Cordless Crepe Maker
$34.95 • Cucina Pro • Get Yours Now
Making Crepes is one of the more intimidating kitchen tasks, but CucinaPro’s Cordless crepe maker was so easy to use that it actually took us longer to let the batter sit than it did for us to make an entire batch of perfect crepes. There have been very few kitchen gadgets that we’ve tested over the years that have been so easy to use within minutes of taking it out of the box. All you do is dip the heated maker into the special batter dish, put it back in its cradle, and wait for the machine to make a little clicky sound in about a minute. You don’t even need to flip them, which has always been one of the hardest and most stressful parts of making crepes. This is a great gift for anyone who loves crepes, but it is also a great gift for hosts this holiday season. We really love the potential of pulling this thing out while you are entertaining. Without any hassle, you can set up a crepe party with your friends. Just get all your fillings set ahead of time and make the crepes to order without having to worry about them ripping or burning.
Charlie Cat Mini Cat 4-Pack Baking Molds
$15.99 • Charlie Cat • Get Yours Now
Who needs boring old cupcakes? Not us, and not the people on your gift list. Charlie Cat’s mini baking molds are the perfect alternative. They give you the opportunity to create individually portioned cakes in the shape of the official animal of the internet, cats! We really liked these silicone cake molds for a couple of reasons. First, the cakes they make are just the cutest things in the world. Second, they are good as either a gift or as something you can use to make gifts for your friends and family. After all, why give these up when you can keep them all to yourself and make everything from cat-shaped cakes and cat-shaped fruitcakes to cat-shaped meatloaf! Seriously, your imagination is the limit on these molds. As long as your imagination includes a cat.
Thai Moon Knife Set
$90 • Verve Culture • Get Yours Now
Knives are always great gifts. There’s literally no one who can’t use a new knife in the kitchen, but giving traditional paring, chef, and boning knives gets old and boring. That’s why we love the Thai Moon Knife set from Verve Culture. Forget for a fact that they are beautifully presented in a great-looking bamboo box, you can bet that the people on your gift list don’t have knives like this, or that are hand-forged by traditional metal-smiths in Thailand. The two knives included in the set are the moon knife, which is almost like a light-weight cleaver, and a straight-edged chef’s knife that is excellent for slicing. The knives are sharp, unique, and will definitely start a conversation with company, or end one if you’re holding it when you answer the door for solicitors. One item of note is that these knives are carbon steel. That means they need a little more care than the Stainless Steel that most people are used to in the kitchen. You might want to give your giftee some steel wool so they can properly care for the blades until they gain their natural, rust-resistant patina.
Automatic Pour Over Coffee Maker
$49.95 • Linkind • Get Yours Now
We love coffee and we really love the idea of making it without having to use k-cups or brew a whole pot. We liked Linkind’s Automatic Pour Over Coffee Maker because it helped us make a cup of coffee when we wanted it, without the hassle of standard pour-over coffee makers. Also, we loved that there were no paper filters, just a stainless steel filter that can be washed and reused. One of the most annoying parts of pour-over coffee is having to slowly pour in the water, moving around the spout to make sure you wet every last bit of grounds. This coffee maker actually automates that for you. Using a battery-operated motor, you just pour in hot water up to the line and flip the on the switch. The water will rotate on its own, making sure that there’s an even distribution. If you’re using a rechargeable battery, it goes from just being a tasty cup of coffee to an eco-friendly treat.
The Foodcycler
$349 • Foodcycler • Get Yours Now
We feel guilty every time we throw veggie scraps or eggshells into the trash. If we had a yard, we’d compost it, but instead, it just ends up in a landfill where it takes up space and adds methane to the air as it rots. That is what drew us to the Foodcyler. It is the perfect solution for someone who wants to turn kitchen scraps into something that they can use to help grow new plants without needing the space or time for composting. In fact, when we tried out the Foodcycler with a bin full of peels, leftovers, and scraps, it was less than four hours from start to finish. What started as a container full of food was reduced by 90% into a sterile material that can be mixed with soil to nurture your plants. It really could not have been more simple. The Foodcycler was able to do all of this with less power than it takes to run an electric kettle. It was quiet and there was no smell. This is perfect for someone living in an apartment or someone who wants to do more to reduce their waste but just doesn’t have the time or space to run a compost bin in their yard. Traditional composting can take anywhere from three months to two years to completely break down food waste. This took us just under four hours to go from potential trash to a soil nutrient that was ready to go. This is a great gift for anyone who cares about the impact they have on the planet. It’s also a great product for anyone with a green thumb, or who is looking for some help to turn a black thumb around. Just the fact that we know you can reduce the mass of your food waste by 90% and then use the leftover 10% to help other plants grow makes us wish everyone was getting a Foodcycler for Christmas.
Doctor Who TARDIS French Press
$39.99 • Seven20 • Get Yours Now
We like our morning coffee like we like our TARDIS… bigger on the inside. So, it’s a good thing that the new Doctor Who TARDIS French Press holds 34 ounces of coffee. If you know a caffeine-addicted Whovian, this is the perfect gift to slip under the tree this holiday season. We loved that Seven20 was able to create something that looks like a TARDIS to people in the know, but just looks like a smartly-designed French Press to the normies. It stands just under 10” tall and features a heat-resistant glass carafe and a stainless steel plunger. It’s a great quality French Press, even without the awesome design. As an added bonus, French Press Coffee Makers are a very eco-conscious alternative to coffee machines that rely on filters or K-Cups. Get your morning buzz without destroying the planet in the process!
Hong Kong Style Waffle Maker
$36.99 • Star Blue • Get Yours Now
Waffles are awesome, but the newest trend in Waffles is like a waffle that’s been to the Upsidedown. Instead of ridges and divots, Hong Kong-style bubble waffles create the edible version of bubble wrap. This Asian street food treat has not only become the darling of Instagram food photographers, but it’s even become one of Disneyworld’s exclusive holiday treats this year. We scoured the net for the perfect tool to make these waffles at home and we landed on Star Blue’s Hong Kong Waffle maker. It worked great. It made our delicious waffles and it was one of the most affordable bubble waffle makers we could find. Seriously, though. This waffle maker takes everything you know about waffles and turns it inside out. What we really loved is that you could eat them on a plate, or roll them up into the coolest waffle cone you’ve ever had. This is a great gift for anyone who loves breakfast food, Asian food trends, or just really loves bubble wrap.
Spider-Man Personal Blender
$29.99 • Select Brands • Get Yours Now
Personal blenders are super handy. Instead of having to clean up your Vitamix or Ninja when you make a smoothie, you can just take the bottle with you. Aside from the fact that it’s got a very cool Spider-Man logo on it, the portability is the best thing about the Select Brands Spider-Man Personal Blender. Just pop your smoothie or drink ingredients into the 25 OZ bottle and put it on the blender base. When you’ve got your drink all mixed and mashed, you can just pop on the included locking sports lid and off you go. It’s handy if you’re a wall-crawler or just a regular human in search of a cooler way to make your morning smoothie. The 250-horsepower blade was strong enough to crush any fruit and ice we threw at it. It really made for a much easier morning. The night before, we added all the ingredients (except for the ice) and just popped it in the fridge. The next morning we just had to add the ice and pop it on the blender base. It took making a morning smoothie from being a pain in the butt to a breeze.
Takoyaki Maker
$29.99 • Star Blue • Get Yours Now
Takoyaki is one of the most popular street foods in Japan. Sure, it sounds weird when you just call it Octopus balls, but these fluffy bites of joy are perfect regardless of whether you want something savory or sweet. What we liked about the Takoyaki Maker from Star Blue is that it was not only easy to use, but it was versatile. We made octopus balls and shrimp balls, but we also made ebelskivers (stuffed pancake balls) filled with chocolate or apples. We also loved that the takoyaki maker is a conversation piece. With most electric food makers, you are closing a lid and waiting. With the takoyaki maker, everything is out in the open and your guests can watch as their balls cook. They can even grab one of the Takoyaki picks and flip them over themselves. It makes eating them more than just a meal, but part of the evening’s entertainment. While this a no-brainer gift for anyone into Asian cuisine, we think the takoyaki maker’s potential is only limited by your imagination. If you know anyone who loves pancakes, fritters, or any stuffed thing made of dough, this gift is going to make them very happy.
Black Panther Waffle Maker
$29.99 • Select Brands • Get Yours Now
Breakfast Forever! There are a lot of geeky waffle makers out there, you’ll see several of them in this gift guide, but one of the coolest ones on the market this year is the Black Panther Waffle Maker from Select Brands. The waffle maker cranks out 7” waffles in just a few minutes that are cooked perfectly and adorned with an awesome design. This isn’t an Eggo waffle, this is a waffle of heroic proportions emblazoned with the Black Panther’s logo and some great tribal designs along the outer rim. The Waffle Maker is even great looking from the outside. If this waffle maker existed in the MCU, you could almost imagine seeing this in the Black Panther’s lair, or at least in T’Challa’s kitchen. This gift is a no-brainer for anyone who has ever looked at you with crossed arms and yelled ‘Wakanda Forever!’
Double Waffle Bowl Maker
$39.98 • Star Blue • Get Yours Now
Waffles are great, but Waffle Bowls are even better. That’s what we loved about Star Blue’s Double Waffle Bowl Maker. The big thing that drew us to this appliance was that first word – Double. Unless you are living alone, you are going to want a machine that can crank out two bowls at a time or you’ll end up fighting over who gets the first one. We tried to make a few different bowls with the maker and were impressed with the versatility. We made regular waffle bowls for breakfast, waffle cone bowls for dessert, and we even made cornbread waffle bowls and filled them with chili! We were not expecting to be able to do this much with such a little machine. If you anyone who loves waffles, breakfast, we just love the idea of being able to eat your bowl after you eat what’s inside of it, you should definitely check out the Double Waffle Bowl Maker.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Waffle Maker
$22.54 • Select Brands • Get Yours Now
Custom waffles with the face or logo of your favorite character are always great, but sometimes the waffles can be way too big. One of the things we loved about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle waffle Maker off the top was the fact that it makes square, freezer-style waffles, but they still have cool designs on them. On one side of each waffle is the traditional waffle pattern, on the flip side, one has the TMNT manhole cover logo and the other has the face of one of the turtles in the classic 1980s animation style. Which turtle you might ask? It depends on what color syrup you pour on his face! If you know a TMNT fan, this waffle maker is going to make them very happy. The waffles come out crisp on the outside and fluffy on the inside. It’s got a great design on the outside that shows off the classic 80s cartoon version of The Turtles. We’re honestly not sure what else anyone could want out of part of their balanced breakfast!
Triple Delight Multi-Treat Maker
$34.99 • Babycakes • Get Yours Now
We love treat makers. They are not only great gifts, but you can also just get one for yourself and give the actual treats as gifts. The problem with most of them, however, is that they are unitaskers. Enter the Babycakes Multi-Treat Maker. Instead of just letting you make one kind of treat, it lets you make at least 3. Why at least? Well, it depends on your imagination. Along with the mini-donut pans and the cupcake pans that come with the multi-threat maker, it also comes with a cake pop maker that can be used for more than just cake pops. Donut Holes, Evelskivers, Takoyaki, Bite-sized Cheddar-Bay Biscuits (you’ll never have to go to Red Lobster again!)… you can make a ton of treats in this machine. Then, almost better than making them, the pans pop right out for easy cleaning. Everyone knows that is the hardest part of these electric appliances, but now you can clean it up without any hassle. Treats were simple to make, idiot-proof to cook, and tasty enough that we had to switch into our eating pants. Whether you are giving this treat maker as a gift or using it to make food gifts for all your friends and family this holiday season, we can’t recommend this appliance enough.
Toy Story 4 Slow Cooker and Dipper
$49.95 • Select Brands • Get Yours Now
Every home needs two slow cookers. A big one (at least 5 quarts) for meals, and a little dipper for sauces. That’s exactly what you get from Select Brands’ Toy Story Slow Cooker and Dipper set available at Shop Disney. This set is exactly what you need to bring the perfect Disney/Pixar touch to your meal. Aside from the fact that both appliances did a great job cooking chicken, making chili, and heating up cheese sauce to the perfect temp for us, we can’t get over the Toy Story-inspired design. The big cooker is adorned with silhouettes of all your favorite Toy Story characters all around the base, while the dipper is all about the Little Green Men! They even managed to sneak Pixar’s Luxo onto the handles for both cookers. If you know someone who wants to bring a little joy into their kitchen, and they happen to love Toy Story. This set is sure to make them smile this Christmas. If you’re really lucky, maybe they’ll use it to cook something for you!
Toy Story 4 Kettle Style Popcorn Maker – Awaiting Pic
Price? • Select Brands • Get Yours Now
There are two kinds of popcorn people out there in the world, air popper people and kettle style. Kettle style is what you get at the movies. It’s not as healthy, but it’s undeniably delicious. It’s also a pain in the butt to get that movie theater-style popcorn at home if you don’t have the right tools. If you know any Toy Story lover who has a home theater, or who just loves movie theater-quality popcorn, the Toy Story 4 Kettle Style Popcorn Maker from Select Brands is a no-brainer gift idea. Just turning this thing on makes you feel like you’re at the movies or at least at a carnival. It’s the perfect size for a small family of movie lovers and its simple to operate. This is a must for any movie-loving household.
Automatic Paper Towel Dispenser
$99.99 • Innovia • Get Yours Now
Paper Towels are a lifesaver in the kitchen, but grabbing them off the roll with dirty or wet hands just messed up the rest of the roll. That’s what interested us so much in Innovia’s automatic paper towel dispenser. Once you’ve loaded up the paper towels, it is as simple as waving your hand in front of them and the dispenser sends on your way. It’s available in either a counter version or a space-saving version that you can hang on the underside of a counter. If you are like us and you are always annoyed that three paper towels get wet every time you reach for one, this appliance is going to make your life a lot less aggravating. It was easy to set up and easier to use. We tried it with three different brands of paper towels and all of them worked great. We give Innovia’s Automatic Paper Towel Dispenser a big recommendation this holiday season.
Bob Ross Waffle Maker
$39.99 • Uncanny Brands • Get Yours Now
The world can be a pretty stressful place. That’s one of the reasons why Bob Ross has had such a resurgence in recent years. Along with videos of his getting popular on Youtube, tons of great Bob Ross merch has been popping up. However, nothing we’ve seen is quite as amazing as the Bob Ross Waffle Maker. This stylish, stainless steel appliance makes deliciously browned and fluffy waffles that just happened to be shaped like the head of Bob Ross. Every part of this waffle was delicious, from his disarming smile to his fluffy afro. While we love this as a gift for anyone needing a little zen as part of their morning breakfast, we especially love it as an unforgettable gift for anyone you know who has a creative spirit… and a love of waffles.
Bob Ross Toaster
$39.95 • Uncanny Brands • Get Yours Today
If waffles aren’t your thing, but you are still looking for a way to bring Bob Ross and his happy trees into your morning routine, we suggest you try the Bob Ross toaster. Starting off, you’ve got a great design on the appliance itself. You get Bob’s smiling face along with his famous mountains, happy trees, and puffy white clouds. It’s like having a little bit of art in your breakfast. When it comes to the toaster itself, this one beats a lot of the image toasters on the market. Most image toasters under-toast the majority of the bread and burn an image in the middle. We found that the Bob Ross toaster actually gave us a good, overall toastiness to the bread and his image wasn’t burned in so hard that we felt like the bread was charred.
Bob Ross 2 Quart Slow Cooker
$29.99 • Uncanny Brands • Get Yours Now
While a Bob Ross breakfast is a great way to start the day, with the Bob Ross Slow Cooker, you can eat with meals inspired by the world’s most zen art teacher all day long. This two-quart cooker has an awesome design with a complete Bob Ross art wrap-around. If you aren’t getting lost in his eyes, smile, and afro, you are getting lost in his beautiful painting. The cooker itself is no slouch either. At two quarts, you’ve got enough space to make chili for four, a monster batch of queso, or a couple of days worth of Mac and Cheese. The four-level cooking is easy to use. It didn’t burn anything we put in it, and the stoneware insert was super easy to clean when we were done. We pulled out this slow cooker for a pot luck dinner and we were actually a little bummed out that more people were asking us where we got the cooker than for the recipe of our queso dip!
Darth Vader Waffle Maker
$39.99 • Uncanny Brands • Get Yours Now
We’ve featured the Uncanny Brands Star Wars Darth Vader Waffle Maker in years past, and we’re always happy to feature it again. After all, it makes a delicious waffle. With that said, we are bringing back this gift guide all-star for a very important reason this year. The Folks over at Uncanny Brands have given one of the most famous character waffle makers in the world a massive makeover. The waffles are just as tasty as ever, but now the exterior has a Dark Side re-finishing in the way of a menacing silhouette of the Sith Lord Himself. Seriously, this pic is darker than the highest grade maple syrup!
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Shredder Cheese Shredder
$29.99 • Surreal Entertainment • Get Yours Now
We can’t even begin to address the quality of this cheese grater without acknowledging the awesome dad joke that went into making this a possibility. Just on that basis, we’d seriously recommend getting this for anyone who appreciates good wordplay… and cheese. That even goes for people who aren’t big fans of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. We really appreciate that in addition to their sense of humor, Surreal Entertainment went out of the way to make what would have sold as a novelty item into a solid kitchen tool. Metal Shredder head aside, this stainless steel box grater is good at its job. It worked great on cheese, zucchini, carrots, and everything else we threw at it. The only problem we had is that we couldn’t look at it without laughing.
Electric Shaved Ice Machine (S900A)
$34.99 • hawaiianshavedice.com • Get Yours Now
we needed to have ice. And waiting for water to freeze in their proprietary containers is about as fun as watching paint dry. In the world of instant gratification, the Hawaiian Shaved ice machine is both instantaneous and a test of one’s patience. It’s always worth it in the end, however. Always.
Cotton Candy Express Machine
$44.99 • hawaiianshavedice.com • Get Yours Now
Having cotton candy outside of a carnival is something we’ve never thought possible until today. Enter the little Cotton Candy Express machine. An adorable simple to operate the machine with a can-do attitude that spins fine clouds of fluffy sugary goodness. Cotton candy is formed by heating and spinning floss sugar around a stick. Creating a traditionally shaped cotton candy is trickier than it looks and it took us some time to get used to forming the majestic sugar cloud, but it definitely is able. The machine runs on your standard 120-volt outlet and can be cleaned by simply taking a wet sponge to it. No-fuss and no mess. Great for parties of all ages, don’t be fooled if you think only kids can enjoy cotton candy. You’re never too old treat yourself or a few dozen of your 30 something friends.