Kitchen gadgets: There's a new blog in town

In the last decade or so, technology has nestled its way into every room in the American household. We have iPods in our showers, wireless networks for our speakers and houseplants that tell us when they need watering.

Here at CNET, that means we've had to broaden our horizons quite a bit from the early days, or run the risk of not getting the full picture of how technology has shaped our lives. And so it is with much excitement and very little ceremony that I kick off the newest addition to our blog family, the Kitchen Gadgets blog.

A few co-workers and I (who spend most of our days working on Chow, CNET.com and News.com) will use this space to talk about the best and worst technology in the kitchen today.

Sure, the kitchen is where people gossip, eat and drink too much. But it's also where many people learn, experiment, explore their creative sides and get new skills. In my house, it's the room where, no matter how much time I just spent straightening up the living room, all my guests congregate. I love it.

A good kitchen tool can be just the thing for a skilled chef working an involved recipe that has to be done flawlessly in order to be pulled off. Likewise, the right appliance can be a godsend for a kitchen novice with no chopping, mincing or sauteeing skills to speak of. Bad tools take up space, make simple tasks hard and can turn cooking from fun to frustration with one faulty part.

In this blog, we'll bring you the good, the bad, the priceless, the useless, and everything that fits in between. My co-workers and I look forward to writing it. And we hope you enjoy reading it.

If you have tips, suggestions or want to point us to the most ridiculous kitchen contraption you've seen, send me an e-mail.