For real couch potatoes.
(Credit: Keita Watanabe & Shota Matsuda)You know how, during the two minutes or so that you're waiting for your microwave popcorn to pop, you find yourself thinking, "If only I could be watching a video on YouTube right now"? No? Oh. Well, if you ever do find yourself wanting to take advatage of those few moments of forced waiting, you'll love the idea behind the CastOven.
From the developers' Web site: "Watching movies, playing video games, and browsing Web pages are fun, but all of them require a certain amount of time of us to spare." To solve this problem, this future microwave oven with the 10.4-inch LCD display plays YouTube clips that fit your cooking time.
The concept machine looks ridiculously cool, and you can even watch a demonstration video, in case you're having a hard time understanding how you can cook food and watch videos simultaneously. Props for the design and the presentation, but I'm just not sure there's a real need for this product.
My freshman year of college, I lived on the third floor of my dorm. The laundry room, of course, was in the basement. I definitely got a lot of exercise running up and down the stairs, checking for empty machines, checking if my machine was done, or checking if my clothes were still there.
Kids these days just don't know how good they have it, especially if they have eSuds, a new technology that is changing the entire experience of public laundry facilities. When a facility installs eSuds, users can then use any Internet-connected computer to check real-time machine availability, get notifications when their laundry is ready or when a specific machine is available, and even pay via PIN code or credit card in some cases.
Universities are an obvious place for eSuds to take hold, but upscale apartment complexes are also getting in on the action. Imagine if ordinary laundromats put the system in place--you could easily find a place to wash your clothes on vacation and spend more time enjoying yourself.
Live in a building with shared laundry facilities? Might want to pass the link on to your landlord. The system provides operators with online, real-time cash and card reporting and generates detailed diagnostic reports when machines are in need of service, so technicians can proactively address issues.
About a year ago, we shared with you the miBook, an innovative, interactive cookbook. Just in time for the holidays, the miBook has been upgraded, and the price has dropped.
The miBook is like an e-book reader on steroids. Instead of pages of plain text, miBook offers video and audio clips. So when you pull up a recipe, instead of an instruction like "cut up your chicken," you get a video clip with narration: "Slice your chicken tenders into bite-size chunks." You can see the knife being used and the size of the pieces. And the player's key feature remains: it automatically pauses after each step, to give you time to complete your task. When you're ready to move on, hit play on the included remote.
When you take the miBook out of the box, you're up and running in seconds. Plug in the AC adapter and turn it on. Grab the remote and scroll through menus. The process is intuitive, and the included instruction booklet explains anything you don't immediately know how to do. The upgraded screen resolution gives you sharper images on the 7-inch screen so you can see exactly what you need to do, every step of the way.
The list of available titles for miBook has been expanded, and the cards themselves load faster than ever. As soon as I loaded a card into the player, its contents were instantly available. I could call up recipes and scroll through menus with no lag time. Each recipe book features 150 recipes sorted by ingredient, time to prepare, and cooking method. I played around with Quick and Easy Meals, Pizzas, Pastas, and Salads, and Irresistible Desserts. Other titles include Healthy Cooking for Kids and Amazing Party Food.
A nice touch: the remote is wrapped in plastic with an opening at the bottom to allow you to change the battery without unwrapping it. So if you happen to get it dirty while cooking (not that I would ever do such a thing, of course), you can just wipe it down when you're done.
For $90, you can snag the player with two bundled cooking titles. Additional titles are about $20 and cover not only cooking, but also parenting, home repairs, projects, decorating, gardening, and organizing. And pet care, crafts, musical instruments, technology, and travel are on the way. Content providers include popular TV networks like Food Network, HGTV, and Parents TV, and leading book publishers and authors. Plus, you can load your own content onto the player--music, photos, even PDFs--via SD cards or a USB cable.
We've looked at toasters that print designs on your toast before. This toaster is actually designed in the style of a printer--stack your toast on top, and each piece "prints" out to your plate below. The eye-catching design is somewhat reminiscent of the iMac, and it would look fabulous in my kitchen. Er, in any kitchen.
Sadly, this toaster is not yet available in stores, but its creator, Othmar Muhlebach, just won second place in the Berner Design Awards (that site's in German, by the way), and it's getting quite a bit of attention in the blogosphere, so there's hope.
My husband is one of about six people on the planet who drinks Vanilla Coke Zero. This flavor is so unpopular that it's extremely difficult to find in bottles, which means we buy a lot of 12-packs of cans of soda.
On occasion, my husband doesn't finish a whole can at once. And the leftover soda loses its carbonation and eventually gets dumped down the drain. And then I get annoyed because I hate wasting money. And food. But mostly money.
So as much as I might enjoy making fun of late night informercials, I was intrigued when I saw an ad for the Bottle Top. It looks like the top third or so of a plastic water bottle, with a lid that seals shut. Snap the top right onto your soda can to keep your soda carbonated and prevent spills. A south Mississippi TV reporter evaluated the Bottle Top and found that it did meet most of the ad claims.
The Bottle Top comes in six different colors. The ad says a set of six is $10, but what you can order online is actually a set of 12 (plus a pop-top opener in case you've never mastered the fine art of opening a can of soda) for $10, plus $6.99 shipping and handling...plus another $6.99 shipping and handling for the second set of six. Or, head to the store and grab a box of 12 for $10.
It's easy to get caught up in fun kitchen gadgets and overlook the things that are most important--like kitchen safety. Do you own a fire extinguisher? Do you know where it is and how to use it? A fire extinguisher can be somewhat unwieldy, and many kitchen extinguishers are only good for a single use. You should still have one in your kitchen, but a backup plan isn't a bad idea.
That's where the Kitchen Fire Mat comes in. The mats are made from amorphous silica cloths and felts, which are absolutely fire proof, impervious to direct flame contact and cannot melt until temperatures exceed 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The blanket smothers the flame without smoke emission or toxic gases, and you can reuse it several times if you're dealing with minor flames.
The blanket is 36 inches by 36 inches and has handles at one end. Plus, it comes packaged in a cute red ceramic fire-hydrant-shaped canister that you can keep on your counter so it's there--accessible--when you need it.
The mat costs about $50. But your peace of mind? Priceless.
Sometimes it's the simple things that make the biggest difference. Ever used a chip clip on a bag and been disappointed to find that your chips are stale anyway? Next time, try the Banana Seal, which essentially turns any bag into a zip-top resealable bag.
Press a tube into the sealer on the opposite side of the bag to seal in freshness, even in the freezer. The clip is virtually unbreakable and creates an airtight seal for bags of snacks, crackers, frozen foods, brown sugar, and so on. It's particularly useful for anyone with dexterity issues, because it's much easier to use than a chip clip.
If you find yourself with lots of holiday leftovers, pick one up so none of your food goes to waste! Find a package of 18 seals at retailers nationwide or online for around $20.
What's the first thing you do with a new kitchen appliance? In our house, I go for the instruction manual, but my husband tends to plunge right in. This has resulted in more than a few mishaps over the many years of our marriage.
The Primula Speak n' Brew, the world's first talking coffee maker, aims to simplify the coffee brewing process and eliminate the need to push a dozen buttons to program the machine. Instead, you can just tell this 10-cup stainless steel coffee maker when you want your coffee made.
It's pretty straightforward: press Talk, then tell the machine you want to set the coffee brewing time, and tell it when to brew. The machine repeats the time back to you as confirmation, and then, at the proper time, it goes to work.
Too tired to talk? The machine also uses old-school button-type programming.
It's available now for about $80.
As we enter the holiday season, many of us are planning menus, prepping kitchens, and getting ready to spend at least a day cooking up a feast. With all that cooking inevitably comes a bit of chopping, and if you're not an experienced chef, you may be bit worried about the safety of your fingers.
Proper chopping technique has your finders bent and pressed up against the knife so you can't slice off a fingertip, but if you're unpracticed, the position feels unnatural. The Safe Slice uses a protective shield that grips food tightly and keeps your fingers out of harm's way while you chop, slice, and dice.
At around $6, it's cheap security, and it comes in pink, purple, and green.
Ice cream is a staple of my diet. And with five kids in the house, we serve up a fair amount of the good stuff 'round these parts. But even with a lot of practice, I've never been good at packing ice cream into a cone. I often wind up smushing the cone, which leads to many tears and much whining. And then the kids start complaining!
But seriously, folks, this ice cream scoop and stack tool from Cuispro is a neat little kitchen gadget that lets you create an attractive presentation with very little effort. Its simple twist-and-lift action can cut through even the hardest ice cream, and the push-button release drops your cylindrical block of ice cream right into your cone--no smushing required.
You can also plate your ice cream for easy decorating and classier styling. Each scoop holds 3.75oz of ice cream, and the scoop is top-rack dishwasher safe. It costs about $15, and you can choose the color that best complements your favorite flavor.
