Oxo Mandoline

This year for Mother’s Day I received a mandoline slicer. I had wanted one for a while so I was very pleased! My knife skills are pretty bad so I need all the help I can get with slicing veggies and fruits. Lena (with lots of Daddy’s help) got me the one that was recommended by Cook’s Illustrated Magazine and was shown on an episode of America’s Test Kitchen where they compared mandolines.

It’s the Oxo Good Grips V-Blade Mandoline Slicer. Check it out on Amazon. The V-shaped blade was recommended by Cook’s Illustrated over the straight-edged blade.

It has four different thickness settings. They range from 1/4″ to 1/16″. It stands up on little rubberized legs for great stability. You can also lock the blade closed when you store it.

Some of the extra blades are stored on the underside of it for convenience. It comes with like 5 different blades.

Here are a couple of things I have done with it so far.

Beautiful potato slices for my Muffin Tin Potatoes. This would have been a horrible mess if I had to slice these by hand.

I know these look like potato chips, but they are actually crinkle-cut slices of yellow squash. Fun!

It has a julienne blade too. I julienned this carrot for my Rice Pilaf.

The mandoline also does cubing, and dicing. But I haven’t done those yet. I’ll post pics when I get around to it.

I highly recommend this mandoline. It’s so fun to use and it’s only about $30. Well worth it in my opinion.

I also recommend checking out America’s Test Kitchen Equipment ratings whenever you are looking for a new kitchen gadget. They have tested all kinds of things, from spatulas to digital scales. Note: You do have to register on the website to be able to view equipment ratings (and recipes). But not to worry, all you have to do is enter your email address. It’s not a paid subscription. And they don’t send you junk mail, so it’s well worth it for the valuable information.

Lodge Cast Iron Grill Pan

Merry Christmas to me!  This year for Christmas, my lovely husband got me a Lodge cast iron grill pan.  It’s something I have been wanting for a while now.  Rachael Ray got me interested in it, and I checked her line at foodnetwork.com.  Hers was more than twice the price of the Lodge; and I read somewhere that it is made by Lodge.  So I bought this one on Amazon.com.  It has like 196 reviews with an average of 4 1/2 stars (that’s out of five).  They even gave me free shipping (which is a great savings considering it weighs about 15 pounds!)  And it came lighting quick.  I ordered it on Tuesday evening and it came on Thursday afternoon.  Wow!  

It is so nice!  It is a grill pan on one side, and a smooth griddle on the other side.  Both sides have a narrow grease gutter for draining. It lays across two burners on the stove.

I did have one problem with it at its inaugural use.  They don’t tell you this, but apparently you are supposed to remove the paper label from the griddle side before heating it up!

OOPS!!!  Yeah, that stunk up the kitchen for a while!

I made some grilled chicken seasoned with a garlic and herb seasoning.  Very simple and delicious.  This will be a great substitute for the outdoors grill during the off season.

Thanks, Jimmy, for the wonderful Christmas gift!

Hamilton Beach Slow Cooker

After almost two years without a crockpot, I finally got a new one! The one I registered for when we got married was a little cheap deal that basically started disintegrating on me in our third year of marriage. The little plastic feet kept slowly chipping away, the casing that housed the dial started cracking and then oozing some strange blue substance, then finally the whole dial just fell out of the machine! I didn’t bother moving it back to St. Louis; it got trashed.

Some very generous members of our congregation gave us a housewarming gift and then a Christmas gift and it was the perfect amount with which to purchase this really nice crockpot (yes, I know “Crockpot” is a trademarked term for the Rival brand, but it’s so much easier to say and type than “slow cooker,” so that’s what I use.)

It is the Hamilton Beach Set ‘n Forget 6 Quart Programmable Slow Cooker, model 33966. Check it out on

Amazon.com.

It comes with a temperature probe. If you are cooking meat, you stick the probe in the meat (there is a hole for it in the lid) and tell the crockpot what temperature you want the meat to be when done. When it reaches the desired temperature, the unit will automatically switch to the “warm” setting from whatever you had it on to cook. So no more overcooked, mushy meats!

You can program it to cook on “high” for a certain number of hours then switch to “low.” It’s completely programmable. Neat! You can also use it just like the traditional crockpots by simply setting it on high, low, or warm.

I’ve only made one dish in it so far,

Crockpot Chicken Taco Soup, but I love it already. Even though I am home most days, I think I will use it a lot simply because it’s so easy and hassle free. And it means spending less time on my feet which is becoming more taxing the bigger this baby gets!

I really like the oval shape of this appliance, too. I was able to lay flat three chicken breasts without them touching each other. That means things will cook more evenly. And on an aesthetic note, it is very sleek looking with the black and stainless steel. So shiny and pretty!

Thank you so much, Virgil and Carol!

Wilton Bakeware

I wanted to try a recipe that used a shallow baking sheet with a cooling rack on top so the food gets crispy on all sides. (It was Chicken Parmesan; stay tuned for post on that.) I didn’t have anything like that, so I hit the stores. The first store I looked at was Wal-Mart (I was there for something else.) They had one cooling rack, but when I read the care instructions, it said, “Do not use in oven.” Well, that wasn’t going to help me. I thought, I could get by putting it the oven except for the fact that this recipe is baked at 475. That’s pretty hot. Wasn’t going to chance it.

Then at Meijer I found the Wilton Perfect Results Bakeware Collection. It looks like pretty nice stuff. They have what they call a “cooling grid.” It’s non-stick and is made to go into the oven. It is dishwasher safe, however, hand washing is recommended. Since it’s non-stick, hand washing is not a problem. The rack I got is the Wilton Perfect Results 16 x 10″ Cooling Grid.

To go with it, I picked up the Wilton Perfect Results 15 1/4 x 10 1/4 x 3/4″ Medium Cookie Pan. The rack and the pan don’t fit perfectly, but well enough. I line the pan with foil before putting the rack on top, so that the pan doesn’t even need cleaning afterwards.

I am very happy with my new purchases. I’m sure I will use them all the time now.