I grew up in a family that preferred toasted cheese sandwiches over grilled cheese ones. I credit this melted cheese and toast phenomenon to the fact that my mother was always looking for ways to make meals healthier. Butter was typically the first casualty under her command.
However, not knowing that there was a world of buttery, grilled cheese sandwiches out there, my sister and I were perfectly content with the toasted version that our parents provided. These sandwiches were made easier by the fact that we were toaster oven people, making it easy to get an initial toast on the bread before adding a layer of cheese for melting.
There's a new product on the market that could revolutionize the toasted cheese sandwich and make it accessible for everyone, even those who own pop-up toasters. It's called the Toastabag and it is intended to be used for toasting entire sandwiches. I do see some problems with it, though. The most notably the fact that once cheese is melted, it runs to the lowest point. I imagine that if you toasted your sandwich in this gizmo long enough to sufficiently melt the cheese, you'd end up with a puddle of melted cheddar on the bottom of the bag and two greasy pieces of cheese-scented bread. Secondly, you'd never really be able to get a good toast on the bread, as it wouldn't be exposed directly to the heating element. Lastly, unless you've got a wide-slot toaster, wouldn't you be hard-pressed to actually get a full-on sandwich into the toaster slot?
Despite my concerns, I do have to give the Toastabag folks credit for clever thinking. What about the rest of you? Do think this is genius or insanity? Does anyone out there have a Toastabag of their very own?
Peanut butter has always been a staple food in my life. As a kid, a piece of whole wheat toast, smeared with a dollop of peanut butter and topped with jam was a regular breakfast. I often had a pb and honey sandwich in my lunchbox (my mom was a fan of heaping on the peanut butter, making sandwiches so thick that they made lunch time conversations impossible) and it wasn't uncommon to have an afternoon snack of sliced apple or celery sticks with a tiny dish of peanut butter for dipping.
These days, I always have a jar of peanut butter in the fridge, with a back-up in the cupboard (it is a sad day when I discover that I've forgotten to replace my secondary jar). Like my mother before me, I only buy the natural peanut butter and the one problem with this style of butter is that the oil separates out. I always pour the majority of the oil off and then stir the remaining oil back into the peanut butter. However, this tactic means that the last inch of peanut butter is often dry and nearly impossible to spread, as I never to a great job of getting the oil all the way to the bottom.
One way to handle the separation is to store the unopened jar upside down so that when you open it up, the oil is dispersed a bit better. However, since I do like to pour some of the oil off, that technique doesn't work well for me. However, thanks to CNET's Appliances and Kitchen Gadgets blog, I've learned that there's a gizmo (with the fabulous name Grandpa Witmer's Old Fashioned Peanut Butter Mixer) you can buy to help you stir your peanut butter. I know that this isn't tool for everyone, but for those of us who love our natural peanut butter, this one could be a lifesaver. You screw it on to the top of your jar, turn the knob and the stirring wand does the rest. Sign me up!
I've been drinking coffee since I was 13 years old. When I was 15, my parents succumbed to my wish for an espresso maker of my very own. These days I've got a red-handled Bialetti, two french presses, a Melitta single-cup filter, a glass Chemex set up and traditional drip machine to choose from when it comes time to make a cup of coffee. And even with all those toys, these days I've been going with the cold-brew method (it's a great summer time way to brew).
There's a new kid on the caffeinated beverage block and it could potentially knock all my other preferred methods out of the top spot. Called the Handpresso, it bills itself as the world's smallest espresso maker. It uses a pump mechanism to create the necessary pressure for espresso, so that you get that gorgeous crema that all the baristas rave about.
It's currently available at Charles & Marie. It comes in at $155, but for espresso lovers with small kitchens (I'm waving my hand in the air wildly), it could be just the thing.
Baking Bites is a really great baking blog. I always enjoy reading it, and Nicole usually has great recipes and cool gadgets. As I was perusing the blog today, I was especially attracted to this post about the non stick oven spill catcher.
My first thought, being a sucker for kitchen gadgets, was "ooooh, neat!" My next thought was "is that really necessary?" Why not just put a foil lined cookie sheet under whatever it is that you're baking? It would be less expensive just to utilize products you already have on hand, not to mention easier to just toss the foil when you're done.
However, at just five dollars, and with it being non stick and all, the spill catcher could be an economical and easy way to avoid making more garbage while you're trying to keep your oven clean. How do you feel about the non stick oven spill catcher?
Wow! The second piece of toaster news in as many days. I never would have guessed that the toaster world was that active. Well, maybe we just caught it on a good week.
I read about the super toaster over at Slash Gear (no relation). Apparently this gizmo is in the Guiness Book of World Records for "the highest toast launching". The Highest Popping Toaster in the World was created by Freddie Yauner, with help from his friends at Roaming Robots.
This may actually have been around for a while, but while you can email the creator for a kit to make your own, this is definitely not a commercially available product. However, you can check out more images and video at Freddie Yauner's blog, and maybe see about making your own!
The Topography Bowl is made to look like a round mountain range, which you then fill with soup or salad so it looks like a mountain lake or forested valley. I guess this would be a conversation starter at your next dinner party, if you can afford it. The price is $179 a pop. Over at Inventor Spot, M Dee Dubroff' constantly throws out comments on how silly this thing is, and I agree. However, if you have the money and tend to like eccentric dinnerware, the Topography Bowl may be just what you're looking for.
Inseq Design wants you to have fun with your food. To that end, they're working on a toaster that'll put old fashioned dot matrix images on your toast. Remember the old printers, or video games? Yeah, something like that.
This is just a prototype right now, and it's not available, but would you be interested in something like this? I can't imagine it being particularly useful. I also see the entertainment value not lasting very long. However, maybe you can judge for yourself with this video of how the toaster actually works. Now that's entertainment!
When I saw this machine on Inventor Spot, I was truly amazed. I also thought it sounded too good to be true, but that remains to be seen.
The Culinary Prep is a device that cleans food in an "all natural and very effective anti-microbial solution." The makers of the Culinary Prep claim that it removes 95% of bacteria from the raw meats and/or vegetables that you wash in it. It's also about $400, but I guess when it comes to food safety you get what you pay for.
In addition, the Culinary Prep makers say that it reduces spoilage (thus extending shelf life), improves flavor, and still reduces fat and sodium. I can see how this device can extend shelf life, reduce spoilage and all that, and even how that could have an effect on the flavor. It's that fat/sodium reduction claim in addition to everything else that sets off my "spidey sense." What do you think? Would you buy it?
I was so excited about this Japanese Cloer model 1611waffle iron that I saw on Inventor Spot today. I thought that someone finally made a waffle iron that creates heart shaped waffles (even though this one is supposed to be in the form of a cherry blossom).
Then it occurred to me that this could not possibly be the first flower/heart shaped waffle iron out there. (You'll have to forgive my ignorance of waffle irons, but they're just not something I put a lot of thought into.) I looked around and, sure enough, there are plenty of flower/heart shaped waffle irons. You can even get a Hello Kitty waffle iron!
While there are some nice design features on this new model, Inventor Spot shouldn't be pimping it like there's nothing else like it in the world. Yes, the waffle iron is stored vertically so it takes up less counter space, but who keeps a waffle iron out when they're not using it anyway (except someone who uses it every day, of course)? I wonder if Inventor Spot knows that this new Cloer model isn't the first flower shaped waffle iron?
The first thing I thought when I read about the new project from British designer Kacper Hamilton was, "How many times has this guy seen the movie Se7en?" The second thing I thought was, "How the hell do you drink out of such funky glasses?"
Hamilton's "7 Deadly Glasses" is a set of bizarre red wine glasses based on the 7 Deadly Sins. The one representing sloth, the fourth sin, is pictured here. It's an especially apt design since someone has to turn the the valve at the bottom so the sinner can drink. The glasses representing the other sins seem much more difficult to drink from. I'm not sure if it's because these sins are considered deadlier or what. Take wrath; it's a glass that has a teardrop shape hollow cut out of the top. It looks impossible to drink out of without cutting one's face.
Hamilton says the glasses are "about celebrating passion and encouraging the user to be sinful in a theatrical passion." I can understand why he chose red over white to embody sinfulness. I suppose a set of white wine glasses would have revolved around a less punitive bit of Western culture, like the nine muses of Greek mythology.
Yesterday, I posted a graphic from The Kitchn, that was designed as a way to help people remember how many cups are in a pint, how many pints are in a quart and how many quarts are in a gallon. Lots of readers responded to that post and several of them brought up a different graphic that they remembered from school that had helped them learn their measurements.
This one was called Mr. Gallon and used cups, pints, quarts and gallons in order to create the body of a slightly misshapen man. Reader John was helpful enough to find the image and posted the link in the comments section. After getting a look at him, I thought Mr. Gallon was useful enough to get his own post, and so here he is!
Anyone else have another good trick for remembering measures? What about one that addresses teaspoons, tablespoons and increments of a cup?
Back in December, my friend Roz bought her first house. The day she moved in, her mother came over with food in a slow cooker and a pot of peeled potatoes that were destined to be turned into mashed potatoes to celebrate the new home. However, when it came time to mash potatoes, Roz's mom discovered that there wasn't a potato masher anywhere to be found in Roz's fairly extensive collection of kitchen paraphernalia.
Because of this utensil encounter, Roz was not at all surprised when, for Christmas, she received her very own potato masher. The thing is, she's just not much of a mashed potato girl, so this new item didn't fill her with excitement. However, just last night, she turned to me and said, "I'm loving my masher, although I still don't use it for potatoes. Guess what I'm making with it!"
Turns out, it has become her new favorite tool for whipping up batches of guacamole (a trick I plan on trying out this weekend). Now I have a question for the rest of you. Do you have a kitchen utensil or appliance that you resisted for a long time but now you adore? Or, do you have something that you use all the time, but not for its intended purpose?
I don't know about you, but I'm always hesitant to buy fresh herbs. I never know if I'm going to use them before they go bad. I love to cook, I just don't do it very often. If I cook at home it's usually just for myself, so I just make a sandwich or eat cereal.
If you're like me, and love fresh herbs but don't cook regularly enough to justify buying them, then the Herb-saver might be for you. The Food Section recently brought this device from Prepara to our attention. If it works, it just may be the thing I need to get me buying fresh herbs again.
Has anyone used the Herb-Saver? I'd really like to know if it's any good. I might actually get one. By the way, turn down the volume before linking to the Prepara site: a video starts automatically, and while it's helpful, it's also loud.
These days, there's all sorts of talk about the environment, about eating fresh and local. However, there's not a lot of talk about what we drink. Cans, plastic bottles, glass bottles -- we go through these at a huge rate. But we don't need to -- at least, not totally. We might not be able to quickly whip up our own beer or wine at home, but we can make all of those tasty carbonated beverages.
As soon as I heard about the Soda Club over at The Kitchn in February, I wanted one. Sparkling water at my finger tips? Without having to pay a buck a bottle? It seemed to good to be true. Then, a good friend of mine got me one for my birthday last month. I don't know how I ever went without it, and I really don't know why everyone isn't doing this.
It requires no electricity -- just a CO2 carbonator. You attach a bottle of water, push the magic button a few times, and there's some fizzy seltzer. You can also put in flavoring for flavored water, or a number of other syrups to make your own soda/pop. I've tried the root beer and lemon lime varieties so far, and I was completely happy with them. There's no walking to the store. I just walk over to my kitchen, pop on a bottle of cold water, and seconds later, I have the perfectly fizzed drink.
As someone who owns an unseemly number of waffle irons, I'm always looking for new ways to use this particular appliance, in order to better justify the fact that I possess so many. A few weeks ago, I discovered (thanks to the Kitchen Chick) that you can use a waffle iron to make French Toast (I haven't actually tried it yet, but it's on my list).
Chowhound has taken the concept of multi-tasking appliances a step further, using a waffle iron to cook up brownies, hash browns and breakfast muffins, as well as a slow cooker to make duck confit and a tender, fluffy soufflé.
What's your favorite appliance that you use in a way that is different from it's designed application?
I grew up in a family that preferred toasted cheese sandwiches over grilled cheese ones. I credit this melted cheese and toast phenomenon to the fact that my mother was always looking for ways to make meals healthier. Butter was typically the first casualty under her command. 
Peanut butter has always been a staple food in my life. As a kid, a piece of whole wheat toast, smeared with a dollop of peanut butter and topped with jam was a regular breakfast. I often had a pb and honey sandwich in my lunchbox (my mom was a fan of heaping on the peanut butter, making sandwiches so thick that they made lunch time conversations impossible) and it wasn't uncommon to have an afternoon snack of sliced apple or celery sticks with a tiny dish of peanut butter for dipping. 
When I saw this
I was so excited about this 
These days, there's all sorts of talk about the environment, about eating fresh and local. However, there's not a lot of talk about what we drink. Cans, plastic bottles, glass bottles -- we go through these at a huge rate. But we don't need to -- at least, not totally. We might not be able to quickly whip up our own beer or wine at home, but we can make all of those tasty carbonated beverages. 
Chocolate-stuffed bananas on the grill
Tyler Florence welcomes new daughter
Beware kids' menus!
