Kitchen and Bar Gear

OXO GoodGrips Handheld Mandoline is a Finger Saver

I love working in the kitchen, but I have to admit that I’m a total chicken when it comes to using a mandoline. Knives don’t frighten me, since I keep them really sharp with my whetstone and have pretty decent knife skills. But when I finally broke down and bought an expensive mandoline, I had heard so many horror stories of chefs cutting the ends of their fingers off while carelessly using these razor-like slicing and julienning machines, I made sure to get a really expensive one with all the safety options. And then I actually bought a kevlar glove…

Reviews, Yum Log

AmazingRibs Meat Temperature Guide Might Just Save Your Bacon Review

There are lots of ways to determine the doneness of meat that you are grilling or roasting in your oven. (Notice I didn’t say “BBQing.” Where I come from BBQ is a noun, not a verb.) In addition to meat thermometers and a nifty little iPhone app that I’ve reviewed lately, sometimes it’s best to go old school. The cooking geniuses at GrillGrate.com have developed what they call the “Meathead’s Temperature Magnet.” If someone calls me a meathead, I take it as a compliment, so I was happy to see this product. There are so many things to like about…

Gear Bits

Keep Your Beer Cool and Your Tunes Loud with the Marshall Fridge

This Marshall Fridge is pretty amazing. It looks like an Marshall amp, but it hides something tastier than great tunes. Yeah, it holds a few six packs or anything else that you might need to keep cold — although beer is much more fun than milk. As the description on Werd notes, You’re never going to play guitar like Stevie Ray Vaughn or Slash but if you shred 6-packs like they shred six strings, the Marshall Fridge will be the perfect addition to your pad. It looks like the iconic Marshall stack amp but it’s really a 4.4 cubic foot…

Reviews, Yum Log

Just Chill Out with Bottle on Ice Wine Cooler

Contrary to popular belief, you’re not supposed to drink red wine at room temperature or white wine straight out of the refrigerator. Most whites taste best after being allowed to warm up about twenty minutes after being removed from the fridge, and your better Chardonnays and White Burgundies really shine at cellar temperature, which is about 55°. Red wines generally drink best at close to 65°, which unless you live in my grandparents’ old house, probably is a bit colder than room temperature. So the easy rule of thumb is to take white wine out of the refrigerator twenty minutes…

News

Keurig Introduces the New Keurig Vue Brewing System

Most of the Gear Diary team and many of my friends know that I love my Keurig machine. Brewing many different hot drinks from coffee to cocoa, my Keurig is my morning friend, and I’ve even been known to fire it up in the evening? However, there’s one thing that my Keurig can’t do — milky drinks like latte’s and cappuccinos. Well, Keurig has done it again and brought out a new brewing system called the Keurig Vue.

Gear Bits

Get a Grip on Alder & Co’s Maple Salad Hands

I think that we can all agree that sometimes it’s the little things which make a meal special, and these solid Vermont maple ‘Salad Hands’ by Alder and Co. look like they could instigate a few appreciative comments from around the dinner table. For $34, they can handle your greens. Alder & Co. — Maple Salad Hands.

Reviews, Yum Log

iGrill + Omaha Steaks’ Steak Time App = Meat Magic

Now far be it from me to tell a man (or a woman for that matter) how to use their BBQ grill. Like politics and religion, grilling is a topic where advice is rarely appreciated or even more rarely followed. I’m sure you’re great at cooking a steak over charcoal or gas, and I wouldn’t tell you to your face if I thought otherwise. A. because you’re feeding me and B. because you probably have fire and sharp BBQ tools within arm’s reach. Maybe you’re one of those people who can judge a steak’s doneness by comparing the surface of the…

Reviews, Yum Log

If You’re Gonna Get Bombed Anyway, Try the ‘Bombs Away’ Shot Glasses from ConvenientGadgets.com

So does anybody actually still do shots anymore? In my younger day, I might have tipped a few back, and I do see the young folks dropping a Jägerbomb every now and then at my local watering hole. But for the most part, I like to sip my drinks rather than snapping my head back and pouring one down my gullet. However, if you are in the holiday spirit for some holiday spirits and want to maximize the efficiency of your consumption, then perhaps a set of Bombs Away Shot Glasses from ConvenientGadgets.com is just the ticket. Made from sturdy…

Yum Log

Look Cool While You Cool Your Cocktail with Whiskey Disks

. Whiskey Disks. It’s probably wise not to try to say that three times fast, especially if you’ve been drinking whiskey. Actually Whiskey Disks are a new product designed to give spirits fans the best possible enjoyment of their sipping. When I first heard about Whiskey Disks, I immediately reached out the manufacturers to see if I could try some out for myself. They quickly obliged, which is fortunate since I usually enjoy at least one glass of bourbon every night after dinner to take the edge off a hard day of writing about food and booze. I normally enjoy…

Reviews, Yum Log

Smoke Like a Pro with the Peg Leg Porker BBQ Kit

I’ve loved pork for a long time – waaay before the hipsters made bacon worship popular. One of my favorite ways to spend a Saturday afternoon is to put a pork butt on the smoker first thing in the morning and watch college football all day while the meat soaks up the hickory goodness. Since you have to add new wood every hour or so, it pretty much guarantees that you have to stay on your couch all day and restoke the fire at halftime of each game. Sorry about those chores, sweetie. Can’t you see I’m working here? While…

Yum Log

Yum Log: The Key to an Awesome Margarita

Early in December we’ll be heading down to our timeshare for a week of sun. Each day there has a fairly typical routine that includes being back in one of the timeshare apartments playing Scrabble, cards, reading and, of course, having afternoon drinks. It for that reason that one of the items I may be packing this year is a citrus squeeze. Yes, I may actually bring my own citrus squeezer along on our vacation. Why? Because nothing is better than a delicious fresh margarita made with fresh squeezed lime juice!! Over the years we’ve tried a number of different juicers….

Reviews, Yum Log

The Belkin iPad Kitchen Cabinet Mount Review

Long-time Gear Diary fans may remember me from my stint a few years back as our resident “Stunt Reviewer.” Well, like a bad penny, I’ve turned up again and Judie and the gang have been nice enough to welcome me back to contribute the occasional review or announcement, specifically for the “Yum Log” section where we take a look at kitchen, food and cooking products and gadgets. In the couple years since I stopped writing here, I’ve been a full-time food blogger for the Nashville Scene in my home town and an occasional contributor to regional and national food magazines…

Reviews, Yum Log

iPad Accessory Review: Belkin Chef Stand and Wand

It comes as no surprise to anyone who lives on this planet that the iPad is finding its way into pretty much every aspect of our lives and certainly into pretty much every room of the house. Among the places where it can come in particularly handy is the kitchen. Thanks to the iPad, the days of needing a special under-cabinet television if you want to watch a show while cooking are gone. Similarly, the days of needing a separate music player/boombox are over. In fact, unless you are my purest, like my wife Elana, you don’t even need paper…

Reviews

iPad Accessory Review: Rain Design iRest for iPad and iPad 2

There are some companies that understand that it is not form OR function but rather form AND function. Such companies, few in number, have an ability to design products that look great but also function with a simplicity that makes you wonder how you ever went without. Of course Apple leads the pack in this regard but there are others who follow suit. Sonos is one such company. (I write this while Garbage’s song “Push It” is blasting from two Play:5s set up as a stereo-pair.) I LOVE their products. Rain Design is another such company. Their designs are simple,…

News

Belkin’s Cooking with iPad Kitchen Accessories

I’ve written it before and I’ll write it again, the iPhone and the iPad are like eRorschachs; the device and what it can do changes depending upon what app you are using. Want a school device? It is one. Want a good GPS? It can handle it. And the list goes on and on. And as the iPad becomes useful in more and more settings the accessories that make it even better matter more and more. Belkin understands that the iPad is a great device for the kitchen at Pepcom’s Holiday Extravaganza I got a first hand look at three…

News

Food Sanitation Just Got a Lot Easier with the CleanCut Touchless Automatic Towel Dispenser

A few years ago Elana trained as a chef at the Natural Gourmet Cooking School. One of the most important lessons she learned had to do with food sanitation. (She’s a nut about it which is a good thing. She also once commented that “If you knew what went on in some restaurant kitchens you would never eat out again.”) It is important to keep kitchen surfaces as clean as possible and that means, in part, using paper towels to ensure that all surfaces touched by raw food are sprayed and cleaned on a regular basis. To ensure this happen,…

Reviews

The Stump Stand Review – Sometimes Simplicity Is Best

Sometimes the simplest accessories are the best accessories. That’s right, something it doesn’t need to be complicated for it to be remarkably useful. That’s the case with this new tablet/eReader stand The Stump. The Stump is what it claims to be – it is a stump of rubber. It looks like a tree trunk that’s been cut down at an angle. It’s simple. It’s not exciting. Best of all, it does the job. Here’s a quick look and a chance to win one. Truth be told, there isn’t a whole lot to say about this accessory. Let’s let the company explained…

News

Onion Goggles Keep You from Crying in the Kitchen

I tear up when I am chopping onions, and even though sometimes it’s just a sniffle, there have been times — like when I am on a marathon chopping streak while making multiple freezer lasagnas — when the tears just started to flow. What in the world is happening? According to Mental Floss (a fantastic magazine and blog): 1. When you cut into an onion, its ruptured cells release all sorts of goodies, like allinase enzymes and amino acid sulfoxides. The former breaks the latter down into sulfenic acids. 2. The sulfenic acids, unstable bunch that they are, spontaneously rearrange…

Reviews

Review: PadTab iPad Mounting System

When the iPad 2 was released I went to put my original iPad 64GB + 3G on eBay. I was immediately presented with an option to sell it directly and, in the process, pay no shipping or fees. I loved the idea of not having to hassle with an auction and the possibility of being scammed so I accepted the offer. The transaction went through and I was sans iPad 1. My iPad 2 came and I love it. I still had some great accessories for the original iPad though and after a few days, realized I missed using them….

Reviews

iPad Accessory Review: ProClip’s MultiStand

In just a few days Apple is expected to announce the iPad 2 (or whatever they end up calling it). Yes, Apple’s runaway success with its first entry into the tablet market is nearing its first anniversary. Along the way I’ve had the opportunity to look at a wide variety of different mounting solutions for the first-generation iPad. Some have been exceptionally simple while others have been more complex. Some have been highly refined, have an aesthetic that stands out and carry a price tag to match. There is, however, a good deal to be said for accessories which are rather…

Reviews

The Keurig Mini Plus Personal Brewer Review

Given the long hours I spend editing and writing, there are a few things that I need to have available at all times: a good desktop or laptop computer, a decent camera for taking pictures, a comfortable chair, and an ever flowing source of caffeine. The refrigerator behind me takes care of my Diet Cokes, I have a canister of dark-chocolate covered coffee beans on the counter, and lately I’ve been using the Keurig Mini Plus Personal Brewer system to handle my coffee and tea requirements. As the company explains: · The Keurig brewing system offers a coffee house quality…

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