Even though the man of the house (aka "The Chef") does all the cooking now, I accepted an invitation to a Pampered Chef party at a friend's house last month. I thought it would be an interesting way to learn a few new kitchen tips, and an enjoyable afternoon with my new daughter-in-law, who was also invited.

The items are a bit pricey, but the quality seems good, and the Pampered Chef guarantees all the products. I"ll show you the products that I bought, and some alternatives from Amazon, in case you can't get out to a Pampered Chef party.

The kitchen where the party was held was perfect for this sort of thing. The Pampered Chef consultant worked at the kitchen island, in the centre of the good sized room.

The dozen or so guests sat around the large kitchen table, at the back of the room, and along the side of the kitchen. Everyone could see clearly, and no one was crowded.

At the party, we watched the Pampered Chef consultant cook some food, chop a bunch of stuff, and show us how to  use some of her kitchen gadgets.

The first thing she prepared was a base of packaged crescent rolls, pressed together to make a crust. She chopped and mixed some broccoli, red peppers, and a few other ingredients, then spread that over the crescent roll base. The sides of the base were cut into strips, then twisted over the vegetable mix, to create a fake "braided" effect.

The consultant had a few problems with the strips breaking, but she assured us that it would taste great, even if it didn't look perfect!

The chopper that she used did a great job of cutting everything into tiny bits, and it made lots of noise, so I put that on my list of things to buy. I knew my chef would love it!

While the braided crescent roll snacks were baking, the consultant started on her next recipe -- Tropical Torte with Fresh Pineapple. Apparently, it was the first time that she'd made it, so things went a bit slowly, while she read and re-read the recipe.

The recipe called for mango sorbet, but she couldn't find any, and used a rainbow sorbet instead. Well, it might have tasted okay, but when you melt all those colours, it turns into an unappetizing brownish mixture, instead of an appealing orange sauce.

The rest of that demo consisted of slicing up a frozen pound cake, and coating it with a mixture of pudding mix and frozen whipped topping. She chopped up some fresh fruit as a topping.

I had a bit of the fruit, but nothing else looked too good, so I passed on that, and didn't buy a pineapple chopper. However, the bamboo spatula set that she used for mixing looked good, so I bought one of those.

After the demo, we browsed through the catalogue, to see if there was anything else that we wanted to buy. Some of the guests had been to other Pampered Chef parties, and raved about the stone bakeware, but it didn't look like something I'd use, or want to look after.

We have stainless steel pots and pans though, so I bought the chef a nice new whisk. It's stainless steel, coated with silicone.

The last thing that I bought was a set of collapsible funnels. They're a nice bright colour, so should be easy to find in the cupboard!

There's a couple of weeks to wait before you get your order delivered, and shipping charges are added to your bill, so keep that in mind when shopping.

So far, the chef is enjoying all his new toys, so it was a good investment in my time and money.

There's a Pampered Chef website where you can find recipes and product information.

On my Contextures website, which features Microsoft Excel tips and tutorials, I have a sample file that you can use for planning a dinner. Enter the hour that you want to serve dinner, list all the dishes you plan to serve, and the Excel file will create a cooking schedule for you.