Chef'n Zipstrip Herb Stripper

I saw this cute little gadget at the Chicago Housewares Show and forgot all about it until I saw it at ... of all places ... a Goodwill store.

Have I mentioned that Goodwill is a good place to buy single plates and other things for blog photos? Yeah, it's almost as good as garage sales for that sort of thing.

So, I was wandering and spotted the herb stripper. At first, I was surprised it was there and that someone hadn't snapped it up already. But then I realized that most folks might not know what it is. Or how it works.

It's really simple. You pull the stem of a fresh herb through one of the holes in the stripper, and the leaves fall off into the bowl. And the bowl isn't just for catching. It also measures the leaves as you strip, so you know when you've gathered enough.

I have a feeling I'll be using this a lot more in the summer than winter, but it's going to be handy to have, for sure.

If you're looking for this gadget, it's called a Zipstrip, by the way.

Who's it for: People who use a lot of fresh herbs.

Pros: Works like it's supposed to.

Cons: Obviously, it only has one job.

Wishes: Can't think of anything at the moment.

Source: I bought this.

Salton Frozen Dessert Maker (But wait! It does more!)

When the folks at Salton offered me a frozen dessert maker to test, I almost said no.

And then I waffled.

I've seen the frozen dessert makers where you shove a frozen banana into the maw of the machine and frozen banana "ice cream" comes out the other end. I was vaguely intrigued by them, but not enough to buy one. I like room temperature bananas just fine. And I'm not afraid of regular ice cream.

But when I saw that the Salton machine was not a one-trick pony, I decided to give it a try. You see, it also works as a grater and slicer - there are five grater cones for coarse, fine, and extra-fine grating as well as thick or thin slicing.

I tried the frozen banana dessert a few times and I have to admit that it wasn't bad at all. A banana-peach combo was pretty good. It would be great if you're cutting back on dairy or trying to avoid ice cream. It's a nice cold dessert if you want something light. I think I'm going to buy some strawberries and give them a try if I see some good ones at the store.

But let's talk about this grating. There are times when I need more cheese than I want to grate by hand, but not so much that I want to set up the grater on the food processor. Not that it's a big deal to set up the food processor, but then I have to wash the bowl, the lid, the pusher, the grater thingie...

With this little machine, there's just not that much to wash. And the machine itself is pretty small, so it should store easily, too.

I had a little trouble assembling it the first time - the way the tube fits onto the body of the machine feels like it's off-kilter, but once I figured it out, it wasn't a problem. It's a little noisy when it's running, but that's not a big deal either. This isn't a machine that's going to run for long periods of time - you're going to torment your bananas or shred your cheese, and that's the end of it.

I haven't had this long enough to guess how long it will last, but it seems sturdy enough for what it's meant to do.

Note: In the photo, I've got the mouthpiece of the shredder unit upside-down, but it still worked fine. That piece isn't actually needed, anyway.

Who's it for: Gadget lovers. Or people who want to avoid ice cream but want cold dessert.

Pros: Does what it's supposed to do. Small enough to store easily. Grater!!!

Cons: Not a necessary device in the kitchen.

Wishes: I wish the all the pieces could all store together in one neat package. I'll probably store it in its box to keep it all together.

Source: I received this from the manufacturer for the purpose of a review.

Insink 4-in-1

When a product offers to make my dish-washing and sink usage more efficient, I perk up just a little bit. I can always use a little more efficiency in my life.

The Insink 4-in-1 device includes 6 pieces - a container with holes at the bottom for draining, a similar container with no holes, two suction devices to keep the containers in place in your sink, a funnel-like attachment that fits either contain to help you get things into the container (or it can be flipped to hold either of the containers upright without the use of the suction things), and a scrub brush.

That sounds like a lot of stuff, but the important parts are the two containers. The one without holes is intended for holding soapy water so you can just dunk your sponge or dishcloth in there to keep from wasting soap when you wash dishes. You can also use it as a pre-soak if you have sticky foods on your spoons and knives.

I've been living with these things in my sink to see if I actually use them. I haven't yet used the non-holed container to hold soapy water. but I have put silverware in it while they were waiting to be washed.

I did find a genius use for the draining container. The suggested uses are for putting washed silverware to let it drain, or to wash and strain berries. That's not what I've been using it for. Instead I've been using it for food scraps that are destined for the trash. Particularly wet scraps. I can let them drain before throwing them in the trash so that I don't end up with a soggy trash bag.

While I wouldn't rank these as a must have item (knife, spoon, cutting board, fire, pot ...) they are handy if you have sink-space to hold them. If you have a tiny sink, you might not want something extra sitting in it at all times, but since they nest, you could store under the sink and pull them out when you need them.

Please note that these are a Canadian product, so the price will be different than what you see. As I'm writing this, the price in US dollars is lower.

Who's it for: People who want better sink organization.

Pros: They're tall and thin, so they don't take as much sink space as a bowl or strainer.

Cons: They might not fit all sinks. If you decide to keep them in the sink at all times, you'll need to remember to wash - or at least drain - the container with no holes.

Wishes: Colors to match people's kitchens would be nice. These are white with green accents.

Source: I received this from the manufacturer for the purpose of a review.

Ronco Pasta Maker

I've been wanted a stand-alone pasta machine for some time, so when the folks at Ronco offered me a product to review, I checked out their website and said, hey, how about that pasta maker instead?

Yup, Ronco makes a pasta maker.

I mean, what the heck. Might as well play with something I'm curious about, right?

Here's the thing. I've got a pasta attachment for my stand mixer, so in theory I could use that. And I do, sometimes. But I've always thought it would be interesting to have one machine that would do the kneading and then just extrude the pasta. One thing to clean.

So, the pasta machine arrived and I took it apart, washed it, and put it together again. The first time I assembled it, I had a little trouble figuring out which part went where, but now that I've done it a number of times, it's really pretty simple.

I took it for a test run at home, then brought it to a friend's house where we made pasta from some freshly-milled flour along with all purpose flour.

My first impression of the machine was that there was a lot of plastic. Would it hold up? Pasta dough has to be pretty dense, particularly for extruded doughs. For some reason, the extruding process always makes the dough a lot softer (not just this machine, but my other extruder as well), and the dough tends to stick together. So ... the starting dough needs to be pretty tough to start off.

The mixing chamber did seem to flex a bit, or maybe it's just that I was mesmerized at watching it knead. But it held up. Flexing is better than cracking. The motor didn't seem to strain at all, so that's pretty impressive.

I have no idea how durable this machine will be over the long run. For now, it's working fine, but I've only made about a half-dozen batches of pasta in it. The motor is a tad noisy - not as loud as a blender, but not as quiet as a stand mixer, but this isn't a machine that's going to be running all the time, so the noise isn't a deal-breaker.

The controls are simple. Flip a button one way and the dough gets kneaded. Flip the other way, and the screw-like kneader spins in the opposite direction, to feed the dough through the extruder. It's ingenious, really.

The machine comes with a variety of extruding dies (spaghetti, fettuccine, rigatoni, linguini, and lasagna) for different shapes of pasta.  I haven't tried them all yet, but the ones I tried worked just fine. There's also a tube that's used when you want to fill sausage casings with sausage, so this isn't a one-trick pony. Two tricks, basically.

Speaking of tricks, making fresh pasta can be a little tricky. To start with, you have to get the dough the right consistency, and you have to let it knead long enough. That's something that comes with practice.

But then there's the cooking. Fresh pasta cooks really really really fast. Like, it sees the hot water and it's done. The last batch of pasta I made was beautiful coming out of the machine, but I made the mistake of turning my back on it when it was cooking, and I overcooked it. To death.

Not at all the pasta machine's fault. Just poor attention span here. Oopsie.

Who's it for: Pasta people.

Pros: It's one machine for kneading and extruding pasta. Flour and water are really cheap ingredients, so you can afford to make some test batches and if they don't work, you haven't wasted a lot of money. Then when you get good at it, you can add a more expensive item. Like an egg. Splurge!

Cons: It takes a little practice to get the recipe right. Not the machine's fault, but it might take a few batches to achieve perfection. It will take even more practice if you decide you want to add extra ingredients to the pasta, like tomato, basil, squid ink, saffron, or anything else. But, hey, it's fun.

Wishes: An integrated cutter for slicing the pasta into desired lengths as it exits the machine would be great. I use a knife, swiping from bottom to top, and it works fine. But a cutter would be awesome.

Source: I received this from the manufacturer for the purpose of a review.

50 Strong Bottles

There are sooooo many water/hydration/bike/exercise bottles on the market these days? How do you choose?

Or, more important to me, how do I choose when I want to review one?

The answer is pretty simple. I like to look at bottles that have something different about them. And these days, that's getting harder and harder.

When the folks at 50 Strong contacted me, the one bottle that I thought was different from all of its peers was the Tornado Bottle. It contains a plastic tornado-shaped curly thing that's meant to help blend things in the bottle. Like if you add protein powders to your drinks.

I thought that was different. I had some stuff I was going to blend. And then ... my attention wandered.

I set the bottle aside until the day I was trying to make a salad dressing and it was lumpy and I was annoyed. And then I thought, hey, I have that tornado thing.

So I dumped the dressing in the bottle and gave it a shake. Then I made a salad. Flipped the top on the bottle, and I poured. And then I thought, hey this thing would be just fine for storing the salad dressing in the fridge, and it's easier to pour the dressing out of this than to try to pour from a canning jar, which is usually what I use.

Am I a genius, or what?

If the Tornado Bottle can handle salad dressing, it can surely hand a protein powder in some juice, right?

The 50 Strong people sell a LOT of different kinds of bottles. They sent me one of the Ice and Go bottles that has an integrated straw. I haven't tested it yet, but it looks study, and I like the straw for sipping.

If you don't like straws and you don't like the pink and gray bottle I got, there are a lot of different colors, shapes, lids, and ways to drink from them. You might as well just go look. Seriously. I'm not going to describe them all. Go. Look.

Best thing is that these aren't super-expensive bottles that you have to guard with your life. They're well-built and should last a long time, but if you happen to forget one at the beach, it's not like you need to take a loan to buy a new one. Very affordable.

The company also has a charitable component, so you can feel good about buying these bottles. Ten percent of the profits go to the 50 Strong Foundation, which awards scholarships to people pursuing careers in manufacturing.

Who's it for: People who carry drinks to go.

Pros: Nice bottles, not expensive, lots of colors and designs to choose from. Made in AMERICA. You don't see a lot of that these days.

Cons: If you go to a lot of events, you might already have free promotional bottles lying about.

Wishes: Um ... it's a bottle. There's not much I ask of it.

Source: I received this from the manufacturer for the purpose of a review.

MagnetJar

I get all kinds of interesting items for review. MagnetJar qualified as interesting - a spice jar you could hang somewhere with a magnet.

I really didn't think it through before I said yes. Because there's one tiny problem with any spice solution that has the spices hanging on the fridge. Herbs and spices should be stored in a dark place. Out in the open hanging on the fridge isn't a good spot.

The company also suggests you can hang the jars on the stove hood, which is worse because you have both light and heat.

But then I thought, gee, if these jars are that spectacular, maybe it would be worth hanging a sheet of metal inside a cabinet door to hang the jars.

When the MagnetJars arrived, I had to clarify ... are these the final versions, or are they a prototype? Sometimes I get prototypes and test models, so I had to find out.

Functionally, they work fine. They're a spice jar with a magnet glued to one side. They hold spices and they stick to metal surfaces. Job done.

But they're not particularly decorative or elegant. They're not ugly. But no one is going to look at them and say, "Oh, those are pretty!" Looking at them from the front with spices in them, they'll look fine. But from the side, that magnet is bulky and not particularly attractive. Depending on where you hang them, you might not see the side. But you might, right?

I have absolutely nothing against things that are function over form. Function is actually more important to me. So ... these work. Pretty much like any other spice jar I own. My original thought was actually pretty good. If you hung a big metal sheet inside a pantry door, these would be nice stuck to the inside of the door. As for leaving them out in the open ... you're really better off having your herbs and spices safely inside a cabinet.

These would also be useful in a garage or craft room to stick on metal shelving to hold small screws, washers, nuts, and other small parts.

Who's it for: People who need more spice jars and who want to hang them up.

Pros: They're functional.

Cons: They're not particularly attractive.

Wishes: Opaque jars would make so much more sense, like maybe opaque white with a chalkboard-painted circle to write on.

Source: I received this from the manufacturer for the purpose of a review.

Kraut Source

Have you ever made sauerkraut?

I'm not asking if you've ever cooked it. I'm asking if you ever started with cabbage and turned it into sauerkraut.

I've made sauerkraut a few times. Usually in large quantities. Like in a 5-gallon crock.

So when I saw that the Kraut Source product allowed me to ferment a much smaller amount of sauerkraut, I knew I had to try it.

Actually, I had been wanting to make kimchi for a while, and I only wanted to make a small quantity, so that was the first thing I thought about making. But then I decided to a quart of sauerkraut instead. I'll be making the kimchi later. Maybe a pint.

While this is a great idea for people who only want to ferment a small quantity of something, it's also a great way to test a recipe - make a pint or a quart before you commit to that giant 5-gallon crock of kraut.

To be clear, while you can make a pint or a quart of fermented foods with the Kraut Source, if you want a larger quantity, you can use it on any jar that has a wide-mouth top. I know there are half-gallon jars for sure.

The Kraut Source came with a small recipe booklet, but there are more on the website, so I looked there to see what was interesting. The first sauerkraut recipe I saw was pretty basic, with just cabbage, salt, and caraway seeds.

I decided to ditch the caraway seeds.

It's not that I don't like caraway, but if I it them in my kraut, I can add it later. So that left me with 1 1/2 pounds of cabbage and 1 1/2 tablespoons of salt. Easy peasy.

And that's it. Just cabbage and salt.

If you're wondering, 1 1/2 pounds of cabbage was about 3/4 of a small head of cabbage. I used the last part of the wedge to make cole slaw. And that 1 1/2 pounds of cabbage fit into a quart jar, with room at the top, just like it should be.

At first, it doesn't seem like it's going to fit, but as the salt does its magic, the cabbage softens and releases water and it can be shoved into the jar.

Then it just has to sit for a while - a week or two - and you just have to make sure the moat doesn't dry out. And that's it - it's sauerkraut. If you prefer, you can keep it fermenting for a little longer, or you can put a regular lid on it and refrigerate it for later, or you can cook it right away.

The Kraut Source device is pretty ingenious. There's a flat piece that sits on top of the cabbage, and there's a spring that pushes the flat piece down to keep the cabbage submerged under the liquid. So you don't need a separate weight on top of the cabbage.

The lid has a moat and a cap that create a water-seal airlock that allows the carbon dioxide to escape. You fill the moat about halfway with tap water when you set it up, and then top it off during the fermenting time, if needed.

Hand-rigged systems need to be "burped" to release the gas every day to avoid explosions. Your small batch of sauerkraut or an open-crock ferment is probably safe from a major blow-up, but releasing that gas is an important part of the process.

This little kit is everything you need to make sauerkraut or other fermented foods in one neat package. And since it's made from stainless steel, it's easy to clean. You can even wash it in the dishwasher.

The only part of the Kraut Source that you might need to replace after a lot of use is a silicone gasket. The good news is that it comes with an extra one. So this should last a long, long time.

I got the more basic kit with just the Kraut Source device. There's a slightly more expensive  Kraut Source Kit that includes a quart jar, a 4-ounce pack of Celtic sea salt, and a pack of organic spices that are needed for the golden sauerkraut recipe.

Who's it for: People who want to try fermenting.

Pros: Made from stainless steel. Easy to clean. Elegant design. You can make small quantities.

Cons: It's not inexpensive.

Wishes: It would be great if there were more recipes available.

Source: I received this from the manufacturer for the purpose of a review.