Replicate Grandma's Homestyle Cooking with these Modern Gadgets
Grandma's cooking was legendary. She cooked during a time when people made everything from scratch. Egg substitutes would never make it into her pot, and even replicating her grilled cheese sandwiches – something so simple to make – is downright impossible. Maybe it was the love she poured into her food, or maybe it was the ingredients – no one knows for sure. The one thing that we do know is that replicating a grandma's homestyle cooking is difficult. But I am here to tell you that there are modern gadgets that will allow you to recreate grandma's cooking techniques. You might never cook your favorite dish exactly like grandma, but you can come close. These gadgets can help: 1. Zojirushi BB-CEC20 Bread Machine Who has the time to make bread from scratch? Grandma did, but you sure don't. Working a 9 – 5 gives you little time to knead bread, wait for dough to rise and monitor the oven every second. Grandma, and many chefs, will make the following from scratch: Rolls Baguettes Homemade croutons (with leftovers) And there are a variety of other breads you can make, too. The good news? There's a bread machine that can do the job without needing to call grandma, or the entire family in hopes of finding her "secret recipe." The Zojirushi BB-CEC20 is a breadmaker that can bake a two-pound loaf of bread. There's also a quick bake cycle which prepares bread in a mere two hours. And there's a 13-hour delay timer that you can set before you leave the house so that you have fresh bread when you walk through the door. You can make: Bread Jam Cake These delights are offered with the pre-programmed cycle. Just add the ingredients and take credit for your homemade bread. 2. Masha Mashed potatoes are amazing. Steak and mashed potatoes are a perfect pair, or chicken, or beef – you get the hint. Everything tastes better with mashed potatoes. Grandma's arms were strong because she spent countless hours mashing potatoes for you. It's a lot of work. If you don't believe me, try it for yourself and see how the lumps never seem to come out smooth like grandma's potatoes did. Masha changes the way you make mashed potatoes. The low speed motor and mesh outer allows you to mix everything to perfection, including: Mashed potatoes Cake mixes Guacamole Pastries Baby food This is a kitchen appliance even grandma would be proud to own. 3. Marcato Atlas Pasta Machine If you didn't have an Italian grandma, you may want to skip this section – unless, of course, you have a deep passion for pasta, too. Making homemade pasta is difficult, and it's so tedious that even grandma would be impressed by your effort. Marcato offers the Atlas Pasta Machine. This pasta machine comes in nearly a dozen colors, and it allows you to make homemade pasta while taking care of the hard part: Rolling Cutting You just hand crank the unit, and it takes care of the rest. The great thing is that there are three pasta shapes provided with the machine. You can purchase 12 accessories separately if you want to make different types of pasta. The unit offers 10 different thickness settings, and the pasta shapes provided with the unit, for free, are: Fettuccine Lasagna Tagliolini Designed and manufactured in Italy, this is the machine you want by your side if you salivate every time you think back to grandma's homemade pasta. 4. Anova Culinary Wi-Fi/Bluetooth Precision Cooker Maybe you want to cook great food with little effort. You know, sometimes, especially for bachelors, it's difficult to make anything aside from macaroni and cheese or Hot Pockets. Sure, the cheese and pasta tastes good now, but it's not the best for you health-wise. If there was only an easier way to cook without fear of burning the food or insulting your taste buds. There is a way: Sous Vide. Yes, yes, Sous Vide is French, but it's a breakthrough in the way people cook. See, water is used to cook your food, and the food is put into bags that ensure the flavor is sealed in. You won't be eating water-logged food. No, your machine keeps the water out. Anova changed the way people cook, and this precision cooker uses Wi-Fi to allow you to: Alert your cooker to start cooking while at work Change settings Get status updates on your food on your phone This is a way to cook that's futuristic and seems unreal. You can do it all with the click of a button. This unit can fit any pot, and the auto-cook setting keeps your food safe. Excellent temperature control and a small footprint make it a no-brainer for anyone who wants to season their steak, place it in a bag and come home to homemade, grandma-style food. 5. Ball FreshTECH Automatic Jam & Jelly Maker Jams and jelly spread across fresh bread is a true delight. There's no reason to buy jam filled with preserves and sugars – you can make the real thing. Grandma knew that jam and jelly goes straight to a person's heart. But making jams and jellies on your own is difficult. A lot of attention to detail goes into jam and jelly making. Ball FreshTECH knows the struggle, and the company has designed an automatic jam and jelly maker that can rival even grandma's jams. Easy and safe, this model makes 4 cups of jam or jelly at one time. Just push a button, and the machine takes care of the rest. There's no guesswork involved. Just supply the ingredients, and the rest is history. The Jam Maker will sift and stir the ingredients, heating them to perfection until your jams are perfect. You will need to adjust your own recipe to fit the constraints of this jam maker, but it's easy to do and worth the effort. I'm confident that even your grandma didn't want to sit and stir strawberries waiting for the perfect consistency. Now, you (and maybe even your grandma) won't need to wait on jam or jelly to cook again. Grandma's homestyle cooking is part love, part ingredients and part effort. You can replicate some of your grandma's cooking, and these five machines take most of the effort out of the process. Now there are no more excuses left not to cook.
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