"kitchen tools" news and stories

Stone-age cooking sounds about as appealing as going back to beating your laundry against a rock, so when we saw the story "How to Create a Caveman Kitchen," at Fox News, our bafflement got the best of us.

Huh!? Ok, it's one thing to argue that we should be interpreting the Constitution like the Founding Fathers; it's a whole other to start encouraging people to toss out their Lean Cuisines and start spit-roasting pigs.

Yes, that's one of the Neanderthal recommendations: get a spit roast.

Dads who love to cook, eat or drink typically consider themselves the household "top chefs" and taste-testers. These Father's Day gifts will give him the tools to cook more efficiently, experiment more wildly and consume food and beverages with a sense of humor. (Useful and funny? We can't think of anything better.)

Check out our product picks after the jump.

Bison. Photo: digitalART2/Flickr

• Bison meat is lean and non-gamey -- and also delicious.
  
• The servers may wear jeans, but the food at Blanc Burgers is anything but casual, with patties mixed with rib-eye, tenderloin and New York strip steak.
• Choirmaster Kevin Hershberger talks about culinary style and shares a recipe for Gelatin Lemon Wedges.
• Kansas City hosts self-guided farm tours from Independence to Shawnee. And there are plenty of local farmers markets that bring the farms closer to home.
  
• Five cheap kitchen tools that won't break the bank: steak knives, wok, hands, coffee dripper and wine opener.
• The latest Seven-Day Menu Planner features everything from chicken wraps to Boston cream pie.
• Recipes: Grilled Swordfish Rolls, Quick Potato and Leek Soup, Citrus and Strawberry Chicken Salad.

In most conversations about kitchen tools, I'll be the first to step up and say, "Yeah, it's important to use good tools. They make everything easier." And yet, when it came to pastry blenders, for the last 8+ years I have not been following my own advice. I picked up that green-handled one that you see on the left sometime during college at a thrift store. It never worked well and yet I soldiered on, trying to cream butter and sugar together with wires that were constantly bending and spreading so wide that they allowed an entire stick of butter to pass through unmolested. Oh, and did I mention that the handle spins around?

Several weeks ago, I was down in Washington, DC visiting a friend. During the full day I was there, we spend nearly five hours going to three different thrift stores. During the course of that day, I picked up the pastry blender on the right for $.80 (I like good tools but I'm also cheap). I didn't really think much of it until I used the new one tonight. What a difference! The butter broke down easily, the wires didn't bend and the handle stayed right where it was supposed to. Good tools make such a difference!

The simplest thing to make for breakfast (not including cereal, since there's no real "cooking" there), is toast. Even if you're using plain old Wonder white, slipping it into a toaster, letting it bronze, then watching it pop out onto a plate, a toaster makes breakfast even the tiniest bit more special.

But! Now it gets even better with fancy toasters. Forget about the silver Oster that's sitting on your counter. Manufacturers and kitchen product designers are getting into toasters, with everything from the design on the outside, to accessories that allow you to "tattoo" your toast, to a concept toaster that's made of glass. Click through on each toaster to see what it's about.