I have a problem...some would call it serious...most would say that I am in denial about the severity of the problem. There are no support groups, nor is there a medical treatment...I'm afraid it's incurable.
I am addicted to buying kitchen gadgets...wow...that was hard to say...
It started, very innocently with a garlic press. I suppose that was really a gateway gadget...it has led me to a potato ricer, fluted pastry wheel, and ramekins...through to electric things like an immersion blender, to large things like a Kitchenaid stand mixer...and my latest purchase...but first, some background...
As I've said before, my grandmother could cook/bake anything...and without fancy shmancy gadgets. She used to get 2" thick meringue on her lemon meringue pie, and did it with a hand-held rotary egg beater that she'd had since the 1950s...and she wasn't using cream of tartar, either. When she made pie crust, she used a bowl, and her hands...nothing else.
My paternal grandmother was a bit of a mystery to me. As she and my dad didn't have a good relationship, I didn't see her very often, despite her only living about 30 minutes away. I do know that she was a good baker.
She passed away in 1992, and there was a lot of sorting/cleaning out required in her apartment. Many of the elderly ladies who lived in the same apartment complex came by asking about the food processor that she'd used to make her pastry. Upon looking around, no such food processor was found...and there was a good reason for that....my dad had already put it in our trunk.
And friends, that food processor stayed in the same place in our basement from February 1992 until about 1 month ago when I used it for the first time. It was a 4-cup Moulinex that was so old it could have been Noah's....but Noah wouldn't have wanted to use it due to the sheer noise of the thing. I used it to make pie crust, and it worked pretty well...the blade could have been sharper, and the bowl was nowhere near big enough...so it was time to upgrade. Being a devotee of Cook's Illustrated, I knew that the former winner of the food processor test was the Kitchenaid KFP750...but it has been discontinued. So I hit eBay to see what I could find.
Luckily, I found one, and very affordable...and I could actually go and pick it up, so that saved on shipping costs. When I got there, however, they couldn't find the item I had purchased...so I got an upgrade to the KFPW760...essentially the same machine but with a wider feed tube.
The thing works like a dream...powerful, large capacity (12-cup), and decently quiet. I don't know how I managed without it...and the idea of using a pastry cutter now seems barbaric.
So, if you're still out there making meringue with an egg-beater, and pastry with your hands, I commend you...you're more patient than I am.
Hello. My name is Deb...and I'm a kitchen-gadget-aholic.
Friday, September 7, 2012
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Friday, September 7, 2012
The right tools for the job...
I have a problem...some would call it serious...most would say that I am in denial about the severity of the problem. There are no support groups, nor is there a medical treatment...I'm afraid it's incurable.
I am addicted to buying kitchen gadgets...wow...that was hard to say...
It started, very innocently with a garlic press. I suppose that was really a gateway gadget...it has led me to a potato ricer, fluted pastry wheel, and ramekins...through to electric things like an immersion blender, to large things like a Kitchenaid stand mixer...and my latest purchase...but first, some background...
As I've said before, my grandmother could cook/bake anything...and without fancy shmancy gadgets. She used to get 2" thick meringue on her lemon meringue pie, and did it with a hand-held rotary egg beater that she'd had since the 1950s...and she wasn't using cream of tartar, either. When she made pie crust, she used a bowl, and her hands...nothing else.
My paternal grandmother was a bit of a mystery to me. As she and my dad didn't have a good relationship, I didn't see her very often, despite her only living about 30 minutes away. I do know that she was a good baker.
She passed away in 1992, and there was a lot of sorting/cleaning out required in her apartment. Many of the elderly ladies who lived in the same apartment complex came by asking about the food processor that she'd used to make her pastry. Upon looking around, no such food processor was found...and there was a good reason for that....my dad had already put it in our trunk.
And friends, that food processor stayed in the same place in our basement from February 1992 until about 1 month ago when I used it for the first time. It was a 4-cup Moulinex that was so old it could have been Noah's....but Noah wouldn't have wanted to use it due to the sheer noise of the thing. I used it to make pie crust, and it worked pretty well...the blade could have been sharper, and the bowl was nowhere near big enough...so it was time to upgrade. Being a devotee of Cook's Illustrated, I knew that the former winner of the food processor test was the Kitchenaid KFP750...but it has been discontinued. So I hit eBay to see what I could find.
Luckily, I found one, and very affordable...and I could actually go and pick it up, so that saved on shipping costs. When I got there, however, they couldn't find the item I had purchased...so I got an upgrade to the KFPW760...essentially the same machine but with a wider feed tube.
The thing works like a dream...powerful, large capacity (12-cup), and decently quiet. I don't know how I managed without it...and the idea of using a pastry cutter now seems barbaric.
So, if you're still out there making meringue with an egg-beater, and pastry with your hands, I commend you...you're more patient than I am.
Hello. My name is Deb...and I'm a kitchen-gadget-aholic.
I am addicted to buying kitchen gadgets...wow...that was hard to say...
It started, very innocently with a garlic press. I suppose that was really a gateway gadget...it has led me to a potato ricer, fluted pastry wheel, and ramekins...through to electric things like an immersion blender, to large things like a Kitchenaid stand mixer...and my latest purchase...but first, some background...
As I've said before, my grandmother could cook/bake anything...and without fancy shmancy gadgets. She used to get 2" thick meringue on her lemon meringue pie, and did it with a hand-held rotary egg beater that she'd had since the 1950s...and she wasn't using cream of tartar, either. When she made pie crust, she used a bowl, and her hands...nothing else.
My paternal grandmother was a bit of a mystery to me. As she and my dad didn't have a good relationship, I didn't see her very often, despite her only living about 30 minutes away. I do know that she was a good baker.
She passed away in 1992, and there was a lot of sorting/cleaning out required in her apartment. Many of the elderly ladies who lived in the same apartment complex came by asking about the food processor that she'd used to make her pastry. Upon looking around, no such food processor was found...and there was a good reason for that....my dad had already put it in our trunk.
And friends, that food processor stayed in the same place in our basement from February 1992 until about 1 month ago when I used it for the first time. It was a 4-cup Moulinex that was so old it could have been Noah's....but Noah wouldn't have wanted to use it due to the sheer noise of the thing. I used it to make pie crust, and it worked pretty well...the blade could have been sharper, and the bowl was nowhere near big enough...so it was time to upgrade. Being a devotee of Cook's Illustrated, I knew that the former winner of the food processor test was the Kitchenaid KFP750...but it has been discontinued. So I hit eBay to see what I could find.
Luckily, I found one, and very affordable...and I could actually go and pick it up, so that saved on shipping costs. When I got there, however, they couldn't find the item I had purchased...so I got an upgrade to the KFPW760...essentially the same machine but with a wider feed tube.
The thing works like a dream...powerful, large capacity (12-cup), and decently quiet. I don't know how I managed without it...and the idea of using a pastry cutter now seems barbaric.
So, if you're still out there making meringue with an egg-beater, and pastry with your hands, I commend you...you're more patient than I am.
Hello. My name is Deb...and I'm a kitchen-gadget-aholic.
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