Nesting things: mixing bowls edition

I like having good tools, and I don’t have enough money to buy everything and test it myself to find the best picks. Fortunately, there are many, many many, many test kitchens that do that job for me. The great thing about having so many is that you can cross-check and see which items consistently turn up as “highly recommended.”

HOWEVER…

As I do my own work in the own kitchen, sometimes I find that the recommendations made by professional test kitchens don’t at all work for me. There are a few reasons for this, which all basically all boil down to one thing: Working in a commercial kitchen is very different than cooking at home.

Difference #1: Speed

When I’m cooking at home, I’m not in a countdown before someone storms out and flames me on Yelp. I don’t have to use a dish and then throw it across the room to the scullery so it can get washed and used again as quickly as possible. I don’t have to figure out ways to reduce beating times for egg whites down to the second, and I don’t necessarily need a bunch of appliances to do the work for me.

Difference #2: Scale

If I want to make a garlic-intensive dish at home, I probably just need to mince a few cloves. I don’t have to worry about processing five pounds of garlic, so instead of some fancy gadget, I can probably get away with just using a knife. If I’m kneading dough, I’m probably only making enough for one or two loaves, so I don’t need an industrial mixer to get it done.

Difference #3: Resources

In my own kitchen, I have a greater respect for my equipment than I would have for a random object at my place of work. Since replacements and upgrades come directly from my pocket, I am going to be more careful with tools than a commercial cook would have to be.

Difference #4: Personalization!

Commercial kitchens are awesome, but let’s face it, they are not attractive. You could tell me that a certain all-stainless-steel commercial kitchen is proven to be the 100% most efficient, guaranteed way to make great food, and I would still decline to have one installed in my house. Having to live in that kind of environment would be enormously depressing for me, personally — imagine walking into a commercial kitchen in your robe and slippers to start your morning coffee — happy flourescents!

Since my kitchen is both a work AND living space, I want to have a certain amount of aesthetic pleasure in cooking. Having said that, aesthetics are a personal taste, so if you love the institutional look, please go for it.

The other thing that is personalized in home kitchens is the type of food you cook. If you never cook Asian food, then coughing up for expensive woks and steamers won’t help you, regardless of how much your favorite chef loves them. Given how often I do crepes, I’ve never had the need to invest in a crepe pan; a non-stick skillet works fine. If you do certain things all the time, then it makes sense to upgrade your equipment. So, as in all of life, my recommendation is: know thyself.

Okay, after that initial digression, I turn to today’s topic (one of my favorites!): mixing bowls!

What is it about mixing bowls, anyway? Personally, I think it’s because they nest. I think we have some crazed, subconscious love of multiples of things in different sizes. I think it’s also behind the stair-step canister style, on which I’ve already shared my thoughts.

Mixing bowls are also my primary rebellion against conventional test kitchen wisdom: multiple test kitchens all recommend metal mixing bowls, and I have nary a one! I used to, but for a variety of reasons, I let them go and never replaced them.

Here are my reflections on the pros and cons of various mixing bowls, in the context of a home kitchen.

My primary mixing bowl set, which I have had the longest and will probably use until I die and then pass down to my daughter, is a set of vintage Pyrex glass bowls.

These are physically identical to the set my mom had when I was growing up (I just got a different pattern!). This means I was already used to the weight, heft, and dimensions of these bowls. When I stir, my arm automatically traces the interior shape and size, since I’ve been making the same motions since I was 10.

The main objection to glass bowls is that they’re breakable, which is certainly true, although I would offer some qualifiers: Kenji describes the Anchor bowls he used in a professional kitchen as having chipped rims, which I 100% believe. But just because Anchor bowls in a professional kitchen have chipped rims doesn’t mean that every glass bowl is waiting to shatter into a million pieces. The quality of glass varies a lot (I have had bad experiences with Anchor, which is why I prefer Pyrex), as does the design of the bowl (thin rims are more likely to chip than one designed to be sturdier, which is why I prefer vintage Pyrex to modern Pyrex). And I will refer back to my original digression, which is that stuff in a professional kitchen is going to be more roughly handled. I take care of my Pyrex bowls and don’t bang on them with metal utensils or throw them into a commercial dishwasher with a bunch of metal. Short of dropping them on the floor or thermal shocking them, I see no reason why my Pyrex won’t continue to last.

The other criticism of glass bowls is that they are too heavy — but that is exactly why I love mine! When I was using metal bowls, I struggled to hold the bowl still while I mixed with the other hand, especially dense things like cookie doughs and bread doughs. Maybe if you’re stronger than I am, you could make it work, but I find the weightier bowls to make mixing and stirring much, much easier.

(This also goes back to my earlier point about commercial kitchens: most test kitchens I see automatically reach for the stand mixer for heavier doughs, so they don’t even test mixing bowls in those applications.)

You can find all kinds of vintage Pyrex bowls at flea markets, antique stores, estate sales, and everybody’s favorite crack dealer, Ebay. Pyrex Love is a great guide to patterns, so you can choose which pretty design you want to have in your kitchen for the next several decades! Once you identify your pattern, each bowl size has a different number on the bottom, which makes it easier to Google the ones you’re looking for.

You can barely see it, but the bottom of the smallest bowl has “401 1 1/2 pt 750 ml” on it. An Ebay search for “Pyrex 401” brings up that size bowl in many different patterns.

I also own the “Cinderella” style of Pyrex bowl in a different pattern; it is characterized by a grip-spout on one side, and a pouring spout on the other side.

I haven’t used these as much, although I know people who love the spout feature. I find they are a little shallower than the style above, so I tend to accidentally sling stuff over the top when I’m stirring enthusiastically. If I used them more often, I’m sure I would adjust.

Stoneware has many of the same detractors as glass: heavy and fragile. However, those cons haven’t prevented a certain brand of mixing bowl from being in existence for well over one hundred years. And since they haven’t changed their pattern, it can make it hard to tell a vintage picture from a modern one!

There are two problems with Mason Cash: they are CRAZY EXPENSIVE, and they can be an absolute pain to purchase from the US. It’s a little better than it was several years ago, when you could find about one size, and you couldn’t even identify it because the US retailers used a completely different naming convention than the company itself.

The Classic Cane Mixing Bowl comes in six sizes (I used to see 9), all the way from the biggest bowl I’d ever seen down to something small enough to use as a cereal bowl.

The tan is the classic color, but the middle-range sizes are available in a rainbow.

The exterior pattern and the distinctive lip were designed to help bakers hold the bowl still, back when baking bread, by hand, at home, was a never-ending task. The largest sizes were big enough to even knead directly in the bowl.

Because I am an Anglophile with no self-control, I also have the “In the Forest” series, which is just so cute I may explode:

I see they have now replaced the “hare” with a “bear,” which I reject as a flagrant attempt to appeal to Americans. Oh, well, it looks like there are more colors from which to choose, anyway…

My final set of true mixing bowls is the outlier: a set of plastic KitchenAid mixing bowls that I bought, yes, let’s face it, just because it was teal:

These bowls are pretty deep, they don’t weigh much, and they have a nice little handle and a pour spouts. There’s also a rubber rim on the bottom so they don’t slide around, which is nice:

You probably wouldn’t want to put these in the microwave, and if you poured hot ingredients in, it might stain them, but there is one, tragic, unfortunately reason that I have to say I hate these: THE. NOISE.

If you use ANYTHING metal in these bowls (like a basic whisk or a hand mixer), the sound of the metal against the plastic is INCREDIBLY loud and VERY annoying. Like, I can’t even figure how it makes so much noise. It’s almost like they had to design them that way. And this isn’t true of all plastic; I use metal in my batter bowl all the time, and the two cannot be compared.

The bottom line: are metal mixing bowls good? Sure, but they’re far from perfect, and something else may suit you even better.

Also, I didn’t even touch on OTHER types of prep bowls, like pinch bowls, salad bowls, lidded storage bowls… So I guess that’s another post waiting to be written!

Late to the party

There are some things I don’t feel like I have a good excuse for, so I’m not even going to try. For example, Smitten Kitchen is one of the most popular food blogs around, and was in existence for years before I got into cooking, so there’s no real reason that I shouldn’t already be familiar with Deb Perelman’s oeuvre.

I went the Pioneer Woman and Serious Eats and Slate route, and for no reason, never got into the Smitten Kitchen. Until now…

My sister has started getting into cooking, and she got smitten with Smitten Kitchen, and she keeps texting recipes to me, and now I’M smitten with Smitten Kitchen. The good thing about coming in late is that now there is a HUGE amount of content on the website, which will keep me happily clicking and scrolling and cooking for years. It also reminds me of what it was like getting into cooking and food blogging for the first time, which are relatively pleasant memories…

Last week, we decided to try the Stuck-Pot Rice with Lentils and Yogurt, about which I will now share my thoughts.

It was good! I had never really done anything with lentils, and we don’t normally eat much deliberately vegetarian food, so I would mostly describe the flavor as … subtle. It certainly wasn’t bad, but I find that when we get too accustomed to processed food or my normal recipes (I have a tendency to multiply seasonings), our palates get a little over-blown. This was a dish that didn’t do tapdances on your tastebuds, but I’ve also found myself craving the leftovers every single day (especially after a few adjustments).

My first big takeaway is DON’T MAKE THIS A ONE-POT MEAL. For a couple reasons:

(1) If you want to cram the whole thing into a little 2-quart pot for the crisping stage, there is no way all the rice and lentils will be able to boil in there.

I used a 3-quart saucepan for the boiling, and that was as small as I’d feel comfortable going.

(2) Only using one pot makes it take unnecessarily long. I used two pots this time, but was still otherwise following the recipe as written. This is another example of the Great Onion Lie: onions do not caramelize in 10 minutes. Next time, I will start the onion first, in the pot in which I want to finish the dish. Then I’ll be able to cook the onion low-and-slow until I actually get the caramelization I want. Since there isn’t a lot of flavor in here, the caramelized onions have to carry a lot of weight, so you want to make sure that you have plenty of onion (I might go more than 1 large, next time), and make sure they are thoroughly caramelized. While the onion is cooking, you can boil the rice and lentils and juice the lemon and do all the other stuff.

Next time I will also increase the moisture somehow — this time I used Greek yogurt, which is drier, so I’m sure that was a factor. We’ve had good luck with reheating the leftovers in a covered non-stick skillet with a little glug of olive oil and at least 1/4 cup of water to hydrate it up.

Stirring the yogurt in doesn’t seem to add anything; we couldn’t really tell it was there. Fortunately, I have a little experience with Mediterranean and Middle Eastern food, so I was able to come up with something that made this good dish EXTRAORDINARY: yogurt sauce.

I get my tzatziki recipe from Pita the Great, and it is actually the cucumber variation on the yogurt sauce I used as inspiration for this, which is what is making me crave leftover lentils for breakfast:

Garlic Yogurt Sauce (all quantities eye-balled to taste):

Stir together:

• Greek yogurt (I made a small batch with about 1/2 cup)
• finely minced garlic (I used 1 large clove for this much yogurt, so adjust to your taste)
• lemon juice (I probably threw at least a teaspoon in there? I was just squeezing in the leftover lemon slices from the dish itself)
• salt and pepper
• crushed dried parsley (fresh herbs would be great, but we’ve already established that I only buy fresh herbs for special occasions. Also, I love the tip to crumble the dried parsley; I think it will greatly improve my homemade onion dip recipe.)
• cabinet randomness: I threw in pinches of garlic and onion powder, but left out cumin because the dish already had it. Paprika would be fun, or cinnamon and allspice for a true Middle-Eastern kick. Up to you!

Pouring this on top of the lentils and rice is AMAZING. Truthfully, this sauce would make anything amazing; you could dip pita or vegetables in it, or put it on gyros or kibbeh or lamb kabobs!

Speaking of lamb kabobs, our main takeaway from this dish is that is seemed like a side dish. Unimpressive in-and-of-itself, but perfect as a support to a meat main dish, and with a seasoning sauce. Marinated lamb or chicken kabobs would be INCREDIBLE with this — honestly, I’m glad I found this recipe for no other reason that now I have an answer to “what to serve as a side with Middle Eastern meat dishes.”

I think the versions with dried fruit would also be incredible, and I really want to try changing the spices up. You could go SO MANY directions with this, and it would be easy to scale, so you could just make up a little as you want it.

As for the big question: did it stick? The answer is … partially:

Honestly, I had thought it would be a lot worse. I used enameled cast iron, which is pretty non-stick, but not as good as a true non-stick pan. It was fine, though; we just scraped out the stuck parts and dumped it on the rest, and it turned out fine. Given that it all falls apart when you serve it up anyway, and when you store the leftovers, I don’t really care that it didn’t all come out in one perfect piece.

Mac and cheese à la Kenji

(I think I’ve mentioned before how for a lot of my recipes, I just type “kenji [insert name of recipe]” into Google. This is an example of that method.)

I’ve always loved Kraft mac and cheese; it was my favorite meal as a kid. Honestly, I didn’t know until I was an adult that there was any other way of making mac and cheese! Also honestly, I didn’t know until last year that people in the South serve mac and cheese as a side dish at Thanksgiving. Isn’t that WEIRD? It is my understanding that they do not use a blue box for the holiday…

We love cheese around our house, especially trying different kinds, so this recipe is a great way to use up odds and ends, since it is infinitely customizable. Right now I have several baggies of shredded cheese in my freezer, so each time we make it, we just throw in whatever sounds good and see what we get!

I like that we can choose whatever noodles we want (I’m the mom who always buys the whole wheat version of a pasta shape, if available), and my daughter likes that she can put in Worcestershire sauce and whatever spices she can find in the spice cabinet.

Kenji’s recipe is superbly simple: equal amounts pasta, evaporated milk, and shredded cheese, multiplied by the number of people you intend to feed. He calls for three ounces of each, but I find that way too much for us, so I use 2 ounces per person. Adjust to your needs!

What you need:

• 2-3 ounces of short pasta
• 2-3 ounces of shredded cheese (whatever kind/s you want!)
• 2-3 ounces of evaporated milk
• water to cover pasta

What you do:

Since I have a kitchen scale, I find it the simplest way to measure.

First, place pan on scale and zero it out:

Second, add appropriate amount of pasta to pan:

Third, add just enough water to BARELY cover the pasta:

Fourth, put a bowl on the scale and zero it out again, unless the bowl weighs the same as your pan:

Fifth, add appropriate amount of cheese to bowl:

Sixth, measure appropriate amount of evaporated milk (psych! this one is fluid ounces instead of weight!):

(Since I just cracked a new can of milk, I put the rest in a jar for another day:)

Now your mise en place is ready, which is important because this comes together quickly:

Turn the heat on under your pot. (Kenji says high heat, but I’ve learned that when the internet says “high heat,” unless it’s under a huge pot of water or a cast iron skillet, all I get is burned food and warped pans.) I put mine about medium, or one or two notches above. Again, adjust for your stove and equipment.

Since there is very little water in the pasta, you’ll want to stir it frequently, if not constantly. You can kinda see the amount of starch already building up very quickly (in this recipe, it is essential to the correct consistency of the sauce).

Fairly quickly, it will start boiling. All the starch makes it very bubbly; it kinda reminds me of those little individual microwaveable Kraft mac and cheeses (which are surprisingly good!). At this point you’ll want to keep stirring to keep the noodles from sticking.

Once the water is almost completely absorbed, pour in the evaporated milk:

Leave the heat where it is, and stir until the milk comes to a boil:

(Sorry about the spoon; in retrospect I should have had it composed in the same place in each image.)

As soon as the milk boils, dump in the cheese:

Kick the heat down to low, and stir until the cheese is melted and the sauce is at the consistency you want. Also, I would recommend stirring in any additional seasonings you want at this point. Tonight we waited til the end to season it, and it got drier than we would have liked as we futzed around with bottles and jars.

This was pretty much perfect, here. IMPORTANT: this does not keep! Eat it immediately, or it will get all stiff and weird. Normally there is not a problem with this disappearing.

Starring today’s cheeses: butterkase, champagne cheddar, tiny smidges of horseradish cheddar and Parmesan, and Kentucky Bourbon BellaVitano.

The champagne cheddar made it pretty sweet, which we salvaged by adding garlic powder. Also included some paprika and Worcestershire sauce.

Smoked cheese is wonderful in this, although I would probably split it with something a little less strongly-flavored. And while I love sharp cheddar in the vast majority of my heated-cheese applications, too much in this gives it a harsh, dry taste. Our most successful batches have had good balances between the flavors and textures of the various cheese. I haven’t tried goat cheese or feta in this yet, but I’m sure they would be wonderful in the mix.

Kitchen stores: Kitchen Barn

I’ve decided to run a mini-series of the kitchen stores that have been important in my life, starting with the latest one: Kitchen Barn, in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

I just happened upon it this morning, as I was running an errand in a distant part of town. It’s about 30 miles from my house (around 45 minutes), which is good, because I don’t have enough self-control to live any closer to a good kitchen store.

This place is AMAZING. In addition to a healthy selection of Le Creuset and All-Clad, they carry a whole bunch of Mason Cash (which can be hard to find in the U.S.), and they have little dinky gadgets GALORE. There are big appliances, and tiny odds and ends that have been on my wish list for years. Cooking classes are offered, and they have a big annual sale in September, for which I will be saving up.

The staff are very friendly and helpful, but don’t follow you around harassing you when you’re trying to browse (some stores struggle with this).

I was very, very good, and left my wallet in the car, and just walked around quickly to get an idea of what’s available. It could have gone very badly… But as long as I can barely get into my bedroom to sleep because of all the kitchen gear, and I can’t justify buying much more kitchen stuff. But if there is anything that I need, I know I can find it here!

Today’s baking: Irish soda bread

I meant to do this for St. Patrick’s Day, but fortunately buttermilk keeps well in the fridge…

I used BraveTart‘s recipe this time. It’s not unlike other recipes I have used in the past, but there’s an awesome article that goes along with the recipe explaining the process, so I’m biased toward it. 🙂

It turned out great; SO easy, with a great buttermilk flavor and wonderful crust. The only problem is that I made a whole loaf, so I’ll have to freeze half. Oh, well…

How to clean your coffee maker

I know that I’ve been dreadful about keeping up with this blog lately, and I have thought of things to post, but haven’t been able to for one reason or another. For now, I’m just going to use it as I so often do, which is to store information that I’m going to need in the future, so I don’t have to look it up every time! No long photo-essays for now, just the bare bones.

How to clean the little cheap-o drip coffee maker:

To be done periodically, depending upon usage and relative water hardness.

If you have a fancy self-cleaning coffee maker, follow the instructions! Otherwise:

What you need:

• coffee maker with
• carafe
• water
• vinegar
• filters

What you do:

1. Wash the carafe and basket by hand (which you ought to be doing frequently anyway).
2. Fill the reservoir with a solution of vinegar and clean water; some places recommend half-and-half, some 2:1 water:vinegar. I would say if it’s been a long time since you’ve done it or if your water is really hard, use more vinegar, otherwise, use less. (HINT: buy vinegar in the big jugs in the grocery aisle. It stays good forever, and you can use it for cooking and all sorts of cleaning projects!)
3. Place the basket, filter, and carafe in their accustomed spots.
4. Run the cycle HALFWAY. That is, for a four-cup coffee maker, run it until 2 cups of water/vinegar have accumulated in the carafe. Then turn it off, and let it sit for 30 minutes.
5. Turn it back on, and let the cycle continue until the carafe is full.
6. Pour out the vinegar/water solution, toss the used filter, and run two cycles of PLAIN WATER in order to rinse the vinegar out. I use a new filter each time, because they’re so cheap, but you could probably get away with using just one more.
7. Repeat as needed, again, depending on usage and water hardness.

Optional: consider whether pour-over coffee really tastes better than the drip brewer, and if it does, is it really worth the time waiting for water to boil and then stand there pouring it over? Acknowledge the considerable convenience of being able to just push a button and walk away…

Recipe: mug cake

One thing I learned in marketing class is that I am a “laggard.” That is, I’m the person who never tries products when they are brand new; I wait until the product is practically old-fashioned before I grudgingly give it a chance.

Thus it is with the “mug cake.” They’ve been around for a while, and I first saw them a few years ago. But it wasn’t until I was staying at my mom’s this summer that I tried one for the first time.

(Also, I don’t have a microwave and she does.)

It works! I was skeptical of the concept, but, man, if you really want something warm and chocolate, this is a VERY fast way to get it. (Honestly, too fast: ***WARNING*** If you don’t need to be able to make yourself chocolate cake in five minutes, skip this post.)

I basically use Pioneer Woman’s recipe, but I tweaked it a little to my own taste.

what you need:

ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons flour
• 2-3 tablespoons sugar
• 3 tablespoons cocoa
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 3 tablespoons milk
• 2 tablespoons oil
• splash of vanilla
• 3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)

equipment:

• a microwaveable mug (some call for a 12-ounce mug, but I go at least twice that, for reasons which will become clear)
• a 1-tablespoon measure
• a 1/4-teaspoon measure
• a mini-whisk (a fork will do in a pinch)

what you do (follow along closely, lest you be overwhelmed by the advanced baking techniques required):

1. Measure flour into a mug:

2. Measure sugar into the mug:

3. Measure baking powder into the mug:

4. Eyeball salt into the mug (Julia Child measured salt this way, and I always do what Julia says.)

5. Measure cocoa into the mug:

6. Combine the dry mixture with your whisk or fork:

 

7. Measure milk into the mug:

8. Measure oil into the mug:

9. Eyeball vanilla into the mug:

10. Combine wet and dry ingredients:

11. Pretend I had chocolate chips, and measure them into the mug. Or dump in whatever you feel like; I tried peanut butter once, but it was a little dry, and not sweet enough. I guess the sugar would need to be increased for that add-in…

12. Nuke the mug for 90 seconds:

[This mug is my life’s motto. INTROVERTS UNITE!!! (In such a way that we aren’t required to leave our houses!)]

13. CAKE!

(See how you can see un-mixed flour? That’s because I was too lazy to get out the mini whisk and used a fork.)

I know there’s a lot of space left, but that allows me to do this:

See? Aren’t you sorry I showed you this? Nobody really needs to know how to make cake in their microwave in five minutes. Oh, well, in a few days I’ll be back in my own apartment, microwave-less, so I’ll be safe.

There are all different flavors of mug cakes (even brownies!), but I rarely find myself climbing the walls with cravings for things that aren’t chocolate, so I haven’t moved past this one yet. If I ever do, I’ll let you know how they turn out.

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RIP brown sugar crock

Well, I did it. I mocked the crockery gods last night by declaiming my love of flaws, and karma swiftly responded this morning.

Remember this? 

This is my brown sugar crock. I’ve had it for five years, and in addition to being beautiful and providing flawless storage for my brown sugar, it represents both the beginning of my cooking journey, and the beginning of my quest to make my home beautiful.

This morning I broke it. I was planning to take it out of my husband’s kitchen and bring it down to my apartment so I could use the brown sugar. I set it on a stool next to a flour bin, and when I picked up the flour bin, it knocked the crock onto the floor. Both the lid and the crock itself are badly cracked.

As I mentioned in the storage crockery post, this item was discontinued by Pfaltzgraff five years ago. I probably should have stocked up on extras (they were even on Ebay until 2015), but I didn’t. And now I can’t find one anywhere on the internet.

I’ve e-mailed Pfaltzgraff, but am not hopeful. Their current business model consists of producing new products for very brief periods all the time, instead of creating pieces that people can come back to for decades. Some companies, I’m glad were bought by conglomerates, because at least they didn’t disappear forever, but Pfaltzgraff tends to be an exception. The quality of their products was lowered so much that I can’t even compare the new stuff to the vintage, made-in-USA pieces that I have. I’ve enjoyed some of my new Pfaltzgraff pieces, but they can no longer be counted on as a stable institution with a stable product line. It’s sad.

I’m probably going to keep my brown sugar crock. It’s still pretty, and I can display it in my kitchen, even if I can’t use it, as a reminder of how far I’ve come and how hard I’ve worked. It served me well and made me smile every time I saw it and handled it.

RIP, little crock.

 

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It’s fall!

Fall Equinox 2017: 4:02 pm Eastern Standard Time

I’m up to my ears in my last semester of college, so I’ll see what I can pull together for fall posts this year…

Amazon price tracker

You know how prices on Amazon are always changing, and you never know if you should buy an item now, or wait for a better price? There’s a website for that!

It’s called camelcamelcamel , and when you copy/paste an Amazon link, it gives you a history of the prices, so you can know whether it’s likely that the price will go up or down in the future!

An example: today I was shopping for a yogurt maker. This one was recommended, so I went to Amazon to see how much it was. Right now, it’s about $30, which isn’t bad. I would be willing to buy it for that price. But I remembered camelcamelcamel, so I plugged it in there, and this is what I got:

See the red dotted line at the top? That’s the maximum price over the last few years, and the green dotted line at the bottom is the lowest price. Right now, the price for this item is almost as high as it’s ever been, and it spends a lot of its time quite a bit lower than this. So, I’m going to hold off on buying this for a little while, and see if I can save a few bucks.

Alternatively, there’s an accessory for this item whose story is different:

This item’s price is the lowest it’s been for years, by a significant margin. So I went ahead and ordered the accessory, even though I’ll have to wait to use it until I get the actual yogurt maker…

There’s no guarantee that a given price will increase or decrease in the future, but this gives you historical information that you can use to make an informed decision. That’s if you can resist the desire for instant gratification, which, let’s face it, is what Amazon’s all about, right?