Friday, July 29, 2011

I Need A Bigger Kitchen

I am glad I realized this while still in the planning stages of moving to another property. A large kitchen is a definite necessity. Cooking from scratch generates a huge pile of dirty dishes each day. And I think I have enough small appliances to rival a commercial kitchen. At present I have a coffee roaster (more on this later), sausage grinder/stuffer, KitchenAid mixer (with ALL the attachments), rice cooker, food processor, dehydrator, food saver sealer, kombucha brewer, coffee maker, toaster, mandoline, 3 crock pots, blender and microwave. These are all things I use on a regular or semi-regular basis and I need to have them handy. Some of them are forced to live in various cabinets and it is a PITA to have to dig them out to use. A large kitchen has moved the the front of the "requirements" list for our retirement property.

Speaking of appliances that take up space, meet my new Behmor coffee roaster. I haven't had a chance to use it yet. I admit to being intimidated. This is a big step up from my popcorn popper/roaster.


I purchased it through Roastmasters. They have this unit for $299 (which seems to be standard). But the 2 big benefits of ordering through them are the free shipping (this thing weighs 25#) and the 8# of free coffee, 1# each of eight varieties. The coffee alone is worth  $40 to $50. What a great deal!


No time to play with new toys right now. The summer has so many seasonal obligations to keep up with. Or try to. I am way behind on my gardening duties. The weeds are threatening to take over. And I need to get a move on as far as wine making goes. But I did manage to start on the raspberry processing. I made these 4 jars of jam yesterday. Now to work on the frozen berries. This jam was from the berries picked the same day it was made.

3 comments:

martilambert said...

Well, I am enjoying roasting coffee beans, thanks to your influence! Just figured out it's best to do it outside, though. My smoke detector goes off almost continuously while beans are roasting. That coffee roaster DOES look intimidating.

crazihippichic said...

I'm glad I was able to be a good(?) influence on you, Marti. And yes, you need to use the hot air popper/roasters outdoors. Which is why I finally broke down and bought a proper roaster. I don't have a covered area to roast outdoors and we've been having a very soggy summer.

crazihippichic said...

Where did you end up buying your raw beans, Marti?