A Whim or Getting Excited Over a Kettle

My kettle/jug was showing signs of structural weakness.  The plastic was beginning to split, was discolouring and had little patches where it looked as though the plastic had got too hot.  That wasn’t very good in an appliance that was not more than a few years old even though it had been an inexpensive purchase at the time.

So I popped into the local electrical shops to see what was on offer.  Have you any idea how many types of kettle there are now?  Trillions.  As I was surveying the array in our local Hydro Electric store I asked which was the quietest.  A chap busy unpacking the latest consignment replied that most of the modern kettles were quiet.  At that moment I realised hat you never ask a man questions like that.  So I asked Maggie.  She knows about these things.  She explained that they were all 3kw rapid-boil kettles and were noisy – except for one which was ‘quiet boil’ technology. So it came down to looks.  Needless to say the most aesthetically pleasing in my book was also the most expensive.  So after I had decided on a mid-priced one.  Maggie stood there waiting for me to change my mind.  How well she knows me.  But it is a beautiful kettle!

How To Open A Tin

The subject of opening tins seems to be on the agenda at the moment. Scriptor mentioned it in his posting curiously entitled I've Lost My Ankles a few days ago. Then yesterday when he wanted to open a tin, he was holding the above tin opener when he asked me what I used for opening my tins. This seemed, even by the strangeness of questions which CJ and I often address to each other, a very curious one. 'Well' he opined 'it can't be this. You have so many gadgets in this kitchen that I can't believe that you don't have some more sophisticated gadget for opening your tins.' Well I don't. I have had. People have presented me with various contraptions and I do have one for taking tops off tins which cannot be opened with a 'proper' tin opener. But the best tin opener that I have ever used is the above plain, simple, humble tin opener.

Well It Didn't Work For Me

A few days ago I mentioned that I had the two items shown in this picture. They are for making pasties. I wondered if anyone had ever used one. Presumably no one had. Very wise. Don't bother. I decided that they could be used to make individual Russian Fish Pies or apple and Wensleydale pies or whatever. Anyway I tried them out. Despite a fair amount of perseverance, time and cost I was not successful. In fact failure would be putting a gloss on the results. So they are now consigned to my past.

Kitchen Gadgets

When I cleared out the utility room I got rid of quite a few 'surplus' kitchen gadgets. By 'quite a few' I means dozens. Imagine my surprise, therefore, when I started clearing out the kitchen drawers a few days ago. Here is a selection of the things I found:

And there were more! Now there are fewer.

I use a lot of pepper but....

Actually there is justification here. The mill on the left works brilliantly as does the metal one in the centre (which works on a completely different principle to most mills). The salt works too. I think CJ and Dave have used it. Norman next door finds it too slow and prefers the old fashioned salt cellar. And I thought I'd already thrown away the ones that didn't work well.

I like spatulas.

This is a neat little selection from the 'middle drawer'. I couldn't get any more to fit on the (very large) chopping board for the photo.
And the greatest of all these is.....

My New Zealand pickle picker.

If only I could convince myself to make pasties these would be really useful. I assume. Has anyone ever used one?