer. I use it to make Peanut Butter Fudge. Before I got it, I just waited and kept having to drop a little into ice water to see what the consistency was, or I could tell by the color of the boiling milk and sugar, but that's kind of risky. Now it just has to get to 230 degrees and it's perfect every time. My mother is in a nursing home, and her favorite gift to give the people there is fudge, so I've been making it every couple weeks lately. I am also going to use it for deep frying stuff. I've been avoiding that because I am afraid of hot oil. I finally broke down last night and went to the store for one, and I didn't like any of them, and I already have too many single use appliances, so I got a soup type pot, but smaller. I figured with the thermometer I could accomplish the same thing and it wouldn't get all gross and gooey.
I also love my pastry cloth with the pie pan sizes printed right on it so I can tell when I have the right size. I stole my mother's 10" pie pan because I can't find really big ones anywhere. I make all the pies at Thanksgiving (average one per person), and I use the big one for apple since it's everyone's favorite.
Oh, and those plastic liners you can buy for Crock Pots really work well.
