Author: Kitchen Gadgets Blog

Oil and vinegar one drop at a time

Pipette Oil & Vinegar by Design House Stockholm

Sure, you could use an oil mister to dress up your greens, or even the old fashioned way of pouring (gasp!) a mixture over your salad, but I think that’s all a little too last millennium. In this scientific age we all need to embrace the era that we live in. If that includes salad dressing, then so be it. I am prepared to meet the future head on; now you can too.

The Pipette Oil & Vinegar set by Design House Stockholm intends to bring up to date the way that we store and serve our salad essentials. Doling out exact measurements drop by drop, you have full control over your salad. The pipette set, designed by Camilla Kropp, is the perfect serving solution for the precision cook (or budding molecular gastronomist) in all of us.

Porta Cool makes it easier to chill

Porta Cool Inflatable Ice Bucket

Enjoying a nice picnic in the park is a good way to spend the day. Enjoying a cool bottle of wine at your picnic in the park is a great way to spend the day. However, that wine will need to be chilled somehow. Since picnickers are already loaded down with food, utensils and carrying equipment (not to mention fun and games), one less thing to lug around would certainly be welcome.

The Porta Cool Inflatable Ice Bucket is a space-saving ice bucket that stores flat for easy portability. Keep it in your picnic basket and when you get to your destination, just inflate and fill with ice. The bucket measures 9.5-inches tall with a 9.5-inch diameter, so chilling a couple of bottles should be no problem. The best part is when your picnic is done and all the delicious food and beverages have been devoured, all you have to do is deflate and store it back in your picnic basket. Toss the empties in the recycling, pick up your picnic basket and you are on your way.

Moving on from square brownies

Wilton Zigzag Brownie Cutter

Brownies are certainly delicious, but wouldn’t they taste better if they were cut into little wavy shapes? Sure they would! Pass up the squares and move on to zigzag brownies with the Wilton Zigzag Brownie Cutter. The soft-grip handle makes it easy to cut brownies into fun zigzag shapes, but why stop there? The cutting tool can also be used to cut Rice Krispies treats, sandwiches, or even lasagna. For $7.95 at Sur La Table, it’s probably worth it if you’ve been trying to cut those decorative edges with a knife. Especially since zigzag brownies just taste better.

Ceramic avocado for serving up guacamole

avocado_ceramic

Forget the cookie jar; point me to the Guacamole Bowl. The perfectly ripe ceramic avocado holds guacamole or other avocado-inspired dips. (For salsas, check out the Salsa Bowl.) The three piece hand-painted set made from Progressive International not only mimics the texture of the avocado, but the 7-inch long serving ladle is made to look like an avocado stem. The only question that remains: with a 1.5-cup capacity, what are you going to eat? This one is mine.

No pizza is safe from Mario Batali pizza cutters

mario_batali_pizza_knife

Okay, it’s official: Mario Batali truly is a superhero. Just take a look at that Mario Batali Pizza Knife. Only the purest of heart and clearest of mind can wield such a weapon tool. It even has his personal superhero logo plastered on it, so there can be no doubt as to whom it belongs. The pizza knife measures fifteen and a half inches across, allowing for the slaying slicing of most pizzas in one fell swoop. For the not-so-pure-of-heart, or for those still in training, there is always the Mario Batali Pizza Wheel. As a convenience for the home cook, the master chef has made sure there is a place for these in the home; Both the wheel and the knife feature nylon styling to protect your delicate non-stick pans.

mario_batali_pizza_wheel

Mysterious Russian nesting dolls measure accurately

M-Cups from Fred & Friends

It must be by some prescient force of Russian magic that Sergei Maliutin and Vasiliy Zvezdochkin created Russian nesting dolls. How else would they have been able to know that over 100 years later, the toy would be discovered to be an actual tool? Whether you call them nesting dolls or matrioshka, matryoshka, babushka dolls, or stacking dolls, the fact remains: they accurately act as measuring cups.

Okay, so well, you need the M-Cups from Fred & Friends to actually use the nesting dolls as measuring cups, but the fact remains that this set is just as home in the kitchen as it is on the tchotchke shelf. At least in the case of this set, they accurately measure 1/4, 1/3, 1/2, 2/3, 3/4 and 1 full cup. How? We may never know. Like how the moon can be just the right size to cause the occasional perfect solar eclipse, some things may never well be answered.