Is you dream refrigerator a giant Subzero or a colorful, retro Big Chill? Designers are already thinking outside of the box when it comes to restyling refrigerators and, if they get their way, we might be looking at a totally different appliance in the future. This is the Tree House Fridge, a design concept from the team of Chuan Shi, Wenying Lu, Chuan Shi & Yu Li at Yanko Design. Its unique layout presents an interesting possibility of what fridges could be like in the not-too-distant future. Each of the branches will be specifically designed to store a certain type of food - cheese, produce, etc - and will have a slide-out compartment in the trunk for larger things and drinks. To take advantage of the tree shape, the branches will have holders on the doors where fruit can be stored and "picked" at will.

A tree, of course, seems a bit extreme, but it is not so far-fetched to imagine separated, specialized compartments that will keep food fresher than the salad drawers that many refrigerators are equipped with now.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: if you're going to make ice cream at home, it is worth it to get an ice cream maker. In fact, it is necessary to get an ice cream maker because it ensures that you will always get the optimal results from your frozen desserts. There are a wide range of ice cream makers to choose from, but there will definitely be at least one that fits your kitchen and your budget. After a batch or three of homemade ice cream, every single one will pay for itself in taste alone.

Ice Cream Ball - play with it and make ice cream. It's a great way to give your kids something to keep them occupied while they wait for the ice cream to be ready. $29

Cuisinart 1.5-qt. Yogurt, Ice Cream and Sorbet Maker - a great, easy-to-use all-purpose machine that can handle most family-sized jobs. Keep the extra freezer bowl in the freezer at all times so you're ready to go. Recommended by me (I own this model, pictured, and love it) and America's Test Kitchen. $49.95

With quite a few food blogging events coming up that focus on cold things (sweets in particular), an ice cream maker is a great thing to have in the kitchen. (Unless, of course, you want to do a rainbow jell-o mold). However, if you've got more than one person in your household, or heck, your tastebuds have a double-personality, you might need to do more than just one flavor. Enter, the double ice cream maker.

The Koolatron Double Ice Cream Maker makes two flavors at once in your freezer. It's available from Targat, and you'd think that a double ice cream maker would cost twice as much, but this one is only $16.99. Target also has a model made by a different manufacturer, the DuoTreat Ice Cream Maker, which is a few dollars more at $19.99.

Two great tastes that taste great together!

Personally, I love the look of a sleek and modern kitchen that's outfitted with chrome and silver appliances, but if you'd like to add some color to your kitchen, Vincon has some cool panels that attach to the front of refrigerators, dishwashers, and washer/dryers.

The panels are graphic designs, photography, or illustrations that are transferred to flexible plastic via high quality digital printing. The panels are easy to cut with scissors, so you cut the shape you need for your particular appliance. They attach magnetically, which means when you get tired of lemons, you can put up strawberries. Vincon also has other fruits, coffee beans, and eggs.

The panels are available for 199 euros.

It is perhaps every baker's dream to take a tour of the KitchenAid factory, but to do so by invitation is something that most bakers can only dream of. When you are the author of more than one wildly successful cookbook, though, it looks like the company will extend an invitation without even having to be asked. Food blogger, author and chef, the ex-pat American in Paris, David Lebovitz was lucky enough to get just such and invitation. He visited the factory in Greenville, Ohio, took a private tour and put on a demonstration of a few things, including rocky road and ice cream for other visitors. Yes- they do offer tours to non-professionals.

They generously allowed David to take photos along the way, so every photo in his post is an exclusive look inside the factory. He checked out some of the very first stand mixers, the assembly lines and the newest colors, like "Meyer Lemon, Martha Green (named after...), Caviar (black with silver flecks), a cheerful Green Apple, Olive, and colorfully-red Bing Cherry." According to David, each mixer takes one day to assemble and each employee assembles around 90 mixers per day. One of the things that I like about KitchenAid is that, in addition to the high quality of their products, nearly everything they sell is made in the United States, not overseas.

He said that it was one of the most fun tours he's taken, with interesting information and a very helpful staff. Be sure to drop in the next time you're passing near Cincinnati:

The KitchenAid Experience
423 South Broadway
Greenville, Ohio
Tel: 1-888-886-8318

It looks like the Slate missed out in their toaster test by excluding specialty and novelty toasters, but if "cute" had been one of their categories, these Disney toasters by VillaWare would have won hands down. Not only is there a Cinderella toaster, which prints a heart on one side of toast and a glass slipper on the other, but there are Winnie the Pooh and Mickey Mouse toasters, too. Perhaps the most interesting toaster is one that will really appeal to children while annoying the heck out of parents: the Mickey Mornin' Toaster. It prints the unforgettable image of Mickey Mouse on the toast and it plays the Mickey Mouse Club March when the toast pops up. This toaster would make a great gift - that way you get to see it in action without having to live with it!

Toasters have been around for more than 100 years and the Slate took on the task of testing eight toasters to see which one was really the toast of the town. Using a highly scientific scale which judged toasting quality, ease of use, cleanup and value, the toasters were put to the test. After too many loaves of bread to count, the results were in. The high-end toasters like the DeLonghi Aluminum 2-Slice and the KitchenAid Pro Line 2-Slice finished with the best scores, though they were low in the "value" category. Generally, the less expensive toasters, like the T-Fal Avanté Deluxe 4-Slice and Michael Graves 2-Slice, did not perform as well as their more expensive counterparts.

Their list is a great way to start a toaster search, but Cooking.com and Amazon.com's customer reviews also provide great feedback.

Slow cookers are one of the most useful appliances you can have in your kitchen, even more so if you don't enjoy cooking or you have a busy schedule that keeps you running around and not working over the stove. You can toss together a soup or meat dish in the morning in about five minutes and when you return from work in the evening, you'll have a hot, home cooked meal waiting for you. In addition, everything cooks together, which means that you'll only have one pot to clean. Some recipes will call for the meat (or even vegetables) to be browned before adding them in, but this is almost never really necessary.

Slow cookers cook foods for long periods of time at low temperatures. Modern slow cookers often have an automatic shutoff or a super-low "warm" setting that will protect both your food and your home when you are not around to watch, so they are safe to use any time, unlike the stove or the oven. They are ideal for cooking lean or inexpensive pieces of meat because they trap juice and steam as they cook the meat, allowing the meat to become moist and tender, preventing it from shrinking or toughening. The long, slow cooking process also allows flavors to meld and blend, making it an ideal way to cook soups and stews, too.