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(Credit: Sur La Table)No party is complete without ice cubes. To further that thought, no Halloween party is complete without pumpkins and spooky lights. Luckily, Halloween is the holiday with the best gadgets. Lawns are decorated with frightening images that scream at you when you walk by and costumes feature everything from glowing lights to voice-changing speakers. But it's the little things that make Halloween gadgets unique, and little details that make your get-together special.
The illuminated pumpkin ice cubes aren't necessarily very scary, but they certainly scream Halloween. Sold in a set of three, the battery-powered drink coolers are made of a durable food-safe acrylic. Just pop them in your freezer and pull them out at party time. Operation is easy with a simple on/off switch, and the option to provide solid illumination or a flickering strobe.
Kids are sure to love seeing these little jack-o'-lanterns floating in their drinks, but I can think of a few more grown-up drinks that would also benefit from this wacky Halloween accessory. In particular a strong flavored rum drink named the Zombie. Remember, when planning your Halloween party, a little forethought and some nifty glowing gadgets go a long way. An ample supply of red food coloring doesn't hurt, either.
The Euro-Pro Ninja Master Prep is like having a blender, a food processor, and a drink maker all in one set. By attaching it to its accompanying 48-ounce pitcher, you can blend up a batch of milkshakes, smoothies or margaritas--it uses a QuadBlade system that even makes it easy to make snow cones in the pitcher. The Ninja Master Prep also comes with a two-cup container, which is just the right size for whipping up a quick batch of salsa. The set also includes a storage lid that makes it easy to stick leftover appetizers and drinks in the refrigerator without worry. You don't have to limit yourself to salsa, of course--it works ideally for chopping up ingredients for other dishes, like the vegetables necessary for a hearty pot of soup.
The Ninja Master Prep has built-in antispill features and was designed to be safe even for children to use. It requires just one touch to blend, chop, or process food. The pitcher and cup are both dishwasher-safe, and the interchangeable pulser can be wiped clean. You can even move the pulser between the pitcher and the cup without spilling a drop. The Ninja Mater Prep is priced at $49.99.
(Credit:
MoMA Store)
Enter this Spherical Ice Tray Set available at the MoMA Design Store. The set molds two 2-inch spheres that serve as an attractive alternative to everyday ice cubes. One set is enough to fill glasses for you and a friend on the patio, or if you're up purchasing several sets, they could accommodate a larger group for a dinner party or a punch bowl.
Like all of the gadgets available on the store's Web site, you can get the ice trays pictured here for a small discount if you're a member. As a member of the general populace, you can pick the set up for $16.
(Credit:
MoMA Store)
Father's Day is right around the bend, so you can bet on seeing a lot of gift ideas in the coming days on store shelves, like fancy ties, coffee mugs, and classy bar-inspired dishes such as these Inside Out Martini Glasses.
When your dad pulls the glasses out of the box, he might give you the kind of eyebrow raise and forced, "Oooooh, nice," that accompanies the gifts that end up collecting dust in a storage shed, because they look like ordinary drinking glasses from the outside. But pick your favorite hard liquor to pour into them and they reveal the classic martini shape on the inside. They're also make of a blown glass that insulates the liquid, keeping it cooler longer.
Alissia Melka-Teichroew designed the Inside Out Martini Glasses and they are available at the MoMA Design Store as a set of two for $65.
(Credit:
Popular Mechanics)
A perfect example of the latter is this Brütül Lagerhead Black & Tan Turtle, featured in Popular Mechanic's "Top 10 Wild Kitchen Gadgets You'll Use Only Once." The sentiment written at the top of the article provides the best definition of the type of gadgets that end up making it onto our wish lists, describing them as things that "straddle the line between humorous and ingenious."
The turtle sits atop your glass as you pour alcohol into it, ensuring that they mix perfectly. You simply pour the lighter brew, add the turtle, and finish your glass off with the denser beer. Popular Mechanics gives the Black Velvet (Guinness and Champagne), the Snakebite (Guinness and hard cider), and the Bumble Bee (Murphy's and Dundee Honey Lager) as example beverages. If you're like me and you tend to put your faith in the pros, you can follow Brütül's suggestion and use the turtle to make its namesake, even if it's only once every couple of years.
(Credit:
Sur la table)
In spring and summer, drinks taste much better when they're icy cold, and manufacturers have come up with a vast array of ice shapes to add into your juice pitchers.
What I haven't seen yet, however, is anything like this tray of Ice Kabobs. Made out of silicone, it makes three kabobs out of ice in fun strings of shapes. You can use them as swizzle sticks for a party, cold spears in a water pitcher, or simply as an addition to your own personal glass when you're trying to cool off at home.
The Ice Kabob tray is available in orange or pink, and it's yours for $8 on Sur la Table's Web site.
Presentation is everything. And $20 price tags don't hurt either. Why blend the boring old-fashioned way, when you could be blending in style? In style, that is, with a tornado.The Vortex Portable Mixer is powered by a 9000rpm motor that quickly and effectively mixes whatever liquid-based material you put in it.
Although it is mainly designed and marketed toward protein shake drinkers (who would rather avoid nasty bits of dry clumps in their beverage), the portable mixer has numerous uses. For example, a spinning (and dizzying) tornado in a bottle could be a fascinating twist on old-timey cocktail shakers. The manufacturer also offers suggestions about the mixer being used as a great salad-dressing shaker or a fun way to whip up a batch of scrambled eggs.
The fun presentation is not the only benefit from this high-powered portable mixer. Immediately after use, the Vortex is easily cleaned by giving some fresh water a quick spin in the machine. A little soap added to the mix and your portable mixer will practically clean itself. For $20, the Vortex promises to add a little fun to your beverage-making endeavors. Quick and easy to use, the portable tornado might be the next best thing to captured lightning in a jar.
I returned home from five weeks out of the country to discover that the mail hold I'd enabled was essentially rendered meaningless by the zealous work of public relations companies, which had stacked no fewer then 12 UPS packages neatly on my front porch.
My favorite was the company that included fresh flowers with their package. The flowers, I'm sure, were fresh back on March 25 when they were delivered. But I digress. Among the packages, I found some gems I'll tell you about in the next few days, starting with the very cool Contigo Autoseal drinkware.
The stainless steel mug they sent me holds 16 ounces of liquid and keeps it hot for 4 hours or icy cold for 12. And it actually is spillproof, unlike the sippy cups and sport bottles my kids usually use. The spillproof part is pretty darn simple: when you pick up the mug, you press a button with your thumb to unseal the mug and drink. As soon as you release the button, the mug is sealed, and not a drop drips out.
I love this mug already, and I'm particularly interested in Contigo's line of kid-friendly cups, which are contoured for smaller hands and hold 9 ounces of liquid. Check out the full line of BPA-free, eco-friendly mugs and bottles. Cheers!
Hot chocolate can be a favorite treat for kids--but I wouldn't trust most children near the stove to make their own, especially with any of the standard tools for frothing hot milk and chocolate. That doesn't mean that kids need constant adult supervision if they want to make some hot cocoa for themselves, though. The Hot Chocolate Maker from Plow & Hearth is a battery-operated hot chocolate pot that doesn't need a stove to combine chocolate and milk into a tasty treat. It requires two AA batteries to power the frother that whips the chocolate and milk together. The ceramic pot includes a lid to keep those hot drinks contained during the frothing process.
The Hot Chocolate Maker comes with recipes--although you can just as easily use your preferred recipe for hot chocolate. The pot is dishwasher-safe, making cleanup simple. The side of the white pot reads 'Gourmet Hot Chocolate' and its handle makes it a cute touch for any kitchen. The Hot Chocolate Maker is priced at $24.95. While it does not come with batteries, you can purchase a two-pack from Plow & Hearth for $1.95--or go to your local store.
This sturdy little clip will hold up to a pound and a half and a cup up to 3.25" in diameter.
(Credit: MoMA Store)One of the reasons I bought a notebook computer is so I could get work done in my living room. Until now, this has worked out just fine: I can bring my computer to my coffee table and enjoy a cup of tea or coffee while I write or balance my budget.
But, as they are prone to do in the world of people who still rent, things changed when I got a new roommate.
It wasn't the arrival of a new body in the house that interrupted my typical living room workspace, but rather the arrival of three new bodies: a roommate and his two cats. Although I am an animal lover, feline curiosity is dangerous when combined with open containers of coffee next to expensive pieces of electronic equipment. In other words, my coffee table workspace, complete with computer and coffee, became an accident waiting to happen.
So far, my solution has been to keep a vigilant watch over my computer, bringing it back to my desk whenever I leave the room. After several trips back and forth, this practice gets annoying, and there are some days that I'd appreciate a more permanent solution.
One possibility for preventing a possible kitty catastrophe is this DrinKlip Cup Holder. It clips onto the edge of your table, reducing the chance that your drink will spill. Plus, with your drink on the side instead of the top surface of the table, you have more free space.
As much as I'd probably get some sideways glances, I could see this coming in handy during rush hour at the busy bookstore cafe I sometimes also go to, where I almost always share an itty-bitty square table with someone else, also with a coffee and a computer.
