With Memorial Day coming up in the next few weeks, one thing is for certain, everyone will be out grilling. If you’re not grilling steaks, vegetables, chicken, you name it, I’m sure you know someone that will be. But obviously there’s a lot to perfecting your favorite meals and making sure that NY Strip is actually cooked to order.
A new and exciting kitchen device coming out this fall, is the Orange Chef Countertop. It syncs with your everyday kitchen appliances as well as your activity tracker to provide personalized recipe recommendations, helping you cook step-by-step, as well as keep track of your nutritional intake. It is now available for preorder at $99.95, 50% off future retail price.
The folks at Slice sent us an assortment of their ceramic bladed cutting tools. Their main products come as Box Cutters or Pen Cutters in either auto-retractable or 3-position styles. The difference between the styles is you either lock the blade to one of three lengths or use finger pressure to hold the blade out to whatever length you desire.
Last year I wrote about Keurig’s new version 2.0 K-cup brewer, and how they were including digital rights management like features into it that would prevent owners from using any other K-cup except “approved” ones. This has been worked around by many, but this free Freedom Clip from Roger’s Coffee has managed to make it easy to defeat this technology.
True story: a great deal of the gifts I got for family and friends this year came from either Kickstarter or Quirky, and if this keyboard waffle iron had only been available in time, I know exactly who I would have given it to! It wasn’t, but for $60 I’ve backed it, and I’ll be ready for next year!
I’ve wanted “The Ex” Voodoo Knife Holder set since I first saw the red one years ago, but … for whatever reason I held back, and now I’m glad I did. The original was made of plastic, and its blades were made in China. This Kickstarter project brings ‘The Ex’ to us in a solid metal stand with German blades.
I’ve been on a “designer” ice-cube kick for a couple of months now; the bigger and more interesting, the better. I’ve finally come across a clear winner; say hello to the $14.95 Tovolo Colossal Cube Molds. These molds produce blocky ice cubes that will look impressive in your glass as they chill your beverage!
When I was in Barcelona, a “steampunk gastro-bartender” named George made me one of the foulest-tasting alcoholic concoctions I’ve ever tried. It didn’t matter, though. After watching all of the steps he took to create my gorgeous drink, capped with the flavored ice balls he was rationing out as if they were gold, I sipped and pseudo-savored that sucker.
I love to cook, but there is one part of the process where I regularly drop the ball. and I have a lifetime collection of burn scars on my right hand to prove it. I can’t seem to help myself, but now I have a solution: Jaz Innovations Oven Rack Guards. No more painful wrist and hand burns for me!
Lighting a fire in your barbecue pit or pot belly stove is not always a simple task; sometimes that wood just will not ignite no matter how much you baby it along. For all of you who’ve ever sprayed a pile of hardwood with lighter fluid in frustrated defeat, I give you the Bison Airlighter — your own personal flamethrower.
If the idea of bringing home bulk beans, lentils, rice, and loose grains causes you to get nervous because you don’t want to figure out cooking measurements, but you know you need to integrate these healthy items into your diet more, then The Made might just be a Kickstart project that you should back.
I noticed the Towlhub, a 3-in-one paper towel holder while browsing SkyMall on the flight back from the happiest place on earth. It features a 4-port USB power , paper towel dispenser, and a hidden wine stopper (which also holds the paper towels); this MacGyver-ish device will set you back $49 – add Bluetooth speakers for a total of $79.
If you like your whiskey a bit chilled, but hate the way ice cubes melt and dilute the sweet elixir, then you will want to check out Balls of Steel. These whiskey drink chillers not only reduce the temperature of your drink without diluting it, but they also help battle testicular cancer.
Let me preface this with a well-known fact: I LOVE LOVE LOVE my Keurig. With that said, my current Keurig could be my last one, since Green Mountain is souring my morning cup with a little Digital Rights Management in their Keurig 2.0 machine coming this fall. This idea is so bad that I will NOT be buying it.
I recently built a home bar; between glass wear, jiggers, shakers and openers, there are tons of gadgets I could fill my drawers with, but a recent Kickstarter campaign has introduced an item I have never seen. Brew Cutlery combines stainless steel eating utensils with a bottle opener. A $20 Kickstarter contribution will let you eat, drink and be merry!
Want to make your can of Bud stand out during a party? Want to lay claim to your Diet Coke when vacationing with others? If you answered yes, the $8 CanStamp is for you. Featuring statements like “mine”, “in use” and “fuel” it is a fun and kinda practical way to personalize your can. Check it out.
The Blend and Cook Soupmaker by Cuisinart lets kitchen culinarians make hot soup on a chilly day, then totally switch to frozen mixed drinks in the summertime with this flexible right in the glass blender jar. The black finish design looks great and helps with stains, while other advantages include BPA-free materials and the familiar spill lip on the base.
When’s the last time you heard of a truly innovative gas grill? Lynx has just announced a concept that will bring the outdoor kitchen into the modern age. Using smartphone integration and voice commands, Lynx’s Smart Grill can automatically cook your food using pre-programmed recipes created by master grillers. Read more about it at Lynx’s website.
Canning is one of those things that always sounded so good, but the actual process intimidated me terribly. It’s why I was so excited to jump on the chance to review the FreshTech Canning System. Could this all in one device provide all of the benefits of canning with none of the headaches? Read on to find out!
Packing your own lunch is often a cheaper and healthier alternative to eating out, so brown-bagging it is becoming even more popular among frugal workers. But think of all the disposable snack bags you’ve been paying for and contributing to the landfill. Fortunately, here comes RUSSBE Reusable Snack and Sandwich Bags to the rescue!
I debated and debated (and debated!) about whether or not I should back the “World’s first roast-grind-brew coffee machine” by Bonavarde Coffee Changers. In the end, even though it seemed unlikely and possibly too good to be true, and even though there were plenty of good reasons not to,”but what if it works?” won out, and I backed. Bonaverde more than met their initial goal of $135,000; they smashed it with over $681K in backing money, and they added several stretch goals along the way. This may turn out to be a very expensive piece of junk, or it might…