Over the years, this foodie has collected quite an assortment of kitchen gadgets. Some of them sit in a drawer or a box for years and eventually go to a garage sale. Then there are a few that get used over and over.

Emeril Lagasse once said that a good cook doesn’t need tons of gadgets, just a really good knife and hands. That may be true, but it’s still fun to head for the Pampered Chef party or stroll through the kitchen store and see all the kitchen wonders that we can’t live without. I love my egg slicer, but the jury is still out on that pineapple corer/slicer. BUT my favorite is the stove top grill pan.

My first grill pan (which still gets used) covers two burners of my gas stove. It is two-sided; one side is a flat griddle and the other grooved for meats and veggies. Here in the cold upper Midwest, outdoor grilling season ends way too soon, so hooray for the indoor grill. BUT my favorite, because we are generally a household of two people, is the square grill pan. It fits on just one burner, has a handle, and gets used at our house several times a week.

I had looked at one of these for months and balked at the $50-$130 range. Then I found one at a T.J. maxx for only $29.99! It’s even the brand I love. Calphalon. It just doesn’t have a handle that matches my other pans. Don’t care…it works!

So, how would I use this wonder pan, you ask? Before heading off to work, toss some chicken breasts into a Ziploc bag with some fat-free Italian dressing and store them in the refrigerator. At dinner time, heat your grill pan over medium heat. Grill the chicken breasts until done. If they are thick, cover them with a piece of foil after turning them over to force the heat down into the meat. While they are cooking, whip up a salad. You could even grill some asparagus or fresh green beans (or some pineapple that you cored and sliced with that other gadget).

I’ve used it to grill peaches and plums that I serve with vanilla yogurt. Shrimp on skewers, YES! Steak kabobs, yum. I highly recommend that you add this gadget to your collection. It won’t get dusty!