I ended up with a turkey baster after someone else cooked Thanksgiving at my house...but I'm vegetarian and have been trying to think of non-meaty things to do with it. Or maybe I should just give it away? Pancakes sound cute with kids, but I can't really imagine getting one more thing unnecessarily dirty for just myself. Looking forward to hearing the must-use ideas!

Tub toy

Kids water toy - fill a couple of big bowls with water, colour one blue and one yellow. Give the kids a baster, spoons, throw down an old tablecloth or towels and let them go nuts. Super fun, cheap and they'll learn a bit about colour mixing.

I will occasionally use mine in my home brewing to pull out a sample here or there from my gallon jugs. My wine thief is too large to fit in the opening and my baster is just small enough.

I don't want to be the one who goes there... but we all know for which alternate purpose turkey basters are stereotypicaly used.

Not cooking related, but as a kid our turkey baster was my go-to pretend microphone :)

not cooking related either, but one time I needed to fully drain the toilet and I could get to the low water that's trapped. I ended up using my turkey baster to suck up all the leftover water (no, I never used it for food anymore...)

Gin bucket! Fill a bucket with Gin, Lemons, Limes, and Sugar, and top with soda water. This should be a shot's strength drink. Place basters in bucket, and invite guests to squirt it in their mouths, like baby birds. Always a hit.

Wake-up call - because knocking on the door and asking someone to wake up is not nealry as fun.

I use a turkey baster for watering plants. If you are going to soak the plants in a bowl of water, sqirting some water onto the surface of the dirt will prevent the plant from floating out of the pot, or will prevent the dry, top-heavy pot from tipping over.

I'll go there. Perfect for a DIY intrauterine insemination (IUI)!

Then clean it well before using it as the kid's bath toy.

Another non-food use: I used it for my ecology thesis. A turkey baster is the best way to capture tadpoles.

I use it to get the hothothot water out of the roasting pan when I bake something in a water bath. No risk of spilling boiling water OR dropping your cheesecake.

Great for squirting Hydrogen Peroxide down a naughty dog's throat so they'll throw up......naughty as in they ate something bad, like truffles, or the arm off their teddy bear.

My brother uses his to inject jelly into the center of aebelskiver (spherical Danish pancakes). It'd probably work for other soft baked goods too :)

I have been drinking raw milk, and I've heard it's great for getting all the cream off the top! Of course it'd work for any unhomogenized milk.

Love the tip about changing the water in skinny vases!

I use a cast iron griddle that lives on the two let burners of my range. To clean, I give it a nice wipe and guide the crease into the reservoir. on occasion I clean the reservoir by sucking the grease out with a metal baster.

Any lesbians out there find a glaring omission here?