Gadgets | Beyond The Kitchen Sink

Grow your own $100 cucumber

You know how square watermelons (for some reason) sell for close to one hundred dollars in Japan? Well, now you can get in on the ground floor for the next big craze: fanciful cucumber design. Tap into your entrepreneurial spirit with Heart Shaped Cucumber Molds.

Working the same way as the aforementioned ovally-challenged watermelons, simply place your young cucumber into the device and let Mother Nature run its course. (Constricted by this contraption, that is.) When it’s time to harvest, remove the sleeve, and it’s off to market you go!

Make ice spheroids for orbiting a chilled wine bottle

Why settle for boring old ice cubes when you can have ice spheroids? This Ice Orb Icemaker not only makes some cool looking ice, but can also act as a wine chiller too. To make the novel shaped spheroids, simply fill the silicon shell to the marked line, insert the inner bucket and place it in the freezer. The water is kept in spheroid formation until you later pop it free as ice.

The ice mold makes 21 spheroids of ice, but even better it doubles as an ice bucket. Perfect for chilling wine, the bucket is 5 inches tall with a diameter of 6 inches. It holds a good amount of 52 ice spheroids at a time, which means your bottle of wine with be chilling in style for as long as it lasts.

***Update 10/16/24: Exact product melted away and is no longer available. The good news is, you can always make new ice. Here’s a different Silicone Ice Bucket that doubles as an ice maker.

ALLADINBOX Ice Cube Mold Ice Trays, Large Silicone Ice Bucket, (2 in 1) Ice Cube Maker, Round,Portable (Dark blue)

Chop salad right in the bowl — and more

Like many others, I find myself using appliances and tools for tasks that they are not designed for. Be it a screwdriver as a hammer or a fork as a knife, there are hidden uses lurking in all of our hand tools. Sometimes, they are not so hidden.

This Salad Chopper and Bowl from OXO looks to me like it has a second, more useful application. Sure the bowl is great, but I can’t really see myself chopping vegetables inside of it. Some pieces would end up too big, some too small, and all of them oddly shaped. Instead, I’ll choose to chop my salad the old-fashioned way, and serve with pizza strips that could only be cut from such an original ~~salad~~ pizza chopper.

Rocket Grill takes cooking convenience to new heights

There are times when nothing will do but having food, now. These moments of low blood sugar usually end up with a bad decision being made. At least for the food-related mistakes that may happen in times of hunger there is hope. No longer do you have to suffer through a greasy fast-food meal or microwaved monstrosity simply because you don’t have the energy to make something good.

Sharper Image toasters may actually be useful

The Sharper Image is offering up this pair of toasters, complete with sleek styling and backlit controls. They are available in two models: the Bella Pro 2-Slice Toaster or the Bella Pro 4-Slice Toaster.

The Sharper Image was always known for providing for some entertaining downtime while at the mall. In stark contrast to all the useless gadgets that were on display in their retail stores, these toasters actually appear to be useful. Unfortunately, purchasing one doesn’t come with some quality time in a gaudily priced message chair; the company is solely a product brand now.

Available at Bed Bath & Beyond. $79.99 for the two-slice model, and $99.99 for the four-slice version.

Little green men prefer poached-egg yellow

No need to be frightened of aliens arriving by this UFO. Tiny and exceedingly cute, this Egg Poacher works in either the microwave or on the stovetop. Simply crack an egg into the reservoir, cover and place in the microwave for easy no-water poached eggs. Alternatively, you can place it in a pot of boiling water, as it is heat resistant to 500 degrees. Microwave safe, and of the friendly variety.