Gadgets gadgets gadgets.... argh!

Living in a small space with a "teeny-tiny kitchen" as I do, I have a policy on - and a veto over - whatever comes into the house.  I am quite particular about what comes into the kitchen.  It has to be compact, shared, and/or multiple use.  No exceptions.

I read this piece today in the NYTimes Dining section on kitchen appliances and gadgets at a trade show and it hit a nerve right away.

The vendors at this show are the trendsetters who shape our lives and our kitchens - we, the mothers, the "deciders" in home - the kitchen gate-keepers.

These vendors are real-world Jack Donaghy's.

If you are not one of the 100 or so dedicated viewers of NBC's 30 Rock, Jack Donaghy - played by Alec Baldwin - alludes to the importance in history of the invention of the popcorn button on the microwave and was himself, until recently, the executive in charge of an NBC TV show and microwave ovens.  He is famous for the invention of the Trivection oven...  It's very funny and it's all at GE's appliance division's expense.

Life imitates "art" in this slightly bizarro-world NYT piece on the new kitchen gadgets.  For the price of nearly an entire Ikea kitchen remodel of my 7 ft x 8 ft kitchen (granted, only a low-end remodel), I could buy a Frigidaire oven with a chicken nugget button on it.  Can't find the nugget button?  It's right next to the frozen pizza button...  

While I am loving the time saving - and don't begrudge anyone the luxury of one more bedtime story or Uno game with their kids that the occasional batch of frozen chicken nuggets might afford - this is going too far:  too far into anyone's wallet let alone mine.  I am all for multi-use but the bottom line is the bottom line.

A $2000-$3000 appliance to cook Mc-food?  Are we all really having such trouble cooking up our chicken nuggets just so?  What is a "perfect chicken nugget", anyway other than a culinary oxymoron.

Isn't this the year that Julia Child made a comeback and sales of her bible/cookbook soared.  Are we all just using that tome as home decor, prestige pieces on the bookshelf or strategically placed next to the over-priced 6-burner oven or, perhaps, it is light reading while we distractedly cook perfect chicken nuggets with the push of a button?  ... What would Julia say?

Clearly, I have ruled out buttons-for-nuggets big-ticket appliances for my kitchen.  But I considered the smaller toaster ovens with the pizza "bump".  I use a toaster oven rather than a toaster already for it's multi-use flexibility.  And since we don't buy pre-sliced bread, and a toaster just gets our unevenly sliced Texas-sized chunks o' bread stuck and burnt, it's the practical choice for our household.  We don't like or use croutons enough to handle all that burnt toast.

But with a food allergy to corn in our household, I barely even have a frozen pizza I can buy that meets both the corn-free criteria and the taste buds of my used-to-mummy-made-food.  Trader Joe's cheese pizzas worked the last time I checked their ingredients but only if I add a lot more cheese to them and some other toppings.  I'm not sure these would fit into the bumped-out, pimped-out toaster ovens anyway.

I just turn on the regular, cheapo apartment-sized 24-inch oven, heat, and serve - poor, specialty-appliance-deprived soul that I am.

Eyeball it for yourself.  Do you see space on that counter for a designer Italian toaster oven with a "bump"?  Somebody else will have to buy those gadgets.  And they likely will, launching yet another Jack Donaghy into the premium appliance market stratosphere...