Home Appliances

Small kitchen appliances are designed for their compact size, efficiency and affordability. They increase convenience in the kitchen and decrease preparation time for busy chefs and families. Smaller kitchen appliances such as blenders, steamers, mixers and food processors, can be transported from one location to another with ease and stow away neatly in the cupboards when not in use.

Cooking

Slow cookers are perfect to make meals that you can throw in and allow to simmer all day long while you're at work or school. Throw your ingredients in before you leave and allow them to cook all day long for a full meal without any other preparation. You can also get models that work in a buffet setting to bring to gatherings or function with a timer for maximum convenience. A stand-alone roaster is sufficient to cook large items like hams and turkeys, without the space needed for an oven; plus, doesn't heat the whole house during the summer. A countertop toaster oven is a smaller electric oven that has a door on one side and a tray inside. It's useful for cooking smaller items, such as garlic bread, and require longer cooking times than traditional ovens.

Beverages

Blenders and juicers are convenient for making fruit smoothies, milkshakes and will also crush ice. Juicers allow you to squeeze natural juices from fruits and come in multiple sizes with various speeds and settings to suit any beverage needs. Food processors, often included in a blender's features, mix foods into chunks or purees, which is useful for making your own baby food. Coffee makers range from basic models that make a pot of coffee to single cup. Some have a reservoir to hold an additional pot of hot water for faster brewing or have timers so your coffee automatically brews at a certain time. Fancier machines make espresso and cappuccino as well.

Utilities

Kitchen mixers take the work out of beating ingredients together for cakes, cookies, pies and breads. They range from cheaper hand mixers with one set of attachments to expensive models with various attachments for different tasks or hands-free operation. Vacuum sealers come in handy to store large quantities of fresh meat or prepared meals for freezing, for long periods. They suck air out of packages to prevent freezer burn. If you prefer freshly ground coffee, a coffee bean grinder with a sharp blade on it makes it possible. A bean grinder can double as a spice grinder, although it may be difficult to clean.

Specialty Food Preparation

Some appliances are designed with one specific purpose. A bread maker is a machine with a bread pan in the center and multiple controls to bake several varieties of bread. An ice cream maker allows you to make small amounts of ice cream from home, using either a hand-crank or an electric motor. Some have their own freezing capabilities, while others need to be placed inside the freezer. A rice cooker allows you to cook rice easily without risk of sticking or burning by automatically controlling the heating, timing and cooling process. Most take from 30 minutes to an hour to properly cook rice.

Convenient in size and price, small kitchen appliances have revitalized food preparation in households across America. Two common appliances, the blender and mixer, have decreased the time needed to prepare food. The steamer has provided a new convenient alternative to cooking healthy dishes. Small kitchen appliances are available to meet every cook's need.

Blenders

Mostly used to mix drinks, blenders are also conveniently used to chop food. Blenders come in two options, hand-held and countertop. Countertop blenders have containers that can be made from stainless steel, glass or plastic. They have the capacity to hold between five and eight measured cups. Because of their weight, glass containers are considered the most stable. Typical blenders have three to 16 speeds.
Long and thin, hand-held blenders are also known as immersion blenders. These blenders are designed to mix the food directly in the cooking containers. Immersion blenders are mostly used to mix smoothies and milkshakes.

Steamers

Available with different options, food steamers are a convenient way to prepare healthy meals. Bamboo steamers are most beneficial in steaming vegetables and rice. The most popular type of food cooked in a bamboo steamers is Asian food. Steamers can cook food in three ways. They are used in the microwave, on the stovetop and as a stand-alone electric food steamer. The electric food steamer is the fastest way to steam food.
Useful for cooking both large and small quantities, a stovetop steamer uses a tray inserted into a pot, with water at the bottom. Microwave steamers use a microwavable safe bowl with a steamer insert and lid. Dishwasher safe and easy to clean, they are not used as often as the other types of steamers.

Mixers

Mixers are divided into hand mixers and stand mixers. Hand mixers are best used for light food preparation such as whipping cream, whipping egg whites or making mashed potatoes. Preparing foods with a thicker densities such as dough, a sturdier stand mixer is recommended.
Unlike the hand mixer, the stand mixer works in two ways. The beaters can spin in opposite directions, against each other or can flow in the same direction. Some mixers have stationary beaters with a revolving bowl. These are light-duty stand mixers.
Depending on the type of food preparation, mixers offers different features. A hand mixer should be comfortable to hold and the stand mixer should not be too heavy to lift into a cabinet. Stand mixers offers attachments such as a bowl, a pair of beaters, dough hooks and whisks. A hand mixers offers up to nine speeds, including a slow start option. Stand mixers offer up to 16 speed options. To reduce the chance of the beaters sliding out of position, having locking power heads is an important feature.

Small kitchen appliances can actually take up a lot of space. Blenders, mixers, toasters, can openers, food processors, slow cookers, pressure cookers and other appliances can't all go on the counter top or your kitchen will look messy. They will also limit your usable counter space.

Instructions

1 Get rid of appliances you never use or that aren't working properly. Be honest, you'll never get that old blender fixed, so you might as well toss it. Donate working items to charity.
2 Designate a space just for small kitchen appliances. There are several different places you can choose.
3 Wrangle cords of appliances using twist ties, rubber bands or specially designed cord clips you can get from a home improvement or organization store.
4 Store small appliances in lower cabinets. These cabinets usually have more clearance for larger items and can take the weight of heavier appliances. Leave the upper cabinets for food and dishes that are used more frequently than appliances.
5 Organize small kitchen appliances in cabinets according to how frequently they are used. Some items, like slow cookers, waffle makers, sandwich presses and juicers, are not used that often and can go in the back of the cabinet.
6 Store small appliances in the pantry if you have one. For reach-in pantries, the lower and upper shelves are the best places for appliances. For walk-in pantries, you can dedicate a whole wall or part of a wall to small appliances.
7 Utilize the space between the upper cabinets and the ceiling. This space is often unused, but abundant. Try to limit this space to newer-looking and attractive appliances, because they will be in full view.
8 Consider installing an appliance garage to organize your small appliances. An appliance garage typically fits in a corner of your counter top beneath the cabinets, allowing the entire corner to be used to store small appliances. A roll-down door hides the appliances neatly.