Gotten into the holiday spirit yet? I sure haven’t. And yet, there’s that slightest inkling of Xmas cheer beginning to work its way into my bones. It makes me look up things online like this Snowman Holiday Baking Pan from Baker’s Secret.

Fairly reasonable last time I checked. I think the non-stick surface will be a huge draw in a pan like this where the smaller details really do matter - what’s the point of making a snowman cake if you can’t see the details? This is 2-ply professional weight steel and is dishwasher safe. Dimensions are around 12 x 8 and a 1/2 inch deep.

I’m sorta in the market for a Universal Lid that will fit on top of any size pot or pan. It’s been quite inconvenient to try and cook something that requires a 12 inch skillet or pan and needs to be simmered. What I’ve been doing is taking another 12 inch saucepan and inverting it as a “lid”. Rather precarious, since it rests exactly on the rim of the other - and it uses up my other 12 inch pan.

So I’ve been thinking of picking up a univeresal lid like this model by RSVP. Made of 18/10 stainless steel, it has the concentric ridges that allow you to cover any pot or pan from 7 to 12 inches. There’s also a steam vent on the top that’s adjustable. One thing about this lid is that I wish they made one BIGGER than 12 inches - I guess most people don’t have pans larger than 12 inches so there’s no reason for them to make the universal lid fit anything larger.

I’ll shop around first, but this one seemed pretty decent. There are a few other similarly priced brands (Miu, T-Fal) that I want to take a look at as well before buying.

Well, it’s that time of year again. What? You say you wait until the last minute to buy your Xmas gifts too? You procrastinator.

Ok, just in case you’re one of the 5 people who shop early - what about this sleek electric kettle from Proctor Silex? I used to have one of these in the dorms, and it’d probably make a great gift for a starving college student to boil up water for tea or ramen. The kettle clocks in at 1 quart capacity and 1000 watts for power. The heating element is actually the type that is not enclosed in the base, so that you need to make sure to immerse it in enough water - although the device does have a “boil-dry” safeguard to auto-shut off in case you forget about it.

Continue reading “Proctor Silex Electric Kettle” …

I’m always looking around for better roasting pans. With Thanksgiving just around the corner, I might eventually invest in a Calphalon Roaster like this Contemporary Nonstick one that includes a baster and injector, as well as trident style lifters. I think I’d first seen good things about the Calphalon brand of roasters for doing turkey in a Slate.com article. I think the one they talked about was the Calphalon One Infused Anodized Nonstick however, which is pricier and also not a readily available it seems on Amazon.

Anyhow, this particular roaster has a really heavy duty aluminum pan with a non-stick surface and is a good size at 16 x 13 inches and four inches deep. There is a lifetime warranty against any defects. The rack is also non-stick which I’m thinking could be handy - the one I currently have is not non-stick and it is such a chore to clean if you don’t do it right away - and who cleans the rack RIGHT after the turkey comes out? The only thing I was wondering about the rack is that it is of the “curved” variety which is completely necessary in this deeper style of pan. I’m not such a big fan of curved racks, but you could possibly get another rack to use with roastables other than big birds.

Continue reading “Calphalon Roaster w/ Accessories” …

I chop and mince a lot of garlic for cooking at our house, and there’s no doubt that the smell stays around on your hands for days if not dealt with. Having heard of using 18/10 stainless steel many times, I’ve rubbed my hands with both a steel “soap bar” or with the back of a spoon previously. It does seem to work. However, with the soap bar, I’ve found that it’s a bit difficult because there are distinct edges instead of a rounded surface. And while a spoon often seems to do the trick, I find the surface is not large enough and plus you dirty up a spoon every time.

So I’m pretty interested in this Egg shaped Stainless Steel Odor Eater by WMF. Compositionally, it’s the same theory - the 18/10 stainless steel can help to remove odors from strong smelling foods like garlic, seafood and onions when rubbed under running water. At 3 inches tall, it’s as big as a good sized jumbo egg and because it’s rounded on all sides it’s easy to use. It’s also weighted on the bottom to stop it from rolling away.

Ideally, I’d keep this within reach on the counter alongside the dish soap, and when it picked up too much odor, I’d just chuck it in the dishwasher. I thought it was a bit on the pricey side at near $14, but it might be a cool gadget for a cook like me who uses a lot of garlic and onions on an everyday basis.

We already have a functional pot and pan rack / shelf in our kitchen that attaches to the side of the wall. While this small wooden rack has served us well for 7-8 years, I’ve always wanted a way to hang stuff from the ceiling like the Innova Classicor Wrought Iron Rack. We may have to wait since there is just no room for this right now.

The Classicor model is constructed of fairly heavy duty iron, but isn’t like some of the other heavy monsters you see elsewhere. It holds up to 40 lbs, but that’ll probably be enough for the average cook - you probably can’t hang ALL your cast iron off of it though. The price is definitely right - as of this writing it was nearly 50% off on Amazon.

The rack comes with strong chains about 2 feet long that allow it to attach to the ceiling, hardware to hang it, and 12 pot hooks. There’s a 5 year warranty in case something should go wrong. Seems like a great way to keep your precious cookware out of the way of scratches and banging.while saving valuable cabinet space.

Ok, I have to admit that it doesn’t look like it would really do anything. Me, I’m more of the “flat of knife smashing” technique to get the skins off of garlic. But for the knife challenged (or for kids), the Zak Designs E-Z-Rol Garlic Peeler might be an interesting, albeit pricey, option.

This thing is basically a 5 inch long tube of rubber material that you put a clove of garlic in, and then roll it on the countertop to get the papery skins off. The reason I haven’t tried it out yet is that I’m thinking for $7.99 you could probably make this out of some scraps of something. In wonder how the patent goes on this one - “a piece of rubber rolled in a tube = garlic peeler.” According to the reviewers, it does work. It also keeps your hands from smelling and keeps the cloves whole, something that smashing definitely does not do. One thing that they all say is that the paper skins tend to stick on the inside of the tube after you do a few - necessitating removal which takes a bite out the time you’re actually saving. I think I’ll pass on this one for now - back to smashing garlic for me.

I’ve been interested in a pizza peel for awhile but still haven’t gotten around to picking one up. Maybe the reason is because I don’t have a pizza stone yet!

I saw this wooden pizza peel by Sassafras the other day which is interesting because it’s not aluminum like many others, and plus it looks like the lip of the peel is actually pretty thick. I’m somewhat skeptical about whether or not you’ll be able to lift the actual pizza off with this thicker lip, especially for thinner crust pizzas. I guess the benefits of it being wooden are that it looks more “authentic” having that wood rather than some metal peel.

The peel is 14 inches by 24 inches, and as said before is a hefty 1 inch thick. That’s a big peel. I’ve heard several reviewers say that they treated the peel with food grade mineral oil before using it in order to protect it - I’ll have to keep that in mind in case I ever decide to get one.

I had been coveting one of these Lodge Grills for quite awhile, when I finally received one as a gift a few months ago. I had pretty high expectations and for the most part, I haven’t been disappointed.

For those who aren’t familiar with these heavy duty cast iron grills, they don’t look like a convention grill pan per se - in that it doesn’t have a circular or square shape, and it doesn’t have a standard pan handle. It does have two carrying handles on both long ends of the grill. This is a rather heavy pan and you should definitely be careful handling it, especially when hot.

It is a double sided cast iron piece with grill bars on one side to mimic a BBQ grill and a flat surface on the other to turn it into something like a diner cooking surface. The grill is very large - 20 inches by 11 inches. It is actually meant to stand over TWO burners. There are no attachments to secure it to your burners - it just sits right on top. Since it’s double sided, I had some doubts about whether or not having fire directly on the reverse side would damage that finish - but so far I haven’t seen any thing out of the ordinary.

Above is a picture of the griddle side being used to grill up some thin steak and onions for some steak sandwiches.

Continue reading “Lodge Logic Pro Cast-Iron Grill” …

This is one of those items that’s been on my wishlist for awhile now, but I just haven’t gotten around to buying it. It could be because I’ve already got quite a few working graters in the drawer already… but I’ve heard a lot of people swear by this long grater / zester called the Microplane.

Interestingly, Microplane is actually the brand and not the general name of the device (like the brand Band-Aid being a general term for bandages). I think the Food Network has had some responsibility in making the general public aware of this gadget (if I had a nickel for every time Rachel Ray or Alton Brown touts it’s usability…)

The Microplane weighs about a half pound and is about a foot long, with the grater blade being 8 inches long. The plane is made of stainless steel and those micro rasps are really sharp - I think the biggest complaint among users is the fact that you need to be extremely careful with these sharp edges which go all around even on the curled edges of the blade. Occasional grated knuckles may be a hazard as a result.

If you’re careful, however, this seems like a great grater (pun intended) to churn out both citrus zest and shavings of harder types of cheese. I’ve also heard people use it to make grated onions (try grating an onion on a traditional grater, ugh) and minced ginger. It makes really fine shavings of everything though, so this is definitely not something to use in order to make decoration or presentation bits and pieces of cheese or citrus peel.