Spill Stop Lid
How many times have you stepped away from the stove for just a second only to hear that dreaded sizzle? That’s right, the pot boiled over again and now you have to clean up the mess. Whether it be boiling water for rice, pasta, potatoes or vegetables, it happens to the best chefs. Which is why we love this recent discovery – the Kuhon Rikon spill stop lids (pictured right). Direct from Germany, these colorful silicone lids prevent your pot from boiling over by catching the bubbling liquid for you. It’s heat resistant up to 400 degrees as well as microwave and dishwasher safe. Just place the flower-shaped lid on any pot with the flower facing up and your good to go. Best of all, it acts like a vacuum, sealing in the flavor of any stock or sauce....
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Mini Flip Belgian Waffle Maker
Mini’s have all been all the rage this fall where dessert is concerned. We’ve seen and sampled everything from mini-cupcakes to mini-cannolis and more. If you’re like us, you like to recreate your favorite food finds at home, so we scouted out mini-makers of all kinds, from mini-pie makers to teeny ice cream sandwiches. One of our favorite discoveries is the Mini Waffle Maker from Smart Planet (pictured right). This gadget allows you to make pint-size Belgian waffles, the kind with deep cratered squares, great for catching whatever you put on it, be it syrup, powdered sugar, chocolate sauce, nevermind what you can add to the batter. (We’re fond of chocolate chip waffles, blueberry waffles and even peanut butter waffles.) And with five mini waffles instead of one big one, you can add different condiments to each one and...
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DIY Quesadilla Maker
We love going out for Mexican, but aside from guacamole or ceviche, we rarely make it at home. Homemade tortillas seem daunting and 17-ingredient mole overwhelming. Recently, we’ve developed a fondness for breakfast quesadillas and we’d prefer to eat them in our PJ’s. So we went on a hunt for a kitchen tool to make it a lot easier and we found one. This El Paso Quesadilla Maker (pictured right) is almost too good to be true. It’s non-stick, so you don’t have to worry about prying our cheese-filled quesadilla out and there’s a ready light that lets you know when it’s done. Which means there’s no risk of over or undercooking, and no need to stand guard, peeking under the lid to ensure it’s not going to burn. There’s also a built-in reservoir to catch any gooey cheese...
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Chocolate Xmas Tree Mold
Just in time for the holidays, we discovered this clever Christmas mold. What we love about it is how easy it is to make this adorable, edible tree at home. The mold makes it virtually foolproof. All you need to do is melt the chocolate, pour into the cavity of the pan and refrigerate, so it sets. Best of all, you pick the chocolate. If you’re the dark chocolate type (I am!), fill it with your favorite dark chocolate and bake up a different kind, like white, for the star on top. You can give them away as gifts or use your chocolate tree for decoration. If you want to add ornaments, decorate with a few M & M’s, candy canes or whatever else you can dream up before it sets. You can even make a Hannukah tree if...
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Dream Gingerbread House Kit
We thought we were impressing our friends with Santa-shaped sugar cookies, but this Gingerbread Kit from Sur La Table takes it to a whole new level. This isn’t a gingerbread house. It’s a mansion! And it’s shockingly easy to make. Really. You don’t even need to look up a recipe. This puppy comes with a pre-packaged gingerbread mix, icing, and other decorations. All you need to buy is eggs and oil. Just add your wet ingredients to the mix, then pour into the house frame molds. There’s even a mold for a gingergirl and gingerboy! Bake, cool, and assemble. Then, trim your edible house with candy canes, candy hearts and plenty of frosting. You get to play Martha Stewart without all the hard work and artistic talent. How great is that!? Gingerhaus Gingerbread House Kit...
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The Food Loop
It’s kind of surprising what with all the innovative gadgets out there that we haven’t found something better to tie up a bird, whole fish, or rolled pork loin than kitchen string or toothpicks. With Thanksgiving fast approaching, we searched the internet for the better option and thankfully found a clever invention from fusion brands called “The Food Loop” (pictured right). Instead of a ratty piece of twine this holiday, try tying your turkey up with this trussing tool. If you’re bird’s too big for one food loop, you can link two loops together. It’s made of silicone and heat resistant up to 675 degrees. The food loop can also be used in the oven, microwave or even on the stove top. And it’s not one of those gadgets you have to put away until the next Thanksgiving. The food...
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Ultimate Nut Chopper
Thanksgiving means a lot of nuts. Stuffing with walnuts or hazelnuts, pecan pie, almond cookies, and the list goes on. The New York Times told us that unshelled nuts taste the best, (NYT article) but whole nuts are the next best thing. We always want our recipes to taste the absolute best, but chopping nuts can be a huge time suck: They slip all over the board and are impossible to cut uniformly unless you hold each one down. That’s why we’re grateful for the William-Sonoma Nut Chopper. Its cool, see-through design makes it look like a funky pepper grinder, but it can do so much more.Operated by a hand crank, it has two settings to chop hard and soft nuts – course for stuffings and crumble toppings, and fine to add an interesting flavor to pie dough. The non-skid...
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Egg Poacher
In case you haven’t noticed, poached eggs are no longer just a breakfast food. Some chefs serve them on polenta, others over a frisee salad, or even a sirloin steak. Poached eggs are deceptively tricky. They often stick to the poacher or break while removing them from the boiling water. You shouldn’t have to go out to get a perfectly poached egg. We finally found a solution (pictured right). Egg Poacher...
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A Measuring Cup & Scale In One
Anyone who’s ever tried to bake a cake or get a chocolate souffle to rise knows that cooking and baking are two very different skills. You might be able to eye ball measurements for a wine sauce, but certainly not a cake. (Or you may end up with a pancake.) And if you’re really serious about cooking, you know you not only have to factor in measurements, but also the weight of ingredients. As the New York Times recently pointed out in an article called Tipping The Balance For Kitchen Scales, weight matters. But who has space or the money for a full set of cooking scales? That’s why we love this Digital Scale Measuring Cup (pictured right). A little bigger than your average measuring cup, it’s a scale and measuring cup in one, and can be used for both...
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Dripless Turkey Baster
As crazy as it sounds, Thanksgiving is right around the corner. (Although, we’re still having a hard time getting out of summer mode.) You might want to start thinking about this year’s menu. If you’re like most Americans, this is a holiday you take very seriously. Everyone’s always trying to raise the bar on their gravy, cranberry sauce, and apple pie. But really nothing is more important the bird with its crispy skin and moist interior. The key to keeping it moist is the turkey baster. We have to admit we’ve had the same turkey baster in our drawer for years because you only pull it out for special occasions. But this is one you’ll want to trade up for. This baster (pictured right) draws all of that tasty gravy up much quicker than most and it’s dripless, so...
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Mini-Cupcake Maker
We know pies are the new cupcakes and cupcakes are by no means the most chic sweet these days. But we’re still a sucker for Baked By Melissa’s minis because you can maximize your flavors. Instead of one cupcake, you can try four different minis, which is why we fell for this mini-cupcake maker. How cool would it be to make your own minis, so you can eat them warm and fresh from the oven? You can be as high maintenance as you want about your toppings. It looks just like a waffle iron, only it bakes seven mini cupcakes in 5 to 8 minutes instead. Its baking surface is nonstick for easy cleanup, and it comes with a light to tell you when the power is on and when your cupcakes are done. It’s great for entertaining with...
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Halloween Entertaining
We’re big fans of Halloween. What’s not to love about dressing up in costume and demanding candy from strangers? But as we get older and exceed the trick or treat age limit, we need to find other ways to celebrate. So we usually throw our own Halloween party, and the food has to keep with the theme, of course. We went hunting for festive kitchen supplies and we found quite a few at Sur La Table. While we usually feature a specific gadget, we found too many good ones on their website to share just one. They’ve got finger cookie molds, spooky cat spatulas, haunted house kitchen towels, orange & black cake stands, a black cat dip bowl and measuring spoons to match, and lots more. But our favorite is the bone cookie mold for just $8.95. It’s non-stick,...
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Wine Aerator
We’ve been around the block. This isn’t the first wine aerator we’ve seen, but it is the first one we’ve seen with a built-in strainer. And that comes in very handy when you get cork in the bottle or natural sediment forms in a bottle of finely aged wine. This wine aerator also has a non-drip pourer, and stopper so you don’t have to fuss with lots of gadgets or a decanter. Instead, you can aerate your red wine right in the bottle in exactly thirty seconds. By the time, you pull out your glasses, it’s ready to pour without spilling a drop. If you don’t finish it, put the stopper in and drink it tomorrow. Wine Finer...
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Chip Maker
Now that football season is in full gear we need to start getting creative with our TV snacks. We could open a bag of packaged chips, but we’d rather make them ourselves. This week, we found this Chips Maker (pictured right). This tray and mandolin set lets us make potato chips in the microwave, which is perfect for our New York-sized kitchens. No deep fryer required. And because these chips are cooked in the microwave you don’t have to worry about all that admittedly delicious saturated fat. It’s like potato chips on a diet, which is something we thought we’d never say. And since you make them yourself, we suggest you experiment with whatever potatoes you find at the farmer’s market — be it sweet potatoes, blue potatoes or fingerling potatoes. We think this tool is the perfect way...
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Three-In-One Peeler
A peeler isn’t the most glamorous gadget, but this one comes close. Where to begin? Well, the Perfect Peeler (pictured right) can be used by a lefty or a righty, which I can tell you as a lefty, is a rare find. It’s also ergonomically correct and has a non-slip grip. But the cincher is that the blade rotates vertically, horinzontallly, or even a 45-degree angle to cut anything and everything. The blade itself stays sharp ten times longer than most and it’s dishwasher safe. Sure, it’s just a peeler, but it’s a 2.0 version that will likely be around for a long time. The Perfect Peeler...
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Three-In-One Apple Gizmo
It’s that time of the year again. That’s right, it’s apple picking season. We’d love an endless summer, but if we must move into fall, picking apples with our own hands is pretty great, too. That’s the easy part. The tricky part is coring, peeling and slicing our shiny red picks for a pie. That’s where this Peel Away Apple Peeler (pictured right) comes in handy. Where to begin? It has a suction base and a clamp to hold the machine firmly in place. There’s also a three-pronged fork to secure the apple. And there’s a coring blade, slicing and peeling blade. Just turn the crank and peel away. My favorite advantage is that you can create different size slices because, as you know, some pies call for thin slices, while others call for thick, chunky slices. Now, all...
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Avocado Peeler, Slicer & Pitter
You can never eat too much avocado. Fact. We love guacamole in the summer and avocado slices on our sandwiches all year round. But if you’ve ever tackled an avocado, you know it’s not an easy task. First, you’ve got to peel it without bruising the fruit. Then, you get the pit out, and then you still need to wrestle it off the sharp end of a kitchen knife. Not anymore. This Amco Avocado Slicer (pictured right) has a contoured handle with a nylon loop one one end to pull the pit out without damaging the fruit. The other end does the slicing, cutting perfect spears, great for layering on a burger or a sandwich. It even peels the avocado in the process, doing the work of a knife and a spoon at once, which also means less...
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Fast, Foolproof Pie Maker
We’re crazy for pie: Fruit pie, meat pie, pot pie, we like them all. But since making them at home is a chore, we usually hit one of our favorite restaurants or bakeries to get our flaky fix. That is, until we discovered this Breville pie maker (pictured right). This ingenious contraption is no more difficult to use then a panini press or George Foreman grill. Seriously. (It’s almost too easy.) Use the provided pastry cutter to form perfect dough rounds for the bottom and top crusts, pick your favorite filling, and it will do the rest. Perfect for an impromptu picnic on the beach or in the park, the pie maker takes just 8 minutes to bake a pie, so last minute baking plans can be accommodated. And with the bounty of seasonal fruits, the options are endless. Summer is...
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Illuminated LED Barbecue Tongs
We’re big fans of barbecue, especially for dinner. But how can you tell if your chicken is cooked to the perfect inner temperature after the sun goes down? (We had this very problem last night. True story.) So you make your best guess then hope for the best, which isn’t the best idea when it comes to undercooked meat. Even if you have a thermometer, there’s often not enough light to read it, not to mention you’ll need both hands to flip your T-bone or filleted fish. And who’s got an extra hand for a flashlight when you’re grilling? That’s why we love these Illuminated BBQ Tongs (pictured right) with a locking mechanism. They’re sturdy enough to tackle steak and delicate enough to grasp small items or delicate filets. The best part is that they come with a small...
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King Cube Ice Tray
When it’s hot out, we want our drink. Whether it be an iced tea, iced coffee, or a mojito, we want our drink cold and preferably with lots of ice. Unfortunately, the sun and heat always manage to melt our cubes and dilute our drink long before we’re done. (If we wanted ice water, that’s what we would’ve poured ourselves.) How do we prevent our summer gin and tonics from becoming gin and cold water with a slightly tonic-y taste? Giant ice cubes. These king cube trays make large, 2-inch square cubes that melt enough to keep our drink cold, but not so quickly they make you think you’re drinking infused water. They’re big enough to put garnishes in, like mint or berries, which is one of our favorite (and easy) ways to impressing guests. The trays are made of silicone for easy ice removal, and...
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