I'll be honest. I don't like doing the dishes. It is my least favorite household chore. When my children were younger and we were still homeschooling, there was a lot of eating happening at my house. Way back, Deus Ex Machina worked close enough to home that he was able to have lunch with us. Three meals a day for five people.
Even today, for the most part, we eat most of our meals here at home (and our grocery bill shows it!). I make breakfast for Deus Ex Machina before he goes to work every day; Deus Ex Machina takes lunch (usually leftovers) from home; if my daughters have the day off, they make their own breakfast and lunch here at home, and I make dinner every night for the four adults who still live here.
If I weren't careful, all that eating at home would generate a mountain of dishes, and in the past, it had. To combat that potentiality, everyone has his/her own plate, bowl, and mug. We use jars for glasses.
I used to have a bunch of kitchen appliances, too. I had a bread maker, but we didn't like the cubes of bread, and so I started making bread by hand. My favorite was one-hour French bread, which, literally, took an hour and baked on a cookie sheet or the pizza stone - not in a bread pan. I had a food processor until the motor burned out, and I never replaced it. I had a pasta maker, which was cool, but then, we went gluten free, and by the time I learned to make gluten free pasta, I no longer had the pasta maker.
The problem with all of those amazing appliances is that they take up a lot of space. None of my appliances had a home on my counters, because I only have a very tiny amount of counter space. So, before I could even use them, I needed to make room for them on the counter, and then, get the appliance out of its hidey-hole.
Additionally, while they might cut the prep time down, they increase the clean-up time. It takes a lot less time and effort to wash a bowl and the cutting board than it does to deal with the bread maker - wait for it to cool off, wash and dry the pan and the paddle, and then, put it all away. I still have to clean the bowl, cutting board (for kneading), and pan when I bake bread by hand, but everything just takes less time, for me, and there's no bulky appliance to deal with.
The other issue, to which I have already alluded, is that I have a very tiny kitchen with no drawers and only a few cabinets. Space is at a premium, and I just can't afford to have things that only serve a single purpose and are only used intermittently.
As such, I have learned to do a lot of things with very simple tools. Like peeling carrots. In the 20+ years that Deus Ex Machina and I have been married, I have never owned a carrot peeler. I use a knife. It works just fine. Granted a carrot peeler is small and doesn't take up space, but having a few really good, sharp, paring knives work just as well, and I can use them for other things, too. Like slicing the carrots after I've peeled them. One tool. Two jobs.
I have a hand mixer, but for a lot of things, I've found that mixing with a wood spoon works just as well. No need to pull out the electric appliance, find the mixer blades, plug it in, whip the potatoes, disassemble the machine, wash the paddles, and put everything away. Instead, I just get the wooden spoon and whip the potatoes by hand. Then, I use the same spoon to stir in the butter, and to serve the potatoes. One tool. Three jobs.
The other day I posted a list of last minute, hand-made Christmas gifts. One of them was a DIY seed sprouter using a repurposed glass jar. The one I used was a Classico pasta sauce jar. I like those jars, because the jar lid is the same size as a regular mouth mason jar. In fact, the jars Classico uses are "mason" brand jars. I reuse the jars for everything from drinking glasses to canning ... and now seed sprouting.
The good ol' enameled iron skillet does a good job of replacing an electric griddle. I made this for supper today, and it required little more than the skillet (OK, and the ingredients, and a measuring cup/spoon or two).
ReplyDeleteFor making bread, I consider a dough scraper a huge convenience if not an absolute necessity, but that's pretty low-tech as well. I use it to divide the dough if I'm making rolls, too. But I think making bread in a bread machine results in less washing: you wash the bucket and paddle, as opposed to spoon, bowl, dough scraper, and pan. But when I use mine, I usually put it on dough cycle and bake in a pan, so it's a wash.
I have an extreme dislike for "garbage" disposals, which are really more of a loud, easily plugged mess machine - when we buy again, if there's one installed, it's being pulled out.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a huge fan of dishwashers either, and would gladly have that pulled at the same time. The plumber brought in could do both in one day and reuse them somewhere else or use them for target practice for all I care. LOL
Our current home, especially, has increased my dislike for both of these items. When housing refurbished these homes, they cut a zillion corners and created more problems than they probably fixed. ::sigh:: Ah well, our countdown has begun.
I'd say the appliance I get the most use out of is the slow cooker. I have a KitchenAid and a bread machine; the latter is used more than the former. I probably wouldn't need the bread machine if I were willing to bake bread in the oven, since the KA could do the kneading my joints can't handle - but I bought it in AZ in an effort to have homebaked bread without turning the oven on on 100F days. LOL When it kicks the bucket, I may or may not replace it. I have a rice cooker I got when we lived in Japan and absolutely would replace that. I think that's my one "must have"; for some weird reason I can never get any type of rice - just right - on the stove.