Last year I spent some time with my wife's grandmother who seems to effortlessly make dozens of wonderful apple pies despite having poor hand strength due to advanced rheumatoid arthritis. When we finally convinced her to pass along the secret of her pie making success we discovered that she was using an apple peeler/slicer/corer combination machine that had my cool tool radar zinging like crazy. Simply poke the three prongs into the base of the apple and start turning the crank at the end, before you know it you have a lovely spiral of cored and peeled apple that can quickly be cut into quarters and thrown into the pie. It's safe for children to use once the apple is on the prongs, has a very elegant mechanism that is not obvious until you see it in action, and best of all it makes cutting up apples so simple you'll wish you had one years ago.

You can find a version on Amazon for $25 that clamps to a kitchen bench, but I find that the models with a vacuum base are the same price and are far easier to set up and use. Linens and Things has a good one.

-- Steve Allen

International Apple Peeler and Corer
$20
Available from Linens and Things

$25
Available from Amazon