Life: Thermo-Mixed-Up

There ain’t no party like a Thermomix party. Well, not anymore there isn’t. There was a time where I was invited to parties where people weren’t trying to sell me something. When the dinner was made by the hosts and not by a sales representative. When the follow-up call was to make sure you got home without vomiting in the taxi and not to sign you up to a 12 month interest-free payment plan.

Still, I have to admit it: I am occasionally – okay, frequently – okay, CURRENTLY –  possessed by Thermomix fever. For those of you unaware of the Thermomix’s Good Works let me tell you this much: It chops! It beats! It mixes! It kneads! It cooks! It stirs! It weighs! It times itself! It virtually cleans itself! But its $2000 price tag snaps me out of the fever and I remember how one of my time-poor working-mother friends bought one a year ago but still hasn’t managed to use it for anything other than blending Whiskey Sours. And then I start thinking that I want one again.

Buying it would mean making a huge commitment. Problem is that I’ve already made commitments to quite a few Significant Other kitchen appliances in my life.

First there is my Kenwood Chef, who I’ve been with for six years. It started off as a rebound relationship after I stuck my finger in a Bamix while 30 weeks pregnant but that’s an amusing anecdote for another day (*ahem*). The point is the K-Chef and I have happily mixed, whipped and kneaded a whole heap of baking love together and it’s likely to be feeling a bit threatened by the Thermomix which does all that and more, including quite possibly doing my tax return for me.

Then there’s my ‘George Foreman Lean Mean Fat-Reducing Grilling Machine’. Its acquisition has seen me George Foremanning the crap out of everything from bacon through to sausages wrapped in bacon and hand-dipped in lard in some kind of Foreman Fat-Freeing Frenzy. Unfortunately, I’ve yet to find a way to George Foreman the fat content out of champagne but it’s definitely on my To Do List.

Also, there’s the Sodastream. My partner and I pretty much moved in together based on the fact we both wanted a Sodastream. “Why buy two when you could just buy just one!” we reasoned. In any case, Sodastream makes water fun and since the human body is largely comprised of water, that’s a good thing, right? Surprisingly enough, I’ve yet to attempt carbonating cheap cask white wine to make champagne. Again, it’s on my To Do list.

Finally, I still have a Grand Passion for my hand-held battery operated milk frother. It does for heated milk what Sodastream does for water. Also, it makes a good ABC Collector’s style ‘Mystery Object’ for dinner guests for those times when conversation dries up (for example, after I’ve served them grilled carbonated cask wine).

So, the question remains: amidst this kitchen appliance love-in, is there room in my heart – or indeed on my kitchen benchtop – for a Thermomix?

Watch this space, people. Watch. This. Space.

The formerly fashionable NDM had three children and discovered that brown is the new black the hard way. The force behind the once-was-blog Not Drowning, Mothering, she now very occasionally writes for the sometimes-blog The NDM. In her spare time, she enjoys baking cakes, cyber-hassling advertising executives and collecting photos of unusual objects made out of paperclips.

Top Image via The Curious Kitchen : Print available for $20US