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.

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.