How To Choose A Pot Rack For Your Kitchen

I debated whether to rack my cookware for along time. Searched for the right rack for my little space. Racks are helpful to keep your kitchen and your cookware collection organized. A pot rack is a great storage solution for both small and large kitchens. It keeps pots that are too big for a standard cupboard out of the way, and can actually be a great decorative item for the kitchen.

rack is a great storage solution for both small and large kitchens

Copper pots and pans are my favorite. I love the way they are displayed on the brick wall with the linear racks - gorgeous & functional! Pots and pans take up a lot of space, but when you're removing upper cabinets or other essential kitchen fixtures in favor of a place to hang items that collect dust and grease, it's defeating the purpose of having plenty of kitchen storage.

Glass Cooktops Vs. Coil Element Burners

Glass Top or coil element? – One of the most common questions is “Do I want a glass top or coil top range?” The answer for the most part is usually that a glass top range is recommended for easier cleanup, faster heating, etc. Coil for tenants, glass for yourself. Better yet, Viking gas counter top with a griddle. :) :)

Glass cooktops typically cost $400 to $1,200 more than coiled cooktops. If you have some flex in your budget, look at both glass and coil options. If funds are tight, shop for a coil-burner stove, available in both gas and electric models. Electric coil and glass/ceramic cooking surfaces have some significant differences in handling, daily use and cleaning.

Fagor VFA78S 30-Inch Beveled Ceramic Glass Radiant Cooktop. This is a good stovetop. I like the versatility of the burner configurations.

Depending on the demands of your lifestyle and your style preferences, one may suit your kitchen better than the other. However, many people aren’t aware that there are some minor restrictions in regards to the type of cookware that can be used with them.  It is recommended that you use stainless steel flat bottom cookware and avoid using cast iron or glass, as those two items can potentially scratch or damage your cooktop.

Kitchen Range Buying Guide

Today's ranges offer a wealth of options when it comes to functionality, finishes, size, and oven capacity. Gas or electric ranges can give you fine performance. Dual-fuel ranges combine a gas cooktop with an electric oven. An induction-style range, the most energy-efficient stovetop, employs an electro-magnet below a ceramic surface that transfers heat to pots and pans.

Freestanding ranges for the most part are more economical to purchase than any other type of cooking range.

Dual-fuel ranges combine a gas stovetop with an electric oven. Electric smoothtop ranges sell the most overall and are tops in performance and value. Ranges vary in width from 24 to 60 inches, with professional-type stoves in the 36- to 60-inch range being the most expensive. Models include slide-in and freestanding gas and electric ranges that sport four gas burners or four electric coil elements. You'll also find ranges equipped with high-power and low-simmer burners and convection ovens and smooth-top electric ranges in this price range.

Find the Right Microwave Oven for Your Kitchen

We hope that this buying guide will give you all of the information you need to be comfortable in your shopping and, ultimately, your purchase. Worry gone are the days when Oven came in two options: a gas stove with a gas oven attached or an electric stove with an electric oven attached. Ranges combine a cooktop and oven into a single kitchen appliance. Other primary differences will include the types of burners, manual versus self-clean oven, convection baking, and any number of additional features.

A comprehensive buying guide to make selecting that oven a more pleasant and worry-free experience.

In the classic range setup, the cooktop and oven are combined as one appliance, most often a 30-inch appliance with four burners above an oven. Choosing a stove was pretty simple in your parents' day. A freestanding upright cooker in white enamel of course. If you had the gas on, you'd buy a gas cooker, otherwise it was electric.

Choosing between a freestanding cooker or cooktop/wall oven is still the most basic decision, but now you can also consider an array of features and options: wok burners, fish burners, BBQ grills, teppanyaki plates, multiple ovens, self-cleaning, dual-fuel systems, and even deep-fryers and spit roasting.

How to Pick the Perfect Snow Blower

How to pick out the snow blower that's perfect on your needs

Spend less time shoveling snow and more time inside where it's warm with the help of a snow blower. Buy a snow blower now before they sell out. Demand is high after last winter's many snow storms. It’s not too early to start shopping for a snow blower. The stores are stocked with a fresh supply after last year’s rough winter when many retailers sold out.

Choosing the best snowblower for your needs is somewhat dependent on the area you need to clear, but it’s also determined by the type of snow you typically remove.

A snowblower should be considered differently than a lawnmower or other similar pieces of power equipment. If there's a problem with your mower, no big deal, just mow the grass next week after you get it fixed. Things don't quite work out that way when there's a foot of snow on the ground and you need to go to work the next day.

There's no way I'd buy a single-stage snow blower. I had one several years ago and literally gave it away before its second season. They work pretty well from 6", or less, of light powdery snow, but for any more than that or wet, heavy snow, you really need/want a two-stage blower. If you live in an area that receives moderate to heavy snowfall, you'll want one of these snow throwers to help you quickly clear walkways, driveways and more.

Indoor air quality and Air Purifiers

Would you buy an Air Purifier to improve indoor air quality in your home? Do you know the difference between Ionic air purifier and standard HEPA type? It takes more than an air conditioner to make sure the conditions in your air are ideal. Create a cleaner, fresher and healthier environment for your family with our ventilators, UV lamps, humidifiers and air purifiers.

Would you buy an Air Purifier to improve indoor air quality in your home?

Indoor Air Quality: Air Cleaners. Indoor air pollutants are unwanted, sometimes harmful materials in the air. For us the most important aspects for choosing a unit are efficiency, time between maintenance (cleaning etc.) and of course overall cost. Probably in that order although they were all way quite heavily in the decision.

Fixing or Replacing Kitchen Faucets

Moved into new house to discover the kitchen and bar faucets could use some maintenance, if possible, or to be replaced. We're having a hard time finding a manual and parts for the faucets, and so may need to replace. The aerator screens on each faucet are almost falling out, and spray button the kitchen faucet is broken. The lever is also a little funny, like it needs to be tightened (it kinda flops around, but doesn't leak). It seems like these should be cheap and easy fixes if we could find parts. Help?

You have to take the handle off to get at the meat of the problem. It's probably worn gaskets inside that you can't see. I'd opt for spending a couple of bucks on replacement parts and try to fix it yourself. If no luck there, then go ahead and replace it.

We don't know who makes good faucets though, and there are so many makers! We're not looking to be penny wise and pound foolish, but we don't know the difference between a Kohler and a Grohe, or a Hansgrohe, which is apparently a different company. We want to buy quality that will last years and will be easy to find parts for. Is Grohe good? Is Kohler cheap? Can you get parts for a Moen? We really have no idea. Can you tell us?

Which Microplane grater/zester to buy?

If I had to pick just one kitchen gadget, it would be a toss up between my Microplane and my Large Scoop. I really love both of these and don’t think I could part with either. Microplanes through the years: a Grace hacksaw from 1990; a 1998 zester; a 1998 grater; a 1998 “Fine Grater;’’ a foot file from 2005, and two “Fine Graters’’ from 2010.

The classic Microplane Classic Series Zester/Grater continues to be our top choice for zesting and fine grating.

 “It used to be that you only needed to have a chef’s knife and a paring knife in your kitchen,” said Peter Degnan, director of merchandising for the San Francisco-based retailer Williams-Sonoma. “You don’t think you need a food processor, but once you have one, you wonder how you ever lived without it. The same goes for the Microplane tools.”

If you don't have any other graters, I think a Microplane is a great buy that will preclude you from having to buy, say, a box grater (unless you need bigger holes, like for soft cheese). We use our microplane all the time - zesting, grating parmesan, grating nutmeg, and grating ginger are the main uses.

Juicing vs Blending: You Need to Know

Juicing vs. Blending: Which One Is Better?

“What is the difference between a green juice and a green smoothie, and is one better than the other?” There is much discussion about juicing vs blending.  They both produce DIFFERENT results, so it really depends on what you’re looking for.

I do not favor either blending or juicing. They both have different benefits. I do both but I personally tend to do more of blending for HEALTH reasons.

Which is better: juicing or blending? Does one offer more health benefits than the other? There are major differences between a juice and a smoothie, and a green smoothie is light years ahead of a green juice when it comes to promoting overall health.  Juices and smoothies both play an important role in any wellness program. Doctor’s, nutritionists, and probably your mom have long agreed that you should eat your fruits and veggies.

Knife Sharpening Tools

The frustration of chopping tomatoes that end up as mush or spending an hour hacking away at a thin tree branch can ruin your day and your mood. Visually, a very sharp knife has an edge that is too small to see with the eye; it may even be hard to focus in a microscope. The shape near the edge can be highlighted by rotating the knife and watching changes in reflection.

Need to know how to sharpen a knife? Sharpening your chef's knife, and keeping it sharp, will make cooking easier and safer.

The angle between the blade and the stone is the edge angle – the angle from the vertical to one of the knife edges, and equals the angle at which the blade is held. Typical edge angles are about 20° (making the included angle 40° on a double-ground edge). The edge angle for very sharp knives can be as little as 10 degrees (for a 20° included angle). Different knives are sharpened differently according to grind (edge geometry) and application. For example, Western kitchen knives are usually made of softer steel and take an edge angle of 20–22°, while East Asian kitchen knives are traditionally of harder steel and take an edge angle of 15–18°.

How To Select A Rice Cooker

Rice cookers are intriguing inventions, ones that have substantially changed the lives of millions of people. Purists might insist that rice is best parboiled and then left to slow-cook, lid tightly on, over a wood fire–which gives the traditional, rustic guoba (rice crust). But rice-cooker rice is really fantastic.” Don't buy a large unit than you need because the rice cooker is designed to operate properly with a specific amount of rice and water.

A rice cooker and be a very useful and versatile kitchen appliance.

A rice cooker is also perfect for people who don’t cook often or who don’t enjoy it. (Roger Ebert wrote a book on this kind of rice-cooker cooking called The Pot and How To Use It.) It’s also an order of magnitude easier to clean a rice cooker than a cooking pot. If you cook rice perfectly, then it’s not too hard to do the washing up. How to Choose the Right Rice Cooker for You?

How to Clean Baby Bottles

Since young children and infants are at an increased risk for food poisoning, learning the basics of baby bottle safety is important to keeping your infant protected. Bottles are an important part of a baby's nourishment during the first year of life, so make sure your little one's bottles are always washed properly.

make sure your little one's bottles are always washed properly.

Even if you use disposable plastic bottle liners and ready-to-use formula, you still need to make sure the bottles and nipples are clean. Additionally, washing and drying in a dishwasher is safe, but only with heated water and a hot drying cycle. Depending on what kind of bottles you use, some brands (like Dr. Brown's) have several parts that need to be taken out of the bottle and taken apart for washing.

What is the Best baby bottle brush?
The trickiest part of bottle feeding is probably clean up, at least it is for me.  Thats the one im using now & it is really hard to get it into the bottle.  I hurt my hand almost every time.  Bottles and their nipples come in all shapes and sizes, and that standard giant round brush is not the one size clean all it claims to be.

How To Choose A Spice Grinder

Grinding whole spices and nuts just before use ensures optimal flavor and aroma. Originally, electric blade grinders were meant to grind coffee. Grinding both spices and coffee in one machine isn’t a good idea -- unless you like the idea of cumin-scented java. But peek into almost any restaurant kitchen and you’ll discover that chefs use these handy little machines for grinding spices instead.

Spice Grinders & Nut Choppers

When it comes to depth of flavor, ground spices from a jar just can’t compete with freshly ground whole spices.  We recently decided to investigate which electric blade coffee grinders adapt best to the task of grinding spices. Some grinders simply can’t handle the small quantities of spices that recipes often call for.

Safer Effective Toilet Bowl Cleaners

There are many inexpensive, easy-to-use natural alternatives which can safely be used in place of commercial household products. Combinations basic products can provide less harmful substitutions for many commercial home products. In the marketplace today, we are seeing the emergence of new products which are safe and non-toxic to use for home cleaning tasks, without sacrificing effectiveness. In most cases, they're also less expensive.

Safe, non-toxic formulas, techniques and products for cleaning in your home

For many home-cleaning chores, you can make your own cleaning products using the formulas listed below.
A growing number of commercial non-toxic home cleaning products are also available, as healthier and environmentally responsible alternatives. Many toilet bowl cleaners contain acids and other chemicals that are harmful. Regular Toilet Cleaning use a strong non-acid cleaning product for your daily toilet maintenance. Also use a disinfectant product that contains Alkyl Ammonium Chloride to kill germs.

Digital Multifunction Kitchen and Food Scale

Eating a few extra ounces here and there might be what’s standing between you and your health and fitness goals. The food scale is my friend in the kitchen – the more I learn about nutrition the better I’ve become about making good food choices, however portion control is still a work in progress for me. Eating big portions of healthy, food can equal weight gain too – the food scale helps me keep that in check.

Where to find Accurate, easy-to-use digital kitchen scale weighs up to 11 lbs. (5050 grams) in precise graduations of 0.05 oz. (1 gram)???

Digital Multifunction Food Scale teaches you to focus on consuming healthy portions versus counting calories that can often become obsessive - plus the food portion size guide provides education on the nutrients you need. The tare functionality is great for measuring portions quickly and including multiple foods in one plate like when prepping ingredients for a recipe.

Indoor Humidity Monitor Meter

Step outside on a summer day, and it's easy to feel the effects of humidity -- sticky skin, a sweaty brow, air thick with moisture. Humidity makes you sneeze. The word humidity refers to the amount of water vapor in the air. "Humidity promotes mold growth and dust mite population growth. Lower humidity will result in lower mold and dust mite growth.

humidity sensor, hygrometers

Low indoor humidity is a bigger issue in winter months, when heaters and cooler temperatures combine to lower the moisture levels in the air.  "High humidity in a home can cause rot. Condensation provides [bugs] with the water they need," explained Jill Mayfield, Information Coordinator for Austin Energy Green Building Program, which helps Austin residents build more efficient homes and buildings.

Meat Thermometers Review

I cook steak and chicken outside on the grill quite often. I prefer not to cut the meat open to check for done-ness. It lets the juice out and also looks dumb when you serve it. Using a meat thermometer is easy and it’ll make your steaks, roasts, burgers and all your other food taste like you’re an award-winning chef. With this I just poke it, wait a few seconds then check for temp.

"A meat thermometer doesn't cost much, but it can save hundreds of dollars in medical bills by ensuring that food is cooked enough to kill disease-causing salmonella, E. coli, and other bugs." Consumer Reports

Thermometers For Food, Cooking, Oven, Grill, And Smoker

This (Weber 6492 Original Instant-Read Thermometer) was my first-ever instant-read thermometer, and I have to say that I am very pleased with my purchase; great value for the price. For the price you just can't beat this thing. Instant read, pivot head, its great. The pivoting can be a little "loose" sometimes but it reads instantly so its not meant to be left around in the meat. I don't know how I was grilling without something like this before. My chicken now comes out great since I can get an accurate temperature quickly and pull it off the fire before I turn it into charcoal.

Bathroom Tissue Add quality and Comfort to Restrooms

This Quilted Northern Ultra Plush Bath Tissue product costs quite a bit more at local stores, even the big box ones. Since buying in bulk is not a problem for me with storage room this is a fabulous deal for the product. This is toilet paper for real Americans. As a conservative, I respect its lack of recycled material. And as a supremacist, I'm proud that it only comes in white.

choose the right bathroom tissue

I have always heard complaints about all the toilet paper I have bought until I brought home quilted northern.. My girls love it and that includes me too! It's soft, you don't have to wipe yourself raw to get that crisp shower clean feeling, and even better you don't have to us a half a role to feel clean either. No more clogged toilets, no more paper rash. 

A Grinder That Can Grind Flax Seeds or Chicken bones

Ground flax seeds can go rancid quickly due to the oils in the seeds. Flax seed is high in omega-3 fats and fiber. While you can find ground flax seed in the store, it is far less expensive to purchase whole seeds and grind flax seed at home. Pre-ground seeds also spoil more quickly than whole flax seeds.

If you grind more flax seed than you need, store the extra ground seeds in the refrigerator or freezer to preserve them. You can use golden or brown flax seed interchangeably in baking or cooking. I've tried several grinder, none of which worked. I also read numerous reviews stating that this, that, or the other grinder won't do flax seeds. This KRUPS F203 Electric grinder does flax seeds excellently.

Grinder That Can Grind Flax Seeds

I bought KRUPS F203 specifically for flax seeds, but it works for other spices as well.  It's a bargain compared to a dedicated spice grinder and works just as well for dry stuff. I need it for flax seeds because those oily little seeds are impossible to grind with other grinders. What really attracted me to the Krups F203 spice grinder was it's power. It is so quick and fast and pulverizes everything that comes in to contact with it.