The photo shows my cluttered kitchen. I baked bread today -- it is the weekend and hydro is almost half the price of the weekday rate. This is important because I do like to collect and use labour-saving appliances. For example, I grind spelt flour in an electric mill (see my previous post) and after years of manually kneading dough, I really appreciate using a good mixer. One of the rules of my appliance collecting is that I must get them second-hand. Finding the old German-made Braun KM32 mixer at a thrift store for $5 was a thrill -- it hasn't been manufactured in years and an internet search showed that it is still highly regarded. My vintage Mixmaster sits on the little refrigerator -- I won't use it for bread anymore, but I like the look of it.
Another thrift store triumph was the convection oven. My ancient Viking was down to one burner and the oven elements refused to respond anymore to vigorous jiggling. Again, I liked the look of the '50's stove with its push-button design. I knew that its day had finally come, but I was determined to replace it with something special. The new stove from the Alliston Habitat for Humanity store is a cook's delight, with finely tuned elements and various options, such as bread-proofing.
Last week I found yet another juicer at a thrift store. It is the same make as another that I own, but with all of the design problems corrected. So far I have juiced 40 pounds of carrots with added cranberries. Most of this has been frozen.
The tiny freezer that I bought (new) a couple of months ago has revolutionized my life. It is full of: organic milk that was discounted 50% and will be good for kefir (see previous blog), frozen fruit for kefir smoothies that was on special recently, many litres of carrot juice, and one chicken.
