How to be a goddess in the kitchen

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So you want to know how to be a goddess in the kitchen? Well from everything I can see in my very limited Googling, a lot of goddesses have multiple arms, so by rights if you got an extra set to say, stir dinner with, then whammo, you’re a goddess.

I’ve been playing with the Jamie Oliver HomeCooker for a while now and my first thought was that it gave me an extra set of hands and ipso facto, am now obviously a goddess.

My second thought was “Myself (am a goddess, so can now say this)! That is one gigantic contraption!”. Yes, the HomeCooker has taken the size matters mantra to heart and does look rather imposing on the bench. If you have the all the steaming baskets and the cutting tower too, it, well, definitely towers.

But most of the time I was just using the main pot and the chopping tower and found the pot a really good size for a big family meal – which in this house translates to meal & then leftovers for lunch.

The cutting tower slices and grates with a range of different blades, but if it was up to me, I’d make the feed for the chopping tower much wider as I even had trouble with some carrots being too thick to fit through it. I thought I was going to snap the rotating disk as I inserted the blades but it turns out it was just me being afraid of breaking my new toy and once I got the hang of it, it took a second to do.

As dinner simmered away I’d come back to check on the meal (OK I admit I also came back to just watch it stir a few times) and other than scraping down the sides once or twice because I’m incapable of leaving anything alone, dinner would be ready without any of the food catching on the bottom and burning. Meaning I had a half hour or so to do a quick tidy up and set the table, play with the Trickster or just SIT DOWN.

In all seriousness, my pain levels have been flaring terribly this pregnancy and standing up to cook dinner at the end of the day is bloody killing me. If something can keep a constant temperature and stir itself while I just have a few minutes of rest then it gets the thumbs up from me. Or perhaps that should be feet up since it is normally how I look when cooking dinner these days.

PROS:

• Great for when you have little ones around your feet wanting cuddles
• Handy if you’re knackered and need to sit down
• Huge 3L bowl
• Goes up to 250 degrees C
• Can cook multiple things at a time with the steaming baskets
• Comes with a Jamie Oliver cookbook full of HomeCooker specific recipes that are amazeballs
• Retractable cord – Philips do this a lot, it helps so much with storage
• Timer with automatic shut off

CONS:

• Cutting tower is quite narrow
• Takes up a lot of bench/cupboard space

Even though I wasn't a fan of the cutting tower, overall I think the HomeCooker is great for when you need to be doing something other than standing over the stove stirring and I can see it coming in to its element when Bobbin is born!

Want to be a goddess in the kitchen too? You can win a Jamie Oliver HomeCooker from Philips by telling me in 25 words or less what you would do with a spare half hour while your HomeCooker stirred dinner for you via the ENTRY FORM HERE. If you don't have a Facebook account and still wish to enter please email me with the subject line "HomeCooker Competition" and include your name, delivery address and answer to the question.

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