Appliance Park, 90210

So while y'all were busy last week trying to figure out who has the crazier eyebrows - Casey Anthony or Nancy Grace - the Madame was off doing glamorous things in Louisville because I'm a blogger and this is just what we do when we're not bingeing at home in our pajamas.  We binge in groups.  In public.  Possibly still in our pajamas.

Picture of the GE entrance which I totally stole from MEC alum Kitchen Clarity

Louisville, Kentucky is the home of hipsters with Southern accents, bourbon, horsies, something having to do with some sport I don't watch and the GE Monogram Experience Center.  Their appliance park is on campus that has its own zip code (sadly, it's not actually 90210) and restricted air space if that lets you know what kind of high level Madame you're dealing with now.  In keeping with my new classy status I didn't introduce myself with my *middle fingers pointing towards my crotch* so I don't think anyone knew who I was at first...

Two dozen designer and bloggers spent a few days learning about the Monogram appliances and were lucky enough to cook our meals on them in the test kitchens.  I just like saying 'test kitchen' because it makes me sound like a scientist of food awesomeness.

Magic happened here.  It tasted salty.

Of course, having several badass chef dudes there helping us cook our breakfast, lunch and dinner probably helped the end result but I can't confirm this.  I can confirm that the chefs' website has more flava than the scrumtrulescent local bacon I devoured while I was there and that's saying a lot.  Pork, yo.

for recipes we cooked and other goodness

There was enough stainless steel and good food to kill a lesser crowd but not a crowd of bloggers (see note above about bingeing).  It's 10 AM and we just talked about dishwashers so let's EAT SOME STEAK!!!!  Oh okay, I'm not even hungry but what the hell!  

Now it's elevensies and time for some pizza!  *om nom nom*

Omigawd I can't feel my face anymore...  


Do you want some cobbler?!  Um, I didn't say I couldn't feel my stomach so GET IN MAH BELLY!!  Just go ahead and sprinkle some more steak on top of that too, kthanxbye.

Not even a tornado could stop our fabulosity (it might have tried to pick me up but I was so full it probably was unsuccessful).  Seriously, there was a tornado our last night because natural disasters seem to follow me.  Sucks to be you, next-place-that-Expedia-emails-me-that-is-super-cheap.   

But it wasn't all salty hotness and dinner good enough to make you cry tears of curry sauce, I did manage to fill my brain with some goodies too.  One of my appliance porn highlights was the Advantium oven:

Initially I was unsure and eyeroll-y because I thought it cooked food like a convection oven but with the added benefit of microwaves, a tiny open fire pit, Superman's laser eyes and high-powered lights from my old EZ Bake Oven and I don't want your wizard magic near my food, GE!!  But since I've caught myself at least three times since I've been home thinking about how I could have used it for something I think we know who the real wizards are: people that can brown chicken in a Speedcook Superman microwave fire pit EZ Bake oven.

Highlight numero dos was the fully integrated refrigeration system (yes, we call it 'system' now) probably because my current 'refrigeration system' looks like this and theirs looks like this

yeah, those are fridges...

and it's like they were taunting me.  Am I in a fancy library closet or is there cheese in there because it's just so damn sexy I can't tell...???!

oh hai yummy things

I'm not sure if I'm allowed to have glass doors on my 'refrigeration system' because I can barely trust myself to put away my socks in the correct drawer let alone organize my all locally harvested organic produce (and jars of glitternaise) in a pleasing way so I might opt for the solid door.  Your call.

In addition to the appliance goodness, I was also excited to hear about the design process regarding each product category.  As someone who works as a designer in manufacturing I'm always interested in how other companies problem solve. I very much appreciated GE's willingness to share their process and was impressed with the thoughtfulness regarding their designs and their ability to, you know, actually follow through with them for their customers.  This is harder than it seems...  Having a facility like this at your disposal probably helps.  I need to get some 'test kitchens' for the ModSauce Ranch for further adventures in fabulosity rendering...  Glitternaise doesn't bottle itself, y'all.

So, many thanks to the generous folks at GE for their hospitality (MS sidebar: they did pay for this trip but they did not pay for this post which I'm thinking they might be grateful for...) and a special shout out to all the fine designers and bloggers I met who shared in "The Experience" as I now call it.  


I would dry hump you all but I'm a classy Madame now so just use your imagination.