For centuries, the kitchen was simply a place to cook food, but these days, it's becoming more like a family room. The Good Housekeeping Institute has uncovered the latest high-tech hardware that helps you make meals and entertain the family all at once. Hardware such as the "Beyond Icebox." This isn't your grandmother's icebox.

"The Icebox computer is a complete entertainment system for your kitchen and a benefit is that the keyboard and the remote control are completely spill proof," says Stacy Genovese, Engineering Director, Good Housekeeping Institute. "So, you can let your kids play on it with their juice and it is no problem."

The "Beyond Icebox" is a computer with Internet access plus a DVD player for movies, CD Player for music, a TV and an FM Radio.

"This product is so high-tech that it can communicate wirelessly with all the Westinghouse Icebox appliances like the Beyond Microwave," says Genovese.

This unusual microwave has a scanning wand that reads the bar code and then programs itself.

"The Beyond microwave communicates with the Icebox computer so that as new food products come to the market place it can download information about how to cook those products," says Genovese.

Finally, if you're tired of grocery receipts taking up space, check-out the nifty Neat Receipts Scanner.

"What's really neat about this scanner is that it comes with software so that it organizes all of your receipts on your computer so you can find them when you need them," says Genovese. "Also, if you are trying to formulate a family budget, you can scan all of your grocery receipts and figure out exactly how much you are spending."

Not since the introduction of the microwave oven 35 years ago has the kitchen taken on such a high-tech make-over.

For more information on high-tech hardware for the kitchen, check out the October issue of Good Housekeeping or visit www.goodhousekeeping.com.