Quality Appliances for Quality Family Time

For many parents, kitchen duty can be both a joy and a source of frustration. The fun and fulfillment of cooking an epic holiday dinner or just making the perfect batch of Saturday-morning pancakes can be diminished by outdated appliances that make the job harder. But there is a better way. We’ve gathered a half-dozen kitchen helpers that can make feasts, everyday meals, and snack prep easier and more fun, saving valuable time in the kitchen that can instead be spent creating special memories with family.

 

Fantastic Fridges

Smart refrigerators are the greatest thing since frost-free freezers. When you’re dashing from work to soccer practice wondering if you have enough milk for tomorrow’s breakfast, just open an app, access the in-fridge camera and verify. Fifteen minutes saved (25 if you get in the self-checkout line behind someone needing a price check on a rib roast) can make the difference between manageable and meltdown. And smart refrigerators do so much more: Door-front LED screens can display the contents inside, manage shopping lists and food expiration dates, keep the family connected through message boards, look up recipes and even play “Captain Underpants” for the kiddos while you cook.

 

Online Ovens

Today’s Wi-Fi-enabled ovens have features you won’t want to live without. In addition to downloading recipes and carrying out automated cooking cycles, you can preheat, start and stop the oven from little Katie’s clarinet lesson using a connected app. Some will text you when the food’s ready, while others livestream the inside of the oven so you can keep an eye on how things are going.

 

Connected Cooktops

You can download and follow recipes right on your connected cooktop and pair with smart pans that communicate with burners to ensure you don’t burn your culinary masterpiece. Some induction stoves even expand the boundaries of your cooking — literally. Instead of circles of various sizes that define where to put your pot, expansive cooking zones conform to custom cookware sizes. Remote apps allow you to start and stop cooking when parental duties call, while voice assistants like Alexa can control the cooktop and enable you to change temperature settings using hand gestures.

 

Brilliant Beverage Brewers

While the robot is busy cleaning, mom can relax with a cup of fresh-brewed cappuccino. Smart technology has “filtered down” to beverage makers. (See what we did there?). There are built-in models to keep your counters uncluttered with bean-to-cup automation and app-enabled types that store each family member’s preferred brew, from a single-shot espresso to an extra-large latte.

 

 

 

Smart Time-savers

Samsung Family Hub Refrigerator

https://www.aggressiveappliances.com/products/samsung/rf29bb890012aa.html#prettyphoto[product_img]/2/

Shop from the front of your refrigerator or peek inside from the supermarket. Samsung’s SmartThings App allows you to control the fridge’s temperature and monitor it remotely.

 

Café Smart Convection Oven

https://www.aggressiveappliances.com/products/Cafe/cafea/cts70dp2ns1.html

This intelligent meal-maker enables baking, broiling, air frying and convection cooking, with an app to download recipes that auto-control cooking temps and times.

Thermador Freedom Induction Cooktop

https://www.aggressiveappliances.com/products/Thermador/the/cit36ywb.html

Heating elements conform to the size and shape of your pans. Teppanyaki mode gives a griddle-size element with a cooldown zone. Monitor the cooktop from your phone or use cooking settings and programs from Thermador’s app.

 

Sharp Smart Radiant Cooktop with Smart Microwave Drawer Oven

https://www.aggressiveappliances.com/products/Sharp/shp/str3065hs.htm

A sleek, self-contained cooktop with an attached microwave built in below. Its Easy Wave Open feature allows for touchless operation — just wave up-and-down near the motion sensor and the Stainless Steel Microwave Drawer™ Oven will effortlessly glide open.

 

Café BELLISSIMO Semi Automatic Expresso Machine & Frother

https://www.aggressiveappliances.com/products/Cafe/cafea/c7cesas2rs3.html

The built-in grinder pulverizes your favorite beans. Features include a 15-bar pump and frother, as well as SmartHQ connectivity to customize your brewing preferences.