But, if you take out pad and pen and do math, you will quickly decide that a home machine - a good home machine - will pay for itself rather quickly.

Let's assume that you buy just one espresso drink per day at modest cost of $3.50 (I know most drinks run higher and many of us cannot get by on just one per day!) That adds up to over $1277 per year! If you have friends, roommates, family (my wife, oh my wife!), then you can easily see cost-effectiveness of an commercial grade home models.

Plus, when you get good at making drinks (and that's a lot of fun), you can wow friends and family. It beats a card trick most everytime.

A Word of Caution when Buying an Espresso Machine

If you're budget minded, like I am, you might be tempted to snap up a $60 expresso machine at Target. Hey, I love Target too. But you will likely be disappointed by performance of machine. Frankly, I think a good barista can make a decent drink on any machine - but you'll likely wish you saved up a bit over time and purchased a higher quality pump-driven model.

It's true that pump-driven espresso makers are bigger, heavier, and more difficult to use (until you learn to use it). But they'll produce a better cup of coffee. And you will be happier in long-run as a result.

What should I look for when buying an espresso machine?

Machine Look and Design:

They’re easy to cook, right?

We’ll see.

The first thing to remember is that you need right size of frying pan. This is more important than you may think. Too large, and omelet will dry out; too small, and it will not cook through.

As a basic guide, you need a 15 centimeter pan for a two-egg omelet and a 25 centimeter pan for a four to six egg omelet. That is, 6 in. and 10 in. respectively. Which, handily enough, is pretty much size of pans you should have in your kitchen anyway.

The second most important thing is not to beat eggs.

I’ll repeat that for all of those chefs out there who think they can cook omelets: do NOT beat eggs.

Instead, abandon habits of a lifetime and stir yolks into whites using a knife blade. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.