Here it is, in all its glory - our new toaster.
We had the same plain, really cheap toaster pretty much ever since we moved to the UK - it was white, plastic and it toasted bread. A little while back it died - no foul play, just natural causes. It meant that we needed to get a new one - and until we started searching, we had no idea how toaster technology had moved on without us.
Not only does this new toaster toast frozen bread, which, granted, I knew toasters could do - this one also has A BAGEL SETTING! So it only toasts the inside of the bread, not both sides. AND, if you turn on both the frozen setting, and the bagel setting, you have a setting just for FROZEN BAGELS! Since I'm now in the regular habit of making my own bagels on the weekend, freezing them and then eating them throughout the week, it's like this toaster was made for ME.
It's so great that the toaster is now my all time favorite appliance, behind my Kitchenaid mixer, of course.
At the same time, we replaced our tea kettle with a new one that has a water filter in it. It's great too - no more scummy tea! (This makes sense to pretty much the entire British population, but I appreciate that it might not make sense to others...)
It has a nice warming rack, too:
Here's an action shot:
And an example of the finished product. Yes, this is an english muffin, not a bagel - but I missed a couple of weekends of baking and ran out of bagels. You'll have to take my word for it that it works for bagels, too.
I also recorded a video of the toaster in action, but I can't figure out how to embed the video in the blog, like Julie does. So here is a link to it on YouTube. Just a warning, the video is 3 minutes long - I wanted to show the full cycle, because it does an automated lowering and raising thing, plus it has a warming setting in case you don't pull the bagel out right away - which means that it lowers down into the toaster again - it's neat. I know 3 minutes is a long time to watch a toaster, so I put the kettle on as well, for extra excitement.
Part two:
Ok, using Julie's instructions, I'm going to try to embed the video here - let's see if it works!:
13 comments:
On the YouTube page there is a small box that says "embed" to the left, on the right side of the screen (underneath URL). Put your cursor in that box then hit "select all" (CTRL-A) then copy (CTRL-C, I think), then simply paste that in the blog post.
I'm off to watch the breaking toaster technology now.
we r so impressed with your toaster and kettle.....amazing....
thanks for sharing....
love mom and dad
Kenwood makes car stereos in the US.
I haven't decoded the light flashes yet, but I get the gist.
It is amazing. But call me when the lift motor goes out!
The lights indicate the toastiness you want - so level 2 is pretty low. And then the lights go out as the toaster cooks, to count down. They all flash when the toast/bagel/english muffin has been taken back down for the warming setting, so you know that you can raise it back up whenever you're ready. After a period of time (I can't remember how long) the warming setting shuts off and the toast/bagel/english muffin raises back up again, so it doesn't just stay on forever.
I was counting the time until someone mentioned the motor wearing out - you win! But this toaster wasn't half as expensive as some of the ones I looked at - so I'm just enjoying it while it lasts, and no harm when it goes kaput - I'm just looking forward to the next leap in toaster technology - I'm hoping it involves lasers!
Yay! It looks like it worked! Thanks for the instructions!
I think i'd wear the motor out just watching the slo-mo lower and lift my bagel! fancy. :)
You need to update the trip options on the right...
I'll try to find a link to area activities.
I've just been waiting for people to send through some ideas about what to do. We still have the list from Christmas down near the bottom of the page, and since we're meeting at someone's house many of those will still be options for stuff to do...I was just waiting for direction from the group!
Hmmm. Maybe time for a new post... DS lite? September trip info? Didn't you guys just go to Paris?
No, we haven't been to Paris for a couple of years - but we are heading to Majorca tomorrow. Woo! So if you hold on for about a week and a half I'll try to post pictures of the trip as soon as we can once we're back.
I'll also planning to tweet some from there...
I'll try to hold on...
I don't think I'll tweet... I'm having enough trouble keeping up with my own blog...
good afternoon - is mark working - naomi and i r watching boz - waiting for jenny to come over = just checking in to see if u r going to work on your blog today - pics of your trip.....yeah!!!!
love mom
I'm just working on it now!
Yes, Mark is at work...I'm not sure when he's back...
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