I love cooking. I have a almost 25 feet of shelves with cook books and cooking magazines. In the kitchen I have a really nice Kitchen Aid mixer, a blender, a small food processor, a stick blender, a pancake griddle, waffle iron, a dehydrator, rice cooker, crock pot, coffee maker, microwave, and the list goes on and on. Most of my appliances are over 10 years old, the dehydrator I bought in 1979 when the company was 6 years old! I don't have a bread maker. I used to but gave it away. I found it was just as easy and made a better loaf if I just made it myself. I also didn't replace the electric can opener. A swing-away is all we need.
Most people don't have many electric appliances because they don't have room for them all. That's not the case here. The appliances I use several times per month are stored in the kitchen. The rest go on the shelves in the garage. I don't buy every gadget. Some are stupid...the mix the egg in the shell gadget as an example... Because I'm concerned about the future, possibly without electricity unless I generate it myself, I have been thinking about my kitchen appliances. How well would I get along without the electric gadgets? So I started listing the gadgets that I have that only need hand power - then I need to figure out if those items would take the place of my electric gadgets or if I could use some other hand gadgets. Hint, hint...it's holiday and birthday time!
The Kitchen Aid: Not only does my mixer have the three mixing blades I have the shredder attachment, the pasta attachment, and the meat grinder attachment. How do I replace all of this? I have several whisks. I have mixing spoons. I also have a hand mixer. It's about 60 years old but it still works. I think they make hand mixers that are a bit more ergonomically better. I have a hand crank pasta maker. A friend of mine just gave me his mandoline slicer. I have an old (100 year old) hand crank meat grinder with different size grinding attachments.
The blender: This I would miss the most because I like to take fruit, ice, and a little sweetener and mix it up in the morning for a drink. I suppose the grinder would work and then I'd just mix it all together with a spoon. I'll have to work on this. Is there a hand crank blender? I do have a Hawaiian ice shaver. They turn ice into snow. On the other hand, if I don't have electricity I'm not going to be having ice that needs shaving!
The stick blender: Another of my favorite tools, especially for blending up soups. I could use the old hand mixer. I could also take the soup and put it into a ricer or the food mill that you rotate the plunger.
The rice cooker, crock pot, griddle, waffle maker, coffee maker: I can use the stove top with a pot, pan, or percolator to replace these. It sure is convenient to keep the crock pot going most of the winter!
The microwave: I'd miss the convenience. There's no substitute. Don't tell me about using a pressure cooker to cook fast. I don't do much cooking in the microwave; it's mainly used to reheat...fast!
I guess I'm pretty well set up in the kitchen if the power goes out. I can say that my new mandoline slicer is fantastic. My sister has had one for a long time and I never really saw the need for it since I had the food processor and the slicer attachment for the Kitchen Aid. But after thinking about no power it seemed like something I would want. My new slices doesn't adjust for thickness but it sure made great french fries tonight. I may be on the lookout for a used mandoline that does adjust for thickness.
Any other kitchen tools that people just love and don't want to live without?
I like the kitchen aid mixer but a couple of good coffee grinders is my go to tool for all small mixing/grinding jobs.
ReplyDeleteHi, new follower. I love looking at the thrift store, or old antique stores for non electric kitchen gadgets. Now if I can just convince the hubby I NEED to spend the money on it.
ReplyDeleteI have seen battery operated blenders - regular blenders but battery operated-for camping I guess because that was the department I saw them in. You could get a solar battery charger like I have. And there is always those cabbage graters. You know what I am talking about? The old knuckle busters.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.walmart.com/ip/Coleman-Portable-Blender/5646066
ReplyDeletehttp://www.amazon.com/GSI-Vortex-Blender/dp/B0000Z6JZU
ReplyDeleteLehman's carries one too.
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