Ever wondered how to streamline your cooking and elevate your kitchen game without cluttering up your counters with gadgets? Well, we've got you covered! Join us as we regale you with our tales of transformation, from cumbersome kitchen routines to culinary wizardry, with the aid of some nifty small kitchen appliances. We'll reveal how a trusty food processor is not just a gadget but a revolution waiting to happen in your meal prep, adept at conquering everything from dicing to shredding. Plus, we rave about the simplicity brought about by the humble electric water kettle, a true hero in freeing up stovetop real estate and getting that perfect brew, piping hot, in no time.
Let's not overlook the slow cooker and Instant Pot, which have become flag bearers of convenience cooking. Whether it's simmering bone broth to perfection or transporting a hearty chili to a potluck, we discuss how these modern marvels cater to various culinary endeavours—including the surprising delights of homemade yogurt. And for those wondering whether to invest in a blender or a food processor, we've got a robust debate lined up, with the Vitamix entering the ring as a formidable contender. It's an episode packed with personal anecdotes, clashes over cooking styles, and a deep dive into the utility of each appliance, ensuring that by the end, you'll be equipped to choose the right kitchen comrades to suit your culinary quests.
Ever wondered how to streamline your cooking and elevate your kitchen game without cluttering up your counters with gadgets? Well, we've got you covered! Join us as we regale you with our tales of transformation, from cumbersome kitchen routines to culinary wizardry, with the aid of some nifty small kitchen appliances. We'll reveal how a trusty food processor is not just a gadget but a revolution waiting to happen in your meal prep, adept at conquering everything from dicing to shredding. Plus, we rave about the simplicity brought about by the humble electric water kettle, a true hero in freeing up stovetop real estate and getting that perfect brew, piping hot, in no time.
Let's not overlook the slow cooker and Instant Pot, which have become flag bearers of convenience cooking. Whether it's simmering bone broth to perfection or transporting a hearty chili to a potluck, we discuss how these modern marvels cater to various culinary endeavours—including the surprising delights of homemade yogurt. And for those wondering whether to invest in a blender or a food processor, we've got a robust debate lined up, with the Vitamix entering the ring as a formidable contender. It's an episode packed with personal anecdotes, clashes over cooking styles, and a deep dive into the utility of each appliance, ensuring that by the end, you'll be equipped to choose the right kitchen comrades to suit your culinary quests.
This week we're talking about kitchen appliances, so specifically small appliances, things that there are so many choices out there. You could completely cover your countertops up.
Speaker 1:
Absolutely.
Speaker 2:
So where do you start? What are you know, if we had to distill it down? What are the most important in our experience and what's our take on that? What have we found in our lives to be the most important? What are some things people should look for? What are some options? How do you really need this? Do you really need that? Do you need both of that sort of thing? So where do we start? Where's a good place to start? What's if we had to pick, like five?
Speaker 1:
Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, I mean, we kind of discussed it obviously before we got going here, but we both felt like that a really good food processor was just absolutely essential. Yeah, and I think we're on our third one.
Speaker 2:
We are. I think we finally got one that really works for us yeah.
Speaker 1:
Now, the first one we had was good and it was a good brand, but and I don't remember how many years it lasted at least 10, probably the second one we had was not so great, although it was.
Speaker 2:
And I think I remember when we bought it we were like, because it wasn't the biggest one, it wasn't the most powerful one, and even in that brand, in that line, we kind of got out of the middle of the road. One Right. You know, and that can be attractive in a lot of ways, but what it ended up doing was not being powerful enough for what we wanted to do Exactly. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:
And I think the first one that we got. It was pretty good quality and it was a bigger size, like you say, because we were able to use some credit from like wedding gifts, you know, taking some things back and we bought that kind of on our own, but this last one that we have gotten, it's fabulous, and I mean and it was not cheap. No, it was not cheap, but we both agree that putting a little bit more money into a really good quality food processor, I think, is definitely worth the cost.
Speaker 2:
That's one of those things. Like you know, you could have 12 different knives that do special things, but you need it one really good sharp knife. And to me, the food processor is that kind of thing you gotta have If you're gonna put money into a really nice one thing. It's the food processor for me, for me it is. Right, chopping the. You know that's our Scottish cherry. If you may not be able to hear it, so we'll find out later.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, she's doing a real squeaky toy. She's playing Squeaky toy.
Speaker 2:
You know we use the chop vegetables all the time. We use it a lot of times to great cheese.
Speaker 1:
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. You know we'll get one of those big box of cheese you know from the warehouse store and just blow it through that thing real quick, and then it's just ready to go for quesadillas or grilled cheese or whatever?
Speaker 2:
Right, instead of buying that pre-shredded stuff which has like caking agents and some other things in there.
Speaker 1:
We kind of try to avoid some of that Right.
Speaker 2:
But in, like you know, I think one time, you know, shredding potatoes for latkes or you know hash browns or something, and I think that's how I broke that second one actually as I was shredding potatoes.
Speaker 1:
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:
And actually broke like the shaft of it.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:
This one, it's just from the get-go. It was so powerful, it just blew through stuff and I was you know.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, this one is really of the quality that you might find in like a professional kitchen. Yeah, maybe, yeah, it's you know it's more, it's geared towards home cooks, but it's that kind of brand and that I think that echelon.
Speaker 2:
So that's one thing is I would. I would you know when, if you're looking at a food processor, I would not look at the smallest one.
Speaker 1:
No.
Speaker 2:
Because to me, you're always going to run out of room in the bowl and even like I even I think this one came with some nesting bowls I don't think we've ever used. No, we never.
Speaker 1:
We've never used that concept.
Speaker 2:
No, and we've had another one that did that Right. We just never have used that no, no. I mean and I know some people to me if you're going to get something that small, that you need that little, I would just rather you get an extra coffee grinder and do that.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, or just do it with a knife. Or just do it with a knife. Chopping board, exactly.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, all right. So what a good food processor. We've established that.
Speaker 1:
Right what else. All right. Well, our number two was a self-heating kettle.
Speaker 2:
Kettle yeah, an electric water kettle. And I know that may, I don't know, might sound weird in America. Maybe you see that overseas more. Yeah.
Speaker 1:
I think, I think they were a big thing in Europe first, and they're starting to become a lot more commonplace over here.
Speaker 2:
But If you've been following the podcast. Sweet tea is important to us, so what would end up happening is we'd make sweet tea for dinner and, if you're cooking, a lot of stuff.
Speaker 1:
Right, our eyes would already be taken up with pots and pans and then we're trying to fit, you know, a kettle somewhere to boil water for tea, and that can be difficult when you've already got got them all filled up. So this is just nice because it keeps it separate. It's over to the side and heats very quickly, very quickly, and it's just been kind of a game changer for us. Yeah.
Speaker 2:
Because, I mean, it's so easy just to go over there, push a button on it, you know, put some water in there and boom, yes, we tea.
Speaker 1:
Right.
Speaker 2:
You know, and these are kind of what kind of do in this, in order of when we talked about this, the things that we use the most, right. And again, having worked at a kitchen retailer, we accumulated things through discounts and all this other stuff. So we tried a lot of different things.
Speaker 1:
We have, and we had a kettle years ago and it wasn't near the quality of the one that we have now. And so just to kind of touch on that I want to say just as a recommendation, it's best to stay with certain materials for the kettle, like either ceramic or tempered glass or stainless steel.
Speaker 2:
Right. Bpa free Right.
Speaker 1:
The one that we had years ago was it actually had a plastic exterior and I'm kind of like freaked out that we were boiling water in that. Anyway, it it served a purpose for a while, but you know, chemicals can leach out from plastics, like David said.
Speaker 1:
But anyway, also look for one, and most, most of them are going to be designed this way but, they have a base where the element and everything is completely contained and it and it does not touch the water, and so you just pop it on there and you know, like ours, it has a selection of temperatures. You can do like green tea or black tea, or I think it has a French press coffee, lots of options, you know. So that's, that's handy, I mean. But if if it doesn't have that, that's fine.
Speaker 2:
You know, whatever yeah, I mean 90% of the time we're just boiling water, Exactly Okay. So good processor, what else?
Speaker 1:
Yeah, so mixer would be the next one. A mixer.
Speaker 2:
And that's kind of like the stand mixer. You know everybody wants one. I think he's a cook, you know who even is into cooking, and you know you're really going to use this if you bake a lot.
Speaker 1:
Right.
Speaker 2:
I think that's primarily where you use it, yeah, and we got to a point where we weren't baking a lot, or the baking we were doing didn't really require a mixer. So most of the time I pulled it out it was just a whipped cream for whipped cream. That was really all I was, but it's. They are very versatile. They're very powerful. If you are mixing something, if you're doing a recipe, you can you know different from a hand mixer. You can put it in there, turn it on and walk away. Do something else.
Speaker 1:
Right, and you know, like we've talked about, they have the different attachments, like it has a wire whip, they have bread hooks, various things, and so with a hand mixer you're not going to get that.
Speaker 2:
You know, hand mixers are just used more for like cake batter or something along those lines, but at the same time we've found and I picked one up through using some hotel points- yeah. Um, just because we kept. You know, gosh, it would be neat or nice to have. I just want to whip together some brownies. I don't want to have to put it in a stand mixer.
Speaker 1:
Right.
Speaker 2:
I want to do this real quick. I don't want to pull out the kitchen aid.
Speaker 1:
Right, because I mean ours is kind of in a separate cabinet and we have to literally physically pull it out and set it up on a Right counter and all that. So yeah, sometimes the the handheld is is nice, just for the convenience and like that one I handheld.
Speaker 2:
I wouldn't even. I just buy a cheap one.
Speaker 1:
Throw the throat in there. Yeah, I wouldn't spend a lot of money, but a stand mixer.
Speaker 2:
You know, especially if you're into baking, it can be really useful.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, if you do a lot of, you know, breads or Cookies and cakes and that kind of thing, it's really essential. And then along I mean we we try not to mention a whole lot of brand names on here, but I think just about everybody would agree that the KitchenAid is probably the very well known for their stand mixers, and One nice feature about that is that, um, they have tons of attachments that go on the top part. I mean they have things like pasta rollers, meat grinders.
Speaker 2:
We were talking about this the other day. I mean, you name it, the design of that. The product has not changed. That's right since they really started making it.
Speaker 1:
That's right.
Speaker 2:
I mean the internals. So I mean they've they've changed colors and added attachments but, yep, the core of it is right.
Speaker 1:
I mean, if you had a 50 year old mixer, it's my understanding that you could go out and buy a brand new, newfangled attachment right and it would still work, yeah All right.
Speaker 2:
So what else?
Speaker 1:
all right. So, um, this one is, um, it's certainly not essential, but it's been very beneficial for us and that is a good Toaster oven.
Speaker 2:
Now, that sounds kind of pedestrian but, we're not exactly talking about your Basic low-end right now and we have not had double ovens in any of our houses.
Speaker 1:
So I think, well, we did at the last house, but they didn't work.
Speaker 2:
The bottom one didn't work, right anyway right, but so, yeah, if you had double ovens, if we had double, I don't know, maybe we might not find the use for it, but again, it's one of those. It's and we were talking about this Appliances in the last few years. We feel like have Taken on this multi function.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, they're a lot more versatile lot more versatile.
Speaker 2:
So you're using less appliances or maybe you're not and they can just do a lot more stuff exactly.
Speaker 1:
I think they're designed that way. Yeah, yeah, the stand mixer can do all this other stuff.
Speaker 2:
The toaster oven we like it because it's smaller.
Speaker 1:
The kids can fire that up quickly, throw something in there right, a pizza, you know, egg rolls, whatever you know If you just want to do something quick without Warming up the other oven, because this one warms up faster, goes close down right and also our, our big oven, our main oven, really generates a lot of heat and make right and especially in the summertime, um, where we live, you know, it's bringing a lot of heat into the kitchen that that other oven doesn't do that and these can toast bake.
Speaker 2:
Broil some of them at the air frying option you were talking right right, ours doesn't, but some do, and it's just really handy.
Speaker 1:
I mean, you know, not only do you set it To what you want to do, but then you've got your timer and you've got your temperature and Uh, it's just, it's very easy to use.
Speaker 2:
So, yeah, so, instead of a toaster, that's what we have. Yeah, yeah we don't?
Speaker 1:
we don't actually have a A toaster anymore.
Speaker 2:
No, we don't a toaster anymore. Yeah, um, all right, so so.
Speaker 1:
All right, so this last one would be some type of thing sort of like and we're, we're going to. There's really no way to discuss this without mentioning some brand names here, but something along the lines of like an instant pot or a crock pot, or crock pot or a slow cooker.
Speaker 2:
Now being the food snob, the cooking snob that I was when we got married. It was funny. We were registering at a department store and the lady who was helping us was and I think I've told the story before. Well, you got to register for a crock pot and we're like no, and she's like if you don't register, you get five.
Speaker 2:
If you do, you just get one. So we did and we got one, yeah, but we, we did end up using it and we kind of, as we cook, we know we found different ways that we use it. We don't use it a lot, right? Um, we use it for bone broth, right?
Speaker 1:
That's a really great great way to make bone broth Yep.
Speaker 2:
Really easy.
Speaker 1:
Yep. Um, we also used it for like taking things to parties and events. You know say if we did a big batch of chili, you know it's great, we transfer it over there and take it yeah. Yeah, or or you know dips and things or just whatever.
Speaker 2:
And there's not much else that does that Right, I mean you could do it the bone broth on the stove, but it's so nice to just you know, especially when you have gas or right, a gas stove.
Speaker 1:
I've got a flame going and I've got it. I feel like I've got it Right. I mean, you don't, you don't want to leave your gas stove unattended overnight, so yeah, something like you know, a slow cooker. Perfect, right?
Speaker 2:
Um, and along with the slow cooker, is kind of the Insta pop. So that's kind of the new version.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, that's kind of this generations, uh right, I guess.
Speaker 2:
And again it's falling that theme of things up or a single appliance can do a lot of things for things. Now, of course, we we've got one.
Speaker 1:
We do, everybody we do.
Speaker 2:
And, and, and we know some people who use it for a ton of stuff.
Speaker 1:
Right, and you can. You can do all kinds of things, like making yogurt. They cook rice, um, you know, you can quickly steam meats and veggies and they are very, very versatile, right.
Speaker 2:
I've, you know, the little bit that we've used ours. I don't know how long we've been doing it here or so that we've had it, maybe more. I really haven't like. I've tried a couple other things, but I really kind of keep coming back for us Kind of the same use, which is either a slow cooker replacement or using a pressure cook function and Speeding up something I would normally do on the stove. But I'm not doing. You know, you see people out there doing all these different stuff in there all these different recipes and I just for us.
Speaker 1:
I think what we were kind of thought talking about was we like to be hands-on right, we, we like that process of cooking and that kind of takes some of that process away, or you?
Speaker 2:
know whatever, because we're constantly. When I'm cooking something on the stove, if I'm cooking a roast on the stove, when I'm cooking whatever, I'm constantly looking at it. You know, I'm Justing taste, I'm just in spices as they go right not something I could do in the insta pot.
Speaker 1:
But right.
Speaker 2:
I have found that if I want to do a quick roast, or shredded beef, or you want to call it roast beef for po-boys. Mm-hmm, I can throw it in there and I've kind of got the season where I want it to where it can be done and I'll touch it and it's done right. Yeah, there's not a lot. We do like that now. Some people do, some people cook that way. Yeah, and for that person it like said it's a rice cooker replacement.
Speaker 1:
You know that type of thing so it can be incredibly handy and and, like, like we said, they are really, really versatile.
Speaker 2:
So after that you kind of get on to what we were thinking. We were talking about this kind of like the More of the luxury now coffee maker is not in this list.
Speaker 1:
That's considered essential, that is a non. There's a non-negotiable although there are ways to make coffee without.
Speaker 2:
There are. That's the thing. There are a lot of ways to make it. Like you know, there's some poor over methods right, so you don't have to have an electric appliance.
Speaker 1:
But in our house we, so we can't go without. What if you?
Speaker 2:
yeah, if you're trying to distill down the food processors, number one, you know.
Speaker 1:
It's interesting how often we use it.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, yeah, the kettle. Yeah now we were talking about blender and a lot of people have blenders. We've had blender probably our whole married life, mm-hmm, and we just haven't used it a lot like, and we had this long discussion Cooking nerds kind of a discussion about this. You know, to me now there was a period where you were doing a lot of smoothies right and we definitely use them for smoothies all the time for smooth yeah.
Speaker 2:
I would say that's, that's our been our blenders main use yeah mm-hmm, yeah, and you know, I think every now and then I've blended a soup, you know, or you know crushed ice for snow cones, or something.
Speaker 1:
I mean just whatever.
Speaker 2:
But generally, 99% of time is making a smoothie and. I could use the food processor for blending a soup or you know whatever.
Speaker 1:
And we don't do smoothies that much anymore.
Speaker 2:
So, blender is pretty low on my list, you know. But then again we were talking that there's some models out now that do a ton of things. Right, the Vitamix Right.
Speaker 1:
It's incredibly versatile. You can do peanut butter in it, you can make a soup like blend up a soup and it'll actually heat it.
Speaker 2:
Right.
Speaker 1:
I mean there's just tons of things. So again it kind of goes back to how appliances are becoming very, very versatile.
Speaker 2:
Right. It'd be interesting to see if you could do like, if you could even maybe not have a food processor and do a Vitamix instead and replace that and then have like a Vitamix and an Instapot and that's it. You know, but I don't know if you boil water, but it would be interesting, you know. Yeah so that's kind of how we cook. That just fits our style of cooking, Right? You know? Like I said, Waffle makers we talked about that. We make Waffles every now and then.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, it's more of a just kind of a fun thing to have you know for maybe Saturday morning breakfast and stuff like that.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, we just don't use it enough to really you know, yeah, but that's our list, that's kind of the top five that we felt, like you, know, would be a good core of your kitchen Right.
Speaker 1:
And ones that you know. I mean, I guess, if you're going to invest, just go for a good brand and go for good quality. Yeah.
Speaker 2:
High-end food processor, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:
For sure.
Speaker 2:
And I think you know, like I said, the Instapot. You know the options are more size-wise depending on how the volume of what you cook. The stand mixer is kind of the stand mixer you know the Toaster Oven. You got a lot of options there. The sizes and options are what it does. You know the kettle. There's a lot of options, but I think yeah, if you're going to make an investment. That food processor is where that gets. That's going to be for us. Absolutely We've been incredibly happy with this one.
Speaker 1:
Yes, yeah, incredibly happy.
Speaker 2:
So well, that's sweet teen tacos for this week. I'm Dave.
Speaker 1:
And I'm Jan.
Speaker 2:
So yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 1:
We appreciate y'all listening yeah.
Speaker 2:
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Speaker 2:
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