Spachello saves cream cheese packaging

Spachello Slice & Spread

I hate messing up multiple utensils in the kitchen, especially when it comes to making something simple like a sandwich or a bagel. It is just too tempting to use a serrated knife to spread mayo, peanut butter or cream cheese. I have torn many a package of cream cheese into shreds trying to use a sharp knife to dig out the spread for my bagel. It’s a lesson I seem to refuse to learn. Now, I don’t have to; the Spachello Slice & Spread combines a cutting and spreading knife into one. Perfect for people like me who go out of their way to minimize utensil use, the Spachello is the best thing for sandwiches (and tear-prone packaging) since sliced bread.

This egg scrambler definitely did not come first

Shake Me Egg Shaker

If you’ve been using a butter knife to scramble your eggs, then this kitchen gadget is for you. Finally, thanks to the Shake Me Egg Shaker, there is a simple method for making scrambled eggs. Just crack up to three eggs into one half of the egg-shaped device, close and shake. A Y-shaped protuberance inside of the capsule separates and scrambles the eggs. So put away those rocks, canned goods, salt-shakers, fingers and whatever else you’ve been using to scramble your eggs, and do it properly; the right tool for the job, I always say.

UPDATE 7/9/12: Sold out (or at least no longer available) at the link above. However! Today is your lucky day! The Zak Designs D Circle Egg Shaker is still available on Amazon for all your egg shaking needs! Phew!

Portable pepper

Thumb-Operated Pump Mills

Pepper shakers at restaurants are just for show. Otherwise, the salt would look lonely. So we include another shaker, fill it with what once was a tasty spice, and pass it off as pepper. While this impulse may satisfy our instinct for paring off, our palates suffer with dry, tasteless pepper that might as well be sawdust.

These small Thumb-Operated Pump Mills bring portability to pepper. Measuring 5.5-inches long, the stainless steel mills feature not only a small size, but also one-handed operation. So pass the pepper at the table—literally—and grind your own with a push of a button.

Mama, let your children grow up to be pizza-makers

Curious Chef Pizza Kit (7-pc.)

There’s a new breed of pizza-maker out there: one that appreciates the tradition and culture of pizza. Like what microbrewing did for beer drinking, artisan pizza-makers are doing for the classic pie. Restaurants are popping up dedicated to the craft of pizza-making, and the results show in a quality menu. However, for all this attention heaped upon dough, sauce and cheese, the average slice still lacks soul. To be able to partake in this new pizza culture requires a commitment of an entire pie; sometimes I just want to go down to the corner and grab a slice.

Continue reading Mama, let your children grow up to be pizza-makers

Talking scale just won’t shut up

Talking Kitchen Scale

There’s something slightly disturbing about appliances that talk. The cool, metallic voice of Talking Scales may seem nonjudgmental at first, but give it time and it will sound as if it is taking on a mocking tone. The spoken emphasis will be placed on pounds instead of just simply reciting the number… a preprogrammed sense of disbelief at your weight will shine through its circuits… it will start gasping when you step on it. In a way, you can’t blame the device: I’d be grumpy too if people stood on me all day…

Oh, this isn’t that type of scale? Hmm. Great idea then!

Bamboo filter holder clears up the morning

RSVP International Bamboo Coffee Cone Filter Holder

Coffee making in the morning needs to be as simple as can be. What later in the day is easy to accomplish is not so when just out of bed. Even eliminating one step in the coffee-making ritual can keep morning mishaps at bay. The path of destruction caused by stumbling from the freezer for the coffee and then to the faucet for water, and then to the cupboard for the box of filters can be reduced by simply leaving the filters out by the coffeemaker.

However those little filter boxes can be ugly, all open and hanging out like that. Pass on the cardboard decoration and move on up to wood. The RSVP International Bamboo Coffee Cone Filter Holder is small, made from an eco-friendly material, and streamlines those foggy mornings. At $9.99 it’s a small price to pay for a little morning clarity.