Techalyzer

If you have a cook in your family then there are tons of tiny techno and not so techno gadgets that can be dropped into their stocking hits year.
One of the niftiest is a tiny Pot Clip which is basically a giant paper clip with a slot in it for holding a wooden spoon. It clips onto the side of the pot and then keeps your spoon from sliding into the pot because you can hook the spoon into the holes.
Yet another happy little gadget for the efficient chef is the microplaner which is a small narrow palner that can be used to shave shards off everything from chocolate to cheese to orange peels. You can grate ginger and zest lemons with it too. They can grate the hardest of cheeses and things like frozen fruit as well.
Lee Valley tools makes a great kitchen scale that does not look like one at all. It simply folds into a nifty little container that looks neat on the kitchen counter. It does everything including converting grams to cups. It is simply the perfect gift for the dieter in your family who is starting off a new weight loss program for 2009.
Another good gadget is The Garlic Twist (sold for only eighteen bucks) which is made by the Italian company called paderno. This thing looks like you and it crushes and peels garlic and minces it all in a few deft moves. You can take the contents of the container and simply dump into your pot without ending up with dirty or smelly fingers.
Speaking of chopping and mincing the same company makes something called a Chop2Pot which is a folding chopping board that collapses into a surface that makes it easy for you to pick the whole thing up and then slide everything you just chopped into a pot.
Paderno also makes a handy gadget called a jar key whose purpose is to open any difficult jar. It is a must have gift for the older person on your Christmas list or birthday list who simply cannot open jars anymore.
If you are sick and tired of messing up your oven with pie juice bubbling over you can buy ceramic boards from Bosh that sit on top of the pie plate and let steam out so it does not bubble over and mess up the bottom of the oven.
One of the simplest of gadgets newly available is simply meant for making tea. This is a single cup tea infuser that is shaped like a cigar. It can be stuffed with loose tea leaves and the stirred around in a cup of boiling water. The infuser tool allows the tea essence to escape. The main advantage of this tool is that it is a lot easier to clean than the traditional tea ball.