I can not believe how many different kitchen appliances and
gadgets exist. It was mind boggling the last time I walked through Home Outfitters. Did you know that you can get
containers to keep fresh almost every type of vegetable? How many different appliances there are to
make a grilled cheese or Panini. You
can't use a frypan, that would be too easy. Boil an egg you must have an egg boiler. How did
Grandma manage to get food on the table?
If you are like us than cupboard and counter space is at a
premium, and you have to be careful with your kitchen purchases. The following are 3 kitchen appliances that
have helped reduce my guesswork in the kitchen and my stress. They have proven worthy of the cupboard space they consume. We use them regularly, they are easy
to wash and involve little or no assembly.
Digital Kitchen Scale:
Countless recipes measure ingredients in grams, ounces,
pound and kilograms. Eliminate the guess
work and get a digital kitchen scale. It is so quick to use and with the tare function you can weigh in a bowl
or measuring glass. We bought a Polder
Brand kitchen scale that can handle up to 3 kilograms years ago and was well
worth the $20 we spent. The one we have
uses 3 AAA batteries and I think I have changed them once in 5 years.
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| Digital Kitchen Scale |
The kitchen scale has also allowed us to buy meat in bulk
and then use the scale to portion out sizes into freezer bags for our favorite
recipes. If we need a pound of ground
beef for a recipe it is there for us.
Hand Blender:
My wife grew up in a home where soup was frequently part of
lunch or dinner especially in the colder months. Whereas I always had the convenience of
reaching for a can of Campbell's soup and throwing it in a saucepan and a box
of saltine crackers. After years of her
suggesting we make soups we finally did and we tried to puree it in our
blender. You have to transfer the soup
in batches, and It was a real pain and just more dishes to wash.
A friend suggested a hand blender and we have not looked
back. We bought a $40 Cuisineart as it was
the least expensive and it is really easy to wash. If you want to make vegetable puree/cream
soups it is so easy to just blend in the pot.
I also use it to make hummus and other smooth dips.
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| Hand Blender |
The one caveat is I have gone through two Cuisineart
hand blenders because the motor has a tendency to overheat and melt the drive
shaft plastic coupling. Thankfully, I
had the receipt and the Bay has no hassle returns. So, I have learned that you have to blend for
a minute at a time and let the motor cool for a minute before continuing. Now we regularly eat homemade soups and they
taste far better than anything out of the can. A lot healthier too.
Digital Meat Thermometer:
This little piggy loves Roast Beef and prefers it medium
rare. This piggy is also a cannibal and loves
roast pork as well. When I first started
cooking I was reluctant to cook large pieces of meat because I wanted to do it
perfectly. Large cuts of meat are
expensive and I do not want to undercook it and make my guests sick or overcook
and dry-out dinner. This meat
thermometer has taken out the guess work for me and with its long probe is
great for roasts. You can see the
temperature and you have a alarm to tell you when it is getting close to cooked. This thermometer is my second by the same
company and I got it from Canadian Tire.
The probe will go after several years and you can buy a replacement or a few dollars more a whole new
thermometer. I think I paid last time
$25.
As a present from me to me years ago I went out and bought
the fanciest wireless meat thermometer on the market. Not only could it only tell me what temperature the
meat was, it could do it in 6 languages
and a 100 feet away. So, I could be
sitting in another room and keep an eye on dinner. The darn thing took several reboots to work
the both times I wanted to use it. It could not pick up the wireless signal from
the meat probe and it was a waste of time getting the darn thing to work. I suspect that there were too
many other wireless signals causing interference from our condo neighbors. My advice is if you decide to the bells &
whistles model you make sure the store has a good return policy. I got my money back and the salesperson was
surprised because they loved the one they used at their house.
Do you have a kitchen appliance you can't live without? How about one that you haven't used more than once? Add your comments below.
