Inspector Gadget

I have been on a cooking rampage lately. I can't begin to tell you how many hours I have spent pouring over recipes, on the hunt to find the next perfect meal. Yesterday I was determined to make yet another American staple: the meatloaf.

It's incredible to me that I have made steak au poivre and lemon chicken piccata but I have yet to make a meatloaf. I think it's because meatloaf has such a bad rap for being so bland and dry. Because I love a challenge, I decided I would take the cliche and make improvements.

After several searches for the perfect meatloaf, I found a recipe for a spicier meatloaf with a sweet and tangy glaze.

One of the tools needed to make this perfect savory loaf was a probe thermometer, ensuring that within one-tenth of a degree it would reach 155 degrees and thusly avoid a dried out disaster. Trouble is, I didn't have a long-probe thermometer.

Most people would probably have picked a different dish, one that they knew they had the tools or ingredients to complete the meal. I, on the other hand, spent time investigating consumer feedback on the best probe, best thermometer and compared that to what the retail associate ascertained. Satisfied with my selection, I ran to the nearest Williams Sonoma to get my hands on this high-tech gadget.

With the my birthday around the corner, and with much desire to make an even tastier dish using newer, better tools, I have spent an exhausting amount of time admiring cooks tools.

While the kitchen is certainly gender neutral, it does seem that the more casual cook is typically female. Women don't usually get excited by specs or newest models. They just don't. But give us a Williams Sonoma, Dean and Deluca or Sur La Table catalog, and we turn into excited little boys admiring a new Ferrari.

Not quite the molecular gastronomist, I prefer tools that my grandmother might not recognize but at least my mother would. Give me a hand blender with a high powered blade any day. Add a Kitchen Aid attachment to churn ice cream out smoother and faster and I die. Consider throwing in a top of the line espresso machine and I'm yours.

A gadget doesn't have to plug into the wall to make you happy. Yesterday, besides a probe thermometer, I also bought a hand held pastry blender. Nothing fancy, but it has a thumb grip to give you better control over cutting through the butter. At under ten dollars it was a slice slice of non high-tech heaven.