Beam Me Up Scotty

Living in a high tech kitchen

As I try desperately to fasten the storage drawer at the bottom of my oven back onto its rails, I find myself dreaming about a “Smart Kitchen”, you know one that does everything for you. Well, okay I thought that it was maybe a little far fetched but as I looked into it a little further I realized that it’s not that far off after all.

If I had the Miele’s MasterChef wall oven I could cook and bake much faster and more evenly with the use of conventional and convection cooking. While they may be expensive, wouldn’t it be worth the money for The Beyond Microwave Oven that is programmed to read more than 4,000 UPC bar codes? Think about that for a minute. I could throw a box into the microwave and by reading the UPC code it would know whether it was cooking chicken or popcorn. Of course the most obvious benefit of that would be I would no longer have to cross my fingers and hope I picked the right cooking time. I hate burned popcorn…but I’ve gotten used to it.

Salton now has the Beyond Bread Maker. Are you sitting down? This handy dandy machine will scan the bar code and then prepare bread and cake mixes according to package instructions! I wanted to know how it gets to the fridge to get the eggs but wondered too soon as I read further and found that they are working on appliances that will network with each other. With so many homes going wireless I guess it was a short leap to having a stove with the capability of checking in with your fridge and cupboards to see what ingredients you already have to make the recipe that your computer has suggested from the Internet. Wasn’t that movie I, Robot about machines that revolted? Freaky.

My two favorite things are TV and eating (not in that order) so imagine my delight when I found the LG Electronics' side-by-side television refrigerator. With its 13-inch LCD monitor on the freezer door I would never have to leave the kitchen. I had better hope they come up with an exercise bike that works out for me or I am going to be in big trouble! Along that same line though is a truly great idea that I could get into. They have put a digital screen on the fridge door that holds the family calendar as well as an appointment calendar. Every mother is going to love that one! For more information on it check out http://www.microsoft.com/canada/home/styleandhome/2.3.27_thedigitalhomecookinginthehightechkitchen.asp

I heard once that you shouldn’t put frozen food in the oven with the timer set for later as the warming up process could be unhealthy. Good sense or wives’ tale? I’m still not sure. Whether that is true or not doesn’t really matter anymore because there's Whirlpool's Polara refrigerated range. This will allow you to put your casserole into the oven on your way out the door in the morning and it will keep it cool and then cook it when its time. Do they have anything that would go to work for me instead? Take a visual wander through www.salton.com for some great ideas in high tech appliances.

If this keeps up I will very soon be able to sit on the sofa eating bon bons and watching the soaps while my oven and refrigerator confab over the bar codes to decide what to make me for dinner. What I am really waiting for is the invention that sweeps the floor for me at the press of a button. How cool would that be? I think the built in vacuum system that lets you sweep with a broom and then push it into an opening along the baseboard where the vacuum sucks it up is about as close as we’ll get. I’m not complaining because with all of the things they come up with day after day I think someone was really thinking on that one.

There is a coffee maker that can recognize your cup and make the coffee to your liking. I personally think the Talking Trivet that tells you when your food needs reheating or that it is hot and ready to eat is kind of creepy. What if it malfunctioned and was talking to the TV in the fridge door in the middle of the night? I guess that would be when the high tech security system of the future would kick in and arrest them both.

I guess if Big Brother is coming (already here??) we might as well gain from the technology to make our monitored lives easier. It’s weird to think though that someday soon our homes will have lives of their own and very little need of us. It will be empty nest all over again!

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Rhonda Hoffman is a successful author and regular contributor to www.canadian-cook.com.