Fast-Food Home Cooking Coming to Your Home

Ever heard of the wonder appliance that toasts a piece of bread and poaches an egg simultaneously? According to the The New York Times, it has arrived and so has a new generation of no fuss, time-saving kitchen electronics that debuted earlier this month at the International Home and Housewares Show.

With a grim economy forcing people to forgo dinners out on the town and more Americans eating at home (though it's unclear whether they are doing their or own cooking or cheating by ordering-in), research points to a growing demand for electronics that speed up the preparation of in-home cooking.

Sales of small kitchen electrics, a $3.8 billion market, rose almost 9 percent from 2008 to 2009 while sales of housewares, utensils such as pots, pans and knives, dropped 11.5 percent, according to research conducted by the NPD Group.