What would you invest £230 of homeware vouchers in?

aggypanthus

Gosh, not sure, my DH is the cook, he griddles meat, but also veg. Cant imagine eggs in it tho. I like garlic bread heated on it too. We do get a lot of use from it.
what about a medsiz deep frypan, for eggs, ommlettes etc, in addition to the griddle.
I dont use a pressure cooker so maybe another poster can advise.

Circulon are good.Had our pans for 25 yrs.

pandora205

I'd buy one of those beautiful Kenwood mixers as I've always wanted one and they can last a lifetime. I'd probably wait for the sales to see if they came down a bit though as they are not cheap!

pigpen

I have never used my pressure cooker for meat.. I do stews in it so I guess that's meat.. it is my 'mash pan'

aggypanthus

http://www.johnlewis.com/john-lewis-pure-cotton-towels/p109998?colour=Seahorse


when choosing towels, if they are very thick they take longer to dry, the ones above are med price and med weight. It says 600g weight as opposed to others at 700g.

Go on treat yourselves lol

CompBunny

Thanks again Think we might use our M&S vouchers on towels and potentially bedding.

What about a food processor? Useful investment or cupboard-blocker?

BitterAndTwisted

Food processors should never, ever go in a cupboard! It needs to stay on the kitchen counter or it will never get used and will therefore be a total wast of money. Same for slow-cookers and bread-makers.

The poster on the previous page who mentioned "big ticket items" is right (sorry I didn't go back and check but I totally agree with you). Invest in the most expensive items with your vouchers. There will always be a reason why you don't want to or can't spend £100 on something. Ten or twenty quid can almost always be found if it's vital that you have it.

Pans. Knife. Sufficient good-quality towels in a sensible colour. Those aubergine ones will look lovely and stylish now but in five year's time they will be dated and you'll be sick of the sight of them. A chopping-board. Your utensil thingy if there's anything left. I'd also invest in one of those lovely Mason Cash mixing-bowls if you don't have one but that's because I have a fetish for them

nuatha

CompBunny wrote: »

aggypanthus - Griddle can do all sorts can't it? (not a rhetorical question!) Quorn, veggies, eggs, bread, tortillas...or do you think its a waste to be rarely used for meat?
Pressure cooker for quickly cooking pulses, potatoes, carrots, grains etc and for the secondary use as just a large pot. Or do you think this could also be a bit of a waste?

xxxx

Griddle is fairly versatile - girdle scones and drop scones immediately spring to mind . Season it well and it will be a joy to use.
I'll admit to being frightened of pressure cookers, my kind MIL will batch cook pulses and beans for me in hers. I have 10-20 litre stockpots, though a pressure cooker certainly will function as a large pan when needed. (My fear of pressure cookers comes from childhood explosions of PCs - something that is relatively rare) My MIL is veggie and wouldn't be without hers.

Food processors, If I was starting over I'd start with a Kenwood Chef and add the slicers and graters, coffee mill etc. As it is I have both a Chef and a food processor and I'll freely admit its laziness - there is nothing that I use either the Chef or the processor for that I can't do with hand tools. but the electric tools make it easier and make large quantities a doddle. It depends on how you cook, I often do bulk cooking for the freezer and cater the odd party.
HTH

System

I have a food processor, a Kenwood one. I got it for £35 down from £140 in Sainsburys, I knew it was going to go on sale eventually and was astounded when I spotted it!

I use mine for soups, sauces, grating, chopping, slicing, mixing, blitzing, grinding coffee beans, nuts etc. It also has a juicer and all sorts of attachments (all of which I'm surprised I actually use!). It saves me so much time, particularly for preparing fresh vegetables and the like!

If you can find one for a reasonable price for the attachments then definitely a great investment in saving time and money.

Also, I agree with BitterAndTwisted that they must stay on the side or they won't get used enough.

pandora205

Can't believe I responded to this thread earlier to discover that I've won £250 in a draw (our sport and social club at work)!
I popped into John Lewis this evening for inspiration and to see what £250 would buy...... Here are some ideas I came up with:
a lovely rug, though the Persian type are over the £1k mark
Sabatier knives
Lighting - lots of lovely examples
Quirky items like a globe (I have offspring living abroad so more meaningful to me than some) http://www.johnlewis.com/john-lewis-globe-silver-17-/p150789
Microsoft Surface 2 Tablet
Lots of lovely bedding and kitchen stuff (including the Kenwoods) but amazing how much some of it all costs!

sillyvixen

if i was in the OP's position - i would wait for the sales - you never know you might get 25% to 50% more!!