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keesan
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Small Appliances in the Kitchen
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Nov 10 18:25 UTC 2001 |
What small electrical appliances (with moving parts or heaters) do you
frequently use when cooking? How often do you use them, to cook what, and
what should other people know before acquiring or using them?
For purposes of this discussion, do not count freezers, refrigerators, stoves,
or microwave ovens. Do count things like toasters, blenders, coffee makers,
spice grinders, bread machines, food processors, ice cream makers, Vitamixes,
electric pressure cookers and frying pans and woks and slow cookers and
grilles (and I am sure I left out a few). Which of these are now
computerized?
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| 66 responses total. |
keesan
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response 1 of 66:
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Nov 10 18:36 UTC 2001 |
Item 61 overlaps this but also includes non-electric gadgets. I found mention
there of things I had never heard along with electric juicer, fryer, can
opener, waffle iron, kettle, knife. We have tried most of the above and
decided it is easier to use a stove or the non-electric version. Popcorn
maker gets used regularly, the electric pressure cooker maybe once a year in
hot weather (plugged in outside), electric frying pan if I want to bother
digging it out (holds temperature steady), electric wok ditto. Easier to use
a frying pan on the stove. Electric hot plate in hot weather. Do the
electric versions of things sometimes do a better job than the mechanical
ones?
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scott
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response 2 of 66:
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Nov 10 19:42 UTC 2001 |
The bread machine gets used 2-3 times a week. I think that's about it for
regular use. I've also got a toaster, a blender (more used in the summer),
a coffee grinder (used for grinding dried hot peppers from the garden), and
a miniature food processor. The most used gadget is a Bodum coffee press,
which I use for tea.
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davel
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response 3 of 66:
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Nov 10 21:53 UTC 2001 |
Grace should really answer this (& maybe will get to it when she has a
chance), but the bread machine gets the workout. It varies, but she'll often
use it to make two batches of dough (which get put in standard bread pans &
baked in the oven) and sometimes then she lets another loaf bake in the
machine. (Besides that this way she can get 3 or 4 loaves made without
washing it in between, the oven-baked is better-tasting.) This happens at
least 2 or 3 times a week, I think, most of the time. The food processor gets
used occasionally, blender & mixer very rarely. We use a toaster-oven as a
toaster & occasionally as an oven.
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keesan
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response 4 of 66:
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Nov 11 02:38 UTC 2001 |
Interesting that you both mention bread machines, as the impetus for this item
was the bread machine I just found for $10 at Kiwanis. (It may have been
donated because the previous owner never thought to clean out the oven). Jim
looked at it and laughed - it makes only half a loaf instead of 2-3. Good
idea about maybe using it just to mix the bread but does it work as well as
hand kneading and is it no harder to clean than a bowl and spoon? How much
actual work (time spent loading and cleaning up) is it for 2 loaves of bread?
Jim sometimes toasts peanuts or almonds in the toaster oven, or cooks a
squash, but the microwave oven is a bit faster at both.
Why is the oven baked better tasting?
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glenda
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response 5 of 66:
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Nov 11 14:13 UTC 2001 |
Right now not much, this house isn't wired for modern usage. When we get the
wiring and kitchen updated or before we moved here we used a few appliances.
Bread machine 2-3 times a week, ingredients dumped in and put on "dough"
setting which went through first rise and often I would set it back to the
beginning of the cycle for another kneading. My machine kneads the dough for
about 30 minutes, I can do about 10 on a good day so it gives a much more even
texture.
We use an electric frying pan often. Coffee mill and coffee pot on weekends
and any day I don't have morning class or work. Blender mostly for fruit and
milk smoothies a couple of times a month, more often in summer or if STeve
or I do the "Slim Fast" type dieting. Popcorn popper 2-3 times a month,
toaster 2-3 times a week. Rice maker 2-5 times a week. We got a toaster oven
with the house but have yet to use it, have to scrape off all the accumulated
baked on grease that my mother-in-law couldn't get either do to no hot water
here or the fact that her sight was so bad that she just didn't see it. (May
end up getting rid of it instead of fighting with it.)
I would use the electric frying pan if I could just find the box that the cord
got packed in.
It would be easier to use electrical appliances here if the only counter space
we have came with outlets. There isn't even one on that wall of the kitchen!
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