Food Lush

New Kitchen Tools: the HAPIfork

By Julie

I come by my love of gadgets honestly - I get it from my father. And that lucky guy (along with my mom) got to attend the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week. Every shiny, new thingamajig thought up and produced was on display, including a nifty little gizmo called the HAPIfork.

The HAPIfork is an upgrade on the utensil you've been using all your life, updated for the 21st century: it tracks data. It can tell you if you've been eating too fast by measuring the time between bites, how much you're eating from the number of bites you take, and how long your meal has taken. Then, it syncs with your computer or smartphone to show you how you eat. It's fascinating. It's a smartfork.

I'm not sure I need to spend $99 on an eating implement I already have in my house just to see how fast I shovel food into my mouth, but I can certainly see its merits if I needed a little help in the food tracking department. Will the HAPIfork take over the culinary and diet worlds? We shall see.

(Photo Credit: hapilabs.com)

Living Without A Microwave

Editor's note: Welcome Jess M., to the Food Lush family! We're thrilled to have her join us and if you'd like to get to know Jess better, follow her on Twitter.

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by Jess M.

Recently we decided to get rid of our microwave. It was big and bulky, took up a lot of counter space, and we didn’t feel like we used it all that much. Sure, we reheated leftovers or melted a little bit of butter, but overall I felt like most things we used it for could be done another way.

So, we bought a toaster oven. (The Oster TSSTTVMNDG Digital Large Capacity Toaster Oven) We have three kids and so actually a lot of meal prep involves heating up frozen kid foods: corn dogs, nuggets, french fries, pizza. With the toaster oven, these things are ready quicker than they are when you cook them in the regular oven and you don’t have to heat up the whole kitchen just for a single corn dog.

There are some “accessory” items that really help with our conversion to toaster oven life:

• I bought a set of small Pyrex dishes for food storage. We still use the plastic ones, but if it’s something I know we’ll reheat in the toaster oven, like macaroni, I can go ahead and store it in a smallish Pyrex dish.
• We have a quarter sheet pan that came in a set with some half sheet pans and it is the perfect size to fit in the toaster oven.

• Food Service Foil Sheets. My husband laughed at these when he saw me bring them home from a Costco trip, but they are so convenient. They are just the right size for my quarter sheet pan so I don’t have to tear/cut/waste regular sized foil. And they keep the pan clean so I don’t have to scrape off cooked-on cheese every time we have a snack.

Have you lived without a microwave? How do you melt your butter?

 

 

(Photos from: Amazon)

Deals Ahoy! The Grocery Pal Mobile App

By Dani

Back when I was unemployed, I would spend a whole day driving from store to store for in search of deals, and I was frequently one of those irritating people buying the entire end-aisle of some canned good because it was such a screaming deal that I couldn't resist.

Now, I'm too busy to be an Extreme Couponer, but I do dearly love a good sale. Grocery Pal is a relatively new app for iPhone and Android, but it's a lifesaver for my hectic life, as it gives a run-down of ALL the local sales. It sees your location and can even be store-specific, it alerts you when items on your list go on sale, it has a manufacturer and store coupon database and it's intuitive and easy-to-use.

If you've ever wanted to be better at shopping sales or using coupons, I think Grocery Pal is the perfect solution. Just don't mind me if I'm staring at my phone is the produce section - I'm not texting, I'm looking for deals.

(Photo credit: Android Market)

Cookie sheets and cutting boards; Or the Things I Let Go To Pot

by Jonniker

I don't know what it is about my kitchen gear that I don't think I DESERVE to buy nice or even, in some cases, functional things. If my pants were falling off of my body, I would . . . buy new pants. When I run out of make-up, I buy new make-up.

So why is it that when my cutting boards are so sliced and beaten up that they're probably hotbeds of ambient e coli and salmonella, do I think I don't need to replace them? You guys, I have a cookie sheet that is literally black with what I jokingly call "seasoning," as though it is a precious cast iron skillet. It isn't. It's a $4 cookie sheet that I am too stubborn to replace, even though I can't even properly clean it anymore, because who knows if that's dirt or just burnt-on CRAP? 

See also: vegetable peelers. My dad visited recently and almost removed the tip of his finger with my sub-par vegetable peeler. "Do you use this thing?" he asked accusingly, leading me to confess that no, I actually didn't, and had been peeling veggies with a butcher knife instead, so far gone was my $5 peeler. 

I replaced it recently and SURPRISE YOU GUYS. I can peel carrots in half the time, without fear of removing my knuckles in the process. 

I have a $20 olive oil dispenser that I consider . . . indispensible (see what I did there?), but when it comes to basics, I just let my stuff go to pot. And this is stuff I use EVERY DAY. Every day! 

So you know what I'm doing this week, y'all? I'm buying myself some basics. Nothing fancy, just basic things that no longer harbor disease and bacteria. It's the little things, I guess. Like this:

Good Cook Non-Stick Cookie Sheets, $17. 

I can afford $17, especially since I make the expenditure once every 20 years. 

For God's sake, I can get a set of three wooden cutting boards for $15. 

There. I have solved my problems for around $30. THIRTY DOLLARS. With that price, I can even afford to buy a SILICONE cutting board set for meats n' stuff.

 

(Obvious PSA: Wood cutting boards are less sanitary because of the grain, so don't go slicing raw meat on them, ya hear? Otherwise my salmonella nightmare could be your reality.)

{Photo credit: All photos from Amazon.com}

Owl-themed Kitchen Things

by Elsha

Right now our kitchen theme is "mish-mash of whatever we owned when we got married." Which wouldn't be so bad if that hadn't happened six years ago. That's probably not going to change anytime soon, but I do love to browse cute kitchen things! My latest obsession is owl items. 

These mugs are the perfect colors for fall: 

(photo credit: amazon.com)

These owl salt-and-pepper shakers would go with any set of dishes:

(photo credit: westelm.com)

I feel like these measuring cups wouldn't be very practical, but I kinda want them anyway.

(photo credit: pier1.com)

I like this cookie jar. Pretty sure that winking owl is telling me that second cookie is our little secret. Alright, tenth cookie.

(photo credit: anthropologie.com)

I totally need these appetizer knives for when I entertain. HA! I've never hosted anything that would require appetizer knives. Ever. I still like them.

(photo credit: target.com)

Do you have a kitchen theme, or are you a mishmash person like me?

Grocery List App

by Tara

I am a meal-planning person. If I don't plan my family's meals, then plan my grocery list according to the ingredients we need, then add the random things we need above that (dog food, deodorant, goldfish crackers, almond milk), we wind up throwing out a LOT of food, and it's really frustrating. I have always had a list-making system, and for years I've organized my lists according to the aisles at my store(s) of choice. I used to write out my list of needed items, then make a new list going by aisle and crossing out the old list, so I knew I got everything. Minimum 2 pieces of paper. Then I did it on the computer, and printed it out. But I would often lose or forget the list and then be SOL at the store.

For years now I've used the Grocery IQ app. The coolest thing about this app is (in my limited opinion) is the fact that I can add things from the Internet as well as from my phone. So if I'm thinking about something we need I can add it from my phone, but when I meal plan on my laptop Sunday evenings I can make my list of recipes and groceries on my computer and then add the items to my Grocery IQ list and it will update the list on my phone.

Screen shot from the computer.

Screen shot from my phone's app.

Grocery IQ lets you organize your aisles in your store, and make several lists at once with drop-downs. I can add things I need at Target, the butcher shop, and the produce I buy at a separate grocery store, all in one go, without worrying about several paper lists or wasting paper. You can scan items to store and budget, download electronic coupons, and favorite items you regularly buy. Plus, BONUS, the app is free. SCORE!

What's your favorite way to make grocery lists?

Kitchen Workhorse: Chicago Metallic Sheet Pans

by Elissa

Now that the weather is cooling off, it seems like I am roasting vegetables all the time: squash, cauliflower, sweet potatoes, eggplant, etc. And because I love roasted vegetables generally, my Chicago Metallic sheet pans may very well be my most-used piece of kitchen equipment.

They're solid and well made, so that they don't warp even at high temperatures. Things brown really well, and they're not tough to clean. I've had mine for over 5 years, and they have held up very well. They're not non-stick, so they do get a little black around the edges, but I view this patina as adding character.

They are also great for baking cookies and sheet cakes. If you're looking for a great pan, pick up a couple of these!

 

Polder Kitchen Timer

by Katie

About a year ago, our oven (which I hated) broke down. The repair guy told us it would cost about $800 to fix, because the repair involved replacing not one but two computers inside the oven.

TWO. COMPUTERS. It is an OVEN, not a ROCKET.

Since we had hoped to replace it eventually anyway, we elected not to pour nearly a grand into an oven we hated and instead take a plunge on my dream oven. (Some people dream of cars, I dream of ovens, okay?) And I love my new oven to pieces, but it does have one slightly unusual characteristic: no computer or electronic components. At all.

This is a mostly good thing- nothing complicated or expensive to break down, for example - but it does have a drawback: no clock or timer.

(Picture from Amazon.com)

Enter the Polder Kitchen Timer, Clock, and Stopwatch. This thing is so great, I don't even miss having a timer on my oven anymore. It has a separate button for each number- surprisingly hard to find, and way faster to set than one that requires you to scroll through to get the time you want. It automatically resets itself to the last interval you used, which is nice for tasks like multiple batches of cookies. The beeper is loud but not obnoxious, and it keeps going until you turn it off- which means you to step out of the kitchen for a moment without worrying you're going to miss the single "ding" of the oven. It's also super-portable (yay dorky neck lanyard!) so you can do other things without worrying you're going to miss the moment (particularly nice with longer cooking things that simmer for hours.) It's even got a magnet on the back, so you can stick it to the fridge when you're not using it.

Sometimes it's the little things, you know? This isn't fancy, but it's thoughtfully designed, works great, and makes my cooking life easier. Highly recommend.

Pounding Chicken

by Tara

(Let's go ahead and get the 12-year old giggling out of the way because of the overuse of the word "pounding" in this post.)

I've been making several recipes lately that require pounding chicken into thinner chicken. It's not usually something I think about a lot, but since I've been doing it a lot, I have been thinking that I need a kitchen tool that is actually made for this. For the last 9 years (I didn't start cooking till I got married) I have been using the side of an old school meat tenderizer, like this:

Photo from Williams-Sonoma.

It works fine, but sometimes the pointy part tears up the chicken if I'm not super careful, and it's quite the arm workout since it's such a small tool. So I think I need something new. What should I get?

 

This one looks a lot like a spatula, but the wider head would work better than my current tool.

Rosle Meat Tenderizer

(Photo from Bed, Bath, & Beyond.)

 

This might work just as well as anything. Although maybe it wouldn't hold up to lots of pounding?

Crate & Barrel Crab Mallet

(Photo from Crate and Barrel.)

 

I really, really like this one. And we all know that I adore PC products.

Pampered Chef Meat Tenderizer

(Photo from Pampered Chef.)

 

Or maybe this one? It also looks like a spatula, but less so since it's rounded.

Norpro Meat Pounder

(Photo from Chef's Catalog.)

 

Maybe I should just call it a wash and head to a home improvement store for a rubber mallet?

Workforce Rubber Mallet

(Photo from Home Depot.)

 

What do you think I should get to pound chicken?

Ramekins: A Kitchen Favorite

by Maura

As I was straightening up the kitchen the other day, I noticed how many ramekins I put in the dishwasher. I use them for absolutely everything. Mise en place, melting butter, taco toppings, snack cups, appetizer holders and ice cream dishes. The ones I have are plain white or clear and I have a few different sizes. I don't remember where I got them, but there are cute ones available at a number of stores.

(image credit: Crate & Barrel)

These ramekins are available at Crate & Barrel in a set of six for $8.95. Holding only 4 oz, they are kind of tiny, but adorable and good for setting out all of your ingredients before putting together dinner.

(image credit: Target)

These ramekins are a little bigger and come in a variety of colors, including red, yellow and blue. They are a fun way to punch up a set of plain white dishes or bring a little cheer to your kitchen. They are $16.99 for a set of six small ones or $14.99 for a set of four larger ones.

(image credit: Target)

I absolutely adore these Rachael Ray ramekins with the little handles and fun colors, but at 10oz, they are a bit large. At a price of $24.99 for four, they are also a little spendy. I think they would be perfect to hold party appetizers. They would make a good housewarming gift or Christmas present for someone who likes to cook.

Do you have favorite kitchen dishes or tools? What do you use most in the kitchen?