The Accidental Locavore was the lucky recipient of the new Ball freshTech Electric Water Bath Canner and Multi Cooker to try out. I’m hoping it will make a mad canner out of me and the fear of preserving will be a thing of the past! It’s beautiful and it’s big — make that huge. Since it arrived, I’ve been trying to find a place for it (off the kitchen floor) and it’s been making me take stock of what’s taking up real estate in the kitchen.
My kitchen is pretty big and fairly well laid out. There is (or was) a lot of counter space, but these days most of that prime space is taken up with a crazy collection of appliances. The ones that are on the counters do get regular use (with the exception of one of the knife racks, but that one amuses me) or get banished to the pantry cupboard. A quick scan, working around the space from the stove, came up with the following:
- Toaster
- Toaster oven
- Knife block
- Espresso maker
- Second espresso maker
- Coffee grinder
- Stand mixer
- Coffee maker (for our weekend guests), but not always out
- Another knife block
- Food sealer
- Microwave oven
- Electric kettle
- Cuisinart
In my pantry cupboard:
- Electric slicer
- Juicer
- Scale
- Pasta maker (extruder)
- Smoking gun (hand-held smoker)
- Blender
- Rotisserie
- Pasta machine
- Waffle maker
And with the pots and pans:
- Large slow cooker
- Smaller slow cooker
- SodaStream (and bottles of flavorings)
- Sous-vide machine
So where will the canner call home? Hasn’t been decided yet. A smart person would find a space for it and the jars Ball was kind enough to include with it*. But that does bring up yet another dilemma, where to put all the goodies I’m about to start canning? Hmmmm….
*after several weeks of life on the kitchen floor, the canner has a prime home in the laundry room next to #26. Ice cream machine.
