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I got rid of the iced tea maker, rice cooker, George Foreman grill (too hard to clean!),
Kept the bread maker, crock pot and immersion blender. It's great for making applesauce, pureeing fruit and vegetables, and is easier to clean than a blender.
Crock pot. I hate it. I seriously hate it. There are a LOT of reasons why which I'm sure nobody wants to hear, but if it weren't for the husband insisting we keep it, it'd be in the trash in two seconds.
Great concept but I scorch stuff all the time. My friend's hubby wired up a variable resister to allow her to dial it down and REALLY have a low setting.
I was real excited to get a dehydrator but.... so far I made one batch of dog treats and I'm not too sure the dogs were crazy about them.
Rice cooker seems... well, we don't eat a whole lot of rice.
Least used is the latest version of the George Foreman grill. Just does not get hot enough to grill properly. I recall the original George Foreman would heat up beautifully; that was 20+ years ago.
I use it as a squash/zucchini steamer as that is what it does best.
I think the teflon coating is probably not healthy for me as well.
All my cast iron. It's unwieldy, labor intensive to keep operational, high maintenance, takes up a ton of room to store, and is generally not worth the hassle. I didn't even bother to unbox it after our latest move.
Didn't read every page in the thread, but interesting comment because I love cast iron. I find the exact opposite of what you said. Low maintenance, easy to clean, takes up no more room than any other pan of comparable size and produces great results. I even love the Lodge Dutch ovens for outdoor cooking using coals.
Product I hate is the rice cooker. Thrown away a couple yet keep getting them for Christmas presents when what I really want is a Green Egg.
I am the husband and yes, I do 90% of the cooking.
Food/meat grinder attachment for the Kitchenaide stand mixer. I absolutely NEEDED that attachment so I could grind my own hamburger and other meat, make sausage, make tomato puree, limited only by the imagination! .........yeah, no.
First of all, it's way too small to make any amount of anything. Second, grinding meat takes forever, since you have to (or at least *I* do) disassemble and unclog the damn thing every few minutes.
I don't use it much.
Immersion blender. Got one free with stamps at Albertsons a couple years back. Never use it.
Had a rice cooker, my stovetop rice comes out better.
Mandolin slicer. Great tool, but a pain to set up and clean. Plus, I use it so seldomly (seldomly? Is that right?) that it usually takes me until I'm finished to get the rythym right to where everything is quick and uniform.
Cast iron. I do love it, but it's so heavy and it smakes so much on the stovetop! (Steaks and hamburgers). And it's not "hard" to clean, but it is a pain in the azz.
I was not a huge fan of my cast iron skillet, even though I had asked for them for my wedding and did use them.
Many years later, my mom died, and I inherited her Wagner iron skillet...it's an antique.
And it is AMAZING.
It's not nearly as heavy as my 40-year-old iron skillet. It is made of better quality iron, and it retains and distributes heat much better. It also cleans up better.
I love it so much I found another one on eBay and paid a pretty penny for it. It's worth every one of those pennies, too.
I hated the Teflon skillet we used to have. It scratched easily, and I figured there were awful chemicals going into the food. Turned out I was right, so that sucker went into the trash.
I wouldn't have a rice cooker except the stove in our house simply does not simmer anything - it's boil or nothin.'
I love my rice cooker. Its a cheapie one and works great. And yes, add less water if you need too. But wonder if they are using the measuring cup that comes with it. I really need to measure how much it is, because if I lose it - i'm SOL.
If the measuring cup is an unmarked proprietary volume, just fill it with water, pour that into another graduated beaker / cup. Note the amount (closer to metric or American?). Use that as the appropriate measure.
DUMB MISTAKES
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In a little discount import store - - -
I once bought an "international" Wok set, made in Taiwan, circa 1978-9?, that had a strange flat lid with two side handles. Being a tyro about international cuisine, and unsophisticated, I did not realize that the lid was a paella pan. There were no instructions, and I was clueless. Also, did not realize the necessity of seasoning the wok (or the lid, if it was to be used for paella).
Long story short, I hated both, not realizing the fault was in the user, not the tool.
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From the same store, bought a knife set, but this was not a mistake. The blades were carbon steel - the kind that DOES stain - and wow, could those knives keep sharp. Ugly or not, I prefer a knife that is sharp.
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GABA refers to sprouted brown rice, also called GABA brown rice (for the amino acid GABA is created during the sprouting), or hatsuga genmai in Japanese. (Beware, after 30 - 48 hours of sprouting in warm water, it is "stinky" rice - though it doesn't stink after you cook it)
The most touted health benefit to GBR is the amino acid GABA, or gamma-aminobutyric acid, that is created during germination. GBR apparently has twice the GABA of regular brown rice, and ten times the GABA of white rice, from 6 to 40 mg of GABA per 100 grams of rice. GABA is an inhibitory neurotransmitter that seems to have the following benefits: promotes fat loss by the stimulation of the production of Human Growth Hormone; increases the sleep cycle giving deeper rest; boosts the immune system; lowers blood pressure; inhibits development of cancer cells; assists the treatment of anxiety disorders.
Although people around the world have probably been eating GBR for thousands of years, what we now call GBR or GABA rice was 'discovered' in 2004, the United Nation's Year of Rice, as part of their research into rice. Since then it's become a health craze in some parts of the world. (And paying ridiculous prices for it.)
GBR is made by soaking brown rice in warm water (30-40 C, 86-104 F) for up to three days. So if your rice cooker has a GABA setting to sprout brown rice at that temperature range, you can easily make it at home. Bon appetit!
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It's great for making applesauce, pureeing fruit and vegetables, and is easier to clean than a blender.
