Daylight Savings Ends – Time to Check Your Batteries And Maybe Something Else.
November 1, 2012 - Written by DianaDaylight Savings is ending this weekend. Usually we are told to check our batteries in our smoke detectors. I have a suggestion though. I have been trying out a new smoke detector, one that can be used near your kitchen. The Iophic Smoke and Fire Alarm with Universal Sensing Technology won’t go off when you open the oven even when the food is a little charred. So when you change your battery this weekend, think about changing that smoke detector with all of the nuisance alarms, the one that’s affected by the kitchen the most.
I was skeptical when I accepted the offer to review the smoke detector. I have them throughout the house, but the biggest problem is that the detector down the hall from the kitchen goes off every time we open the oven door. When the smoke detector arrived I was determined to do a good test of the smoke detector because if I was endorsing it, it had better work.
So, this is what we did. We took the new smoke detector and we placed it on a wall …
What I’m trying – Wine Doctor Intelli-Stopper
August 24, 2011 - Written by Diana
The Wine Doctor Intelli-Stopper helps to preserve the wine left in your bottle after you’ve opened it, plus removes any air left in the bottle. The Classic wine preservation kit contains one pump, to remove the air and two stoppers. You line the preserver pump onto the stopper and pull the air out until the red indicator disappears. It’s easy to use, and though I don’t have a scientific way to measure success (except for the red indicator), I can tell that when I take out the stopper, the whoosh of air tells me that the stopper worked. I’ve had other stoppers and I also have an electric preservation kit, but none of it comes close to the Wine Doctor Intelli-Stopper. The preserver is small enough to stick in a drawer and doesn’t need to be plugged in to an outlet, more pluses if you ask me.
Mixer Mate – Great Design for A Mixing Bowl
April 30, 2011 - Written by Diana
Mixer Mate is not your standard Mixing Bowl – big and round. This bowl is narrow and more oblong, to help you mix in a more efficient way. I tried it out, and thought it did a great job of whipping things up, quickly. It is deep, so nothing splatters, even when you are pulling the beaters up a little. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to reach the bottom of the bowl because of the depth, but the MixerMate Bowl
When my Mother in Law was visiting this weekend, I showed her the bowl and talked about the features. Her response was the design made sense since she searches for a narrow bottom bowl when she gets her hand mixer out. So there you have it perfect bowl for the hand mixer.
I also like the grippers on the bottom that keep it from sliding in the counter, and the wide lip that makes it easy to hold. There are pour …
Capresso Froth Pro Automatic Milk Frother – Review
September 26, 2010 - Written by Diana
Capresso Froth Pro Automatic Milk Frother – is a great addition to your coffee corner. I don’t have a big Coffee Machine with tons of bells and whistles. It’s a single serve coffee maker and that’s it, but I’m the only coffee drinker in the house most of the time. When we have company I bring out the bigger coffee maker, but it takes up too much room for every day use. So you get your coffee add the milk and sweetener and it immediately cools down. Plus, it’s not the same as those coffee places with the foamy milk, is it? The Capresso Froth Pro takes up very little space, but makes a great addition to your coffee maker. I highly recommend the Capresso Froth Pro . You can make lattes, cappuccinos, specialty coffee drinks that taste a little more professional with this. You can also use it to froth up your chocolate milk, or even add warmed milk to your tea.
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Cheese is a great snack, a good hors d’oeuvre for Easter or other family gatherings (like Mother’s Day), but you end up with partially eaten cheeses sitting around in the fridge going moldy. I hate moldy cheese, but I love cheese. The FoodSaver Freshsaver is a hand held, rechargeable vacuum seal device that will keep your cheese from getting moldy. I swear, it’s wonderful for my cheese. About the size of the palm of your hand, it stores in one of your kitchen drawers easily when not in use. I’ve had mine about 6 months and I love it. Cheese without the FreshSaver system: Cheese with the FreshSaver system: Lots of fresh cheeses mmmm. All you do is position the device over the seal and suction out the air until there isn’t any more air to suck out. It doesn’t work well on wet foods, so jello would not work, however, you can …
I have a few gadgets that are maybe a little seasonal in nature, and somewhat fun, but very functional at the same time. Functional is very important to me. I don’t want something hanging around that I’m not going to use, but if it makes my life easier, I definitely want it. Here are a few things I’ve added to my kitchen that I think you might enjoy too. Things have been really hectic here. After the Biggest Loser/ Jennie-O contest, things seem to go weird – I lost some posts and it turned out to be something wrong with the automatic tweet feature. Then we have had track meets, to keep us really busy (my son’s relay team set the 4 X 400 meet record time for the SVC) and out of the kitchen. Today’s dinner was a very gadget oriented meal. I have some gadgets I’m enjoying using and they did make dinner easier for me – thank you gadgets. Besides being gadget oriented, it was delicious and pretty darn nutritious and probably low fat (but I can’t guarantee that). I made the rice with a rice cooker – following the directions correctly and it came out perfect. I grilled the tuna on my grill pan on the stove (less calories that way?), I made some honey mustard vinaigrette with a Black and Decker Gizmo and spinned the water out of my chard with the Spin and Stor. I’ve tried out a few new things by Copco lately and the Pizza Line from Mario Batali is another one. The two items I tried out were the Pizza Knife and the Container Grater, both are decent kitchen tools to have. My son is a cereal eater. The boy is 6’2” and wears a size 13 shoe, but his foot is definitely hollow. I know he stores his food there. He runs on the track team and eats constantly. This boy eats a lot of cereal, one day, he ate 7 bowls, usually he eats 4, or he did, until I started buying the mega size cereal bags of generic mini – wheat type stuff. One problem, the bags tear. Every day, it …
So here’s the thing. I have stainless steel appliances which means I can’t hang my son’s lovely artwork on the fridge. Well, I can with tape but then there’s all that sticky clean up. I love our new fridge, but can’t stand not being able to use it as a display surface. I’m a gal who likes reminders. I need calenders and white boards and big bold lettering. Can’t have that with a stainless steel fridge. At least not until Happeez came along. Happeez are products that stick where magnets don’t. Clips, frames, whiteboards and more, simply peel of the backing of each Happeez and stick to the desired surface. The beauty part is that they don’t leave a sticky residue or stain behind, and if it loses its stickiness all one needs to do is clean the backing with a bit o’vinegar and water. Now, I have my son’s pictures on my fridge, inside Happeez frames. I have his artwork displayed using the Happeez clips and I even have my reminders thanks to the whiteboard calendar. Happeez makes me happy. Bet it makes you happy too. Find Happeez at MayfairLane.com. 
Make Your Cheese Last Longer with the FoodSaver FreshSaver
April 9, 2010 - Written by Diana
Summertime Gadgets – Fun and Functional
July 9, 2009 - Written by Diana
Cherry Chomper – This cherry pitter by Talisman Designs, is cute and does exactly what it should do. You put a cherry in it’s mouth push down on the head, and the pit is swallowed up, while the cherry is there pitless, waiting for you. My daughter had absconded with the Cherry Chomper and I made her dig it back out and give it back because I am not messing my teeth up on cherry pits. It captures all the pits in the bottom container, so you can throw them into the compost bucket without any rolling away, plus catches the juice too. …
Aroma Rice Cooker and Some of My Dinner Making Gadgets
May 17, 2009 - Written by Diana
Mario Batali – Pizza Line by Copco
May 11, 2009 - Written by Diana
The Pizza knife is the best pizza cutting tool for me. I’ve had the pizza cutters with the little wheel, but this Pizza Knife cuts through it just by pressing down and rocking it back and forth once. The only downside is that it’s big and you will need to figure out where to store it. However, my husband and son loved it the first time we used it. No cheese sticking to it and smearing, just cut, cut cut, cut and you are done, it’s that simple and fast. I put it into the dishwasher along the side to get cleaned off- where it won’t take up much room. If you eat pizza on a regular basis – this would be something you would want to own. The Container Grater – took …
Copco’s Bag Caps
April 22, 2009 - Written by Diana
Here’s a cool new way to keep those bags closed – Bag Caps. Bag Clips are good, but Copco’s Bag Caps are better. I’ve been trying these great things out, and I like them. There are three different sizes to work with all different size bags. I’ve been using the small ones on my bags of frozen veggies – and voila – no more veggies all over the freezer bottom. It’s great for chips, veggies, candy, grains. I found the ultimate make me happy use though.
Magnets? We Don’t Need No Stinking Magnets! Come On Get Happeez
March 30, 2009 - Written by Deb Ng
