Appliances and Kitchen Gadgets

Conde Nast's Epicurious, the granddaddy of culinary Web sites, recently debuted a newly nipped-and-tucked design. The site's modular layout and increased emphasis on community have prompted more than one blogger to declare it "Epicurious 2.0." By making its content easier to find and adding more opportunity for members to interact, Epicurious has managed to stay one step ahead of other "old-media" sites, such as MyRecipes, Time Warner's recently launched foodie portal.

The new Epicurious home page includes more defined white space, larger images, and prominently placed links to community features, including a … Read more

On a trip up to wine country last weekend I found a little kitchen gadget that tickled my fancy. A group of friends and I had ordered a few bottles of sparkling wine out on the patio of Domaine Carneros (which, by the way, has an excellent domain name). Our server brought out three bottles in ice buckets, and I noticed the bottles all had stoppers with a design I'd never seen before. I tinkered with them a bit and ended up buying one on the way out.

The design is basic but effective. It's made of metal … Read more

It seems the older you get, the more lackluster the birthday celebrations become. And, while there's no need for birthday hats and balloons to fete the event, it seems that at the very least an indulgent cake is in order. The folks over at Gifts & More, however, would argue a musical cake server that plays the Happy Birthday song is in order too.

Made to mimic antique milk glass, this mint-colored plastic is attractive enough to pull out whenever cake slicing is called for. (So long as you don't mind it playing Happy Birthday on your wedding … Read more

Robotics company iRobot has announced two new versions of its robot vacuum cleaner, the Roomba. Upgrades include a larger dustbin, the ability to suck up larger objects (like pennies; dog food; and, on occasion, a rat), a "lighthouse" system that controls movement from room to room (in the 560 model), more graceful transitions from hard floors to carpet, and a system that prevents the Roomba from sucking up rug tassles or stray cords.

Household pets will be glad to hear that iRobot has eased up on the force with which Roombas bash into objects. Sensors alert the Roomba … Read more

There must be something in the air today--or the food, at least. Like the CulinaryPrep, the Lotus Sanitizing System from Tersano claims to eliminate fungus and other bacteria from food, but in this case with an environmentally safe blast of ozone.

As an added bonus, it also helps remove cat puke stains from the carpet. More on that in a second.

The unit, which sells for $169.99, is effectively a home ozone generator. A pump sucks in ambient air, and then hits it with a jolt of electricity. The electricity causes the oxygen molecules in the air, which consist … Read more

Rouxbe provides both seasoned foodies and clueless cooks with top-notch, how-to recipe videos. Product reviews, chef profiles and other articles are coming soon.

Both the content and images in Rouxbe's ad-free videos are terrific. You can download them for an iPod or at HD-quality to a hard drive. You can rate, bookmark, and print each recipe. Click on an exotic tool or condiment, and Rouxbe explains it and provides the option to make a purchase on Amazon. Nice touches include letting you control the volume separately for narrative instruction and music. The videos aren't personality-driven, unlike so many … Read more

Between mad cows and agricultural imports from China, you don't have to be a germaphobe to be slightly paranoid about your food. And even though there are devices developed for such tasks as sensing bacteria in uncooked meat, we can't help but wonder how well these things work--and how much of a chance we're willing to take.

That's where the "CulinaryPrep" comes in, claiming not only to detect the bad stuff but also eradicate it from the food in question. Using something called the "Grovac Process," which the device's manufacturer says … Read more

As I sat today with my morning cup of coffee, waiting for the powers of that sweet, sweet caffeine to take hold of me, a co-worker sent me this announcement. The latest issue of Business 2.0 contains a list of what they call the 29 best business ideas in the world. Among them, a color-changing coffee lid that warns sleepy drinkers of some of the common dangers of coffee consumption, namely coffee that's too hot, and an unsealed lid. Welcome news for this groggy blogger.

The lid looks like a regular plastic lid, like the ones placed on … Read more

A while back, my mom gave me a whole mess of little kitchen gadgets for my birthday. One of the first ones I tried out was this cheese gripper from Progressive, designed to protect your fingers while shredding cheese or chocolate.

The design is pretty simple. The blue body bends around a block of cheese, while the stainless steel ends act as protective guards for your fingertips while you shred the cheese against a grater. The added bonus is it keeps your hands clean, so it saves another trip to the sink when you're doing prep work. I had … Read more