Flowers in California

Flowers in California

Thursday, November 29, 2012

On Many, Many Small Kitchen Appliances

There are many small kitchen appliances available in the stores.  I caught on to this the first time I saw cake pop makers.  These are not to be confused with cupcake makers or whoopie pie makers or doughnut makers or mini cupcake makers.  There is an individual product for each of these baked goods.  Wow.

In addition to the fact that it could get really expensive to buy all of the available small appliances, I wonder where people are supposed to store all of them.  Even with a huge kitchen, is there really space for blenders and juicers, coffee, tea and espresso makers, deep fryers, ice cream makers, mixers, roasters and rotisseries, slow cookers, rice cookers, steamers, toasters, all the baking appliances listed above and Specialty Appliances too?  Specialty Appliances include hot dog rollers, waffle conemakers, strawberry shortcake makers, churro, quesadilla, pretzel and empanada makers, "Snacks on a Stick" makers, cotton candy makers, Egg Genies, jam and jelly makers, soda pop makers, pigs-in-a-blanket makers, and ice cream sandwich makers.

(I'm not judging people who buy any of these products.  No, that's not true.  I really have it in for people who buy cotton candy makers for home use.  But that's all.)

I can see it coming soon that specialized storage buildings will be constructed and placed outside homes solely to store small kitchen appliances.  Some designers will specialize in the aesthetics, both inside and out, of these new structures.  IKEA will come up with amazing storage systems to make them work well.  Inevitably though, one won't be enough.  I can imagine someone, about to start preparing dinner, sending a spouse out to the storage facility to get the rice cooker and asking them to bring the key for the other building too, in case they want popcorn later.  Life will be very different at that time.

I don't have a great need for many new small kitchen appliances right now.  Our popcorn maker became a fire hazard and I threw it out so I wouldn't mind getting a new (and ideally not flammable) popcorn maker. I had a dangerous accident with a portable blender (It's lucky I didn't swallow a big piece of metal.  Strange story) but the blender is fine.  And while I do love baking, I tend to use baking trays that go in the oven.  Perhaps the oven uses more electricity than the smaller baking appliances but I have no desire to start amassing these items (at least not before I get my shed ready in the backyard).

I wonder how popular these small appliances will be for gift-giving this Christmas season.  And, will more and more of these products be developed or are there just enough (or way too many) now?  I'll go make a smoothie and ponder these questions.  At least I don't have to go out in the snow to get my (almost lethal) blender.  It hasn't gotten to that point yet.

JAHD 





 





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