Cooking

One-pot meals are perhaps the finest invention of humankind. Sure, the wheel may have been important, but you can't eat one. Now at the end of a long day, all we need to do to create a hot and healthy meal is to set some food in a pot over heat and soon a meal will be made. However, just throwing a bunch of ingredients into a pot can have mixed results; it would be nice if the meal was flavorful too.

The Aroma NRC-687SD-1SG NutriWare Rice Cooker and Food Steamer is a one-pot appliance that offers the ability … Read more

You've got your Super Mario Brothers sneakers just in time for your Super Mario wedding, but aren't you lacking in the Super Mario kitchen department?

Online retailer Prairie Oak Studios has come to your rescue. Run by Jim Van Winkle, the Iowa-based crafts producer turns out beautiful cutting boards with all manner of designs.

Prairie Oak's Super Mario end grain cutting board is about 11 by 13 inches and shows your favorite 8-bit character with various varieties of wood that look like pixels.

It's put together with FDA-approved adhesives, smoothed with a seven-step process, and rubbed down with beeswax and grapeseed oil. … Read more

Eating the same food everyday can become very monotonous. Luckily, there is so much variety populating grocery store aisles that it is a fate quite avoidable. Yet as inspired as we would like to be during the cooking process, it is a mathematical fact that deliciousness is directly proportional to how to many dishes we dirty. Unless, of course, you don't even use a pan.

The Cuisinart Elite Griddler allows for the versatility necessary in order to create complex meals with a minimum of hassle. The countertop appliance features the ability to be used as in the open position … Read more

Once upon a time, somebody somewhere discovered that jabbing a hot dog with a skewer, coating it with batter, and then deep-frying it would be a delicious alternative to a bun. As history has shown, that genius individual was certainly correct.

Corn dogs just paved the way for what lay ahead in the future. Now, at every fair across the country, it is possible to get food items of every shape and variety clinging to an easy-to-carry stick. However, no longer must we wait for summer to enjoy all that food-on-a-stick can goodness. Now, all that deliciousness can be no … Read more

When it comes to the grill, procedure and setup are important aspects to consider. Aside from obvious safety concerns when dealing with hotter-than-hot objects, everything from grill placement to grill accessories need to be determined. And of course, when dealing with charcoal or natural wood, a means to light the fire would be necessary. All the better if that can be accomplished with no accelerant.

The Looftlighter Electric Firestarter requires no lighter fluid to get the fire going. Constructed with a 10-foot power cord, the grill gadget plugs into a standard outlet and supplies focused heat at a high temperature. … Read more

The enjoyment that one gets from grilling food over an open fire is one that can be traced back to the caveman days. While that primal satisfaction may be reason enough to occasionally fire up the grill, there are plenty of reasons why it would be impractical to solely rely on the cooking methods of our distant ancestors. For one, they didn't have pancakes.

Looking to redraw the lines of cooking evolution, the Cuisinart CGG-080 Griddlin' Portable Gas Grill makes it easy to grill and griddle in the great outdoors. Incorporating a griddle directly into the lid, the propane-powered … Read more

Like sausage and syrup, combining two good flavors often turns into something great.

Skillets and waffle-makers are two kitchen items associated with breakfast for good reasons. They both offer eaters the means to make long-standing favorites in a productive and easy fashion. Skillets are well-suited for frying up bacon and eggs, while making waffles in anything other than a waffle-maker (toasters and frozen discs do not count) can prove to be a challenge.

The aptly named Hamilton Beach 26046 Breakfast Master brings bacon and eggs to the table along with a platter of waffles. The all-in-one countertop appliance features two … Read more

Finally, a way to put that boiling pot of water to some good use besides making a box of mac and cheese.

The PowerPot is a Kickstarter project that looks to heat things up by adding the ability to charge gadgets while the pot is over a heat source. The heat source can be an open fire, a camping stove, or even a natural hot spring. What is important is that the liquid inside the pot is colder than the heat source. It is this temperature difference that is used to generate the energy necessary to power small gadgets.

The … Read more

Appliances don't always cooperate with what's on the menu.

Kitchen countertops have become landscapes populated by quick and easy meal-makers that can provide an almost endless variety of food options. Still, despite the great abundance of options to choose from, that doesn't mean a particular appliance knows how to adjust to the situation. Unless, of course, it is adjustable.

The Hamilton Beach 3-in-1 Grill/Griddle (model number 38546) eliminates either/or choices by being able to be configured into exactly what is required for the meal. Featuring two separately reversible plates, the countertop appliance is capable of … Read more