"kitchen equipment" news and stories

This is so cool - a scale in which you can measure dry or wet ingredients, in both metric and standard, that are hard to weigh on a regular scale that has a flat surface. It's also very cool because you can tare the scale (set it back to zero) even when there are things already in the scale - so you can just add additional ingredients right into the container.

The scale is made by eva Solo and has only three parts - all of them are dishwasher safe. It is available online at Modern Motive for $72.95.

Sometimes, cooking for one or two every night is just as much of a challenge as cooking for a large family of six. Whereas cooking for a large family requires savvy stretching of dollars and food, cooking for one or two requires the ability to cook in small quantities without wasting food. Of course, that doesn't mean you can't get creative with leftovers.

The micro rice cooker helps out by allowing you to cook a small amount of rice, and conveniently, too, since the ceramic pot goes in the microwave oven. Once the rice is cooked, you can eat straight from the bowl. It's certainly not any faster, since the uncooked rice still has to be washed/rinsed and soaked for 15 minutes before cooking. If you want speed, then just go for the pre-cooked ready packed rice available at Asian markets.

The micro rice cooker is available at Compact Impact for $44. 

[via: popgadget]

I'm not a fan of kitchen "gadgets" beyond a very good knife and maybe a melon baller when necessary (but then, when is a melon baller every necessary?), but this avocado slicer from Williams-Sonoma really piques my interest.

I always just do the old wrenching-out of the pit, making longitudinal slices, then scooping out the flesh with a large spoon, but this might be helpful for those of us who want to make pretty, presentable uniform slices or dices of avocado. The tool also pits the avocado, but I can't tell how it does it from the picture.

It's $15.

I am not a girlie-girl in most respects, but for some reason I have always loved the color pink and anything that is shaped like a heart. Though I find Valetine's Day, the holiday, slightly annoying (for many reasons not associated with food, of course), I love that everything around me is suddenly heart-shaped.

I love my heart-shaped measuring spoons. On the front of them, instead of standard tablespoon and teaspoon measurements, they have things like "a pinch of patience" and "a spoonful of laughter." They're real measuring spoons, though, so the actual measurements on the back.

I have yet to use them, but might never because I want to keep them perfect. Or maybe I'm just waiting for my recipe in shining armor.