Blogs : Products

The Mixed Blessing of Zinging Your Pizza

So Good tries out Pizza Zing, the Parmesan cheese, oregano, and red pepper flake combo meant to kick pizza flavor up a notch. The verdict: Don’t apply it to good pizza.

“It’s powerful stuff, and the 7 spices completely overwhelm the 2 ‘hearty’ cheeses the bottle advertises. I mean, throwing red, jalapeno, and cayenne pepper into the spice-blend is one thing, but adding in habanero as well?”

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Posted by James Norton | 1 comment
Tagged with: so good, pizza zing, oregano, pepper flakes, parmesan, products, pizza, condiment, pizza flavoring, spices

How to Craft with Peeps Candies

I love Peeps, so naturally I loved the idea behind the book Peeps: Recipes and Crafts to Make with Your Favorite Marshmallow Treat. It has 24 easy-looking projects, from place-card holders to wedding-cake toppers. Apparently there is also a Peeps CD with 14 tunes on it if you are looking for something to listen to while you’re crafting with candy. And if your project goes awry, you can always microwave it. (For the more ambitious Peeps crafters, there’s also the Washington Post Peeps Diorama Contest.)

Peeps: Recipes and Crafts to Make with Your Favorite Marshmallow Treat, $12.95

Posted by Brenda Bitterlich | 0 comments
Tagged with: peeps, easter, crafts, diy, candy, products, pick

Kitchen Gadgets That Make You Happy

When I saw “20 Tools and Technologies That Have Changed the Way We Cook” on Gourmet magazine’s website, I was skeptical. Oh sure, I thought, another one of those “nifty gadgets” stories. There will probably be a fancy wine opener and a garlic press and maybe an Anti-Griddle, but there’s no way it will include a humble gadget like the Microplane.

Except it does: “A relatively recent addition to the roster of indispensable kitchen tools, the Microplane was developed in 1990 for use in woodworking,” say article authors Christy Harrison (who has also written for CHOW) and Corky Pollan. “Four years later, a Canadian woman named Lorraine Lee reached for the tool (brought home by her husband, a hardware-store owner) to zest oranges for a cake, and the Microplane’s culinary life began.”

I’m a lifelong lover of lemon zest, but I used to get my zest fix with one of those zesting tools with the thin metal circles on one side. Those give you substandard zest curls, with a lot of pith on them. And good luck getting zest off a box grater. But the Microplane magically pulls off just the colorful part of the zest, leaving all the bitter white pith. It’s the rare tool that only does a few things well but does them so perfectly that once you use it, you can’t do without it.

Gourmet also nabs a few of my other favorite unsexy tools (the blender, the slow cooker, Tupperware), but it misses one that makes it possible for a novice cook to turn out a perfectly roasted chicken or fine bread: the Thermapen. And what of the heavy-duty stand mixer, which rendered a nation of inexperienced bakers suddenly able to knead?

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Posted by Joyce Slaton | 4 comments
Tagged with: media, products, gadgets, microplane, crock pot, thermapen, gourmet magazine, christy harrison, corky pollan

Fake Petits Fours for the Little Ones

If you’re looking to outfit a play kitchen, there are several ways you can go. There are your nontoxic wooden hipster sets for teaching the little ones to slice sushi, your dubiously safe plastic play food, and brand-name food sets that will gift your children with an inexplicable later-in-life love of fast food.

If you’re looking for a balance between homely wood and scary plastic, there’s the Biofino Petit Fours set by German toy company Haba. The nine petits fours are finely constructed of fabric, beads, and ribbon roses, and look delicious enough to eat. They feel good in the hand, too: soft and cushy instead of scratchy and cheap. Don’t even bother having a pretend tea party without them on your teeny tiny plate.

Haba Biofino Petit Fours, $15

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Posted by Joyce Slaton | 5 comments
Tagged with: children, kids, pick, products, haba, biofino petit fours, fake food, toys

Taco Truck Prints to Brighten Up a Kitchen Wall

It’s possible, but unlikely, that we don’t spend enough time thinking about taco trucks. When we’re not considering whether they’re being persecuted or cloned for high-end dining or adapted for Korean food, then we’re eating from them. And eating from them and eating from them.

But where’s the integration into our lives, our homes, our walls? An artist on Etsy has the solution: framed photos. Chowhound Katya tipped us off to these great prints of taco trucks, which would look lovely in our kitchen. If only they delivered.

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Posted by Davina Baum | 0 comments
Tagged with: taco truck prints, etsy, 33stewartavenue, art, products, taco trucks