My dear sweet mother, bless her heart, a product of the 1950s and 60s school of cooking, used to boil green vegetables until they were well past lifeless, taste and nutrition be darned. I belong to the newer school of cooking, which, thankfully, relies on blanching and parboiling – briefly dunking vegetables in boiling water to soften them up just enough without draining them of crispness or flavor. But rather than drop a pot of water on my gas stove for the 10 or 12 minutes it takes to get boiling, I fill up my Braun AquaExpress kettle.

I know what you're thinking: An electric teakettle? For cooking? While I do drink more than my share of tea in the colder months – living, as I do, in the hometown of Celestial Seasonings – I'd bet my electric kettle sees less use in winter than it does from May to October. That's when Door to Door Organics, our fruit and vegetable delivery guys, start showing up with the green booty of the warming season – snap peas, chard, broccoli, kale.

The Braun can boil 7 cups of water in about 5 minutes –about as much time as it takes to clean and chop the broccoli or trim the peas or otherwise prepare whatever's getting blanched. I also use it for cooking thinner noodles and heating water to soften rice paper for spring rolls or corn husks for tamales. The jug detaches from its plugged-in base, eliminating paranoia I had about getting the plug near the faucet and making refills easy, and the open handle allows for quick grabs. (OK, so maybe quickly grabbing and swinging around a kettle of boiled water isn't standard kitchen safety, but when I'm in the throes of tamale-making, wiser folk know to stay out of the kitchen.) Another convenient feature for the harried chef or absentminded tea-partier is the Braun's automatic shutoff. No need to watch the proverbial pot – just listen for the kettle's simple click. The end result? My kitchen time is a lot less time-consuming and energy-intensive. "Bam!" as a certain well-fed chef would say.

Braun AquaExpress electric kettle

Cost: $40

Where to Buy: Is there anything you can't get at Amazon?