Let's All Do the Corkscrew Two-Step

Le Creuset Waiter's Friend Corkscrew

Some time ago, one bottle of bubbly flummoxed every corkscrew in the house. It had a a muffin-top like a champagne bottle, but too small to “thumb” it out. The lady of the house liked the stuff enough to buy more, but mentioned the problem to a liquor-store clerk who claimed to have just the solution. He sold her a corkscrew he claimed would "open any wine bottle." He was pretty much right: the Le Creuset Waiter’s Friend may well be the king of all corkscrews.

Le Creuset's version modifies a typical folding waiter's corkscrew: you know, the kind that levers the cork out by propping a folding arm on the lip of the bottle. Their modification is a corkscrew with a "two-step" function: the levered arm has two positions based on a spring-loaded catch. You use position one to start the extraction, while position two finishes pulling the cork.

Forget the Cheap Plastic Cutting Mats!

Progressive Prepworks Cutting Mats

In the age of bacteriaphobia – when the average homemaker douses every surface with antibacterial soaps, consumes antibacterial wipes like… like Kleenex®, and sprays Purell® as if it were air freshener – wooden cutting boards are, apparently, passé. Silly people, don’t you know your gut is full of bacteria?? In reality, though, cross-contamination between meats and raw vegetables can be a problem, so even the most bacteriophilic homeowner (that's be me) uses different knives and cutting boards for meat and vegetables, even if the veggies will be cooked.

Mini Ice Cream Sandwiches: I Scream with Delight!

Cuisipro Mini Ice Cream Sandwich Maker

We're (fairly) hardcore about watching weight at our house, but we still cling to one vice: ice cream. We both love the stuff so much we eat it almost every day, though we try to stick to low(er)-fat versions whenever possible. While trying to cut back even further, we started eating an occasional Skinny Cow® ice cream sandwich, which – unfortunately – aren’t all that great. But wait: there’s a way to make your own at home: the Cuisipro Mini Ice Cream Sandwich Maker. Not only are the results yummy, making your own is fun!

There are Foodpod People at My House

Fusionbrands Silicone Food Pod

We love silicone! Not because of those…because of the great silicone products that are cropping up in kitchens these days. It’s not just hotpads and trivets, though; once in a while there’s a product we’d never thought about, products like the Fusionbrands Foodpod from HIC (Harold Imports Company). 

Description

There’s no way to be nice: this thing is weird-looking. It resembles a collapsed balloon with lots of holes torn in it plus a thick plastic stem like a pumpkin. The basket is 6” in diameter and about 3” high; made from translucent silicon. The stem is 6” long and ends in a hook.

The top comes off for an opening about 2½ to 3” in diameter. It closes simply: the stem is attached to a hard plastic disk that has prongs matching holes around the opening. The basket’s surface is covered with oval holes, some as much as 1” long.  It’s about the size of a 3-quart saucepan, but will fit into something smaller if needed. 

A foodpod is designed to use when blanching or boiling foods like greens, eggs and potatoes. Because the holes are fairly large, it doesn’t work for small vegetables. We’ve used ours to boil eggs and potatoes; and to blanch beans and sugar peas. The small pieces leak out the holes and into the pot, so a skimmer or strainer may be necessary. We clip the hook over the pot’s rim, or let it stick out the top of smaller pots.The hook doesn’t get hot, even when the pods dunked in boiling water. All those holes allow for good water circulation, and the long handle means it’s easy to swirl in hot water and then pull out the basket and drain off excess water. 

The silicone material won’t pick up color or flavor from foods boiled in it, and it’s definitely dishwasher-safe. Around our house, it’s been a useful, though not essential tool to have. 

Using the FoodPod Just drop in whatever and close the lid, then dunk the whole thing in hot or boiling water. When the time is up, pull it out by the handle. With most foods, excess water drains off quickly. I might like it better if the holes weren’t this big, but I’ll overlook the occasional floater ‘if it means fewer singed fingertips.  Summary PLUS: easy to use, strange-looking kitchen conversation starter MINUS: holes large enough that small stuff falls through What They're Saying: A Fusionbrands Foodpod can be handy for boiling and blanching. Small items will slip through the holes, however, so be prepared.

copyright © 2015-2017 scmrak

Great Scale for Cooking and For Watching Your Weight

Cuisinart KS-55 Weight Mate Digital Kitchen Scale

There used to be a commercial that said (of prunes, no less), "Is two enough? Is three too many?" It may be easy to count your prunes and bowls of All-Bran, but have you ever tried eyeballing six ounces of pasta or three ounces of cream cheese? So many recipes giving measurements in weight instead of volume, we decided a kitchen scale was pretty much a necessity. That’s why a Cuisinart KS-55 Weight Mate Digital Kitchen Scale now lives on our kitchen counter.

What’s to like about a Cuisinart KS-55

Now You're Grinding in Style!

Kenmore 60572 3/4-HP Garbage Disposal

My first clue was water on the floor of the cabinet under the sink. It didn’t go away after I replaced the faucet (I’d have done that anyway) – that was my second clue – so I pulled the old InSinkerator Badger, I found a hole in the grinder chamber – on the back, naturally – and that particualr mystery was solved: another bottom-of-the-line plumbing fixture bit the dust, no thanks to the sleazeball who sold us this house.

Around our house we don’t use what the industry calls a food-waste disposer very often, since we compost a lot of our scraps. Every once in a while, though, one of us finds a science experiment hidden at the back of the refrigerator, and that’s when a disposal comes in handy.  Since any house on a municipal sewer system is expected to have one of them these days, re-plumbing without a disposer wasn’t an option. We didn’t want to spend a lot of bucks on something we only use a time or two a week, though, do we didn’t go looking for a “silent” model. On the other hand, we wanted one that had a good capacity and would last for a while. After the usual online research, I picked the Kenmore 60572.

They're Right About the “Perfect” Part

Emsa Perfect Beaker 16-ounce Measuring Cup

It was bread-baking day at our house yesterday – you could tell because the dogs were drooling more than usual. The recipe of the week came from a cookbook with recipes for three different loaf sizes, meaning that while one says "1¼ C water," the next larger size calls for "1½ C + 2 Tbsp." Rather a pain, eh? Well, it isn't a pain for us, because we have an Emsa Perfect Beaker measuring cup. Not only is this two-cup beaker marked in cups, it's also marked in tablespoons, so it’s simple to hit the correct mark: you fill it to 1½ cups, switch to the tablespoons scale, and add two more tablespoons... or just fill it to 26 tablespoons.

It seems rare to find a product that lives up to its name, but the Perfect Beaker comes close. It measures up to two cups, dry or liquid – that’s nothing new, since an ordinary Pyrex measuring cup does the same thing. However, it’s also marked in pints, ounces, tablespoons, teaspoons, and milliliters, all in one cone-shaped clear plastic beaker. Scales with six different units are spread around the margin of the Perfect Beaker, clearly marked in bold black letters. On the cup scale, it’s marked off in different increments for more complex recipes: ounces, eighths of a cup, and thirds of a cup. It also works great for mixing liquid ingredients: need three tablespoons of vinegar and three of oil? No problem: just pour! I use it for measuring almost anything, with the possible exception of boiling water.

The beaker tapers to allow more precise measurements at small volumes, so you can measure accurately down to a couple of teaspoons. In that, it’s better suited to liquid measure. The cone-like beaker rests on a broad, stable base; with an hourglass shape that makes it easy to grab and hold when your hands are wet. The opening has a broad lip so you can pour from any direction: no spout necessary.