It's summer, toss some silicone on the barbee
Silicone cooking doodads have made a fine transition from the kitchen to the BBQ.
For a barbeque-friendly take on the bristle basting brush, check out the Super Silicone Angled BBQ Basting Brush from Grill Friends. The 15-inch red-and-black brush may be long enough to keep the hairs on your forearm from burning. It's $9.99 online at the BBQ Pro Shop.
keep your basting sauces in line.
There's also an $11.99 barbeque mop with 167 dangling silicone bristles that can hold plenty of sauce. Unlike cotton mops, it can be cleaned and used again.
For more protection against smoky heat, the pliable, rubbery Orka Silicone Oven Mitt covers a full 17 inches of your arm--versus the regular 11-inch model. It can be found online for $29.99 in BBQ-appropriate lobster-red and charcoal colors. It's heat-resistant up to 600 degrees.
To store your signature basting sauce in a bottle apres-grill, try pouring into a Danesco square silicone funnel. They come in a set of three in red, blue and yellow for $8.52 at Kitchen Niche.
And for that palate-refreshing fruit salsa or smoothie, you can slice through mangos using an Oxo Mango Splitter. Chef's Resource has it for $11.95. It's supposed to cleave the fruit easily off the large pit. Like all Oxo tools, the silicone grips are designed to help guide the blades firmly--and comfortably--down, so you can get the job done quickly and get back to your guests.