Kitchen Gadgets

Now that one caught my attention. Last night while puttering around on Facebook, I stumbled on a tip – rub your hands on any stainless steel item like a knife (yikes that sounds dangerous) or the faucet or stainless steel utensil. That sounded really strange to me but it got even weirder. People started commenting and said they use a “Stainless Steel Soap Bar”

Ok. This I have to check out. Turns out there are stainless steel soap bars for sale. They are just a chunk of stainless steel in the shape of a soap bar.

The women swore this works. So, well next time I need to rid my hands of food odors, I’ll give it a go. Not going to purchase that soap bar though.

However this is all kinda interesting to a geek like me. There’s got to be some scientific explanation right? Sadly there isn’t much of that around even online – surprise. There are theories though but nobody really knows.

A while back, I wrote about making my own Senseo coffee pods. It has worked very well for me and only takes me about 30 seconds to make a pod before popping it into the Senseo. One day I got lazy and thought wouldn’t it be nice if there was a faster way. That’s when I checked into the Coffeeduck. And… I bought it.

Does it work? Yes. But I’m afraid to say it hasn’t been any easier or faster than my home made pods. My home made pods gave me the frothy top like the regular pods did, the Coffeeduck didn’t. It was very minimal. I also found cleaning up after rather messy because there’s a lot of water left in the filter. With my home made pods it was much easier and dry. Filling it also takes practice. You definitely want to make sure the filter is dry before filling because the sides must be 100% free from any coffee crumbs and it’s easier to wipe the crumbs away with a damp cloth if the filter is dry.

Do I regret buying the Coffeeduck? No. Maybe because I’ve had more practice with it by now, and have somewhat mastered filling the filter. Also, I ruined my original two pod filter so the Coffeeduck is a replacement that does two jobs use with coffee beans or regular Senseo pods. I’ve noticed it does give me a stronger cup of coffee – really getting the essence out vs the home made pods and that is always nice when I want a stronger cup.

Overall, if you do not have the problems I did like losing or messing up the original filter, I am not sure this is something I would recommend. Having said that, if you don’t mind practicing and messy clean ups it can be quite handy.

I like working in 15 minute blocks. It works for me and the kids but have had the toughest time finding a real timer – not a computer software one – where you can set more than one countdown time on it. Maybe I’m just not using the search phrases. Don’t know but boy did I jump when I saw the Chef’s Quad Timer on ThinkGeek – 4 timers in one.

If you’re looking for the same thing, ThinkGeek is where you can find it. Click on Home & Office in the menu on your left, then Kitchen Tech. The clock is about 3 quarters down the page on the right most column.

Right now, they are running Free FedEx Home Delivery for orders $40 or more. Use coupon code DEALNEWS.

When I was growing up, I remember my mother regularly asking us to leave the kitchen and be out of her way. Not that she’s a mean mom, in fact the opposite, she wanted to ‘be there’ for us so much that she ended up serving us. While there’s nothing wrong with serving, but I think it done in excess, it could lead to kids who grow up thinking food will always cook itself and be on the table whenever they are hungry. Thankfully, she did teach me to cook and allowed me to help toward my tween and teen years.

I like to start things earlier. The two elder girls are 8 and going on 7 so they are more than capable of cooking. I want them to be able to not only cook full meals for the family, but cook snacks and quick meals for one so they can be independent when they get home from school (and I’m still working at my desk), and also because they will spend many years by themselves real soon. After thinking about it, I believe these 4 kitchen appliances would be a great way for them to cook hot meals with minimal supervision.

George Foreman Grill – My brother-in-law gave us one a couple of years ago. We love it. I’m thinking this would be a great way to heat/cook chicken nuggets, grilled cheese sandwiches, panini’s, even hamburgers. It is healthy and super easy to use.

A sandwich maker – these things go all the way back to when I was a kid. This was one of the few kitchen items my mom would let me use when I was their age. Makes awesome grilled cheese sandwiches that the kids love. I also think they can make pizza sandwiches real easily with these too. Spread a little spaghetti sauce on a slice of bread, add couple slices of pepperoni and some shredded cheese, top with another piece of bread and press in the sandwich maker yum! And because the sandwich maker seals the sides of the sandwiches, the sauce stays in – as long as there’s not too much Oh, you can also get those that make waffles as well.

A GT Express 101 – we had this and I loved it! They now have the newer one – Xpress Redi-Set-Go with many improvements. Omelets were especially easy to make with the original GT Express. The little ones also loved turkey tacos so throwing one in this little cooker will give it a nice crunch and also melt the cheese.

A crock pot – best for getting the little ones to make dinner for the family. Just get them to throw everything in and turn on. How kid friendly is that?

This is so cute. Little ice cream sandwich molds by Tovolo. They come in a set of 3 molds, the one shown here are farm animal designs. You can get icons and I even saw a holiday mold. Basically, you bake the cookies, get the kids to cut out the shapes and press ice cream between two cookies.

The molds are dishwasher safe, they cost $12 for a set of 3.

We have an ice cream maker but I hate using it. It’s one of those gel bowl electric ice cream makers – not the old fashioned ice ones. I don’t think it works that well to be honest and am looking for ways to get rid of it. But the kiddos love ice cream so… while browsing Walmart.com, I found the Play & Freeze Ice Cream Maker.

Hmmm… it says you can make ice cream without electricity. That already sounds great off the bat. Then it says all you need to do is roll it around – literally play with the ball and freeze. You’ll get ice cream. Wow. Sounds too good to be true.

But according to those who reviewed it, they like the product. Some even say it’s great exercise! It’s not really that expensive plus it comes in a variety of cool colors.

Honestly, I have no idea why it took me so very long to get one of these babies and in many ways, I’m still a little surprised how the common ice cream scoop is now one of my favorite, most versatile kitchen gadgets. But not just any ice cream scoop, it’s the small ice cream scoop.

Here’s what it’s perfect for:

• Small cup cakes. It’s great for making tiny pop-in-the-mouth sized cup cakes and you make even sized cakes.
• Melon scoop
• Ice cream – duh! Well actually, I find myself enjoying my ice cream a lot more and eating less with the tiny scoops they are such a novelty!
• Tiny bite-sized biscuits. Add cheese into the bisquick, use the ice cream scoop to make mini cheese biscuits oh yum!

So much fun for me and the kids too. They really make perfect sized snacks for little hands.