There was a time when I believed that mixers, processors, toasters, crockpots and such were just a waste of kitchen space, my-oh-my have I come along way from that frame of mind. I suppose what is responsible is that I have come a long way in my cooking, I love to cook, I love to get creative in the kitchen, love the challenge of making dishes I have not made before and love the challenge of making things from scratch- this is all a result of my growing knowledge of how awful processed and un-organic foods are. I have thus succumbed to making many of the dishes I eat at home from scratch, with ingredients that are bought from Farmer's Market, fresh and organic. And when you are making foods such as ice-cream, cakes, pies, breads and stews from scratch, just to name a few, you come to understand the importance and appreciation of kitchen machinations such as the ice-cream maker, the bread maker, the hand mixer, the toaster oven, the crockpot! All of which makes cooking from scratch much MUCH easier.
My most recent purchase, the Cuisinart Ice-Cream Maker, allows you to easily make ice-cream, yogurts and soft-serve. Simply knowing that all the ingredients are organic is a great satisfaction for me, not to mention how much more delicious home-made ice-cream tastes.
The bread maker, there is no need to hand-mix yourself any of the dry ingredients, simply put all the measured ingredients into the machine and let it do all the work for you, and in four hours time you have freshly baked bread.
Want a lovely flavorful stew? Now you don't have to slave away infront of the stove, simply use the crockpot, add the ingredients, set it on "low" or "medium" and by dinner-time your stew is finished, just like that.
Even something as simple as the hand-mixer has been a great relief to me. Birthdays or family dinners mean dessert-making time for me, but whipping that whip-cream can be time-consuming and a bit strenuous, I can now do it in 1/4 of the time with my new handy hand-mixer!
Of course you don't need an ice-cream machine to make ice-cream, a bread maker to bake bread, or a crockpot to make stew. But these machinations sole purpose is to give your time back for everything else you didn't have time to do before, and it certainly does when all you have to do is measure, pour and press "Start".