Some Like It Hot -- And Toasted on Both Sides

The latest news in appliances seems to indicate there's no love for the good ol' traditional Crock-Pot. 

Fictional drama aside, the slow cooker most of us grew up with is receiving some healthy competition from the new hot thing, the Instapot. 

But in our house, we're having a face-off with a completely different category of kitchen appliances -- it's the Toaster vs Toaster Oven.

The newbie, at left, stands her ground

Scott comes from a Toaster Oven-lovin' family; they're known for using it to reheat split biscuits or slices of leftover pound cake. For that, it's fine. But for me, a slice or two of bread was meant to be slid into a slot, and the lever firmly pushed down, as you wait impatiently or make your coffee. In the 16+ years that we've been together, we got by with just the Toaster Oven. Awful, right? 

But after hearing my numerous complaints about our Black & Decker Toaster Oven, which either scorches every carb laid upon its racks or limply crisps the toast on only one side, at Christmas my mom gifted us with a red Kitchen Aid traditional two-slot toaster. I was elated. A toaster! And in my signature color 

The day of Christmas, I made sure to prepare some toast so I'd have a good reason to get the red toaster out of its box. So exciting!

Nothing really exciting happened. It made toast all right, evenly heated through on both sides. Trouble was, this new addition required counter space. I shoved it between the coffee maker and toaster oven, but it looked too cluttered. I tried tucking it in a corner, but then it looked like a sad afterthought pushed away. So I stored it into our china cabinet, and it gets brought out by me once or twice a week. 

However, there's one new gift that I use several times each day -- our new Bodum electric kettle. 

Scott bought one for Christmas after we found it incredibly handy during our travels in Australia and New Zealand last April. Nearly every B&B, inn or hotel there has one in the room, making hot tea or coffee a lightening-fast option. (Even the instant coffee is good there.) It's made permanent residence next to our stove and is settling in nicely.   

That's the trouble with new toys for the kitchen - they require room. Lately I purged a few things we're not using -- the mechanical base of our blender, sans its 6-cup glass jar that I broke months ago, and the popcorn popper used once a year. Those are easy to pluck from the kitchen. 

Think Scott would miss the beloved Toaster Oven? 

What are your top, beloved kitchen gadgets and whatnot? Please let me know in the comments section below!