Kitchen Item Reviews

For years, we made huge messes on holidays, trying to move turkeys and hams from their baking dishes onto a cutting board.  I bent more dinner forks and knives trying to fenagle hot, dripping birds out of roasting pans, to say nothing of the mess!  So when I hosted a Pampered Chef party, these handy gadgets were at the top of my list!

The Pampered Chef Meat Lifters come as a set of two four-tined forks, made of stainless steel.  Each is dishwasher safe and comes with its own protective plastic covers to safely store the lifters without exposed tines.  They are covered by an extended manufacturer's...

I was fortunate enough to be invited to eat someone ELSE's turkey on Thanksgiving but yesterday what went around came around and it was my turn to cook.  This year I tried my best to be organized, to avoid last-minute desperation runs to the store, misplaced items, etc.  As part of this campaign to Be Prepared (as the Boy Scouts would say), I had made absolutely positively sure that I was equipped with a turkey baster -- the Hoan Ten Inch Poly Turkey Baster to be exact, which had cost $1.49 at Peapod.  There I was in the morning with a 14 lb. turkey which nearly filled the roasting pan which...

Quick View: The As Seen on TV Onetouch Automatic Can Opener 29101 is a battery operated can opener that actually opens cans by itself, shuts off by itself, and supposedly lifts can lips up and out of the cans with ease. I found it works on normal sized cans but not on smaller or larger ones very well. It's noisy and slow too.

My Take on the As Seen on TV Onetouch Automatic Can Opener 29101

I bought this gadget when I saw it on a deal a day site for around $11.00 shipped. The hype was that it opened all cans with just a touch of a button, lifted the lids up with its magnet, and took no space on...

Quick View: I am no domestic diva but I love food that is HOT, not warm. recently, I was given a Micro Hot Plate Thermal-Insulating Stone Plate and didn't even know what it was. I found out that it is a very effective hot plate that keeps food hot much longer than simply setting the bowl on a regular hot plate. It doesn't burn fingers either!

My Take on the Micro Hot Plate Thermal-Insulating Stone Plate

This hot plate is 6"x6", a bit small for my taste but will hold a casserole dish or large bowl just fine. It has a smooth marble surface and two handles to carry the plate. To use, you just warm...

I received several Le Creuset skillets and bakeware for my bridal shower and wedding this year. I was so exciting to receive them because I heard they were of a high quality (and very expensive) brand. After 1 month of using them, they have terrible scratches and chips in the paint on the bottom and sides, especially of the skillet. I am so angry that the people who cared for me spent so much money on Le Creuset cookware when they are obviously not the high quality pieces we thought they were. Now I'm stuck with a set of expensive cookware that I don't want!

I wanted a Cuisinart anodized cookware set for many years.  My T-Fal teflon set was starting to chip and I decided to search the internet for a new anodized cookware set.  I chose amazon.com because they had a variety of sets for the most discounted prices.  Cuisinart just wasn't in my budget.  I searched for hours on end reading countless reviews and settled on a 10 peice cookware set by Wearever.  What really impressed me to buy this set is that America's Test Kitchen reviewed one of their skillets and said that it was a great skillet for the price.  I bought this set for under $50.00 which...

I recently had a Pampered Chef book party and as a result of my sales from the party I was able to choose several frees items and some at discounted prices. I selected the Pampered Chef aluminum cookie sheets as one of my free items. I have purchased other Pampered Chef merchandise in the past and I have always been impressed with the quality of their products. These particular cookie sheets were a fairly new product and I purchased these because my old cookie sheets were turning that "very over used black or brown" color. My family has small children and we bake cookies very frequently. We have...

I love the Pampered Chef Stoneware collection. They are great for cooking pizzas, rolls, cookies, biscuits, any really fatty bread. I do not recommend them for cooking meats, as, after a while, they will get a little funky and hard to clean. We have a circle stoneware pizza pan, and its great. We use to have two, but while making a frozen pizza one day, we set the pizza on the stoneware while the oven was preheating. When the oven got ready, we slid the pan in there, and in about 2 minutes heard a loud cracking sound. I looked in the oven and sure enough, the pan had cracked into 3 pieces. So you...

I love cooking with cast iron. Lodge is a great brand, and has consistantly put out quality products over the lifetime of the company. The Lodge cast iron pans are heavy (a quality associate with good cast iron), some of them come pre-seasoned, they can cook almost anything. They pans are great for baking, cooking on the stove, or even over an open fire (whether in the fireplace or an outside fire). The pans conduct heat very well, they stay warm even after removal from heat, so your food will stay warmer longer. The only thing is that you have to clean them right after you use them, do not store...

The Farberware Classic Series was something I looked for for a couple months. The 10 piece set has 4 pots, 3 frying pans and 3 lids. The pots are stainless steel while the frying pans are non-stick. The lids are glass with black plastic handles. This set was perfect for me since I am just starting out. The best thing is that I know this set will hold up a long time. My Mom has had her Farberware set for over 25 years and it is still in great condition!  I believe that this is a must buy for everyone but specifically for those who are just moving into their own place or just getting married like...

I recently had yet another battle between a stubborn wine cork and cork screw , and vowed to buy one of the rabbit eared wine opener/corkscrews that every one seems to be talking about these days. So off I went to my local Bed, Bath, and Beyond store to purchse one. Imagine my shock when I saw a set for $60.00! As I was quickly changing my mind about this purchase one of the store associates pointed me in the direction of their seasonal items, and there was their house brand set for only a tiny little $9.99. With one of their 20% off coupons, I found the price more than attractive. This stainless...

I have the 12" baking stone, by Pampered Chef, and yes it's a little more expensive to buy but you pay for quality. It heats up evenly and not only makes a wonderful pizza pan but also, makes wonderful cookies. They don't burn around the edges and don't burn on the bottom.The only thing that I don't like about the baking stone is that you can't get soap on them, they have to be cleaned in plain water. I had a Pampered Chef lasagna pan and loaned it out to a friend and found out that she soaked in the sink with dish soap over night and it always had a funny taste in it from that day on. But, I think...

I recieved tempation bakeware for a christmas present one year and I love them because you can put it in oven to refrig.You can even freeze food then put it in oven.They are great....

I am like this blender a lot , because it work perfect , it conveinnient , easy to use , every day I make myself a smoothie with all kind of vegetable and fruit mix together , I am concern a lot about my health I would like get enought vitamin and nutrition from a  whole vegetable and fruit rather than a supplement , after I drink the vegetable and fruit juice that I blend in the blender , it make me have  a lot of energy for the day , I like to have a healthy diet like raw vegetable and fruit and a lot of nut, my favorite vegetable is beet turnip carrot brocoli cabbage spinach, fruit orange...

Suddenly, I feel like cooking again. Chopping onions, dicing carrots, making perfect juliennes with red peppers and mincing the garlic fine for my famous (!) vegetable medley is...effortless. All because of these knives. Ooh they are sharp! So be careful or you may end cutting yourself!

I love the fact that the knives are sharp right out the box. Many people swear by their forged knife blades but that makes the knives heavier. I have another set from Pinzon (Amazon's brand) and yet another from Cuisinart that I barely use as they are heavier and not as sharp as these knives. I think stamped blades...