2018 Spring & Garden

2018 Spring Home & Garden LINCOLN DAILY NEWS May 2, 2018 Page 29 In recent years, a new type of crock pot has become popular; one that features multiple heating elements and separate pans for different foods. As an example, the three crock buffet featured in this video comes with three, two-and-a-half quart cookers. Three sets of heating controls work independently of each other. This allows for different food to heat at different rates, but at the same time. The model shown here features lid rests and spaces for serving foods. This way, even a larger machine like this one takes up less space than one would expect, eliminating the need to place lids and serving utensils all over the counter. Overall, a machine like this one is useful for anyone who wants to entertain guests with a variety of food to choose from. Alternatively, this could also be helpful for those of us looking to cook both the main dish and the sides at the same time, without the hassle of taking up all the burners on the stove, or using up all of the counter space. The 3D Pancake Printer One last device to consider for the kitchen that is outside of the norm is a pancake printer. A pancake printer is a machine that prints a pancake on a griddle, and operates in a manner similar to an assembly line. According to this video’s description, a pancake printer “operates like a 3-D printer to create fun breakfast food designs.” Using a mixture of air pressure and suction, it creates visual designs on a seventeen-and-a-half inch long griddle that heats the batter as it “prints.” Images provided to the machine via an SD card are either downloaded online from company websites, or are created by the owner using art programs. Depending on the model, there may be additional controls present that allow one to adjust the batter dispensing for finer detailing of complex pictures. A pancake printer is one of the more extreme appliances that go beyond the basics for a kitchen. But when it comes to making your kitchen really stand out, that’s sort of the point. Going beyond in the kitchen calls for some creative thinking, or at the very least, a willingness to pick out something that will make someone stop and wonder.