Essential Electronics

Cooking with Power

If you really want to cruise through the kitchen, whether you're preparing weeknight dinners for four or catered parties for forty, make sure you have the right appliances. Keep a mixer, blender, processor, juicer and toaster oven on hand and you're good to go.

A reliable standing mixer has a sturdy stainless steel bowl and three standard attachments. The hook shaped piece is for kneading dough, the egg-shaped wire whisk is for whipping and the triangular paddle attachment is for stirring and beating. Attach the wire whisk to whip potatoes or use the paddle to evenly mix meat loaf, crab cakes or stuffing mixtures.

Most often equipped with two wire beaters, the hand mixer is less versatile than itself upright cousin. Great for beating eggs, batter and frosting, the hand mixer also has its own special niche. Portability makes it perfect for beating ingredients over a double boiler to make special sauces and frostings that require steady, low heat.

Blenders make fantastic salad dressings, pesto sauces, emulsion sauces and pureed soups. Simple to use, most blenders require that the container piece fits properly into the electrical mechanism before it will start. Once it's secure, make sure you place the cover on top before pressing the "on" button. To avoid spills and accidents, never fill your blender all the way to the top and always allow hot items to cool reasonably before pureeing.

Immersion blenders are hand-held wands that you place into soups, dressings and drinks in order to puree or emulsify. Using an immersion blender eliminates the need to transfer products like soups and sauces from pots to blenders, which can be messy and tricky. There is no need to work in batches which can be time-consuming as well. To use properly, make sure that the head of the wand is fully immersed in your recipe at all times. If the head surfaces while the blender is on, contents will splatter.

With dozens of possible attachments, the standard food processor is arguably the most versatile tool in the kitchen. Their slicing, shredding, chopping and grinding capabilities can save you an incredible amount of food prep time. You can also use them to perform many of the same tasks as mixers and blenders, including blending pastry dough, pureeing dressings, sauces and soups and combining ingredients.

For chopping, grinding or blending, you must prepare the plastic bowl with the blade fitting and then fill with desired ingredients. Once the top is secure, push the "on" button to process as desired. When shredding or slicing, position the bowl with the appropriate blade and gently force ingredients in the top feeding tube using the fitted plastic piece. Never attempt to push a piece of food through using your fingers while the machine is running. To maintain the best results from your food processor you should have the blades on each of the attachments sharpened periodically.

Great for a fresh squeezed O.J. or two cups of lemon curd, an electric citrus press will get the job done in no time. Just place a container beneath the spout. Then, slice your citrus fruit in half, place the flesh side down onto the round attachment and press. This appliance will extract the juice, while straining out the fleshiest pulp. More complex juice extractors also have a component that resembles the top of a food processor. To use, push whole vegetables such as carrots, beets or tomatoes into the juicer using the safe plastic insert and catch your freshly processed juice in a strategically-placed container.

Most commonly used for a slice of bread or a frozen waffle, toasters are often overlooked after breakfast. Perfect for toasting nuts, toaster ovens tend to be located closer to eye level than most ovens so you can watch your almonds, walnuts or pecans until they reach the perfect shade of bronze. They're also great for browning small casseroles, gratins and croutons.If you really want to cruise through the kitchen, whether you're preparing weeknight dinners for four or catered parties for forty, make sure you have the right appliances. Keep a mixer, blender, processor, juicer and toaster oven on hand and you're good to go.