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Gifts for the kitchen: Housewares for the Holidays show unwraps latest gadgets

by Loknath Das December 2, 2017

written by Loknath Das

NEW YORK, N.Y. — What will you be getting for the cook on your list this holiday season? Whether you celebrate Christmas or Hanukkah, most people have at least one person who loves to cook and wants the latest gadgets. Or do you have a potential sommelier in the family? There are new wine-related items on the market this season, too.

“Manufacturers and retailers alike are continually in search of the next best thing or trend,” says Jon Jesse, vice president of industry development for the International Housewares Association, which recently showcased a plethora of new kitchen and bar wares ideal for gift-giving at its annual Housewares for the Holidays show. Here are just a few standouts, most of which are available online to get your shopping finished at the click of a mouse.

» Tovolo’s Precision Pie Crust Cutter. One of the most difficult things about making a beautiful pie is creating the perfect crust with even sides and gorgeous scalloped edges. Tovolo makes it easy with its new Precision Pie Crust Cutter.

It’s a handy tool that adjusts to different sizes. Remember using a compass in algebra class? The crust cutter follows the same technique, allowing you to place the body of the cutter in the center of the dough and extend its arm to cut perfect dough circles. The cutter has four discs that cut different crust designs — fluted, tight wave, light wave and scalloped. The discs are stored in the base so they won’t get lost, making the Precision Pie Crust Cutter very compact. At a price point of less than $10, it’s affordable enough for every would-be pastry chef on your list.

Price: $9.99.

Buy it at: www.amazon.com and www.surlatable.com.

» Bonny Bar Bottle Tag Corkscrew. A nice bottle of wine makes the perfect host/hostess gift during the holidays. Add a corkscrew and a card, and your gift becomes more than just another bottle to add to the collection, so make yours stand out with Bradshaw International’s Bonny Bar Bottle Tag Corkscrew. It’s an all-in-one corkscrew and “card” that bears a holiday greeting, such as “Making Spirits Bright,” with a space for “To” and “From” messaging on the back. The card is made of durable cardboard and fits over the bottle neck. It also has a pocket on the front holding a Bonny Bar winged corkscrew.

“It really dresses up a wine bottle,” says Bradshaw communication manager Bert Tanimoto.

Price: $9.99.

Buy it at: JC Penney and Tru Value hardware stores.

» Kilner Fermentation Set. The continuing popularity of the farm-to-table movement has sparked a new trend in the culinary world that has housewares company Typhoon Homeware flooding the market with items that allow cooks to get back to the basics, such as its new fermentation set. The company predicts it will be a top-seller, so don’t wait till the last minute if the cook on your list is one who follows the do-it-yourself trend, a movement that company spokesman Ryan Murphy says is popular among millennials.

Pottery crocks have been used for centuries to make sauerkraut, kimche, pickles and other foods that require fermentation, but there are some drawbacks to the opaque containers. Topping that list is the fact you can’t see what’s happening. The Kilner fermentation vessel is made of glass so you can witness the fermentation process in action. Plus, there’s a glass valve on top “that lets the bad gases out and keeps the good stuff in without having to open the lid,” Murphy notes.

Price: $30.

Buy it at: www.bedbathandbeyond.com or amazon.com.

» Gourmia WiFi Air Fryer. Air-frying is not a new cooking technique, but lately, it’s taken off as Americans become more health-conscious and try to follow better diets that don’t allow heavy fried foods. Air-frying allows us Southerners to enjoy more healthful versions of fried chicken, french fries and tater tots.

It’s a very multifunctional products that not only air-fries but also bakes and roasts. The three-in-one device takes the place of your toaster oven and deep fryer, allowing more counter space, making it ideal for those on your list who reside in tight living spaces with small kitchens.

Not only is air-frying more healthful than pan-frying in an oil bath, Gourmia has made it fun. The new model has a built-in “cook cam” that you can sync to your phone (iPhone or android), so you can watch your food from another room as it cooks and/or share your air-frying with friends via social media.

Price: $189.

Buy it at: www.bestbuy.com, www.kohls.com or www.bedbathandbeyond.com.

» Vinturi On Bottle Wine Aerator. In a perfect world, a nice bottle of wine achieves ideal aeration in a couple of hours. But who has time or wants to sit around and wait that long to enjoy a glass or two of your favorite vintage? The wine lover on your list will appreciate the latest aeration technology that marries science with style: the Vinturi On Bottle Wine Aerator.

It’s a one-piece appliance that fits snugly into the wine bottle like a cork, followed by a sleek, acrylic spout that allows for both aeration and no-mess pouring. Decanting takes place in seconds, not hours.

“Every single Vinturi is tested, because if one is off just 5/1,000th of an inch, it won’t work,” explains Eileen McHale, director of marketing and business development for Vinturi parent company Legacy Companies.

The device is wider on the bottom and narrower at the top so that as air velocity speeds up, pressure decreases. “And right in that magical spot, air is pulled in like a vacuum,” McHale says. The entire process takes just seconds. Its size makes for a great stocking stuffer, too.

Price: $19.99.

Buy it at: www.bedbathandbeyond.com.

[“Source-timesfreepress”]

December 2, 2017 0 comment

Gadgets News

Gift ideas that make life easier in the kitchen

by Loknath Das December 2, 2017

written by Loknath Das

Kitchen gear is always fun to give and get at the holidays. Addie Broyles / American-Statesman

It may be hard to believe, but an electric kettle is my favorite new gadget.

It’s not even new anymore, but I still get a thrill every time the base of the glass vessel lights up blue as the water for my cup of tea starts to heat up. It can boil more than a liter of water in about four minutes, and then it shuts off, keeping the water hot for at least 30 minutes.

All year, I’ve been playing around with different gadgets — some handheld kitchen appliances, some no-tech tools that simply make cooking easier or better. A few weeks ago, I headed out to Faraday’s Kitchen Store in Bee Cave, which has been selling cooking gear for more than 12 years, to ask manager Sharon O’Quinn about her personal favorites and the store’s best-sellers.

I mixed some of her suggestions with some of my own to create a holiday gift guide for gadgets big and small.

Metal measuring spoons ($14). I’ve had wonky measuring spoons for the longest time — thick, bright green plastic scoops that don’t fit into spice jars. I’d always wanted to upgrade to a nicer set of metal spoons, but since Santa didn’t seem to get the memo, I bought them for myself. I almost went with rounded ones until O’Quinn pointed out that the narrow squared ones can squeeze into smaller jars.

Good thermometers ($15 and up). When my trusty digital meat thermometer malfunctioned and only displayed temperatures in Celsius, I had fun using Google Home to help me convert to Fahrenheit. But even after I had baked enough chickens to learn the safe temperature in Celsius — 73 degrees — I knew I needed to replace it. The sexiest option out there is the Thermapen, but thanks to the wise council of the Faraday’s folks, I found a less expensive thermometer that doesn’t read the temperature quite so fast but works well for my purposes. I also picked up a candy thermometer because nobody likes getting caramel splattered on their hand while they try to measure the temperature with the wrong tool.

Meat claws ($19). You can find inexpensive plastic and metal tong meat claws everywhere, but the heavy-duty offset metal ones at Faraday’s are a big seller among barbecue lovers who shop at the store. Use these to make short work of pulled pork and chicken.

Biscuit cutters ($11). After improvising for years, I finally broke down and picked up a set of nesting cutters so I can make biscuits and cookies in different sizes. It’s a low-tech tool that makes a perfect gift for the biscuit-baker in your life.

Garlic twist ($25). This garlic grinder is easily one of the top selling products at Faraday’s, O’Quinn says. I’d seen these before but didn’t realize cooks were making repeat purchases to give these as gifts after finding them indispensable in their own kitchens. O’Quinn says that people will use this tool to break down ginger, herbs or even a small portion of pesto.

Red wine stain remover and the E-cloth ($8 each). Cleaning is an indisputable part of the cooking process, and these products fly off the shelves at Faraday’s. The Chateau Spill red wine stain remover is a patented liquid that, as I saw in a demo, really will take pretty much any stain out of a tablecloth, shirt, pants or napkin. The E-cloth markets itself as a way to clean with only water, a claim I didn’t believe until the Faraday’s staffers went on and on about how these microfiber cloths have revolutionized how they clean their own homes and kitchens.

Measuring cup with a scale ($25). Weighing ingredients can be the most effective way to bake or cook, but going back and forth between tools for weighing ingredients and for measuring by volume adds to the chore. This measuring cup allows you to do both, which is handy if you’ve ever had to stop midrecipe to break out a scale and a bowl.

Instant Pot or other multicooker ($69 and up). Let’s face it: No kitchen gadget list is complete in 2017 without a multicooker. The best known brand is the Instant Pot, but Fagor and Crock-Pot and other manufacturers are selling them, too, and they all fall into this new category of cooking that involves different applications of heat in a single vessel. Their popularity is why you’re also seeing so many Instant Pot cookbooks, which help you figure out how to use all those settings so you don’t just get stuck on the more familiar slow cooker mode.

Crock-Pot WeMo ($149). Speaking of slow cookers, if you use yours a lot and find yourself wishing you could turn it off or on from work or when you’re away from home, put this Wi-Fi-enabled Crock-Pot on your Christmas list. It’s been around for a few years, but reviewers say they love the flexibility they get from knowing they can control the heat remotely.

Farberware Electric Kettle ($30). If you’ve ever, even once, decided to make tea for yourself and then let a pot of water simmer on the stove until it evaporated, you need an electric kettle. I had a whole cabinet of tea that I wasn’t drinking until I bought a kettle on sale late last year. I’ve used it to preheat water for boiling pasta or to have hot water on hand for risotto, but the real win is that I’m now drinking tea every day when the temperatures fall. Not having to drop what I’m doing to turn off a whistling teapot is such a small thing, but that’s what these gadgets are for: making it ever-so-slightly easier to take care of yourself, your meals and your cooking space.

FOOD GIFTS

Looking for a food gift that isn’t a gadget? Here are a few ideas from local food businesses.

Springdale Handmade makes some of the best-smelling soaps, salves and bath bombs in Austin, and they often use local ingredients, such as wine from Fall Creek Vineyards. You can find their products at Springdale Farm and several other local retailers. Another local company, Kuhdoo Soap Co.,specializes in making soap from local craft beers. You can often buy the soaps at the breweries themselves, including the ABGB in South Austin.

If you don’t have any kind of floor covering in your kitchen and you cook a lot, a mat from a company like the Austin-based GelPro will vastly improve those hours spent in the kitchen. They feel like you’re standing on air and make doing the dishes bearable.

The local olive oil and vinegar store Con’ Olio has several locations around Austin, including one next to Faraday’s in Bee Cave, and you can’t go wrong with one of their premium olive oil sets. The Con’ Olio location in the Arboretum is near Savory Spice Shop, which is a great place to shop for stocking stuffers and gift certificates.

La Dolda in Westlake sells more than a dozen varieties of handmade pastas that taste better than anything you’ve ever picked up at the grocery store. They also offer other specialty foods from Italy.

It’s hard to go wrong with a gift certificate for dessert. Local ice cream and gelato shops Tasty Spoon, Teo, Dolce Neve, Lick Honest Ice Creams and Amy’s Ice Creams are good options.

The upscale kitchen store Kettle and Brine, 908 W. 12th St., specializes in goods that are as beautiful to look at as they are functional in your home. Anything you buy here would be a treat to unwrap on Christmas morning.

Sips By (sipsby.com) is an Austin-based tea subscription service that will help you make the most of that new electric kettle. They sell an amazing variety of teas that they curate into a monthly box based on your preferences.

[“Source-mystatesman”]

December 2, 2017 0 comment

Gadgets News

How to design your kitchen for weight-loss success

by Loknath Das December 2, 2017

written by Loknath Das

Forget expensive appliances, you likely already own everything you need to set yourself up for weight-loss success.Spaces Images / Getty

As a registered dietitian nutritionist, I spend a lot of time thinking about kitchen organization. After all, the average American is in the kitchen for 37 minutes a day, prepping food and cleaning up, per data from the United States Department of Agriculture. And then there’s the time you spend eating.

Although I love to shop for pretty kitchen tools and gadgets, the real fun is in making easy organizational tweaks to promote healthy eating and maximize weight-loss efforts. Here are a few of my favorite tips for doing so. The best part? They’re all super easy to implement!

Have a set of measuring cups and spoons. Using measuring tools helps you get a handle on what a portion looks like so you won’t overeat. If my clients don’t own these tools, I send them to the store after our first meeting to buy them! One set works — but if you’re like me, you may find multiple sets useful. I like to keep tablespoons in containers of nuts and seeds to make healthy snacking a no-brainer.

Place fruit on the counter. Display those apples, pears, oranges and bananas on the countertop. You can use a pretty fruit bowl, or you can repurpose a pie plate (that’s what I do!). People who keep fruit on the countertop are more likely to have a lower BMI, a measure of body fat based on height and weight, according to a study published in Health Education and Behavior. When you want a snack, you’ll be more likely to reach for the fruit because it’s visible.

Hide the sugary stuff.Love chocolate? Can’t stop yourself when the jelly beans are in plain sight? People who kept candy on their desk ate almost three times more candy than volunteers who hid candy containers in their desks — and close to six times more than people who had to walk a short distance to get to the candy — according to a study published in the journal Appetite. Use this strategy in your kitchen: Hide candy in the back of the pantry or freezer. Better yet, remove the treats from the house completely. If you want a cookie, go to the bakery and buy one so you’re not tempted to eat an entire package!

Rearrange your pantry. Make healthy food easier to get to by placing it in the front of a cabinet. In the Health Education and Behavior study, normal-weight people were more likely to store snack foods out of sight in a cupboard or a drawer and to place healthier foods in more visible places. Women who had soda and breakfast cereal on the countertop weighed more, as did men with candy visible on the counter.

Have an emergency stash. One of the first things I advise new clients is shopping for a supply of healthy food. Fresh fruits, veggies and proteins are fantastic to have on hand. But if you’re a few days late with this week’s grocery run or you’re just getting back from vacation, you’ll want to dip into your emergency supply for a healthy meal. Store frozen veggies and fruit in the freezer and brown rice, quinoa, canned beans, nuts and seeds in the pantry.

Confine food to the kitchen. Don’t hide food throughout the house! This means saying good riddance to that candy bowl in the family room and the cookie stash in your home office. Obese participants were more likely to have food stored in rooms beyond the kitchen, according to a study in the International Journal of Obesity.

Bring sound into your kitchen. Whether you have a radio, speakers for your iPhone, or another way to listen to music, play soft tunes while you cook and eat. This may help you feel relaxed and encourage you to eat less, found a study by Cornell University researchers.

[“Source-nbcnews”]

December 2, 2017 0 comment