My Favourite Kitchen Gadgets #mfkg – Mini Pizza Maker

Essentially this is for cooking pizzas up to 15cm in diameter, perfect for an individual portion served with chips, potato wedges or salad,  a job which it does incredibly well.

It cooks from both top and bottom with easy to clean non-stick plates.

Either shop bought chilled or frozen pizzas can be used or you can make your own from ready made pizza bases or a pack of pizza dough. I use dough made in the Morphy Richards Daily Loaf Breadmaker. Place the base in the bottom of the Pizza Maker and arrange whatever toppings you like on top, close the lid, turn it on and set the timer and it will be cooked from top and bottom simulanteously in around 10-15 minutes.

However, don’t be fooled by the title, this does so much more than cook pizzas.

I’ve used it for the following:

Omelettes

Fried eggs

Burgers

Bacon

Toasted Sandwiches

Cheese on Toast

Sausages

Potato Waffles

Chicken Nuggets

Garlic Bread

Potato Smiles

Pancakes

*Not getting paid for this, just love my gadgets #kitchengadgetfreak

My Favourite Kitchen Gadgets #mfkg – Morphy Richards Daily Loaf Breadmaker

This was bought as a replcement for a full size breadmaker which was still in full working order but never got used because the loaves it made were too big (2lb) and ended up getting binned before they were eaten because they went mouldy.

The Daily Loaf breadmaker bakes 1lb loaves, which are the perfect size for the three of us to eat whilst they are still fresh, therefore there’s no waste.

It is slightly bigger than a toaster, so takes up little bench space whilst in use, as well as less cupboard space than the previous full size model.

Despite being one of the more basic models, it still has five programmes: Basic White (2hrs 25mins), Wholewheat (3 hrs 25mins), Fastbake (1hr 30 mins), Dough (1hr 30mins) and Bake (30mins).

The only thing missing is a delay timer, but a separate plug in timer could be used if you wanedt to wake up to the smell of freshly baked bread.

The Daily Loaf comes complete with a measuring cup, 2 measuring spoons (1 tablespoon, 1 teaspoon and 1/4 teaspoon measures) and a blade removal hook.

The instruction manual is excellent and gives advice on flours, yeast and other ingredients, as well as slicing and storing bread tips, along with the following recipes:

White Bread

Sugar and Salt Free Bread

Cheese and Onion Bread

Cranberry and Orange Bread

Raisin Bread

Milk Free Bread

Sun Dried Tomato Bread

Wholemeal Bread

Granary Bread

Seeded Whole Wheat Bread

50/50 Granary Mixed Loaf

Dough for White Bread Rolls

Pizza Dough (which I use in the Mini Pizza Maker)

Tea Cakes

Cakes can be made using the Bake setting.

I’ve tried some of the recipes but I’m more into cutting corners & making things easier so I use ready made bread mixes and pizza dough mixes.

As most bread mixes are designed to make a 2lb loaf, I measure out half a packet and it works perfectly (remembering to add only half the amount of water too).

As with most breadmakers, the blade frequently comes out stuck in the bottom of the loaf but because this is a smaller appliance, the blade is not as high as it is in more standard models, thus creating a smaller hole. It is easily removed with the hook supplied.

Although the loaves are smaller, it’s still possible to get 10 slices out of them. I use an electric carving knife to make cutting easier.

The bread is fab to have with home made soup from the Morphy Richards Soup Maker.

The pizza dough setting is useful for making pizzas, either from scratch or with a pizza dough mix.

The only downside of the Daily Loaf is that the bread is so much better than the shop bought stuff you tend to eat too much of it!

*Not getting paid for this, just love my gadgets #kitchengadgetfreak

My Favourite Kitchen Gadgets #mfkg – Tefal Express Boil

This was bought as a replacement for the kettle. Several times a day I’d boil the kettle for a cuppa and wonder off to do something else while it boiled, almost always forgetting about it and doing the same thing an hour later. This appliance boils just one cup of water instantly, therefore I’m saving energy and money.

It’s an improvement on a previous model we had for 3 years and is much more robust.

Filling is easy as it lifts off the stand/drip tray and can be filled at the tap like a kettle.

The settings can be adjusted for the size of cup or mug you are using from 150ml to 250ml.

You simply place your cup or mug with a tea bag or coffee in it on the drip tray under the spout and press the start button, which lights up red, and a few seconds later your tea or coffee will be ready for the milk, if required.

It can also be used for hot chocolate, herbal tea or cup-a-soup.

The Tefal Express Boil is much more convenient and energy saving than a kettle.

*Not getting paid for this, just love my gadgets #kitchengadgetfreak

My Favourite Kitchen Gadgets #mfkg – Morphy Richards Soup Maker

This is an easy and quick way to make soup from scratch to your own individual taste. You can cook with cheap ingredients and without the preservatives and artificial flavourings that are in processed soups.

It comes complete with a measuring jug which has a removable handle and can be stored inside the Soup Maker, along with the detachable power cable.

This is a handy way of using up any vegetables you have left at the end of the week instead of throwing them away.

There are buttons on the lid section of the Soup Maker for the 3 settings:

Smooth: produces a cooked, smooth and well blended soup of which a 5* restaurant would be proud.

Chunky: cooks but does not blend and leaves food the size it was when you put it in so it needs to be cut to the size you prefer.

Blend: just blends without cooking. This is useful if you want a half chunky/half blended soup. You would return half the soup to the Soup Maker and blend it before mixing it with the chunky other half.

All you do is place the ingredients into the soup maker with stock and cold water (up to the maximum mark), select the setting you need and come back 20 minutes later when it beeps to tell you it’s ready. If you miss the beep it also switches itself off.

I like to vary the vegetables (just using up whatever’s left from my veg box from The Veg Box Company) and usually add 2 bacon rashers cut into pieces for flavour, along with a stock cube and Herbs de Provence.

It makes approximately 1 litre of soup which can be frozen in portions if needed. A perfect accompaniment to the soup is home made bread from the Morphy Richards Daily Loaf Breadmaker.

I’ve also discovered that you can cook up to 2 portions of pasta on the chunky setting.

Cleaning up after use is really easy. The orange bit of the top part of the unit can be washed under the tap with warm soapy water and a cloth and the bottom part can be cleaned with washing up liquid and warm water.

We now have much less waste at the end of the week and have the added bonus of tasty and nutritious soup to take to work in a flask, saving money on shop-bought lunches.

*Not getting paid for this, just love my gadgets #kitchengadgetfreak

Response to My ‘Dear Tesco’ Complaint

Dear Christine

Thank you for your email and I apologise for the delay in our response.

I was most concerned to learn of the unacceptable standard of customer care you received when visiting our Hexham store. I can fully appreciate why you are so disappointed and would like to offer my sincere apologies for the upset this regrettable incident has been clearly caused.

May I begin by assuring you that we know how important it is to provide our customers with an excellent service each time they visit our stores. I am therefore very sorry for the problems you had encountered with the checkout operator not acknowledging you, offering bags or assistance with your shopping, not asking for your Clubcard and also putting your transaction through on your Mastercard when you stated you wanted to pay by cash.

I’d like to assure you that your comments have reached the Store Management Team at the same time as the Customer Service Centre and they will address this matter with the person concerned, to see what lessons can be learned for the future.

As this is not typical of our normal standard of service and I am confident that should you return to our Hexham store, you will not experience any further problems of this nature. While I realise there is little I can say to alleviate the upset and disappointment that has already been caused, by way of an apology, I would like to send a £10.00 Tesco Moneycard to you with my best wishes. If you can kindly send me your full name and address and I will arrange for this to be sent to you

We know that as a business we can only be successful if we listen to our customers’ views and comments, both on the product we offer and your experiences in our stores, so thank you again for getting in touch.

Kind regards

XXXX XXXXX

Tesco Customer Service

Dear Tesco…

Having just returned livid from a shopping trip, I discovered that on the bottom of the receipt are the words

‘How did we do?’

Visit http://www.tescocomments.com and tell us about your shopping trip.’

Big mistake. Huge!

Dear Tesco

I am very disaappointed in the service I received at the Hexham store this afternoon.

The checkout asssistant didn’t respond to my “Hello”, neither did she offer bags nor help with my packing. When she’d finished I gave her a coupon for £5 off and whilst she was putting it through the till I realised I hadn’t given her my clubcard (she hadn’t asked if I had one), which is my Tesco Mastercard. I handed her cash for the transaction and explained that the Mastercard was my clubcard.

She put the card through the till and it was apparent that the transaction had gone onto the card. She gave me a piece of paper to sign, which I did, thinking that this was to authorise the cancellation of the transaction, but she said the transaction had already gone through and there was nothing she could no about it. Had I known this I wouldn’t have signed. She offered no apology of any kind and threw the cash back at me without even bothering to put it in my hand.

I explained that I hadn’t wanted to pay by card but she just said “oh well, there’s nothing I can do about it now, it’s gone through”.

I was pushed for time and there was a queue at the Customer Service desk so I had to leave the store without taking the matter further.

I choose to pay by cash in order to control spending and am now going to have to do a 30m round trip to the bank to pay the cash in so that I can pay my credit card bill. This will cost me time and fuel as well as inconvenience as I don’t often travel to where my bank is located.

I shop in various Tescos on a weekly basis and have never come across such appalling service in all the years I’ve been a customer.

For your information the data on the bottom of the receipt reads as follows:
10/02/12 14:26 5184 023 1140 9315