While I will not admit to being the shoe whore some of my friends are hinting at, I will cop to being a gadget slut, especially when it comes to kitchen toys. I love my Le Creuset, my new inexpensive mandoline, and I've always had a fascination with small containers. Something about their efficiency, how they make throwing together recipes so much easier. My semi-new favorites, things I've been playing with for the last year and bring me untold happiness, are the Mario Batali Prep Bowls (seen here with some of the ingredients for Meyer Lemon Risotto) I picked up at Sur La Table here in PDX. For that all important mise en place, these rock, and are maybe the best $10 I've ever spent on a kitchen tool. The five-piece set measures anywhere from 1/8 to 2 cups. The cool part is that each bowl is actually two measuring bowls. The smallest is both a 1/8 and 1/4 cup (with easy-to-see dividing line inside), and the largest is a 1 and 2 cup measure, with the others scattered somewhere in between. For a bull-in-the-china-shop kind of cook that I am, careening around the kitchen throwing things in pots, tossing used bits and bowls into the sink, splattering myself and anyone in the immediate vicinity with various oils and food remains....basically there's lots of collateral damage....these bright, cheerily orange pieces of organization are round little islands of calm in my sea of kitchen chaos. I love good, useful design, especially at a bargain price. And while I use these constantly for cooking, they also make great bar measuring devices when I need to regain my cocktail equilibrium. If you don't have them, get them!!
Showing posts with label kitchen gadgets. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kitchen gadgets. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
Batali Bowls Rock!
While I will not admit to being the shoe whore some of my friends are hinting at, I will cop to being a gadget slut, especially when it comes to kitchen toys. I love my Le Creuset, my new inexpensive mandoline, and I've always had a fascination with small containers. Something about their efficiency, how they make throwing together recipes so much easier. My semi-new favorites, things I've been playing with for the last year and bring me untold happiness, are the Mario Batali Prep Bowls (seen here with some of the ingredients for Meyer Lemon Risotto) I picked up at Sur La Table here in PDX. For that all important mise en place, these rock, and are maybe the best $10 I've ever spent on a kitchen tool. The five-piece set measures anywhere from 1/8 to 2 cups. The cool part is that each bowl is actually two measuring bowls. The smallest is both a 1/8 and 1/4 cup (with easy-to-see dividing line inside), and the largest is a 1 and 2 cup measure, with the others scattered somewhere in between. For a bull-in-the-china-shop kind of cook that I am, careening around the kitchen throwing things in pots, tossing used bits and bowls into the sink, splattering myself and anyone in the immediate vicinity with various oils and food remains....basically there's lots of collateral damage....these bright, cheerily orange pieces of organization are round little islands of calm in my sea of kitchen chaos. I love good, useful design, especially at a bargain price. And while I use these constantly for cooking, they also make great bar measuring devices when I need to regain my cocktail equilibrium. If you don't have them, get them!!
Friday, October 19, 2007
Getting Juiced!
When it comes to cooking or making your favorite refreshing juice-based cocktail, efficiency is key. Efficiency, and for those of us without dishwashers, ease of cleaning. I don't usually pimp products here, but ever since I saw this in Gourmet I wanted it. Plus I admit to a certain unhealthy fascination with new kitchen gadgets. Then a few weeks ago w came walking in the door with one after a Target shopping spree, and after one use I was a believer. Sure, I'd like one of those fancy countertop juicers, but at a couple hundred bucks a pop my money is better spent elsewhere, like on more food and Tanqueray! Plus they take up valuable counter space, and in our square foot deprived kitchen, every inch counts. At ten bucks a pop it's ridiculously cheap, and with its non-skid rubberized bottom, clean pouring, and super ease of clean up, very well thought out. And it beats the hell out my my hand reamer, where I was left fishing seeds out of the juice when I was done. Trust me, get one, and you can thank me later!
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