I'm embarrassed to admit I own a few one-trick kitchen gadgets that do hardly more than take up space in my kitchen. (I'm looking at you, corn kerneler.) But for every time I've told my husband I really, really need to keep that infrequently used tool or pan so I can make that one recipe two times a year, I have, in fact, found additional uses for a few of those traditionally seldom-touched items.

Case in point, my Wilton mini fluted tube pan, AKA my kids' favorite muffin pan. I bought this mini Bundt pan, as I call it, years ago for ... one of their birthday cakes? I can't even remember. But you best believe I had a good reason it was a must-have.

That pan went untouched for months, never seeing the light of day except for when being repositioned so another pan could fit into the cabinet. Then one morning, while demonstrating one of my best Mom trickery performances to date, I pulled out my mini Bundt pan to make breakfast.

I was out of ingredients to make chocolate chip muffins, which my kids were anticipating (don't @ me for feeding them chocolate in the morning — the years are short, but sometimes the days are loooooong!). So, in an attempt to distract them from a lack of chocolate in their morning meal, I decided to modify the shape of their muffins and (with any luck) up the fun factor.

It. Totally. Worked. The kids now prefer their morning muffins, no matter the flavor, in mini-Bundt form, and I am getting my money's worth out of an otherwise superfluous purchase. Talk about a win-win!

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