Photo: Philips

That end of year bonus everybody gets is like gold dust. While some people are advocates of spending responsibility, we advocate using that money to buy something you really want. Why else would they call it a ‘bonus’ if you’re not allowed to reward yourself? While we recommend you take our advise of money matters with a pinch of salt, since that’s not our job, we can recommend two appliances that we recently reviewed will greatly enhance your kitchen.

Philips Airfryer

Imagine having those crispy hot chips you love so much, safe in the knowledge that they’re not drenched in greasy, unhealthy oil. It’s kind of difficult to imagine, right? Now what if you were told that there’s an appliance you can buy today that does exactly that? Ridiculous, right? That’s exactly what we thought when we first heard about the Philips Airfryer, so imagine our alarm when we reviewed it and found it worked as advertised – by using hot air to fry food, and not the way you’ve previously done it.

The Philips Airfryer is easily one of the best kitchen appliances of 2010, even if it is a bit on the expensive side.

Cuisinart Soup Maker

Photo: Cuisinart

From one mind-blowing appliance to another one, we introduce the Cuisinart Soup Maker to you. Though this appliance was originally launched at the tail end of 2009, the constant hands-on we had with it in 2010 convinced us that this is easily a must-have appliance. So what does it do, you ask? It’s basically a blender that has integrated heating, allowing you to not only blend cold foods, but also prepare hot foods – and most notably soup – when the heat is turned up. Our review goes into deeper detail.

The Cuisinart Soup Maker is a godsend for people who love soup but hate the cleaning up part of it. More importantly, it is undoubtedly one of the best kitchen appliances of 2010.

So there you have it! The Philips Airfryer and the Cuisinart Soup Maker – two of the best kitchen appliances of 2010. They’re both wonderfully suited for winter, and both so cleverly conceived you wonder why you didn’t come up with them yourself.