Hog Wild Chopsticks for Kids

My chopstick collection began innocently enough, just a bag of cheap restaurant-style wooden chopsticks to use and reuse at home, but I had long admired the heights of functional artistry that some chopsticks achieve: the sleek design of metal chopsticks, the colorful surface of lacquered chopsticks, the Zen feeling of carefully smoothed wooden chopsticks. They are the perfect blend of form and function.

I remember spotting these children’s chopsticks in a small toy store. They were in a simple display near the check out counter, and a bright purple camel begged to go home with me. Read more

Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker

My parents had one of those old-fashioned ice cream makers where the large metal canister sat inside a wooden bucket. Dad would bring home dry ice and we knew Mom was going to make ice cream, often banana, which was our favorite. Mom and Dad had to mediate the arguments between all of us kids on who got to lick the dasher, and sometimes Dad won and got the dasher all to himself.

The memories of homemade ice cream tugged at me when we started having children, and I’m glad to carry on the tradition in our home. Read more

Back to Basics Electric Ice Shaver

When Michael and I went to Hawaii last year, I had my first opportunity to try Hawaiian shave ice, a favorite treat of locals and visitors alike, and we returned home with hope that we might find a machine that could replicate the shave ice we had on that vacation while staying within a family budget. We didn’t want a snow cone machine, as the texture is completely different. Traditional U.S. snow cones have ball shaped pieces of ice, but shave ice is flaky like snow flakes and is light on the tongue. Read more

KraftMaid Floating Kitchen Island

Our house came with a pantry which really wasn’t anything more than a tiny closet between the garage and the kitchen, and it barely held my baking supplies never mind any canned goods. In desperation we converted the coat closet into a pantry and installed some heavy duty shelves in there to hold canned goods, pasta, etc., but that meant we lost space for coats, shoes, bike helmets, roller blades, kids play equipment, etc. It’s all been hanging around on wall hooks or laying on the floor and blocking traffic to the laundry room.

After considering several options, including expanding the pantry (which would have been frightfully expensive), we decided to add some cabinets to the kitchen in a couple locations, and the first would be to add a floating island. There are many types of premade and custom islands on the market, and our heads were spinning as we looked at all the options. Read more

New West KnifeWorks Santoku Knife

I recently had an opportunity to try out one of the santoku knives from the folks at New West KnifeWorks in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. I’d had my eye on one for some time and gladly took them up on their offer. My grandfather had an astonishing knife collection when he was alive, and I remember him showing my father all his new finds from flea markets and auctions. Even though I don’t collect knives as my grandfather did, the appreciation for good knives filtered down to me, and I do believe my grandfather would have enjoyed this knife.

New West KnifeWorks designs the knives, the blades are manufactured in Seki, Japan (the home of modern Japanese cutlery production), and the handles and knife blocks are hand made in Wyoming. Read more

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