Our Favorite Foodie Gifts- small appliances

    I am so excited to share my favorite small appliances. I don't have too many, frankly, but there are a couple that are essential that I just love. I try to weigh the usefulness of the tool against the amount of time it takes to set up and clean up. I will use a small appliance if it greatly cuts down my cooking time but not if it is a nuisance to put together, break down and clean.

There are a couple that we won't talk about here because their usefulness goes without saying and they are things that most everybody has. I think it is safe to say that most people have an electric can opener, some form of automatic coffee maker, a blender and a toaster so we will skip over those and move in to the cooler stuff.

     I have to start with my all time favorite gadget. Now not all people will find a need for this but if you or your family drink any type of carbonate drinks, a Sodastream is an absolute must. I used to be a huge diet soda drinker but gave it up for seltzer simply because that was more accessible in the restaurant kitchens. I drink at least 5 liters of seltzer a day especially if I am working on the hot line. I was really struggling with throwing so much plastic away. Plus, I found that it took up a lot of space and was very inconvenient to have to run out every 3rd day to get more. The Sodastream will carbonate a liter or a pint of water at a time. It can then be flavored with any number of flavoring from traditional soda flavors to Red Bull, Crystal Light, and sparkling water flavoring. I gave up soda about 3 years ago so I don't have too much of a taste for it but I will say that the flavors taste a lot like the actual drinks and can be made more or less sweet according to your personal taste. It costs around $100 to get your initial set up including 2 bottles, 1 CO2 canister and a sample pack of flavorings. The canisters make 60 liters of soda and empty ones can be exchanged for full ones for about $15. Canisters are easily exchanged at most of the retailers that sell them including Staples, Target, Walmart, Macy's and Bed Bath and Beyond. As it turns out these have also come down in price from when I got mine 2 years ago so you can get into this for less than $100!

Fresh soda at your fingertips just the way you like it

 Another one of my staples in my kitchen is a stand mixer. My mom used a hand held beater when I was a kid but as I took up cooking I found that standing there and holding the beater was not the best use of my time. With a stand mixer, you can put the ingredients in, turn it on and go on to another task while it mixes. I love the popular Kitchenaid Stand Mixer. I got mine in 1987 and it still works like a champ. The only thing I've had to replace was the beater attachment and the paddle attachment and that was 3 years ago. There are a bunch of cool accessories that can be attached to make it more versatile. I have a meat grinder and sausage extruder but there are pasta makers, juicers, all kinds of neat attachments. Oh, and they now come in really really cool colors. The thing that is most notable is that the basic model was about $290 when I got mine in 1987 and they run about the same now. Totally worth the investment!

One of the most versatile appliances in the kitchen. Worth the investment

  Now stand mixers aren't always the best tool for the blending job. When you need to blend soups and sauces, using a traditional blender makes more dishes to be washed and can be dangerous if blending them hot. The better and safer tool for this type of job is a wand blender, sometimes called an immersion blender. This little guy has a long thin body and small, very sharp, very fast blades. Sauces and soups will be smooth as silk in seconds. They are very heat resistant and easy to clean. They are also light weight and easy to store, much easier than a blender. I use mine all the time for pureeing soups right in the 2 gallon pot.

With the holidays fast approachingI felt it was only fair that I mention the electric cookie gun. My mom made the best butter cookies ever when I was young but it was pretty laborious with a hand press. My mother in law had a yard sale way back in the early 90's where I found an electric cookie press. It was clearly a model from the late 60's early 70's judging by the artwork on the box. I used that cookie gun to bang out 4 dozen of my mom's butter cookies in a matter of 10 minutes, a huge improvement over hand cranking them out. That same gun finally gave out last year and needed to be replaced. It made it through 30 years of cookies! It's not limited to cookies either. It works great for filling deviled egg, making canopies and hors douvres. The down side is that they are a bit messy to refill and they have a lot of parts to be cleaned but I throw all the parts except the body right in the dishwasher.

There is nothing better than beautiful freshly made pasta. It is versatile and the dough is actually fairly easy to make once you understand the basics. I have a traditional hand crank pasta maker but when Rob moved in he brought something that I immediately fell in love with. I give you the Pasta Extruder. I didn't believe it when he told me that it makes perfect consistent pasta and all you have to do is throw the ingredients in and turn it on. They, too, are a bit of a nuisance to clean but I think it is totally worth the effort for great fresh pasta once in a while.

   Again, I thought that covering blenders was not really necessary but I will make this point. Try to get a machine that has a blender attachment and a food processor attachment. That way you are only storing one base.

    Finally, this is not an electric appliance and in fact it will probably not sit on the counter. I just felt like I needed to share this as it has become one of my favorite tools. This will make the most wonderful mashed potatoes and cal be used to make applesauce and tomato sauce among other things. A food mill is a manual tool but it isn't difficult to use and the results are well worth it. If you can find a gallon bucket, the mill will sit right on top so your product will fall right in to the bucket.

 There are so many more small appliances out there. Picking one as a gift can be overwhelming but if you pick one that is multipurpose and doesn't take longer to set up than it does to do what you need it to do, that should narrow the field a bit. I have become a convert of the crock pot especially for entertaining. They are great for holding soups, sauces and proteins at a constant temperature. I rarely do the whole throw stuff in in the morning and leave it all day thing. I usually prepare it on the stove and finish it in the crock pot but still, a valuable tool.

   I have found that over the years as my knife skills improved, I had much less use for too many electric appliances. There are always going to be jobs that just can't be done by hand and some that can but just take too long. (Try whipping cream with a bowl and hand whisk). Using a machine to do the work is just fine. It doesn't make you any less of a cook. In fact, in the restaurant world, if we can find something that does the job in a hurry, we are all over that!

I have listed all of my picks within the blog so you can order them and start cooking in no time.