Impulsive, madcap, throw to the back of the cupboard purchase

When will I ever learn? I feel I need help. My family KNOW I need help. I have to admit it. I'm an impulsive buyer of any kitchen related gadgets, utensils and gourmet food items. If there is a new product on the market, you can bet I already have it, and if I don't, then I will soon. This all comes from reading too many food related magazines...my collection is embarrasingly taking over my house. This purchase is my latest attempt to justify the cost of an ice-cream maker that I "just had to have". I've certainly used the ice-cream maker, not everyday of course, but when I spotted this ice-cream cone maker in the "reduced" basket at K-Mart the other day, for a mere $12, I thought this item would ultimately save me money from not purchasing the expensive Belgium Waffle Cones from the supermarket. Do I sound convincing enough yet? My husband doesn't think so.

Honest verdict? Making my own cones was a lot of mucking around, it created a huge mess and was very ridiculously time consuming. I'm sure there is a definite knack to the method, but I'm not too keen on perfecting it in the near future. The $4 cones from the supermarket are much more attractive now.

I think a submission to Ebay is on the drawing board, along with some very pre-loved food magazines, a potato chip maker, an onion chopper....the list goes on. Then I'll have lots of room to buy more things!!

This ice-cream is from David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop, Butterscotch and Pecan Icecream, which literally contains butter AND scotch...who would have thought. You can sneak a preview of the recipe here at Google Books.

It all started with a new kitchen

After suffering nearly 20 years in a kitchen which contained only three cupboards (one of them totally jam packed with Tupperware), I have finally been given my dream kitchen. This pic shows the demolition stage, in case you were thinking that this was my previous kitchen in working order.

My daughters were involved with the design and colours, my husband just remained anonymous in the planning and detail, his wallet groaning each time a new idea or change would imminently take place. And of course with a new kitchen, you need to replace the old appliances, most of which were seldom used, many were wedding gifts of nearly 25 years of age, some still functional, but to hell with it, why not go out and buy new ones? Which is what I did.

I replaced my $13 hand held mixer with an Artisan Kitchenaid stand mixer. The 1980 Breville Superwizz was updated with a 2006 model. Old frypans, pots and pans, unmatching crockery and cutlery were all given to charity, to make way for new shiny, sleek models. One appliance I couldn't part with, however, was my 6 litre Namco cast iron pressure cooker. I just don't like what the newer versions have to offer within a reasonable price range.

The new stove is big enough to bake two small children if they're naughty enough, so I needed new cake tins and trays and moulds and whatever else you can bake on. It's besides the fact that I've never baked a decent cake in my life, but I am going to learn, dammit.

So now I have the equivalent to a restaurant kitchen with everything I can possibly need at my fingertips, apart from a chef and kitchen hand. Will it help me create the dishes that I so often drool about in magazines, cookbooks and other blogs?

The proof will be in the pudding.