Hooked on Electric Appliances

One of the handiest kitchen appliances that I own is a Swingaway wall mounted can opener. It's been moved to three houses, and I don't move often. I don't remember when we bought it, but it's well over 20 years old. I doubt that we paid more than six or seven dollars for it, but IF it was ten dollars, that's about fifty cents a year.

We can only daydream about electric appliances costing so little to own and operate.

We talk about the low wages of yesteryear, and we justify them by talking about low prices for many things. The biggest difference is that there was little, if any, planned obsolescence in products designed for home use. Buying even a minor appliance was almost a once in a life time purchase.

Case in point: My can opener.

It's hard to find them on the shelves of a department store, or in the supermarket, or at the drugstores that specialize in sundries. Why not? Maybe because too many of us have been wooed and won by manufacturers of electric gadgetry that is designed to wear out in a few short years, and that costs us two to three times more than it's durable counterpart. Now, that makes a lot of sense, doesn't it?

I don't mean to pick on electric can openers (well, maybe I do). There are other appliances that are just as pointlessly nonfrugal: Electric popcorn poppers - or worse, microwave popcorn. Besides being ridiculously expensive in comparison, microwave popcorn loses much of its flavor. So you buy popcorn flavoring to cover up that fact, right? Real frugal. How about some real, old fashioned, GOOD popcorn that only needs a sprinkle of salt to be tasty? If you don't know how to pop it on the stove, here's how:

Get a heavy pan, or you can buy a special popper that works on the stove which has a hand crank to keep the kernels from burning. For my money, I'll use my old bean pot and just shake it. Put it on the stove, on high heat. Add an eight inch of vegetable oil and let it heat up. When the pan is reasonably hot, put two or three kernels of popcorn in it and when they pop, pour in a couple of heaping tablespoons of popcorn.

When the corn begins to pop, shake it vigorously every five to ten seconds until the popping slows down, then shake it every three to five seconds, more often as it slows more. When there are no pops after a count of five, empty the pan immediately into a large bowl and sprinkle with salt.

It's a lot simpler to do than to tell, and maybe someone can show you. Their method may not be exactly like mine, but once you try it, you'll see how easy it is. You'll be surprised at how good popcorn really tastes.

I know that some people can't live without their electric knives or electric blankets or other electric appliances - I can't live with them. It makes more sense to wear warm bedclothes and use an extra blanket or two than to use an electric blanket you never quit paying for. Electric knives are nice, but I've made it for years without them, and I bet my roast beef sandwiches taste just as good as anyone's.

What else? Electric shoe shiners, electric door bells, electric rice cookers, electric massagers, electric clocks, electric pianos, electric battery chargers... what next, electric socks? Oh... they already did that.

Why bother to turn out the lights when everything else is making your electric meter go 'round and 'round and 'round... ?