Dumb Consumer Item of the Month - Kitchen Gadgets

How many kitchen gadgets does one home need? Apparently a lot. A whole lot. It’s a gadget-o-rama out there. 

It’s endless, really, this obsession with creating kitchen gadgets that promise to make cooking easier, but only end up cluttering countertops for a while before being put in the cupboard, or worse, out at the curb, in disappointment and frustration.

For example, if you can boil water with an animal skin and hot rocks from the fire, what do you need a high-tech immersion heater for?

Immersion circulators—also known as sous vide machines—used to be reserved for professional chefs in fancy kitchens. But what was once only for fine dining is now commonplace in home kitchens.

I don’t know how commonplace this gadget is - I had never seen one before until a reader brought these to my attention. 

Why? Because she had just found one and liberated it from the trash. A new one is worth $260.00 Canadian dollars, or €160 Euros. Our trash liberator friend sold it for €50 Euros, so a good day of collecting, and the purchaser got a bargain, too, if they actually use the thing.

Sous vide is an unusual process that begins with vacuum sealing food in a plastic bag, so you would also need a vacuum sealer. Oh boy, another gadget! 

The plastic-sealed food is then long cooked in a hot water bath heated by the immersion unit. Cooks say this method retains juices, tastes, and aromas that otherwise would be lost using other methods.

Cooking food in plastic does not sound that great, although the process can also be done using a glass jar.

How many cooks do this often enough to want to own a high tech immersion cooker? Not many, I would imagine. 

 

The only kitchen gadget most people need is a Mombot Kitchen Cooker that does everything except cut your food into bite sized pieces, and wipe your mouth with a napkin after you are done.

I think Elon Musk is working on one. They would sell like hotcakes, and be able to make and serve them, too.

Some kitchen gadgets can be game changers, and I would put a food processor in that category. Others seem entirely superfluous, but each to their own.

Where do you stand on kitchen gadgets? What are you favourites, and which would you never own? 

You aren’t going to find a high tech immersion heater for sous vide cooking in my kitchen drawer. 

Or in my trash.

Thank you to Le-Chat for the idea for today’s post.

Faster Food

Our freezer is always full of faster foods we make ourselves.

In our humble home our preference is for slow food made by our own hands. However, it's nice to have a quick meal every now and then to avoid burnout from constantly cooking.
To break the cycle of prep/cook/clean/repeat, we rely on our freezer for convenient, healthier, and speedier alternatives. 
This approach provides numerous advantages:

• Control over ingredients and cooking methods
• No need for online orders or phone calls
• No tipping required
• Minimal packaging waste
• No driving necessary
• And, most importantly, delicious and nutritious meals

So, what's in our "faster food" freezer?
Beans prepared from dry: pinto, kidney, black, garbanzo, and soy. We also store bean boiling water in 500ml jars (except for chickpea) to make gravy and sauces for potatoes and pasta.
Prepared foods we regularly cook then freeze in bulk and portion out include: chilli, pasta sauce, pizza sauce, soups, cornbread, pizza, samosas, and lentil stew.
Our vegetable garden supplies us with frozen green beans, peas, kale, pesto, and cubed winter squash.
A well-planned approach is crucial when making your own food and utilizing your freezer efficiently.
Just like freezing your credit card in a container of water slows down impulse purchases, forgetting to thaw meals in advance can hinder quick dining. 
And anything that hinders quick dining makes us vulnerable to the fast food industry.

By embracing the slow way to "faster food" approach, we've taken control of our meals, our health, and our schedules. With a little planning and prep, you can too. 

Consider giving your freezer a starring role in your kitchen, and discover the freedom that comes with having delicious, homemade meals at your fingertips.

Escaping Urban Overload

We traded this...

“We’ve built a ‘human zoo,’ caging ourselves in routines, technology, and artificial environments.”   

- Ken Breniman

 

Cities are great places. They are exciting and interesting hives of activity. I lived in a city of a million people for almost a decade, and I mostly enjoyed it.  

However, it is my hope that I will never have to live in a large city again. Or even a small city.
About 55% of the global population currently lives in cities. That is over 4 billion people. The UN projects this will rise to almost 70% by 2050.
Around 80% of Canadians live in cities, meaning the rest of the land is virtually empty. That is where I will be found.
Don’t get me wrong. I love people. I just don’t want to live around a whole busy bunch of them. For my nervous system, that is urban overload.
That is why my dream has always been to live in as remote and beautiful a location as possible.

...for this. No traffic jams here.

Currently, I live in an amazingly quiet and beautiful district in Nova Scotia with 4.4 people per square kilometre. 
The largest city I have ever lived in has a density of 1,550 people per square kilometre.
I’m headed in the right direction.
If you're plotting your own escape, start small: Pick a day for a "rural reconnaissance"—drive, hike, or research a low-density spot that appeals to you. 
No commitments, just some testing - sense the quiet, note what your nervous system is telling you. 
A low-stakes audit can turn dreams into coordinates, like it did for us.
How about you? 
Are you a city person, or does rural living appeal to you more? 
Have you had enough? Are you planning to escape the urban overload?
Let us know your plan in a comment below.

Bucket Laundry: My Not So Scary Experiment in Simple Living (That Built My Biceps)

It’s hard to even imagine a frightful life without conveniences like a clothes washer, let alone adapt to such a scene of horror and hardship. 
To get a taste of that life, I did some laundry in a bucket with a plunger.
My experiment was also functional as my washing machine lost its mind and started turning off and on, beeping uncontrollably all on its own. 
It’s haunted. By obsolescence.
That’s alright. As a renter, all I needed to do was contact the property owners, and they handled the rest. But there was that laundry to be done, and I was keen to test the bucket method since I already had everything I needed.
It was labor-intensive compared to the mechanical machine we all know and love, and I worked harder than a cat trying to get its Halloween costume off.
I used a plunger to agitate the laundry, water, and soap in the bucket for a few minutes, then let it sit and soak for 10 minutes.
When I returned to the bucket, I changed the water and agitated the laundry again to rinse. I felt like a laundry zombie as I chanted "clean clothes" as if they were as desirable as fresh brains.
At that point, I was only partially done with my monstrous task—the bucket load needed to be wrung out in preparation for drying (I used the dryer because it was raining out). My biceps felt like I’d just arm-wrestled a the Hulk. 
I quickly came to appreciate the spin cycle of my washer now that I was the one strong-arming the water out of the sopping laundry.
Results? The bucket method got the job done quite nicely. I was more than satisfied with how it performed, and for what it did for my upper body strength.
I’m looking forward to the washing machine being repaired or replaced soon, but I wouldn’t mind doing more in the bucket/plunger again. 
As it turned out, it was more treat than trick, which was counter to what I was expecting. It wasn’t scary at all.
Doing laundry by hand—something that millions of people do every day around the world—felt more satisfying than passively loading and unloading a washer. I felt like I really accomplished something that mattered, and that I upped my resilience factor.
Knowing I’m not completely dependent on technology felt good. It made me feel positive about the future, and that is better than a pillowcase full of candy.
What’s one convenience you’d ditch for a day to build your own resilience? Share below—we love to hear your stories.
Happy Halloween, simple livers!