Kitchen Gadget Girl Cooks

Last week, at Uptake, I wrote about a visit to The Woodside Store, a historic museum in Woodside, off of King’s Mountain Road. The best part about the visit was that I was able to check out all the cool kitchen gadgets they had way back when. Here is my favorite:

Toaster

Any ideas what this is? Give up?

It is a toaster!

You put a slice of bread on each of the 4 sides and put the whole contraption over your wood burning stove. And look, there is a coffee pot right next to it, as coffee and toast go really well together.

I also saw this wall of typical kitchen items:

There are many gadgets I love in that picture – I have one of those older muffin/popover pans (lower left corner). The strainer on the top also looks interesting, somewhat like my Chinois that I used to strain soups. Of course, the kids loved the popcorn maker (lower right). Any ideas what those items on the second shelf are? They look a little like muffin pans – right behind the cheese grater-type gadgets.

Also on the shelves were these interesting bottles:

I wonder what a Woodside Cabernet would taste like? I don’t see a vintage year, not actually sure there is anything in the bottles – it would probably be vinegar if it was!

Little A came home from school wanting to make a cookie, so make a cookie we did. I was looking for something kind of quick, and something with chocolate, and after perusing the pictures in Martha Stewart’s Cookies, we chose:

Chocolate Thumbprints
from Martha Stewart’s Cookies

• 1 cup, plus 3 tablespoons, unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 1 teaspoon corn syrup

Preheat oven to 350F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Beat together 1 cup butter with sugar, salt and vanilla extract, until very smooth, about 2 minutes.. I used my Beater Blade, which makes the onerous task of scraping down the bowl disappear. Beat in flour, slowly (it will probably make a mess), until well combined.

Using your cookie 1 1/2 scoop, form balls and place them 1 inch apart on the cookie sheets. With your finger, press little indentations in the middle of each cookie, a cup to hold the chocolate. [This is where my instructions differ from Martha's - she suggests baking the cookies for 10 minutes first, then removing the pans and poking the indentations. Since I was making these with my daughter, I decided burns from hot cookies would not be pleasant for either one of us, so we made the indents before baking. I did not notice a big problem with this method. Some of the indentations did lose their definition while baking, but I was able to poke them again when they came out of the oven.]

Bake 15-19 minutes until lightly browned around the edges, rotating the pans half-way. Remove and cool on wire rack.

While the cookies are cooling, combine the chocolate, remaining 3 tablespoons of butter and corn syrup in small bowl over simmering water. [Note, my recipe also differs here - Martha calls for twice as much chocolate filling. I found that I only used about 1/2, which is no great problem, as I saved the remaining chocolate for ice cream sauce, but in the future, I will use the above measurements for the chocolate filling.] Stir occasionally until smooth and melted. Allow to cool until slightly thick.

Fill thumbprints with chocolate mixture and allow to set. Try to avoid inhaling them all at once!

First off, let me start by saying, I am not Catholic.

Not sure why I needed to say that, except that I feel that this challenge is only about my relationship with myself. I have used Lent before to kick start some changes I needed to make in my life, and had good success, and since I am in town this year, I thought I would try again. It is just like making a New Year’s resolution, except that there is a definite end.

So, I will be giving up sugar and I will be adding exercise. Every day. For 46 days.

Yeah, part of that sounds crazy. Like how can bake new cookies for Cookie Thursday? Guess someone else will have to taste them.

And what if I wake up sick and cannot exercise that day? That might suck. But a 20 minute walk might be just what I need.

What am I hoping to accomplish? My goal is to get out of the habit of having dessert every day. And, to make sure that I spend as much time thinking about exercise as I do about blogging, tweeting, commenting, and social networking.

Taking this challenge will allow me to be mindful of my choices and clear in my priorities.

Genie at the Inadvertant Gardener is going vegetarian for Lent, while Bridget from Family Adventures is giving up social networking.

Are you giving up something for Lent? Let me know!

Do you want to follow my progress? Follow me on Twitter to hear my daily achievements.

Daffodil in San Francisco photo courtesy of Jeff Tidwell.

ds_CookingTrainer_pkg_01

Several weeks ago, I attended a BlogHer event sponsored by Nintendo, introducing the new Personal Trainer Cooking experience. At the party, I actually won two Nintendo DSs, which my children promptly claimed. This weekend I managed to sneak one away to test Personal Trainer Cooking, the giveaway from the party.

My initial reaction is that the tool is pretty interesting – for the beginner cook. The chef walks you through the preparation of several basic recipes, including Bolognese Sauce (isn’t there supposed to be milk in traditional Bolognese?), New England Clam Chowder, and even Coq au Vin. Included in the program are descriptions of terminology, preparation tips, and ingredient substitutions. You can use the stylus to manage the pages, or voice commands, which makes it nice if you are up to your elbows in flour!

When you initially power on the game, you can choose to go directly to Recipes, or Cooking Basics, or your Shopping List. In Recipes, you can browse through 245 saved recipes, by country, ingredient or requirements. Italy has the most recipes, at 39, while the U.S. has 10 recipes, including Macaroni and Cheese, which looks suspiciously like the stuff out of the blue and yellow box.

After choosing a recipe, you can view the ingredients, view the steps, or launch right into the cooking. The system also allows you the opportunity to double or halve the recipe, depending on how many people you plan to serve.

The pictures all look attractive, although ever so slightly off, reminiscent of my cookbooks from overseas. Most look appetizing, although I cannot say that I am going to rush right out and try one.

Nintendo Personal Trainer Cooking Screen Shot

The most interesting part of the system, from my perspective, having been cooking for the last 30 years or so, is the videos which describe certain techniques. The first one I watched, Finely Chopping Onions, was great – I think I might actually use some of that information. I was disappointed that there is not a Dicing Onions video, but I suppose I could figure that out myself.

The biggest video disappointment was Folding In, showing how to fold flour into wet ingredients. This one video would be the reason I would not purchase the trainer – after sprinkling the flour over the top of the batter, the chef is shown stabbing at the mixture with a spatula, not folding anything at all. Might be better labeled Mixing. As it is currently labeled, it is totally incorrect and misleading. If you used the technique in the video, any egg whites you would fold in would loose all their volume.

As an experienced home cook, I don’t believe I am the target market for this, and had I not received it for free, I would definitely not purchase it. I will, however, share it with my daughter – since she already has a DS, maybe she will enjoy the experience.

In December, I won a contest over at This Mama Cooks! On a Diet, and Anne-Marie sent me 5 coupons for free 5.3 ounce containers of the new Stoneyfield Farms Oikos Greek Yogurt. And since I was in the store today redeeming my coupons, I thought I would do a little comparison.

The other Greek yogurt on the shelf that was both fat-free and flavored, is Chobani All Natural Greek Yogurt (this was actually kind of interesting – there were other flavored Greek yogurts, but none that were fat free). At my local Wholefoods, it was $1.49 a container. The Oikos was $1.99, on special for 2 for $3.

For this test, I bought blueberry flavor for both – Chobani comes in 6 different flavors, while the Oikos comes in plain, vanilla, blueberry and honey. Oikos is organic, while Chobani is all natural, if that is important to you.

Overall, I have to say the two are pretty different – Chobani is lighter, with a nice blueberry taste and a good amount of whole blueberries, but it does not really have the mouth feel of Greek yogurt.

Oikos is definitely thicker, with that cheesey taste common in other Greek yogurts. The blueberry flavor is also good, with whole blueberries in the mix. It was slightly easier to mix up, as the blueberry was not as loose as the Chobani.

The Chobani is a better value – a 6 ounce cup for $1.49, versus the Oikos at $1.99 for 5.3 ounces.

As it turns out, I won’t be buying either of these yogurts in this format, as I am sensitive to packaging and prefer my yogurt in big containers. But, I would purchase them in larger containers – probably sticking with the Chobani for everyday eating and selecting the Oikos for the thick, greek yogurt taste, or as Anne-Marie suggested, as a replacement for sour cream.

Have you tried either? What are your thoughts?

Precision Pro Scale

Read to the bottom to learn more about the giveaway!

William from Eat Smart products contacted me in December about reviewing the recently updated and improved Precision Pro Kitchen Scale. And 2 months later, I am finally getting around to it!

I have a scale that I used fairly often for cooking – the difference between 4 and 5 ounces of flour can make a big difference in baked goods. One of my cookie recipes calls for the dough to be divided in half, which a scale also comes in handy. And, some of my European-style cookbooks often call for weights alone in the recipes.

Out of the box, the Precision Pro is easy to set up – the scale comes with batteries, so I did not need to hunt through the junk drawer to get started. And it sits nicely on the counter, with 5 rubber feet. It is lightweight, not too annoying to bring in and out of your cupboard when you need to weigh something.

Some of the new features include a 3 minute auto-turnoff, which I found very handy, as I usually take a while to measure my ingredients and my current scale will sometimes shut off in the middle. I also liked that the buttons to change the unit of measurement and the tare (setting your bowl to zero) were on the top. The scale table was far enough away from the buttons that I could use one of my big mixing bowls and still see the data.

The only complaint I had about this scale was that it is too accurate. It calculates to the thousandth place (three places beyond the decimal point) a level of accuracy I rarely need in my home cooking. This feature would probably come in handy for anyone on a special diet or needing precise measurements of their food.

The Precision Pro Kitchen Scale retails from $24.95 – $26.95, and at that price, would be a worthwhile investment and useful kitchen gadget to have around.

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And now for the giveaway! To enter, please leave a comment below, with your best reason for needing a highly accurate, lightweight, digital scale. A random winner will be chosen using Random.com, and announced on Tuesday, February 24th. Incomplete entries will be disqualified. Deadline: February 22nd!

A week ago Friday, I attended a BlogHer meet-up in San Francisco, sponsored by Nintendo. In addition to winning two Nintedo DS Lite consoles (for my kids, honest!), I also met and reaquainted myself with several excellent bloggers. And, as promised, here is my roundup:

Tricia, a DIYer from Cheeky Attitude, says her most used gadget is probably her KitchenAid Mixer with the cheese shredder attachment, but the gadget she loves the most is her Cuisinart Ice Cream maker, with extra bowl!

Nicole, from Not Just a Working Mom, loves her Microplaner, which sadly she lost in her most recent move. She is also a big fan of her Crock Pot. Or is that her mom’s favorite? I might be confused. Let’s blame it on the well-mixed Cosmos from the bar at Ritchies.

Jessica, from It’s My Life, still loves her Panini maker, but also thinks that her shwanky new apple corer/slicer gadget is pretty nifty. She says it is great for making apple pie, which her husband is super enamored with these days. Here is a picture for those of us trying to get a mental image about that one:

Dale of Dale Larson, gushed about his thumb activated salt grinder. He was also thrilled that he was able to meet the creator of this product at the recent Fancy Food Show. Lucky.

Elisa, of Worker Bees Blog and one of our BlogHer hostesses for the evening, is a fan of her Oxo peeler. And what a coincidence. I love Oxo too!

Phillip, who is friends with Elisa, and who wrote a very interesting book called 32 Third Graders and One Class Bunny, loves his Microplaner too, but is more ecstatic about his hand juicer. Not sure exactly what he juices, nor what he uses the juice for, but I have a couple suggestions.

Nancy from What A Trip, and a fellow Uptake blogger for Lodging, is a fan of her Silpat. And Genie of The Inadvertent Gardener loves her Pampered Chef scraper, which Nancy was also quick to recommend. Apparently, although I cannot speak from experience, these little scraper wonders are just the ticket for getting black gunk off a Silpat or scraping the bottom of your stonewear. Must get one.

Abby, another Nintedo DS winner, is the first one to tell me that she loves her wooden spoons. I take mine for granted, but I agree, they are usually the first tool I reach for when cooking.

Serena, from Zip and Tizzy, was telling me about a blender that she loves, but I could not get a handle on the details. Hopefully she will see this and come tell us all about it!

Vanessa, another Silcon Valley Mom Blogger, with her own blog at Am I Doing Okay? also loves her apple corer – maybe she an Jessica should get together and make applesauce or apple pies. Yum, can I visit?

Cheers to you!

In honor of my 100th post (yeah!), I present you with 100 kitchen gadgets I own and use on a regular basis (in no particular order). Some might seem kind of obvious, some I cannot live without, others are merely convenient. What is your “cannot live without” kitchen gadget? Or better yet, what is one kitchen gadget you would happily get rid of today?

1. Microplaner
2. KitchenAid Mixer
3. Citrus attachment for KitchenAid Mixer
4. Wooden salad bowl with matching tossers
5. Collander (2 sizes)
6. Oxo Salad spinner
7. Cuisinart
8. Immersion blender
9. Pressure cooker
10. Silpat
11. Nikon D40
12. Gaggia Compact Digital Espresso Machine
13. Bodum hot water kettle
14. Cuisinart 10 cup drip coffee machine
15. Toaster
16. Slotted spoon
17. Oil can
18. Caper spoon
19. Dental floss
20. Hand juicer
21. Rolling Pins (3, at last count)
22. Henckel Knives
23. Oxo kitchen shears
24. Oxo 2 cup measuring cup
25. Oxo 4 cup fat separator
26. Oxo hand soap dispenser
27. Oxo dish scrubber
28. Measuring cups (2 sets)
29. Measuring spoons (2 sets)
30. Bench scraper
31. Norpro Pastry Cloth with Frame and Rolling Pin Cover
32. Offset spatula – 2 sizes
33. Silicon bands
34. Silicon baking cups
35. Cookie cutters (zillions, I inherited a bunch)
36. Steamed pudding mold
37. Beater Blader for KitchenAid Mixer
38. Angel food cake pan
39. Bundt cake pan
40. Bundt tunnel
41. Cake pans, various sizes
42. Tart pans, various sizes
43. Quiche pans (2)
44. Nested mixing bowls (2 sets)
45. Glass measuring cups – 2 cup, 4 cup and 8 cup
46. Copper mixing bowl
47. Loaf pans, including 4 small ones, attached together
48. Emile Henri 9×13 casserole
49. 5Qt Le Crueset, blue
50. Abelskiver pan
51. Pizza cutter
52. Edge brownie pan
53. Chopsticks
54. Oxo Corn cob holders
55. Frying pan grease thing (you put this over the pan when frying something, to avoid the grease splatter)
56. Muffin pans, various sizes
57. Cookie sheets, various sizes
58. Pizza Peel
59. Pizza stone
60. Martini glasses
61. German V-Slicer
62. Bagel slicer
63. Williams Sonoma Vegetable Chop and Measure
64. Cuisinart Egg Cooker (husband uses this to make my Eggs Benedict on Mom’s Day!)
65. Pewter wine funnel
66. Ice cream scoops, various sizes
67. Nutmeg grinder
68. Magnum pepper grinder
69. Whisks, various sizes
70. Coffee measurer for drip coffee
71. Measuring cup for European liquid measurements
72. Lighter
73. Muddler
74. Garlic Press
75. Meat pounder
76. Potato masher
77. Garlic peeler
78. Chocolate fork
79. Strawberry huller
80. Baster
81. Egg cup
82. Witmer’s Peanut Butter Mixer
83. Green bean julienner
84. Mushroom brush
85. Bottle opener
86. Avocado slicer
87. Tortilla press
88. Tortilla warmer
89. Hands-free saucepan stirrer
90. Salter kitchen scale
91. Ice tea brewer
92. Food mill
93. Blender
94. Isi Junior Size Cream Whipper
95. V-type sharper
96. Donvier yogurt drainer
97. Waffle maker
98. Wooden spoons, various sizes
99. Spatulas, various sizes
100. Tongs, various sizes

This list is by no means exhaustive. I discovered while creating the list, that I have a propensity to purchase single use cake pans – Easter Bunny, Snowman, Bouquet. I also discovered some gadgets that I inherited but have not ever used, like the Rosette and Timbale Irons. I might have to find someone to help me with those. And I possibly discovered some gadgets that I can part with, like the chocolate molds I bought as a teenager, when I was into creating hand-made chocolates for presents.

Over the last nine months, I have often wondered if I chose the correct name for this blog, Kitchen Gadget Girl. After today’s exercise, I am feeing confident I have!

Thank you for helping me carve out my space in the internet!

Yesterday, Dear Husband had a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad day. In the morning, he dealt with unpleasant managerial tasks. At his lunch meeting, his catered lunch box contained an oatmeal raisin cookie, a cookie so awful in his book that we don’t utter its name in this house. And, to top it all off, the rain made his commute home pretty sucky.

In an effort to cheer him up, I baked a cookie with all his favorite stuff – dark chocolate, coconut and butter. It worked.

Chocolate Chip Coconut Cookies
based on the Ne Plus Ultra Cookies from Martha Stewart’s Cookies (see note)

• 1/2 unsalted butter
• 2/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup sweetened flaked coconut
• 1 cup chopped walnuts 

Preheat oven to 350F. 

Cream butter and sugar together until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add in vanilla and eggs, mix well.
 
Sift dry ingredients together and add to butter mixture. Fold in chocolate chips, coconut and walnuts.
 
Using your cookie scoop, drop large balls of dough onto baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Be sure to leave enough space, as these cookies will spread. Bake 18-20 minutes, until golden brown. Cool for 5 minutes on cookie sheets, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely. 
 
Note: The Ne Plus Ultra Cookies are on page 169 of Martha Stewart’s Cookies, and while I am sure they are fine cookies, someone thought that putting raisins in a chocolate chip cookie was a good idea. Come on, who are we kidding. Raisins belong in lots of baked goods, just not chocolate chips cookies. Either does cinnamon, for that matter.

Lucky me! Last week, a piece I wrote for Uptake entitled 7 secrets you might not know about Disneyland, was picked up by Neatorama, and then featured on Yahoo for about 6 hours on Thursday afternoon. Quite exciting – almost like a thrill ride that does not end!

And then, on Friday, while at the BlogHer VDay Party, I was the winner of 2 Nintendo DS Lite game systems. Serena from Zip and Tizzy took a photo of me and another winner, Jessica from It’s My Life. Winning these game consoles will probably cinch my title of “World’s Best Mom”. I am supposed to be using one of the DSs with the new Nintendo Personal Trainer: Cooking experience (I cannot call it a game), but I doubt I will be able to wrestle the DSs away from my kids. When I do, I will let you know what I think.

After the BlogHer meet-up, I was also thrilled to accompany Genie from Inadvertent Gardener, Biggie from Lunch in A Box (and +1 David) and Sean from Hedonia and DPaul to dinner at bacar. Genie turned out to be my magical twin dining partner, as we agreed on all three dishes that we shared. David chose some lovely wines, and had I not had to run out to catch the last train home, I would have stayed for dessert and $14 scotch flights, which I understand were poured with a generous hand.

And then on Saturday, my daughter’s basketball team kicked butt! Now, I know this is not a direct win for me, but the lottery tickets I bought were all loosers, and I hear wins come in threes, so I threw this in.

In any case, hope you all have a great week. Happy Hump Day!