The hardest part of cooking meat is getting the temperature just right. If it goes too far over, a juicy chicken breast becomes a brick of sawdust. if it’s too far under, you could be heading to the emergency room. We wanted to find a device that would help you cook your meat to perfection on the grill, in the oven, or on the stove without having to babysit it along the way. What we found was the Meater +. We were able to track how our meat was cooking from anywhere in the house thanks to the blue tooth connection between the Meater Probe, it’s cradle and our phone. It was even able to keep track of our meat when we left the house to run an errand thanks to the Meater Cloud feature.
The Meater took us from start to finish. It let us know the best temperature for our meat, if we needed to adjust the temperature during the cook, and even how long to rest the meat before slicing into it. It does this with the power of two different sensors that live in the same probe. The first sensor is buried deep inside your meat while the end of the sensor gauges the ambient temperature around your food. All we know is that the result was a perfectly seared steak, cooked to a juicy, medium rare. If you know anyone who loves cooking or wishes they could cook meat, but just can’t get it right, the Meater + should definitely be on your gift list.
Get yours today at: Meater
Before we found out about the Nutrimill Harvest, the idea of making our own flour had never occurred to us. Now that we know, it’s changed the way we look at food. We were not only able to make flour from wheat, but we were able to make flour from corn, legumes, and even quinoa. Using the Nutrimill Harvest was simple. You just turn it on, load in the grain (or whatever you want to mill), turn the dial on the mill to select the coarseness or fineness of the grain, and that’s it. We made corn meal, corn flour, wheat flour, and even lentil flour. Aside from the ease of use, one of the things we really loved about the Nutrimill Harvest was that it gave us a lot more control over what we eat. If we want to bake bread or cookies, make pasta, or even Burmese tofu (made with chickpea flour), we don’t have to worry about buying expensive, and overly processed ingredients that were made in factories. We’ve now got our own factory, right in our kitchen that produces nutritious flours from pretty much any grain or legume (non-oily ones) in seconds.
As much as we liked using the Nutrimill Harvest, we also fell in love with how it looked. You’d never expect to want to keep a grain mill on the counter, but the natural, bamboo casing on the mill makes for a tasteful and classy addition to the counter. It’s a good thing too because this is the kind of appliance that people who appreciate healthy living are going to want to use on a very regular basis.
Get yours today at: Nutrimill
If you’ve got a Star Wars fan who loves chili, or anything that takes a long time to cook, Uncanny Brands’ Star Wars slow cooker is a perfect gift. This slow cooker doesn’t have any major bells and whistles to it. It cooks on slow, high, and warm, like most slow cookers. What this seven-quart crockpot does have is all of your favorite Star Wars characters from Vader and Luke to Boba Fett and Leia adorning its outer walls. We are seeing more and more geeks going out of their way to bring thier fandoms into their kitchen. If you know anyone who is trying to geekify their kitchen, this crockpot is a must have!
Get yours today at: Uncanny Brands
Toast is one of the most ubiquitous breakfast foods, but it is also one of the most boring! That’s why people go out of the way to dress it up with everything from cinnamon sugar to avocados. Thankfully, there’s a way to add some fun to your toast just by putting it in the toaster. The Minions Dave toaster toasts in the image of Dave from The Minions movie and Despicable Me into your perfect slice of breakfast bread. The only thing you need to make it better would be a little peanut butter and some BA-NA-NAS!
Get yours today at: Uncanny Brands
Waffles taste better when you can hear their voices in your head. This is why everyone should own at least one waffle maker that makes breakfast treats in the shape of famous characters. Some people might go for Mickey Mouse or Snoopy, but we recommend Uncanny Brands’ Minions Kevin Waffle Maker. Let’s face it, as much as we all love The Minions, there are plenty of times when we’d love to cover them in syrup and bite their heads off. Right? I mean, we can’t be the only ones… So, just think of the joy you’ll be spreading when you offer your friends and family the chance to chew on Kevin!
Get yours today at: Uncanny Brands
Uncanny Brands makes really good hot air popcorn poppers. We loved their Star Wars Death Star Popper so much last year that we are recommending it again, but we know that there is more to the world than just Star Wars… After all, it’s the winter and that means it is hockey season. For millions of fans around the world, there’s nothing more exciting than the race towards Sir Stanley’s Cup. What better way for any hockey fan in your life to snack their way through the NHL season than with a 17″ replica of the Stanley Cup that makes popcorn! This popper works just as well as the Death Star, but it’s shiny and begging for placement on the bar in any self-respecting man cave. As a side note, when you get this for a friend, family member, or even yourself, don’t cheap out on the popcorn. Get yourself some Ladyfinger popcorn. It’s a lot smaller than the normal stuff, but it tastes better and it doesn’t have those hulls that get stuck in your teeth!
Get yours today at: Uncanny Brands
While most boring sports force their players to use balls. Hockey relies on a near-deadly, hard, rubber puck that glides across the ice and through the air at breakneck speeds. It’s a big part of what makes Hockey the world’s most exciting sport. Until now, all you’ve been able to do is watch the puck and hit the puck, but now there’s a way to eat the puck. Uncanny Brands has released a waffle maker in the shape of regulation hockey pucks. The waffle it makes isn’t just a plain old square or circle either, it’s the NHL logo! What hockey fan wouldn’t want to eat THAT for breakfast?!?
Get yours today at: Uncanny Brands
There are very few foods that are as closely tied to a fandom as pizza is tied to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It makes sense, even when they put weird toppings like pickles, anchovies, and ice cream on their pizzas, it is still the perfect food. That’s one of the main reasons we wanted to recommend Select Brands’ Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Pizza Maker. It takes the hassle out of making pizza when you’ve got a craving for a slice! There is a lot to love about this pizza maker. We had great results when we tested it on Frozen pizzas as well as on homemade pizza. It doesn’t heat up the whole kitchen and you can have a pizza in your mouth in as little as 12-20 minutes! You can even use it to cook things besides pizza, so it isn’t just another unitasker. Think of it almost as another mini-oven for things like Nachos. Another thing we loved is that it doesn’t take up that much space. With its slim profile, it fits easily into a kitchen cabinet when you aren’t using it. Cowabunga!
Get yours today at: Select Brands
We’ve been lucky enough to review some great waffle makers over the last couple of years, but this is the first time we’ve ever seen a pancake maker, let along one that sears in Wonder Woman’s logo into your meal! Pancakes have always been a sore spot for us. The first one is always bad and you have to manage the stove temp just right or you’ll end up with something half-burnt and half raw. All the more reason to get a gadget like this that you can pull out from under the counter in the morning and let it do its thing! We love this because it is all the ease of a waffle maker, but with all the fluffy goodness you want in a pancake breakfast!
Get yours today at: Select Brands
While we love freshly-air popped popcorn, there’s something magical about good old-fashioned kettle popcorn like you get from Select Brands’ Mickey Mouse Kettle Style Popcorn Popper. There’s no beating the smell or flavor of movie-style popcorn, cooked in oil while you are enjoying a family movie night or just a midnight snack. What makes this popcorn maker even better is that it isn’t just your average popper… It’s Mickey Mouse! Imagine giving someone their favorite Disney or Pixar movie for Christmas, inside of this popcorn maker?!? That’s how you win the title of gifter of the year!
Get yours today at: Select Brands
There are few snacks in the world that are as satisfying as guacamole, but there are also few things sadder in the world than when your guac turns brown because it was left in a container with air. Enter the Guac-Lock. For us, the Guac-Lock was love at first chip. It gives you a simple and fool-proof way to knock the air out of your guac and keep it green for days. It uses a plunger to push the bottom of the guacamole container up until it is flush with the lid and it works great! This is not only an excellent gift for your avocado-loving friends, but it is perfectly priced for a thoughtful host gift when you head out to one of your many holiday parties this year!
Get yours today at: Casabella
Not all gifts have to be just for fun. Joseph Joseph’s Pop Cutting Mats fit into the category of functional, but fantastic. For a price that ranges from $10-20 (depending on if you want 13.5″ x 9.5″ or 15.5″x 11.5″), you get two or three mats that are so thin that they’ll fit anywhere in your kitchen. What makes these chopping mats even better than others we’ve seen is that they all pop together with the little circle in the corner. That makes storing (and keeping track of them) much easier. Also, if you have only had cutting boards before and not cutting mats, you are missing out. The flexibility you get from mats makes it very easy to do all your prep work on the mat and then just carry it over to the pot or pan where you are cooking. You can’t really do that with a big butcher block or a glass chopping board.
Get yours today at: Joseph Joseph
Look. We know that storage containers aren’t the sexiest gift you can give this year, but hear us out. These Nest Lock storage Containers from Joseph Joseph are really useful. Let’s face it, you can always use more storage containers in the kitchen. The best part about these, however, is that the lids all lock together so that you won’t lose them! We can’t tell you how many containers have lost their tops in our home. As a bonus, the way the lids and the bowls fit together, you are looking at containers that take up a lot less storage in the kitchen cabinet than anything else we’ve got! Set includes 1 of each: 8 fl. oz (1 cups), 18 fl. oz (2.2 cups), 37 fl. oz (4.6 cups), 63 fl. oz (7.7 cups), 101 fl. oz (12.5 cups).
Get yours today at: Joseph Joseph
As we enter into the new year, there are a lot of changes going on around the US. One of the best changes is that more states than ever have now legalized marijuana for either medicinal or recreational use. Regardless of the politics of the issue, there is too much evidence out there for what good pot can do for people suffering for anything from headaches and anxiety to seizures and Parkinson’s disease. The big problem with pot is that accessing the THC within the plant has always been very inefficient and imprecise. Until now, it has been almost impossible to accurately prepare dosage or to access the THC without burning at least 30% of it away. That’s why we can’t recommend Ardent’s Nova enough. The Nova not only gently heats marijuana to the perfect temperature so that the THC within it becomes fully activated, but it is as close to idiot-proof as we’ve ever seen any food-prep device.
So, what does this mean for you? It means that you don’t have to make or cook pot into food. You don’t even have to smoke it. Once decarboxylation is used to activate the THC, you can literally just sprinkle a small amount onto your food (we suggest pizza) or you can actually pop a bud right into your mouth. As long as you are buying from a reputable dispensary, you will know the THC content of your pot. As a result, you’ll know exactly how much you need to measure out for the exact dosage needed. The real bonus of this is that it means you’ll be able to either buy less or stretch what you are buying out much longer!
If you want to use the Nova as a way to bring marijuana into the kitchen, but aren’t sure where to start, Ardent has a great goat milk caramel infusion set that is the perfect way to dip your toe into edibles. Seriously, this stuff is delicious!
Get yours today at: Ardent
The Kiss Demon Waffle Maker makes great waffles whether you live in Detroit or along the Danube. Styled after Gene Simmons’ Demon character from Kiss, these waffles might be the first ones in the world that want to lick up all the extra syrup as much as you do. We aren’t going to lie. This waffle maker is not for everyone, just for everyone who loves Kiss. We can’t guarantee that they’ll kiss you when you give this to them, but they’ll have a hell of a laugh and probably make you breakfast.
Get yours today at: Uncanny Brands
Everyone should have a nut cracker in their home, especially during the holidays when nearly every store has a giant bin of nuts in the shell that they are selling by the pound. We didn’t want to just find a regular old nutcracker, we wanted to find the most stylish nutcracker ever invented. That led us to the Crackr from Lyfe. This thing looks more like a jet-black razor clam than a nutcracker, but it will crack the hell out of some nuts. That’s for sure!
Get yours today at: Lyfe
You can’t go wrong with sporks, and Morsel Spork has taken things to the next level by adding on a spoonula on the same utensil. Imagine having the power of the spork on one end and the perfect utensil for getting every last taste of peanut butter out of the jar on the other. If you don’t want the spork end, you can just get the spoonula. Hell, you can get them in a bundle! These are perfect to keep in your office desk for eating lunch and even better if you are a camper and need an all in one utensil for eating around the campfire. We love Morsel Spork!
Get yours today at: MorselSpork
We love avocados but they are the internet troll of the fruit and vegetable world. They seem to exist just to frustrate us. They take forever to ripen and then become overripe if you look at them the wrong way. What drew us to the Avocado Sock is that it gave us a simple way to speed up the ripening process of our avocados so that we could make guacamole (or avocado toast if we are feeling fancy). In side-by-side tests, we found that un-ripened avocados were ready in as little as 24 hours, but were always at least 50% faster than the avocados that were not in the sock. The sock is made of a natural lanolin that keeps the avocado warm and actually ripens it faster than traditional methods like a paper bag. If you are going to give this as a stocking stuff, we suggest you go one step further and slip an avocado in it the day before. You might just get treated to a guacamole appetizer before Christmas Dinner.
The natural lanolin and warmth of the wool ripens the avocados evenly and gently, and faster than a paper bag.
Get yours today at: Avocado Sock
If you’ve got a Linda Belcher in your life, you’ve just found the perfect holiday gift for her or any wine lover. My Oeno is the perfect gadget for anyone who wants to know more about what wines they like and why they like them. When you connect the scanner to the app on your phone, it helps you break down the qualities of your wine like its strength, vivacity, and tannins. It can then use that data to help you find other wine that you’ll like in the future! What we loved here is that MyOeno can help anyone become their own sommelier. If you love wine and want to know more about it, there isn’t a better gift you could get this year.
Get yours today at: My Oeno
We love ice cream, but we hate most ice cream scoopers. They never work well, and they aren’t comfortable to use… At least that’s what we thought until we tried the Midnight Scoop. a 100% Stainless Steel, ergonomically designed ice cream scoop. The real test for us on the Midnight scoop was to see if it could handle really hard ice cream. It’s a challenge we all know… we want ice cream, but it’s like chiseling through granite to get it. When we took the Midnight Scoop to a pint of Ben and Jerry’s Pistachio, it sunk right in. The angle of the handle and the edge of the spoon worked perfectly to give us a treat without having to work for it. The sad thing is that the sweat we used to break from chipping away at hard ice cream used to give us an excuse to eat more…
Get yours today at: The Midnight Scoop
The Descorjet is an excellent gift for anyone in your life who loves champagne as well as a great host gift in the season of holiday parties. Let’s face it, popping the cork on a bottle of bubbly is fun, but it is a mess, it is wasteful, and it is honestly a little bit dangerous. Descorject helps keep the champagne where it belongs – in the bottle and in your belly! Using it was so simple that we’ve honestly been using it a little too much around the house. It really is as simple as holding the bottle with one hand and lowering the Descorject onto the cork with the other. Just pull back on the trigger mechanism and the cork is popped off but contained so you don’t have to worry about losing an eye or breaking a window. For our money, we’ll never open a bottle of champagne any other way again!
Get yours today at: Descorjet USA
We’ve seen waffle irons that imprinted the Millennium Falcon into your breakfast before, but this is the first time that we’ve ever seen a whole waffle in the shape of our favorite ship in this or any galaxy. We’ve seen a lot of cool Star Wars Waffle makers over the last couple of years, but this is definitely the most detailed and most awesome!
If you’ve never had your beer ‘poked’, you are missing out. The tradition of caramelizing, or poking your beer is an old German tradition where a red hot piece of steel is quickly introduced to a beer and it caramelizes the sugar in the beverage. It works well on all beers other than light beers (do they even count?) and it completely changes the way you look at your beer. It mellows the flavor and adds a smokiness to it that made us keep drinking a little longer than we probably should have! This is something we’ve never even heard of until this past year and it is special! Even the caramelizer itself is a thing of beauty. It comes with a wooden tap handle that can actually be swapped out for any other standard tap handle. Meanwhile, the actual part that goes in the fire is food-grade stainless steel. We were happy with the length of our beer caramelizer, but we were testing this over a fire pit and not a bonfire. If you are worried that you might be getting a little too close to the fire, you can always order an extended from their site. Also, if you are worried that hot metal plus cold beer = warm beer, don’t. It warmed it up a couple of degrees, but our glasses of bach were still nice and frosty!
Get yours today at: 1571F
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