SUMMER means eating al fresco, and for children it means more ice cream.

There is no shortage of great new gadgets for making it at home.

Older ice-cream makers can be fiddly and have a bulky bowl that must go in the freezer before you start.

But the Delizia, an update from Philips, is easier to use, replacing the bowl with a neat "cooling disc".

Although it still needs 18 hours in the freezer first, it takes up much less space.

Once frozen, the disc goes into the machine's bowl and an electric stirrer churns the ingredients for half an hour, after which the ice cream is ready. A video on www.lakeland.co.uk shows you how to use it.

Delizia costs [pounds]35, plus [pounds]15.99 for extra freezing discs.

Incidentally, there are ice-cream makers on the market that have a built-in freezer and mixer but they are bulky, heavy and cost upwards of [pounds]225.

At [pounds]24.95, the Ice Cream Ball seems cheap but it is fiddly and must be packed with ice and rock salt.

Then the "ball" must be rolled around for 20 minutes to make a pint of ice cream. This might be fun for children.

Another idea from them is the Fizz Cup ([pounds]6.95 for six) for instant, Fifties-style icecream sodas. Filled with ice-cream, it fits on to a plastic bottle of pop. A quick squeeze of the bottle fills the cup with soda.

Steaming makes meals nutritious and light. A perforated pan and lid that simply sits on top of a saucepan is the old favourite (from Lakeland, for example, for [pounds]16.99).

More serious is Tefal's latest VitaCuisine machine that steams three foods at once. The easily accessible steaming compartments sit neatly side by side.

It costs about [pounds]70

Tefal also does a Mini Steam Oven ([pounds]99.99 from Lakeland), with its own grill, which sits on top of a work surface and turns out food that is crisp outside but moist within.

Also new is the Cook & Steam from Cuisinart, with a non-stick rice pot and a separate steam tray for fresh fish and vegetables, plus a timer for perfectly cooked rice.

Many can only tackle citrus fruits lemons, oranges, limes and grapefruit. For "juicing" vegetables or hard fruits, buy a "centrifugal" machine that shreds fruit and veg and then whizzes it around at high speed, separating juice from pulp.

Prices start at [pounds]30 but a heavy-duty model can cost [pounds]300.

Smoothies sound as delicious as they taste. You'll need a blender or a smoothie maker. These pulverise the fruit rather than extract the juice. Kenwood's Smoothie 2GO has a detachable mug with lid to take to work or on a picnic.

The slinky Bugatti Vela blender (powerful enough to crush ice) comes in vivid colours such as fuchsia and orange ([pounds]120).

If the weather is good, it's great to cook outside but a bulky barbecue doesn't make sense in a small London garden.

This summer's table-top designs are efficient yet chic. Award- winning Eva Solo has a white porcelain bowl with stainless-steel grid on a wooden stand ([pounds]175.

Or, handmade of clay and charcoal-fired, the Hotsopt Yakatori table grill ([pounds]30) is a great centrepiece.

Lakeland's Asado stand keeps the foil trays of disposable barbecue from charring a table or scorching grass and costs [pounds]9.99.

And its Cobb Barbecue Cooking System has a non-stick grill that keeps food separate from the charcoal.