Things I am not going to buy - Day 7: Kitchen appliances and gadgets

Supporting the delusion that by spending money on things for the kitchen (see cook books blog), is the urge to buy shiny new appliances and gadgets that will turn me from a “ready-meal” kitchen slob, to a Delia Smith/Mary Berry chef extraordinaire!  If it has a plug on it, it must, therefore, do something that I don’t have to do myself, or it will do it far quicker than any other method.  If it is in shiny chrome, and looks stylish on the worktop, then that’s a bonus!  (Not that it is allowed to live on the worktop, as everything has to be put away)!  These devices usually have good intentions, and are, on the whole, very good at doing what it says on the box.  There are, however, a number of very good reasons why most of these items never get to fill their full potential.  Firstly, they lurk at the back of a cupboard, usually with other articles in front of them preventing them from being easily extricated without taking everything else out.  Too much like hard work.  Secondly, they are, in the majority of cases, a bummer to clean!  The “George Forman” griddle/grill is a prime example.  True, you can pop in a nice steak, sausage, salmon, etc, but the nightmare of cleaning the filthy black plates on a device that is far too big to fit in the sink, means that it hasn’t come out of the cupboard for the past two years!  The normal grill pan is easier to clean – especially if you line it with foil.  Finally, they often have to be used with recipes that require some planning!  Breadmakers, slow cookers, food processors/mixers/blenders, fall into this category.  They need ingredients/shopping/planning – I refer, once again, to the Cook book scenario!

None of the gadgets I have in my cupboards have managed to stop me coming home from work in the evening wishing I had planned something, and resorting to desperately rummaging through the freezer to find something that will defrost / cook quickly.  OK, so twice a year I get organised enough to put the slow cooker on in the morning and come home to a lovely casserole in the evening, but putting it all together at 6.30am in the morning is not something I wish to do very often! 

Things I am not going to buy - Day 6: Cook books

For an explanation of the 31 day blog, see Things I am not going to buy: Introduction post
  
I love food and eating, which is why I love looking through cook books.  Not the small, cheap, paperbacks, with lots of words and no pictures, but the great bit, glossy, hardback books, full of lovely pictures of fantastic looking meals, and instructions on how you can make them yourself!  I imagine myself in my kitchen, rustling up wonderful starters, mains, desserts, cakes, snacks, bread, for my family and friends (not to mention myself!)  The reality is rather different, however.  There is always something more important to do than to sit down and make an actual meal plan that involves new recipes, carefully going through the list of ingredients to see what I have (not many, usually) and what I need to buy (most of them).  On the rare occasion when I follow through and actually buy all the strange bits and pieces to make the amazing dish, I either don’t get around to making it, or I make it but either no-one likes it, or they don’t comment at all, and I don’t bother again.  Two years later, I find the remaining ingredients lurking in the cupboard, long past their use-by date. 

Despite this (and despite the fact that if I DO actually bother to cook something from a recipe, I search for it on the web!), I still have a strange compulsion to buy yet another glossy book to add to the large collection on my book shelf.