How Many Culinary It-Gadgets Have You Got?

You know, those - I can't do without them - kitchen gadgets!

Bob was just making a batch of cookies by hand. No scales, no special spoons and no timers. He just made them a la " a pinch here & a pinch there " and they taste great.

The kitchens from here to the other end of the world are covered in gadgets. The mixer, the fancy espresso machine, the computerized scale, the oven door that slides with precision, the electric knife, the stove that kids can put their hands on top and not get burned...goodness, how did we grow up around our neanderthal stoves?

How many of these treats do we actually use? Often they are too much of a bother. Unearthing them from their place of residence, usually a place in the back of a cupboard means we have to dust them off before using them and laboriously clean them after. Not everyone has help in the washing up department...even though, with parents having such prolific offspring, you'd think more teenagers would be active in the washing up department!

When your kitchen is small, having any surface covered by an unnecessary gadget is stupid. Small kitchen's usually equate to even less cupboard space and suddenly these gadgets are part of the landscape. You dust around them ( move any of them an inch to see a dusty outline ) because you dare not throw them out. Either you paid a fortune or they were some well meaning gift of a favourite relative, and they could drop in at any moment!

Dating gadgets becomes rather fun and easy. Even here in our little village, the kitchens are littered with those George Clooney Coffee Machines, or imitations of them. The capsule ones. They spread like wildfire back in the day ( 2007 or so...) and everyone wanted them.

No one gave a thought to how expensive the capsules were or how making coffee for a group of friends at the same time proved to be almost impossible. Either they drank the cups as you made them, or the cups were a lucky dip regarding temperature.

When I visit anyone who is on the shady side of 50, they will have two types of coffee machines. The old-fashioned Filter one and the George Clooney edition next to it. Three guesses why they have two... Oh yes, it was a perfect Christmas gift from their children. A gift, that like so many gifts was more about the joy of the giver than the receiver.

Those on the shady side of 50, almost have heart failure when they see the price of a coffee capsule and rather stick to their filter way of making coffee. The fancy machine gets used when the children come around...

Do you also have these fancy and often unused kitchen gadgets?

Biggi