kitchen control freak

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My Most Used Small Kitchen Appliances

My Instagram feed seems to be full, lately, of people using these fancy glass air fryers to make their meals. I fully realize that the air fryer doesn’t make the meal, the chef does. But, what can I say, I fall under the spell of beautifully filmed meals with soothing voiceovers.  The other reason I am susceptible to the siren song of a new air fryer is that I haaaaaaate using the oven when it’s hot out. Did I hate it this much in our old house? I’m not sure. But I get so sweaty and uncomfortable, and it seems like the heat lingers forever, and our ovens have internal fans that kick in automatically and shut off automatically and they take FOREVER to turn off, so it’s always loud in my kitchen when I cook something in the oven.

Of course, we already HAVE an air fryer. It’s perfectly good, although it’s a little on the small side for cooking entire meals. If we got a new one, we’d need to make sure it fits. This house has a lot of storage, which I love, so most of my small appliances are tucked nicely away. Which appliances would I get rid of to make room for a new air fryer? (Especially a nice extra big one, with dual drawers?)

This got me thinking about which small appliances I use and which ones are expendable. I feel like I have a pretty typical array of small appliances: blender, food processor, toaster, mixer, crockpot.  Some of them, like the food processor, I use only rarely. But it’s handy enough that I want to keep it. I think I would jettison the wok. The wok used to be my most-used small appliance, but I haven’t used it even once since we moved into this house. It doesn’t fit into the dishwasher (grumble grumble) and I am very opposed to hand-washing things, so I typically make stir fries and curries in a big pot on the stove. Which works just fine. I have mentioned many times before that I am scared of our Instant Pot. It has lived in our basement for several years now, and I should probably just get rid of it. The only reason I keep it around is that once in a while we make these very tasty burgers. Is that reason enough to keep a rather unwieldly appliance around? I don’t know.

On the flip side, some of my small appliances are used so frequently I could NEVER get rid of them.

  • My electric kettle. I use this every single day to heat up water for my tea. In the dark old days before I had an electric kettle, I had a kettle I heated on the stove. It took too long to boil and the water was always too hot and I didn’t really like having a kettle constantly on the stove, but it was not easy to stow elsewhere. And then I went through a spate of heating my tea water in the microwave, which was fine, although the mug always got too hot. An electric kettle seems like one of those frivolous single-use items but it is NOT, it is magical. I don’t quite know why it’s better than the other methods, but it IS. My only wish is that it could be programmed to make my tea at a specific time, like my husband’s coffee maker.
  • My slow cooker. This is one of those things that, if it were to break, I would order a replacement immediately. (I know this from experience; once I dropped the ceramic insert and it cracked in half and I placed an order for a new one so fast.)
  • My stick blender. As you know, I love a good smoothie and I eat one almost every day. I used to make them in my blender, which came with a smoothie cup attachment. But the stick blender is smaller and lighter and just as easy to throw in the dishwasher. Plus, I can use it for making dressings and sauces and soups and all sorts of other things. I love it so much, I have two.
  • My toaster. My kiddo has been on a dual Eggo waffle and sourdough toast spate, so the toaster is called into service most mornings. I like this one because of its extra long slots, which can fit a lot of sourdough. It does seem to need to “warm up” a bit though; the first batch of toast takes forever, the second batch burns if you don’t turn it way down.
  • My mixer. You know I am a huge fan of making ridiculous cakes and cupcakes. How could I do either without my stand mixer?! I’ve had this workhorse since 2008, when we got it as a wedding gift. It’s a little more wobbly than it used to be, but still works great.

I probably don’t need a new air fryer. Clearly, I am already swimming in small appliances. But I would be interested in your most- and least- used small appliances. And in your favorite air fryer, if you have one.

Here is a gratuitous kitten photo, for those readers who enjoy such things.

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Control Enthusiasm, Dinners This Week

We have houseguests this week. I think it’s well established at this point that I am both an anxious host and a control enthusiast, and that doesn’t make for the easiest time when having guests.

My particular brand of control enthusiasm is particularly evident in the kitchen. I am weird about food. I am weird about germs. I am weird about lots of things, and I can control those things when it’s me cooking. But when it’s someone else in my kitchen, doing their own thing in their own way, I get very uncomfortable. So, while I know this makes sense to NO ONE but me, I cannot stand to have help in the kitchen, especially from one particular houseguest. This guest is a wonderful, loving, generous, and thoughtful person and I want you to know I understand this, and understand that I am being ridiculous. And yet I am incapable of change in this area. I have tried! This particular houseguest does things so differently from me – I find it excruciating. Unbearably uncomfortable. I feel so guilty typing this out. IT IS NOT LOGICAL. I know this. And yet. For instance, on a previous visit, this guest ended up (very kindly and thoughtfully) making dinner for the family one night. The anxiety I felt – and still feel, at the very memory! – was so intense that I cannot do it again. I cannot. And I don’t know how to convey to this person just how awful it makes me feel. I have tried, in varying levels of firmness, and it doesn’t seem to get through. (Either this person’s own anxiety at “being a good guest = making a meal” trumps the desire to respect the boundaries I try to set… or my boundary-setting just doesn’t register with this person… I don’t know.) 

Anyway. I am pre-anxious about making food for the houseguests because a) I don’t want to fend off (lovely! thoughtful!) advances to “help” and b) it is also complicated and slightly stressful to plan meals for these houseguests because they often have last minute changes in plans and c) we still have all of the normal evening activities that make dinnertime a challenge even for my immediate family. 

Dinners for the Week of June 19-26

  • Sheet Pan Tandoori Chicken and Cauliflower: Colleen mentioned that she made this recently, and I had forgotten just how much I enjoyed it the last time I made it, so I put it on the meal plan IMMEDIATELY. It is so good. I think it will be perfect for houseguests, too, because it’s fairly easy to prep in advance and easy to cook. 
  • Greek Chicken Chopped Salad: We did not in fact eat this last week, so I’m putting it back on the menu. 
  • Slow Cooker Chipotle Chicken Tacos: The slow cooker is my best friend when I want to prep a meal without interference from others. “Oh, sorry! It’s already in the slow cooker!” is a good excuse.
  • Soy-Ginger Pulled Pork with Tangy Sesame Slaw: Another slow cooker favorite! The only issue here is that I like to serve the pork/slaw on steamed bao buns, but I haven’t had great luck with steaming them myself. I wonder if I could buy some at a local restaurant???
  • Takeout/Leftovers/Out: Since, as I mentioned, these houseguests sometimes have other plans, I will not plan any more than four meals. We can get takeout if there’s a night where we don’t have dinner planned, or my husband and Carla and I can eat leftovers, or we can all go out to eat.  

Do you have any really weird kitchen/meal planning related issues? I am feeling SO ANXIOUS AND GUILTY about what an ungrateful control freak I am being. But please trust me when I tell you this is better than the anxiety and discomfort I feel if I relinquish control. 

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Two Kinds of People

For so many, many areas of life, there seem to be clear divisions into two separate factions. Things about which people feel SO STRONGLY, so fanatical, there is no middle ground. I love coming across these moments of schism. Here are a few I’ve come across recently.

Butter Storage: You either store your butter on the counter, or you store it in the fridge. I am Team Counter Butter all the way. It’s soft and spreadable when you need it, and if you go through butter at the rate my family does, it never has a chance to go rancid.

Shower Time: I used to be a Morning Shower person, but now I tend to shower at night for purposes of convenience. However, I HATE IT. No way am I going to take the time to dry and style my hair when all I want to do is go to bed. But I also hate sleeping on wet hair! It’s a nightmare! Showering in the morning is the better option. (I suppose there is a secret third category here, of people who shower after they exercise, or people who shower multiple times per day.) 

Hair Washing: I wash my hair as infrequently as I can get away with it, which is usually every three to four days – although I can squeeze in a fifth day if go for a bun or a ponytail. Daily Hair Washers are aghast at this, though. They cannot comprehend having “dirty” hair. But oh, how wonderful it is to not have to dry my hair every day! (I cannot wash and wear my hair; it’s wavy/curly but more so on one side than the other; it looks awful if I let it dry by itself.) Also, I am convinced that Day 3 Hair is the best hair day of them all.

Drinking Vessel Material: My husband prefers to drink water etc. out of a plastic cup. I cannot STAND this. I need a glass glass every time. There is something revolting to me about the feel of a plastic rim between my lips or something. Yuck.

Pillow Quantity: While I like the aesthetic of a nice big pile of pillows on my bed, I cannot sleep with more than one. It gives me a crick in my neck just thinking about it! My husband needs three pillows though, and my daughter likes FOUR. I swear that their necks fold into a 90-degree angle from their bodies when they sleep, and it looks so uncomfortable. There is a secret third faction, though: the people who sleep with no pillows at all. I knew one of them in college and it was fascinating to me; he didn’t even own a pillow.

Thinking: I think in words. There is a constant stream of words running through my head, like the inner monologues you hear as voiceovers on TV. That’s how my brain works. It’s not really like hearing and it’s definitely not seeing words appear on a tickertape inside my head. But it’s words. My husband thinks in pictures. There is no flow of verbiage in his brain. Just images. If you ask him to visualize something, he can close his eyes and SEE THAT THING. I cannot do this. I just see blackness. 

Gifting: My husband’s family are Gift Listers. You send a list of things you’d be interested in receiving for birthdays/holidays, and then the gift givers choose something from that list. (It is understood that you might get something that is not on the list, and it is also understood that you can suggest categories of things – i.e., “coffee mug” – which allow the gift giver some freedom/leeway to make their own choices.) My family sometimes gives loose suggestsions, i.e. “books” or “things for entertaining.” But there are no lists. The gift is to be a surprise.

Snack Procurement: Picture, if you will (or, if you can), a tin of nuts or a bag of chips. You are about to procure some for your snacking purposes. Do you a) reach your hand into the tin/bag and grab a handful? Or do you b) pour the desired amount into a bowl/napkin/hand? I am a Snack Pourer all the way! I don’t want your hand – or mine! – rooting around in the entire container of food! I want to keep the food pure, and untouched until the last possible moment. Likewise, I am always going to close the container and put it back. If I desire more of the snack, I will get it out of the pantry and pour some more. Some people in my family prefer to keep the open box/tin/bag on the counter, just in case. UGH. I do not like this! 

Bathing: This is a late addition after Elisabeth’s post this morning reminded me how much I loathe baths. And yet some people LOVE them! They are supposed to be decadent and soothing, and yet… I find myself getting restless and itchy about two minutes in. And then I feel like I still have to shower to get all the bubbles off me anyway, so what’s the point? I grew up in a home with no bathtubs (although my parents renovated my bathroom when I was in… high school? and put in a bath), so maybe that has something to do with why I have no use for baths at all.

All right. That’s enough controversy for today. Do you feel particularly strongly about any of these topics? What else have you found is A Great Divider? (Besides politics, of course.)