Gadget Geek

The Search for a New Mixer, Part 1

A few years ago, I went through a bread baking phase. For over a year, I baked bread every weekend. Eventually, it became a chore and not a pleasure and I went back to buying my bread at the store. I would still bake bread on occasion, but it wasn't a weekly...

Cast Iron, the Original Nonstick

Cast Iron, the Original Nonstick

When we first "tied the knot" a dozen or so years ago, we purchased an inexpensive set of cookware at Target. Budgets were tight and cooking wasn't such a passion. All the pieces were coated with teflon for a non-stick finish, even the sauce pans. Overall, the pans...

KitchenAid 3 Quart Bowl and Combi-Whip

KitchenAid 3 Quart Bowl and Combi-Whip

Hi, my name is Sylvia and I have a kitchen gadget obsession. I know I'm not alone. Stores like Williams Sonoma, Sur La Table, Crate and Barrel, not to mention Amazon.com love us. Where some people buy shoes, we buy kitchen ware: appliances, cookware, bakeware, tools,...

It slices, it dices, it makes the bed!

It slices, it dices, it makes the bed!

Well, actually it just peels, cores and slices apples, pears, and potatoes. However, by using this nifty gadget making an apple pie becomes almost effortless. Apple pie was one of the first things I learned to bake almost twenty years ago....

La Fille Chanceuse

La Fille Chanceuse

I celebrated a birthday recently and must have been a very good girl last year because I was gifted two Le Creuset cast iron pans. My generous husband gave me a deep covered sauté pan in a beautiful blue. Poor dear searched high and low for this pan. I admired it in a...

Recipe Holder

Recipe Holder

Like many home cooks, I collect an over abundance of recipes, either in the form of cookbooks, magazine articles, Web sites, and food blogs. One problem I have with cookbooks is that they're hard to keep clean and keep open to the correct page. The first time I make a...

FoodSaver

FoodSaver

Our refrigerator is about 13 years old. It's a not-so-lovely beige Maytag which still works fairly well. My two complaints are 1) that it's kind of ugly and outdated and 2) that the freezer seems to have a temperature fluctuation causing freezer burn to happen...

A Tale of Two Mixers

A Tale of Two Mixers

If you seriously get into baking, you'll likely find yourself lusting after a stand mixer. It's the kind of appliance that seems expensive at first and then you wonder how you ever lived without it. It is so much more efficient at mixing thick cookie doughs and you...