I was just over at Crate&Barrel, swooning over all of the gorgeous new kitchen gadgets for spring. My new favorite? The oil and vinegar pump bottle, which allows you to pres a button and squeeze precise amounts of the mixture into a resevoir, where you can then pour it onto your salad, fish, bread...or directly into your mouth. (Wait. that would be gross. Scratch that).
Craving more fun, brightly-colored kitchen doodads? You know you are. Check out the marvelousness below.
Gallery: Crate & Barrel Celebrates a Very Green Spring
Every time you turn around, there's a new brightly-colored, cleverly-named kitchen product adorned with google-y eyes and baring a twenty dollar price tag. We've all come across these products, smiled, cooed, and handed over our Visa, only to get them home and dizzily wonder, What the heck was I thinking? The utensil then sits unused, in your junk drawer, until, in a furious bout of spring cleaning three years later, you stumble upon it and have absolutely no idea what it is.
Don't feel bad. We've all done this. It's awful fun to peruse these items at stores, play with them, and make them into little puppets in order to entertain/freak out your other customers (in fact, the latter is one of my favorite pastimes). So in an effort to dissuade you from buying these little gadgets in the future, we've provided some of them here, so you'll know 'em when you see 'em.
Now, for the record, I understand that these products do serve some purpose, however insignificant. And if you happen to own one of these products, more power to you! I am simply suggesting that there are, perhaps, other ways to accomplish the same kitchen tasks that these products purport to execute...
One of the continuing joys of my life is the practice of making lists with pen and paper. It gives me a moment to get organized, I get the opportunity to firmly cross the items off the list once I've completed them and there's something so satisfying about looking at a slip of paper at the end of the day and knowing that you accomplished a series of tasks or errands. I especially love making grocery shopping lists because in addition to my previously discussed love of lists, I also love food. It becomes the merging of multiple loves and that just makes my day.
That was a long way of saying that I totally don't understand this gadget, the SmartShopper Grocery List Organizer that "alphabetizes and groups items by where they're found in the store." You pay $149.99 for the privilege of using this electronic list maker to do a job that a $.19 pen and a piece of paper could probably do just (if not more) effectively. Oh technology. You claim to make our lives better, but sometimes I wonder.
Still only existing in concept, this whiteboard/toaster could become the wave of the breakfast future someday soon. Need to leave a note for your partner, but you leave for work before they do? Just scrawl it on the toaster. If they don't see that note, then they'll surely notice it when it appears on their toast (provided they aren't following a low carb diet). I do see a couple flaws in the plan though, like the fact that the writing surface seems awful close to where the heating element would be. So you'd have to wait quite a while between toasts to write a message if you wanted to avoid burning your hand.
This isn't the first time that someone has designed a toaster that leaves an imprint on the toast. This very pink and white Hello Kitty toaster creates toast that has Kitty's image baked in and has the added bonus of being available now.
After a while, if you spend enough time reading food blogs, your computer is going to become a sort of virtual cookbook as you add more and more recipes to your list of favorites. Unless you keep your computer in the kitchen, though, you're still going to have to rely on good, old-fashioned cookbooks (or printed pages) as references. This reliance on the printed recipe probably won't always be the case, as designer Philipp Gilgen, a student at the University of Applied Sciences in Northwestern Switzerland, has just invented a digital cookbook that perfectly suits the kitchen environment. The coo.boo. is shaped like a spatula and synchs with a personal computer via a wireless docking station to download recipes, how-tos and other content. The digital "cookbook" is sturdy, washable and can be stored with regular kitchen appliances so that it is always on hand. It is still in a prototype stage, but it may not be too long before we see a real release, as there is sure to be a demand for such a handy tool/reference.
Erielle, who blogs at Fancy Toast, wanted to know if there was a mandoline support group somewhere that she could join because she just couldn't get the hang of using hers. A mandoline is a kitchen tool designed to make slicing up vegetables into thin, even strips, almost effortless. Potatoes, apples, cabbage and other firm fruits and vegetables can be placed into a (usually) metal holder and are quickly run across a very sharp blade that neatly cuts them into pieces. It is more precise than a grater, but the concept is similar.
Most find the process of using a mandoline to be very clear cut, but judging from the comments on the post, there are many people who have experienced the same type of frustration as Erielle in attempting to use their mandolines. Coming to the rescue, in the comments section of the original post, was none other than OXO - the maker of the mandoline in question! They are offering mandoline lessons to anyone who needs a little assistance in New York City at OXO in the Chelsea Market and at the upcoming housewares show in Chicago in mid-March. Even if you're already experienced with your mandoline, it might be worth taking up their offer to pick up some extra tips. Check Erielle's comments for the contact info if you have any other OXO tech questions.
For a long time, I assumed that only some kids and a couple of adults nostalgic for the sandwiches that they had as kids cut the crusts off their breads. I love crust, personally, but now know a number of adults who simply don't car for it on their sandwiches. They don't cut it off in neat, straight lines, but it's obvious when they abandon crusts on their plates - repeatedly - after eating. As a nod to them, and to both kids and nostalgia, here is another crust-eliminating kitchen cutter. We've already seen one gadget for those who don't like crust on their bread, but this one offers the advantage of cutting the bread into shapes, as well as removing the crust. I wouldn't mind using the heart-shaped one from time to time, especially with Valentine's Day coming up. But I'll still probably eat the crusts after I cut them off my sandwich.
Pasta is easy to cook. All you have to do is open up a bag and pour as much as you want into salted, boiling water, bring it back up to a boil and wait until it is done. The tricky thing about pasta is cooking it to the right consistency.
Al dente, a firm but not hard texture with a small amount of "bite," is usually what is desired and is rarely achieved by following the instructions on the packaging. A more reliable method of cooking pasta is to let it boil for several minutes and then testing pieces of pasta at 30-60 second intervals until you reach your preferred consistency. For this to work, however, you have to stand over the stove the whole time, so another option, this time in the form of a gadget, might present the perfect solution. The Pasta Per'fect Timer is dropped into the pot along with your noodles and changes color according to the level of doneness of the pasta. It gives three indicators, from thin (angel hair) to thick (lasagna noodles) and it will only take a couple of batches before you find exactly the right level of donrness and can hit it every time.
One of the best ways to practice portion control is to get into the habit of measuring or weighing your foods and the easiest way to do that is to add a kitchen scale to your countertop. Such a scale can be used for weighing ingredients for baking (useful if you like to use cookbooks from outside the US), but more importantly today, they can be used to measure portion size to ensure that you don't break your diet by over-estimating portions. There are even some new scales that come programmed with the caloric value of various foods so you can find out exactly what you're about to eat. The WSJ's Catalog Critic put several popular digital scales to the test to see what worked, what didn't, and which one is really going to work for you.
Three of the scales - the Soehnle Food Control Digital Kitchen Scale, Salter Nutri-Weigh Dietary Scale and the Escali Cibo - all provided nutritional data and all were deemed to be more difficult to use than the standard digital scales. While it was convenient to have the calorie/fat information right in front of you, the testers felt that the difficulty of use would prevent most people from actually using them on a regular basis. Additionally, the caloric contents didn't take into account cooking method, so the counts were not accurate in terms of what food was consumed.
The two top scales - the Cuisinart Precision Electronic Scale and Polder Digital food scale - were both easy to use, with large buttons and clear functions in both standard and metric measures. You'll get the proper portion size quickly and easily and you can always use a website to check the calorie count if you need to.
OXO is well-known in the US for their sleek designs and both the functionality and reliability of their products, but when they decided to go global with their much-loved kitchen products, the company discovered that what one market is looking for, isn't exactly right for another. And that people don't look at kitchen gadgets the same way in Japan as they do in the US.
In Japan, the tools were less-than-popular, to put it mildly. The large and user-friendly sizes of the tools, which are widely considered to be easier than their smaller counterparts with the company's target demographic - baby boomers - in the US, were too unwieldy for Japanese women who held their cooking spatulas "like a pen." A few design tweaks (and the opening of a Tokyo office) later, the company had Japan-only spatulas and a salad spinner that was 35% smaller than the original, which appealed to space-conscious consumers. They have commissioned Japanese designers to come up with new Japanese-friendly designs from graters, storage boxes and kettles to appeal directly to the Japanese aesthetic and functionality. For example, the graters specifically work best with daikons, rather than cheeses, which are used with most US graters.
The company hopes to introduce some of their Japanese designs here in the US next year.
It's a bit out of season, but I can't help loving these stainless steel straw spoons anyway. Exactly what they sound like, these are straws that have small spoon projections on one end that make it easy to scoop up ice cream or fruit from a cold milkshake, float or smoothie, but still give you the ability to sip the liquidy parts. Usually, you'll only see cheap plastic versions of these at 1950s-themed eateries (and the occasional convenience store), but because of the material used to make these, they are built to last for repeated uses. They're great to have on hand in the summer when you're more likely to indulge in an ice cream-based drink on a regular basis.
They're $10 for a package of four and would make a great gift with a set of sundae glasses, especially if the recipient is someone who really likes root beer floats.
Coffee lovers know that the most important ingredient in an excellent cup of coffee is the beans. Not only should they be high quality, but they need to be freshly roasted. The easiest way to get freshly roasted beans is to find a reliable nearby roastery and buy theirs, but there are methods for roasting green beans at home, as well. The iRoast 2 is easier than both of these methods. The small appliance, upgrade from the original machine, safely and accurately roasts coffee beans to perfection in the comfort of your own home.
With a built-in timer and thermometer, the iRoast 2 uses hot air to roast beans evenly and quickly. It has programmable roast profiles that let you choose light, dark or in-between roasts from pre-set temperature options, simplifying the process of getting the perfect result by taking out the guess work. This is especially useful for someone new to home-roasting, as well as for anyone looking for consistency, which other home-roasting methods aren't able to provide without hours upon hours of experience.
Our friends over at Engadget tipped us off to a really unusual diet-helper called the Smart Plate. The 15-cm plate was invented by a Ukrainian scientist, Dr. Hryhory Chausovsky, and is weight sensitive. When the plate is overloaded with food, a palm sized computer attached to the plate is activated and audio alerts are triggered. At that point, acting like your own personal "weight-watcher," the plate will reprimand the user, saying things like, "Stop right there! And what about excess weight?" and "Where's your willpower?" If you really have a problem with overloaded your plate, especially in a buffet-type of situation, it would be worth getting a few odd looks as you pulled out your own dish if it helped you keep your diet under control. And having your plate reprimand you in public is significantly more embarrassing than just bringing out the plate itself, so there is a good chance that the plate really would keep you on track.
Dr. Chausovsky has a number of other weight-loss aids to his name, too. He has a second version of the plate that has a different type of sensor. This one will play music faster and faster, depending on the speed at which food is eaten and the rate at which utensils touch the surface of the dish. Slower eating would keep the music at a normal tempo. He also has a belt that monitors a stomach's expansion during a meal, an armband that monitors calorie intake per bite, a refrigerator magnet that demands"Are you here because you are really hungry, or is it just your emotions?" when the door is opened and "food spectacles" that are tinted to make good food look unappealing.
Chausovsky says that he doesn't take any money for any of his inventions, since he got into the business to benefit people, not to profit from them.
It may not be available just yet, but you can put our names on the list for the ROLLERtoaster when it hits the market. It is definitely the toaster of the future. Sleek and compact, the toaster was designed by Jaren Goh of Singapore and won a 2006 Red Dot Design Award for innovation. Goh was inspired by the change of televisions from large and bulky boxes to streamlined flat-panels which retained all the functionality of the larger unit in a much more compact product. He applied that to a common appliance,the toaster, and the ROLLERtoaster was born. Slices of bread are "fed" into one side of the machine and are rolled through, fully toasted, to the other side where your plate awaits. The only potential problem is that it doesn't look like it will be able to handle bagels easily. Then again, neither do a lot of other toasters, so perhaps it's not as big a problem as one might think.
I must confess that I don't think too much about aerating wines before I drink them other than giving a red a couple of swirls around an oversized glass and letting it set for a few minutes before drinking. Of course, I'm not generally drinking wines that really need to be decanted either. If I was given one of these neat Pewter Octopus Wine Aerators for the holidays, possibly along with a nice bottle of red, I would rethink my position since the cool looking gadget makes aeration a snap. The octopus is set into the mouth of a decanter and the wine is poured over it, aerating as it flows. The way the stream of wine is interrupted by the twisting of the octopus is far more efficient than simply pouring the wine into a glass or straight into the decanter. If an octopus doesn't float your boat, the aerators are available in sea horse and puffer fish designs as well and all are visually intriguing, although there is some irony to the fact that only ocean-dwelling creatures were chosen to help wines breathe. Each is about $30.
After a while, if you spend enough time reading food blogs, your computer is going to become a sort of virtual cookbook as you add more and more recipes to your list of favorites. Unless you keep your computer in the kitchen, though, you're still going to have to rely on good, old-fashioned cookbooks (or printed pages) as references. This reliance on the printed recipe probably won't always be the case, as designer 
Erielle, who blogs at 
For a long time, I assumed that only some kids and a couple of adults nostalgic for the sandwiches that they had as kids cut the crusts off their breads. I love crust, personally, but now know a number of adults who simply don't car for it on their sandwiches. They don't cut it off in neat, straight lines, but it's obvious when they abandon crusts on their plates - repeatedly - after eating. As a nod to them, and to both kids and nostalgia, here is another 
Pasta is easy to cook. All you have to do is open up a bag and pour as much as you want into salted, boiling water, bring it back up to a boil and wait until it is done. The tricky thing about pasta is cooking it to the right consistency.
One of the best ways to practice portion control is to get into the habit of measuring or weighing your foods and the easiest way to do that is to add a kitchen scale to your countertop. Such a scale can be used for weighing ingredients for baking (useful if you like to use cookbooks from outside the US), but more importantly today, they can be used to measure portion size to ensure that you don't break your diet by over-estimating portions. There are even some new scales that come programmed with the caloric value of various foods so you can find out exactly what you're about to eat. The 
OXO is well-known in the US for their sleek designs and both the functionality and reliability of their products, but when they 
It's a bit out of season, but I can't help loving these 
Our friends over at 
I must confess that I don't think too much about aerating wines before I drink them other than giving a red a couple of swirls around an oversized glass and letting it set for a few minutes before drinking. Of course, I'm not generally drinking wines that really need to be decanted either. If I was given one of these neat 
DIY Foods: Making homemade sausage
Cakes so amazing they'd be hard to cut into
Fruit juice: An invitation to diabetes?
