Cookerati

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.

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. My Grade A. 

 Grilly Goat Basting Tongs & Sauce Pot – The Grilly Goat name is a little on the silly side, you have to admit, and the tongs look a little odd, but the set is great.  The lockable tongs have a silicon basting brush as built in (kind of it’s removable).  I wasn’t sure what I would think, or my husband who likes to do the grilling would think about this feature.  Well, we like that we don’t have to mess with both a brush and tongs. The brush worked much better than I thought it would and impressed me.  Having just one tool is really cool.  Plus, there are other features that we found we like a lot.  The Sauce pot is very stable and won’t tip (unlike my other basting pot). The Sauce pot also has a slot to slide the edges of the tongs into, giving you somewhere to set the tongs so that the sauce drips back into the sauce pot and not on the plate or tray. My grade A.

Hamilton Beach Wave station Express – We bought this on vacation because my daughter wanted to make virgin daiquiris and I was eager to try them out.  Since then she’s become our smoothie queen, using different combinations to make luscious drinks.  She throws in the ice and they are all ground into tiny ice particles, to make the drink cold, but not watery.  The wave action causes the ice to break down evenly, so you won’t have any big ice chunks. This is really high up on the fun list for me. The Wave Station Express has a nice little spigot on the front for pouring, though if it’s slushy you need to pour it out the top.