Kitchen Gadgets - "stocking stuffers"

[Curlz]

Chef's Catalog is having a 2-day sale on kitchen gadgets starting today...with free shipping and no minimum purchase!

This thread seemed like the most appropriate place to post the info.

[kvltrede]

udate  on the ss garlic  smasher....got  an email  from amco as a result  of  an email i  had  sent  before  i  made  the  call to focus.....Maureen Kivel-Luzar  over  at  amco  had  this to say:....

"We did once carry the garlic smasher item 265 this item was discontinued in 2003.

The last place we sold this to was cooking.com .You may want (to get (added  for clarity) ) with them or scrounge around a T.J.  Maxx they also purchase our close outs from time to time."

so  here  we have tow possible  sources  but  im still waiting  to hear back from nancy  which  may  take a  few  days...meantime  we  have some hope from another  source....

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The TJ Maxx on State Street in downtown Chicago had about a half-dozen of the AMCO steel garlic smashers early last week. They were $9.

Kurt

[fifi]

Yeee HAAAAA!!!

I will be calling my son. Methinks he has to take a trip downtown.

Thanks for the tip. I will also call the T. J Maxx here.

[kvltrede]

Yeee HAAAAA!!!

I will be calling my son. Methinks he has to take a trip downtown.

Thanks for the tip. I will also call the T. J Maxx here.

←

If your son comes up empty at the TJ Maxx downtown I came across another one today Edward Don. Edward Don Outlet is a restaurant supply store on Elston a little Northwest of downtown. ED had a single solitary AMCO mushroom and it was $13.

I find it very odd that I've now seen these in two places within a week. I remembered this thread from the holidays and how far some folks had gone in trying to track them down. I hope at least a handful of Chicago EGers have the opportunity to pick one up.

Kurt

[fifi]

The son is on the hunt in Chicago. I am going to man the phones for my local TJMs tomorrow. We will probably be trying to corner the market on these things.

[fifi]

The one's at the TJM in Chicago went almost immediately according the lady in housewares. They haven't finished unloading that shipment so my son is calling back on Friday.

[jerkhouse]

they're not very gadgety, but I love bamboo utensils. I would be happy with a bunch of bamboo in my stocking any Christmas

[fifi]

I got a not so satisfactory reply from TJM:

Dear Ms. Larose:

Thank you for contacting T.J. Maxx regarding the item you

are seeking.

In an effort to keep our prices low, and our costs down, we do

not provide a service of tracking merchandise.  Also, because

we are an 'off-price' retailer, we do not have the privilege of

ordering specific merchandise from our vendors.  To locate the

item, we suggest that you continue to check with the stores

in your area directly as each store receives over 10,000 new

items each week.

Sincerely,

T.J. Maxx Customer Service

[Richard Kilgore]

That's the nature of discounters like TJMaxx and Marshall's. They're great for serendipitous finds and for waiting for something to pop up, but not a place you can expect to find something you are looking for on any given day. If they could track it, we would be paying full retail.

Good luck on your search. I found nothing at the nearest one here either.

[Toliver]

I stumbled across these and thought they were waaaaay cool:

Not Your Mama's Rolling Pins

[fifi]

I stumbled across these and thought they were waaaaay cool:

Not Your Mama's Rolling Pins

←

I am in the market for a rolling pin. I had no idea there was such a thing. What a cool idea!

[kvltrede]

...    I got a not so satisfactory reply from TJM...

Did you give Edward Don a call? Unless the one I saw there on Sunday has been snapped up perhaps your son can swing by and pick it up.

Edward Don Outlet Store

2525 North Elston Avenue, Chicago, IL 60647

(773) 489-7739

Kurt

[fifi]

. . . . .

Did you give Edward Don a call?  Unless the one I saw there on Sunday has been snapped up perhaps your son can swing by and pick it up.

Edward Don Outlet Store

2525 North Elston Avenue, Chicago, IL 60647

(773) 489-7739

Kurt

←

He will be calling, now. Thanks for the tip. Eyes alert out there. The little buggers seem to be collecting in the Chicago area.

[fifi]

*bump*

I bumped this up for two reasons. My son found 8 of the mushrooms in the Chicago area and they have now been distributed to a lucky few. If anyone sees anymore of them, let me know.

There was another item I got all frustrated about, the cooling racks that fit in the heavy aluminum half sheet pans. The kids had to do without racks for their pans last year. Boo! Hoo! But that is all fixed now. Amazon has them here. Guess what one of their Christmas gifts will be? And, despite what I saw on Amazon, they really do have them and they are not back ordered. The UPS guy just delivered them.

[SuzySushi]

Fifi...

I'm glad you bumped up the thread! I hadn't seen it the first time around (before my eG time) and have found a few gadgets to put on my Christmas wish-list as well as some to send to friends as gifts. (And I never realized that simple items like microplanes, toaster bags, and silicone pastry brushes could be so life-changing!)

[snowangel]

Where do people get toaster bags?

[andiesenji]

This is one place

And here is the toaster in which to use them!

Edited November 11, 2005 by andiesenji (log)

[SuzySushi]

And here is the toaster in which to use them!

←

What every kitchen needs!

Speaking of toasters, Andie, you're probably the person to ask. Maybe the bread was different back then, or nostalgia is playing a part, but going back to my childhood, my grandmother made the best toast, not reproducable in today's toasters, in an electric toaster that was an A-frame shape. It had two flip-down chrome doors and toasted one side of the bread at a time. Have you happened to see a modern version of the same (or a stovetop version) in your Internet travels?

[andiesenji]

There are camp toasters that go over a burner, but they don't flip the toast over as do the electric ones. You have to turn the toast with tongs and I have to confess that I dropped as many slices as I successfully toasted.

Camp toaster

I have a few of the vintage ones. Some of the ways people invented to make toast automatically have been really weird. The early ones all centered around a centrally located electric coil and mechanically turned the toast in various ways. Finally some genius figured out that putting the coils on either side would be quicker but would only do one slice at a time. Finally someone got around to the idea that multiple slots would be more efficient.

I guess the bread itself is different. Toast doesn't seem the same to me either and I have tried all kinds of bread.

I have been trying to find a particular flavor that I remember from many years ago, without success. I have tried hundreds of recipes for plain, white bread, different types of flour, with or without potato, different yeasts, milk, filtered water, hard water, soft water, etc., I have never been able to duplicate that particular flavor that dwells in my memory.

Edited November 12, 2005 by andiesenji (log)

[andiesenji]

I picked up a copy of Fine Cooking's annual edition of "Great Finds" which has a great and detailed article on selecting extra virgin olive oil.

There is also an article on cookware including some of the new non-stick skillets - "Not You Everyday Nonstick," they liked NordicWare's new Pro-Cast Gol which is non-stick but sears nicely and the color is light enough so one can see what is going on in the bottom of the pan.

They also liked the Calphalon One Infused Anodized which is not non-stick but released foods such as salmon easily and cleaned up nicely.

There is an article on building a custom knife set and how to store knives, includng some of the suggestions mentioned in the knife thread here.

Also an article on 100 kitchen essentials.

One ad caught my eye. Blum has a new design for corner base cabinets that is rather interesting.

Blum Space Corner

[Eden]

well it's very cool looking, but you lose a lot of storage space in the unused angles on either side of it. Which would mean less space to store gadgets

speaking of gadgets a lot of the posts upthread say things like "check out this cool toy" and of course a year later the link is dead so posterity will never even know what that cool toy was. A real loss considering the number of useful widgets suggested.

May I suggest that from now on we at least put a brief description as well as the link so that folks can try & track down another source for Turnip Twaddlers if the first link is gone?

[andiesenji]

How about this unusual, new design Potato Masher?

and this ingenious Nutcracker.

I have been using this company's bake liners for some time but have never visited their web site till today.

[fifi]

That potato masher ranks right up there with the ss mushroom as to neat looks. I wonder if it really works?

I am pretty dubious of the nutcracker, though.

Neat site. I put it in favorites and will be interested to see what they come up with. Those cruets seem to qualify as stocking stuffers. Even if they are a bit pricey, they sure look good. Thanks.

[Eden]

speaking of nutcrackers, can anyone reccomend one that will crack walnuts without destroying the shells?

I want to have two perfect halves to glue back together after the meat has been removed.

I've done this in the past with the classic V nutcracker, but as I recall you get maybe one out of 4 nuts in good enough shape to use...

[DocDougherty]

How about an electric torch (otherwise known as a dual temp heatgun)? This is a little above the $10 gadget price, but at $20 it is the perfect way to surgically roast a bell pepper (about 10 min, but hold the pepper in an OVE mitt to keep things under control), or brown the skin on a sous vide turkey thigh. On high it gets up to 1000F.

Edited November 27, 2005 by DocDougherty (log)