Ever since Ikea dropped those funky silicone heart ice cube trays on the market, we’ve been unable to pass by any new funky ice cube trays that might appear on a store shelf in front of us. These Easter Island dudes might just be the coolest ever!

Buy them at Perpetual Kid via Drink of the Week

I went out on a limb and got Mamma G a deep fryer for her B-day earlier this month. I know, kitchen appliances aren’t overly romantic, but I did the jewelery thing last year. Anyway, the T-Fal self filtering fryer from Costco looked like a pretty neat device so I succumbed to the lure of the home made fries. Tonight was use #2 and we made a big honkin batch of onion rings. In short, dead easy and super yummy.

Recipe:

1 cup of flour
1 cup (or a bit more) of beer
a dash of salt
a teaspoon or so of paprika for flavour

Mix it all up and coat your rings of oniony goodness.

Gently lay them into the hot fryer, being careful not to drop them in. You don’t want a splash. We cooked them for about 2 minutes per batch, which seemed just about right.

Home fryers are a little on the small side, so you might want to heat a baking sheet in the oven to keep things warm while you do the net batch (or batches).

We can’t wait to try other things. Tempura veggies are sure to be a big fave around our house.

It might be a bit of an understatement to say that we have a bit of an obsession with knives here in the FAB South kitchen. Of course the FAB North kitchen has a similar obsession, except that ours is based on getting the best for cheap. Either way, we all love the pointy type kitchen tools.

Here in the south kitchen, our obsession has grown to include the wonderfully crafted knives from the French company Laguiole. You may have seen them, they are the ones with the little bee on the back of the knife. Typically they are hopelessly expensive, but thanks to Homesense they can often be found for insanely deep discounts. While researching tonight’s post, I found out how insane these discounts can be.

Last Christmas (or maybe my birthday, or maybe it was Father’s Day), Sandy found the most wonderful Laguiole corkscrew for 5 bucks. Naturally, as we are hard core winos around here, she had to pick it up. I loved it immediately and have intended to write about it, but just didn’t get around to it.

It may be the nicest opener I’ve ever seen. The attention to detail in the metal work is stunning, while the wood inlays (rosewood I think) in the handle are beautifully shaped and finished. The balance and weighting are just about perfect and the screw is sturdy without being too stiff. Truly a usable work of art.

As I’m poking about the Laguiole web site, I’m truly blown away by the absolutely incredible tools they create. Have an aviation buff in the family? No problem, just pick up a letter or wine opener that is made from pieces of the Concorde! Not French enough for you? How about openers with wood salvaged from the gardens at the Chateau de Versailles. Not cool enough? Then choose the exact type of wood, where it was and how old it is. Try an opener with wood from a 224 year old piece of Yew from Marie Antoinette’s garden!

So…how great a deal was this 5 dollar opener? Well, the our exact model is no longer listed on the Laguiole site, but the least expensive model is shown at 128 euro, which works out to $203 Canadian!

Now, hustle your bum out to Homesense and begin your own collection of knives with the little bee.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

I’ll echo Oneof7: I’m super-excited to be back in Ontario. So much closer to friends and family, and the FAB mothership.

When I first saw the kitchen in our new house, I was really happy. Finally, a bigger space for the chef to operate. Oh yeah, and more storage space for the chef’s ever-growing gadget collection. I swear that kitchen gadgets are sentient, organic beings that multiply in closed drawers. Well, that’s the way it seems to me, but what do I know? I’m just the deer-in-the-headlights sous chef (but I can whip up a mean, mean martini).

As Oneof7 wrote earlier, when we had a closer look at the space, it became apparent that the kitchen was lacking in key areas. The glaring deficiency was of course, the lack of drawers. There were two deep corner cabinets for pots and stuff, but they didn’t work for us. So, after a weekend of debate, we decided that we’d start peeling the onion…you know where that leads, right? Pull the cabinets out. Rip up the floor. And new appliances. New backsplash. New counter. New pro-grade hood fan. I grew nervous and opened a lovely pint of Stella Artois. “What the hell have I done?”, I mused…Stella #2 was opened in short order. Oh no, replacing the floors was my idea…Stella #3.

My directive to the chef was this: “We’ve got one chance here to design this the way we want. Let’s do this right.” Chef has lamented that since cooking school, she hasn’t cooked with gas – well, unless I’m in the room, but really that’s quite different and undesirable. But, I digress…we took the approach of designing the whole kitchen around the gas range. We quickly decided that we’d go 36” versus the standard 30” – it gives us a full six-burner stove top and a larger oven. For the serious chef, this is what you want.

So…after several design meetings, we made our choices. I thought it really interesting that they asked the same questions about four times. I think that served two purposes: it ensures the designer gets it right; more importantly, it confirms that you as the buyer are certain of your decisions. It’s a sound approach, and we appreciated it.

The ball is rolling. We’re nervous and excited about this all at once. One thing is for sure: we can’t wait ‘til it’s finished and to be able to share with our friends. That, dear reader, is the true motivation!

Anyone seen my pint? Anyone?

<Mooby>

This could be the coolest kitchen gadget of all time! Microsoft is holding a contest to find the best idea for a next gen pc. The Yummy Kitchen Connect is one of the submissions and has some incredible real world functionality. Bring the YKC home and hang it on your kitchen wall. Using the built in barcode scanner, register the contents of your pantry. Then the Yummster uses it’s brain to help you put together shopping lists, manage a diet or plan a menu. Maybe the coolest function is it’s ability to scan the blogosphere for recipes and find meals that match the contents of your pantry!

Hey Bill…build it & it will sell!

Learn more

Here in the FAB East kitchen, we just love BBQ tools. Given the amount of time we spend in The Garage, the Hot Rod line of BBQ tools will just be perfect for us. The line includes the Mop Brush, Grilling Tongs, Turner and a Fork. They all come etched with a cool flame design. We’ve gotta get some of these! Birthday ideas anyone?

Product page via Cooking Gadgets

This new kitchen gadget from Jaime Oliver caught my interest when I saw the cheesy TV ad, where an aging resort barman shakes up a storm with the device. While it didn’t give me an urge to bring out the old Hawaiian shirt, the concept struck me as interesting. Essentially this thing is a one handed morter and pestle. The heavy duty plastic exterior contains a heavy ceramic ball that smashes the living daylights out of the inserted ingredients.

I was pretty excited to receive one this Christmas, but I haven’t yet had time to try it out. To read a review and maybe even score a free one, visit the new FoodTV.ca blog.

Product page

The perv in me just couldn’t leave this one alone. Wrap yer nanner folks!

Seriously though, while this looks more at home in a sex shop, it belongs in your kid’s lunch box. Say goodbye to the dastardly squished banana and hello to the firm, unblemished fruit. Your offspring will thank you for protecting their daily source of potassium.

No word if they offer a magnum model for those rare xtra long monkey treats.

Get your very own Banana Guards here

Ok I first posted about the AeroPress over at Random. After using it for a while I thought that a follow up post was in order. As I sit here and type I have a perfect Americano next to me. I have found the right amount of coffee, water and temperature that works for me.

I start with 2 scoops of Granite Roast fair trade organic coffee (from Muskoka Roastery Coffee Co). This is a key step as when I use other types the flavor is not as good. The Muskoka Roastery stuff is very fresh and when I make the espresso it has a foamy creme to it. When I make other beans it is more dark not foamy at all.

I then boil water and wait about 1 minute after to let the water cool a bit. If you wait longer, the coffee with have less bite (bitterness) to it. I like to have some so wait just 1 min. I then fill the plunger (in holds water also) to number 2 and pour it over the coffee. I give it a stir for a bit let it sit with the plunger on top and do a slow press.

I do this into a large cup and once I’m done transfer this to a normal mug and fill with hot water. Done!

I know have a great cup of joe and clean up it dead simple, plop the coffee into the garbage and give everything a quick rinse and it is ready for the next coffee.

The great thing about this is that it will work anywhere that you have hot water (can you say camping!). It also does not make any waste. Before I was making a pot of coffee and then dumping it etc.

So it you are looking for a great cup of coffee and are willing to figure out how to get the blend, water, etc working for your taste will be pleasantly surprised.

Meet the Lynx Professional Grill for the outdoors. A stainless playground that includes a 42″ grill, double burners, storage and warming drawers and an outdoor bar with refridgerator, sink and ice maker.

Over at Neatorama they’ve got a bunch of the most incredible BBQ’s you can imagine. Over at The Garage, there is a few of our faves.