Small Kitchen Appliances

Awhile back when my grandma passed away, a close family friend was helping my grandpa clean out his kitchen. My grandma was a great cook, and she had a lot of fancy things to help her cook in the kitchen. My grandpa on the other hand, was so well taken care of he had no idea what to do with most of the items in the kitchen.

I'm the person in the family who seems to get passed down everything. If you have old *whatever*, call me and I'll either reuse it myself, or find someone who could use it. I'm a one stop thrift shop! I've also learned that I am the only one who actually can throw things away.

So when kitchen cleaning time came about, I gladly took whatever was given. The friend of the family was so insistent and excited over all these small kitchen appliances she had for me. My friends and I are all on budgets, so we really don't own a lot of kitchen things aside from crock pots, blenders, and coffee makers. The most interesting item I was offered was a hand crank sausage grinder. I am slowly learning to cook from scratch (I actually own spices now!) but grinding my own sausage seemed to be more of a time user then a money saver.

I was also given a patty-maker. I have no idea what a patty maker really is. It has two little metal things you are supposed to dip in batter and then fry in oil, and fill with fruit or filling. It looked really nifty. I did gladly take the magic bullet, and use that to make milkshakes and baby food and other small jobs. There was also a 4 slot toaster. I didn't think we needed a toaster with 4 slots, but now I am very grateful for it! Two kids can make breakfast at the same time.

I didn't really get the joy in small appliances until I started reading recipes online. Then I began using my crockpot more. I wasn't sold on the whole crock pot cooking until I bought a good crockpot that actually heats food to the proper temperature. My most recent purchase- a rice cooker from ebay. I didn't think ebay would be a good place to buy things like that, but I got a $60 rice cooker with extra steamer trays for $14 shipped. Not bad! So now I can experiment with that. On Friday I think we will be buying a deep fryer off ebay too- not a cheepie one from target, but a larger, restaurant grade fryer. I've learned bigger is better, since our kids are only going to eat more and not less. I am dying to make some restaurant style fries and chicken nuggets.

I have to laugh, because I originally thought it was pretty silly to own a bunch of small kitchen appliances, and now here I am with my crock pot, 2 blenders, a rice cooker and a deep fryer. I wonder what else will make its way into my kitchen. I guess that's what happens when you don't go out to eat unless its a very special occasion.