Kitchen Gadgets, Appliances, Kitchen Toys

Stainless Steel Mortar and Pestle -Gorgeous!

It’s beautiful, it’s useful, and it’s stainless steel.

 I use my mortar and pestle a lot in the kitchen. Mine is made of oak, hand styled by a wood artist in the state of Washington. This steel mortar and pestle will go great right next to it.

 One of the things that I use my mortar and pestle for the most during winter is fresh homemade chai masala. 

 2 1/2 cups water

1 teaspoon cardamom

3 whole black peppercorns

2 slices fresh ginger, peeled

1 cinnamon stick

2 cloves

2/3 cup milk

4 teaspoons sugar

3 teaspoons loose black tea (or tea bags) .

I slightly crush the peppercorns and cardamon, and cloves in my mortar and pestle before adding to the water. This is a delightful tea the whole family loves. Get a mortar and pestle today and start enjoying freshly crushed spices.

http://www.kitchengizmo.com/frieling_stainless_steel_mortar_and_pestle.html

How To Stay Healthy When Eating During The Holiday Season

How To Stay Healthy When Eating During The Holiday Season
By Gregg Hall

I don’t know about you but I am like most people and I find the weight I lost over the summer and fall during the holiday season from November through Christmas. It is difficult to stay on a half way decent healthy diet when all the sweet stuff is calling your name! Still, it is possible to enjoy the holidays and still taste some of the forbidden fruit while eating healthy and avoiding the holiday weight gain that most experience.

Traditional holiday foods can be prepared to be low fat in most cases. For example, the turkey that just about everyone has for thanksgiving or Christmas dinner is extremely lean if you remove the skin and you can make a lean gravy to go over it as well. Potatoes are very good for you, until you load them up with butter and sour cream. Even pumpkin pie can be made to be healthy and nutritious if you forego the mound of whipped cream.

One of the other reasons that people gain a lot of weight over the holidays is because they decide to skip out on exercise. Half the battle of keeping the pounds off during the holidays is regular exercise, and maybe even a little extra to get rid of those extra calories you are taking in. It is a good habit to get into taking a walk after every meal and do some extra walking when you go shopping, park way out instead of looking for the closest spot. Not only will this help you to reduce your weight but it will reduce stress as well.

When it comes to the food itself, fill up on things like fresh vegetables, fruits and lean meat. That way you won’t have the room to even feel like eating all the fattening desserts and you will choose a tiny sliver of pie instead of choosing a quarter of the whole pie.

Alcohol is another big culprit for excess calories and in addition to the empty calories it takes away your will to diet and also will make you eat more. Make sure that you choose water instead which will keep you from adding all the extra calories as well as help you to feel more full. Try to totally avoid eggnog which is loaded with belly building calories and fat.

You don’t have to be super strict to the point of not enjoying the holidays, just remember to eat in moderation and limit the fatty foods to not much more than a taste, balancing that with some additional exercise and you will avoid the holiday bulge.

Gregg Hall is an author living in Navarre Florida. Find more about holiday cooking and easy appetizers online at http://www.gourmetpartyappetizers.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Gregg_Hall

Corelle Dinnerware Dishes

Just updated the Corelle Dinnerware page, and it always makes me want a whole new set.

The feel of Corelle is delicate, light, not heavy. The durability, though, speaks for itself over the years. Especially if you have stone or marble floors, you’ll want a sturdy set of dinnerware.

Prices are very reasonable, too. A 16 piece set for 4 people can cost a bit less than $40 depending on the pattern design. Well, that’s just $10 per place setting, and they really last!

Nothing beats Corelle for elegant long lasting dinnerware.

A better hot dog cooker?

If you’re cooking hot dogs for two, I think this thing looks great:

You get to set the adjustments, pop in two hot dogs and two buns, and they’re ready at the same time. Pretty slick. Toasted hot dog buns are great.

However, I actually usually have 5 people eating at once!

This one cooks more dogs, and warms more buns, and also is cute:

This hot dog rotisserie is a bargain at $49 and free shipping:

And the best priced hot dot rotisserie is $39, cooking 4 jumbo dogs or 8 breakfast sausages at once, plus bun warming:

In fact, that would be a great way to have lunch ready and hot when the kids come home and still leave plenty of time for blogging.

And for the left over hot dogs, keep ‘em fresh in the fridge:

The best ice cream maker or other frozen dessert maker

My daughter has been making homemade ice cream. It’s the best. Real cream, real chocolate or cocoa, real vanilla. Skip the artificial ingredients and the partially hydrogenated vegetable fats (they make me belch!), and the polyethylene glycol (yup, check your store bought ice cream to make sure it doesn’t have antifreeze in it!).

One ice cream she made was a delightful honey vanilla flavor. It was so rich and simple. A chocolate ice cream topped a chocolate birthday cake for the little one.

But she does it the hard way, taking out the semi-frozen dessert and using the hand mixer to whip air into the mixture as it freezes several times. It’s time consuming, and the bowls have to be washed numerous times.

Then I saw the ice cream maker of my dreams:


The Best Frozen Dessert Machine

Love at first site.

It’s an elecronically cooled precision instrument. That means your ice cream comes out perfect.

It’s got a 1 1/2 quart capacity bowl. That means you have enough ice cream for guests, too.

It’s got a built in stirring mechanism and timer. That means you get to rest while your ice cream sets.

Now, all I have to do is figure out where to come up with $600 for my new ice cream maker!

The Best Frozen Dessert Machine

Turkey Platters, Cookie Cutters

Yes, it’s that time of year again: turkey, cookies, pies, and other wonderful goodies. Time for your kitchen to turn into the entertainment center and catering delight.

We’ve gathered some Turkey Platters from around the web for your online purchasing delight. Turkey platters generally are larger than a normal platter, often measuring in at 18 inches long. This allows your platter to hold the turkey with room to slice. For many years we preferred metal, such as pewter or stainless steel for platters. However, there is something very satisfying about a heavy earthenware or ceramic platter that you bring out from the kitchen full of steaming delightful food. You’ll find both kinds on our Turkey Platters page.

On to Cookie Cutters and Cookie Presses for holiday baking delights. Nothing, but nothing, beats fresh home baked cookies for entertaining and gift giving. You’ll find Snowflake cookie cutters, and a set that includes Xmas themed cutters such as a star, a snowman, gingerbread man, candy cane, angel, santa, reindeer, tree, and stocking. Cut out your favorite cookie dough (we prefer real butter cookies), decorate, and impress friends and win over enemies. We even recommend cookie dough recipes on our Cookie Cutters page.

More on the Pie making accessories soon.

Hand Blenders Against Acne

Get a whole extra use out of your hand blender!
Making your own homemade facial masks for your acne prone teenager will save you money, teach your teen self care, and ensure that only fresh wholesome ingredients are in your teen’s facial mask.

Recommended blenders are from Braun. Buy the best and it will always do the job right.

Hand blender with free shipping

Braun blender and chopper set

See our new article on homemade facials for acne for recipes and tips on making your facial masks.

Taco Holder to the rescue

When you pick up your tacos at the take out place, they place the full tacos in a holder while someone else gets ready to wrap them. At home you may have found that when you set down the taco, everything falls over and spills out.

Taco holder to the rescue:

It even looks good in your kitchen in the sleek white ceramic. Now, add the fact that this ceramic holder is ovenproof, and you’ve got a real dinner winner. Keep your tacos warm, or reheat them in this lovely holder.

It’s dishwasher safe, too! This thing just fits the bill. Get a taco holder for your next Mexican feast. It will keep your tacos safe, full of their goodies, and ready to eat.

Kithen appliance covers

Spring cleaning often leads to spring organizing and spring redecorating.

In the kitchen, you can add a few simple, inexpensive touches to greatly increase your kitchen decor and appearance. One suggestion is to cover your countertop appliances. A cover is inexpensive, easy to clean, and gives your counter top a clean neat appearance.

Cover your toaster, your blender, and your can opener in a variety of attractive covers.

Your countertop will look more orderly, and thus your whole kitchen will look more neat and clean!

Jack LaLanne Power Juicer Online

Jack LaLanne has convinced you it’s a great idea to get a juicer? Buy it online and save!

Why this juicer?

1. It extracts more than 30% more juice, nutrients and vitamins than regular juicers.
2. It’s a quiet juicer.
3. Dishwasher safe, so cleanup is easy and simple
4. The pulp catcher means nothing is lost! Use the pulp in recipes, too! Fiber in a minute.

Make great fresh juice, get healthy, give your family nutricious drinks, and all easily and quickly. Click below!

Jack LaLanne Juicers

Cuisinart Coffeemakers – Wake up and smell the coffee!

On the list of “I really want one” has been added a coffeemaker. Not just any coffeemaker. I could just pour freshly boiled pure water through my gold filter if I wanted just any coffee. No, the coffeemaker on my “I really want one” list is a Cuisinart Grind & Brew.

Yes, I want it all.

I want it automatic. Set it up to be ready when I wake up to my morning alarm. I want to wake up to smell coffee all ready for me. I want it to grind the coffee freshly. I want my coffee dripped through a gold filter. I want the flexibility of 1 to 4 cups of coffee or up to 10 cups! I want the water filter to remove impurities from my brewing water.

Yes, if you want it all, too, get a Cuisinart Grind & Brew! Ahhh, now that’s the life!

You can read more about Cuisinart coffeemakers at KitchenGizmo’s Cuisinart Coffeemaker page.

Wake up and smell the coffee — already brewed!

Heart Shaped Cake Pans, Heart Shaped Cookie Cutters

Bake for Valentines’ Day in style! Heart shaped cake, heart shaped cookies, decorate to your your heart’s content!

Heart Pan Set by Wilton

Not looking for a whole set of different sizes? Get one 8 inch heart pan:

8 inch heart pan

Looking for an all in one cookie baking kit? You got it:

Valentine Mini Cookie Kit

Make cookies with a Valentine’s Day theme with this Valentine Mini Cookie Kit. The kit includes cookie cutter, wood rolling pin, sugar cookie mix and sprinkles. Everything comes in a handy carrying bag for gift-giving. What’s not included? Love. That’s something you have to provide.

After having bruises from a manual cookie press, Kitchen.homefurnituredecor.com recommends buying a power cookie press! Use a heart disk for heart shaped cookies, decorate with red sugar, or red decos, or red hot cinnamon drops!

SaltonElectric Cookie Press Free Shipping

VillaWare Power Cookie Press

So make some cookies or cakes that are all heart! Bon Apetit!

Martini Olives: Monitor your salt with an electronic salt monitor

After all that martini talk, thoughts turn to olives. Today olives are processed from when they are green until when they are fully ripe soft black and everything in between. Martini olives are usually green, stuffed olives. Green olives are generally commercially processed with sodium hydroxide (lye) before pickling them in salt. Black olives are often treated the same way. If you ever get hold of real ripe black olives that have only been rinsed with water and then salted either with a dry salt method or a simple brine method, you’ll see it’s a fruit of a different sort altogether.

Salt is very tasty, but in high amounts can be a health hazard according to many sources. Now you can monitor your salt content of any liquid food or drink with a cool kitchen gadget: the Electronic Salt Monitor:

It doesn’t slice, it doesn’t dice, but it does give you a quick indication of whether you’re above your allowed salt level for any liquid you’re about to intake. It works on hot or cold liquids (ahem, that means you can check the martini before and after the olive is added). This is a great kitchen gadget to have if you or any of your loved ones needs to regulate salt intake.

Visit our page about the electric salt monitor for more details. Your cardiologist will be happy you did!

Martini Glasses, Shakers, Sets

Ah, martinis. Fine dry gin, a whisper of vermouth, ice cold warming your innards. OH, and the fun of the martini glasses, the martini shaker or pitcher, the ambiance of the whole set.

The classic “martini glass” is the cocktail glass in bartender lingo. Shaped like a cone, the glass is classic cocktail serving glassware. Today you can get the martini glass in some very non-classic styles that can actually enhance your drink.

For a party, try mini martini glasses! These perky little glasses hold 2.5 ounces. That means it’s still polite to have refills. Perfect if you’re serving several cocktails.

Mini Martini Glasses

To Fry Donuts or to Bake Donuts?

Hot donuts right out of the hot oil, sprinkled with powdered sugar, ahhhhhh. But don’t tell your cardiologist!

I’d heard of a local bakery that was offering baked versions of their donuts, and found this great little kit for baking donuts:

Very exciting for low fat donut alternatives, but I do love my fried batter.

Not far away was a really great gadget for regular “cake donuts”, as the cookbook I used growing up always called them. Use a non-yeasted quick bread recipe for this gadget:

Neither of these really addresses the ultimate donut in my life: the yeasted raised donut. Preferably filled with jelly or butterscotch!

Here’s my favorite recipe for raised filled doughnuts:

Dough:
2 packets active dry yeast (4 1/2 tsps)
1 Cup warm water
1/3 Cup + 1 tsp. granulated sugar
1/3 Cup melted and cooled butter, or 1/3 Cup oil
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk (reserve the white)
1 tsp. salt
1/4 Cup instant nonfat dry milk powder or toasted soy flour
3 1/3 unbleached flour (I actually use 2 1/3 cups white, 1 cup whole wheat flour)

Instructions:
Combine yeast, warm water, 1 tsp. sugar. Let sit 5 minutes, or until foamy. Add 1/3 cup sugar, melted butter or oil, egg, egg yolk, salt, instant nonfat dry milk powder, and 2 1/3 cups flour. Beat for 3 minutes. Then stir in remaining 1 Cup flour to make a soft dough.

Let dough rise 1 to 1 1/2 hours or until doubled. Knead for 2 minutes, rest for 10 minutes. Then divide the dough in half. Roll out each half to a 1/4 inch thickness. Cut out circles about 4 inches in diameter.

Beat egg white until foamy, then brush some over one circle. Place jam in center of circle. Make sandwiches, pinch closed, cover on floured board for about 1 hour or until doubled.

Fry in hot oil, and enjoy delicious calories.

Garlic, your winter friend.

Garlic. Your grandmother may have told you to eat more garlic in the winter to stave off colds and flus. You may have seen information claiming it to be a wonder treatment for heart and blood.

If you search in the medical research literature, you’ll see a number of abstracts discussing the possible efficacy of garlic in the treatment of hypertension, in gastrointestinal health, in warnings about interactions with other medical treatments. Little can be said with exacting scientific accuracy.

One article warns of potential interaction with cancer treatments (may we never know): J Clin Oncol. 2004 Jun 15;22(12):2489-503. Such cases are special, and one would need to be realistic about the fact that all dietary intake should be monitored in a medical situation.

However, for a normal healthy individual, the court is still out about just exactly what health benefits garlic may have.

Our current family pediatrician is not afraid to recommend garlic as a preventative measure along with salt water gargles and a good dose of fresh air.

One great way to add extra garlic to your regular diet is in winter soups. Just grate or crush a garlic clove per person into the soup you’re making! If you’re making dumplings, add grated or crushed garlic to the batter! Making fresh dinner rolls? You got it, add the freshly grated or crushed garlic to the yeast dough before baking for a really special flavor treat as well as garlic benefits.

Personally, I like to just grate my garlic on a fine grater. Save your fingers and buy one that uses a drum away from your fingers:

Many people like to use a garlic press. I have two complaints about a garlic press. The first is that so many are not made solidly and thus break within a year of purchase. The second is that so much of the garlic seems left behind with the skin. If you grate the garlic, that slightly thicker skin won’t be felt.

That said, if I were to buy a garlic press, I’d get a stainless steel one with a big old warranty like this one:


18/10 Stainless Steel, 10 Year Limited Warranty

The other thing I like about that one, is that there are replacement garlic press baskets available to order.

For people who think everything in the kitchen should be pretty (well, the cook may be, but the garlic press???), there’s this fancy shmancy one:

In any case, the important thing is just to add garlic to everything you’re cooking!

Kitchen Appliances

Cold rain outside, warm soup and fresh corn muffins from the oven inside.

Corn Muffin recipe:
*Preheat oven to 425F. If using a cast iron muffin tin, put the tin in the oven while it’s preheating and you are mixing the muffins*

1 Cup corn flour/corn meal
1 Cup whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Sift together, then in a separate bowl mix:
1 egg
1/4 cup good olive oil
1/4 to 1/2 cup honey
dash of dried basil
1 1/2 cups soy milk

Add the liquid all at once to the dry ingredients, and then mix just until everything is moistened. Take the muffin tin out of the oven, and using a dull knife add just a tad of butter or margarine to each place in the muffin tin. Add muffin mix to each place, filling about 1/2 to 3/4 of the way to the top. Bake 30 minutes.

I love my cast iron muffin tin. Once seasoned, it only takes a slight amount of oil to keep it non-stick. It’s lasted so far 21 years without any problems. It’ll probably last that many more!

Here are a couple for sale on the net: