Smitten With Smeg

     I have a curious relationship with some of my small electrical appliances. I am as thankful for my food processor, blender and mixer as I am for my dentist or the teller who handles my house payment at the bank. They each provide a service that makes life easier, but one does tend to take them for granted.

     Not so the toaster and tea kettle. Those two appliances are like family. My fondness for tea and toast is so ardent that I have written poetry about them. There is no poetry forthcoming for their progenitors, but they are surely deserving of a blog post.

     When my friendly little red toaster stopped working properly a few years ago, my husband talked me into buying a brushed stainless usurper that glares at me from the kitchen counter like a one-eyed cyborg. It is a little disconcerting to wake up to a cyborg each morning, so when I decided to buy an electric tea kettle instead of heating water on the stove in my cheerful green Le Creuset, it was necessary to find a friendly one.

     I found Smeg.

     Six weeks later, it feels as if Smeg and I have known each other for years. Best of all, I think one of my tea cozies is smitten.