More Cool Gadgets That Take Up Space You Don’t Have

23 Dec 2016 1 Comment

by scolgin in Good Gadget, Bad Gadget, Humor Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

The best obscure one-use gadgets come from Europe. My friend from Austria gave me a spaetzle maker. How often to YOU make spaetzle?? Probably less often than I, which is a couple times a year — often once around Oktoberfest. The spaetzle maker takes up almost one whole drawer all by itself. But when I make spaetzle, I sure am happy to have it.

The spaetzle maker

The spaetzle maker

I also have a raclette stove, which takes up the better part of a whole cupboard shelf. Raclette is an Alpine French cheese that you melt on tiny skillets, and then mash together with boiled potatoes and cornichons. The last time we used it, George W. Bush was president. But boy, is it cool. More

The Scott Murphy Hat

19 Nov 2013 8 Comments

by scolgin in Good Gadget, Bad Gadget, Observations, Starlets, Yoga Students & Quinoa (stories) Tags: , , , , , , , ,

People often give me items for cooking or the kitchen that are sometimes useful, sometimes not. And you never quite know at first in which direction they will fall.

The Scott Murphy Hat

The Scott Murphy Hat

For example, you may open a Christmas gift to discover a beautifully designed utensil from Williams-Sonoma that looks like something you couldn’t live without, and find over time that you have no use for it at all. Conversely, someone may hand you something you couldn’t imagine ever using, and it winds up being one of your MVPs (Most Valuable Products). Such was the case with the Scott Murphy hat. More

Jenn the Gadget Girl

20 Sep 2013 19 Comments

by scolgin in Good Gadget, Bad Gadget, Humor Tags: , , , , , , , ,

I received a promotional email from Sur la Table. The subject line read, “Jenn’s Gadget Picks”. So I clicked on it, and there smiling at me was a picture of a cute girl that said, “Meet our very own Gadget Girl, Jenn!” And I thought to myself, “Oh no… you didn’t really just create a Jenn the Gadget girl for me to blog about, did you!???”

Jenn.

Jenn.

It was like a gift from the heavens.

If you’ve been following my blog for any period of time, you’ve probably stumbled on one of my many “Good Gadget, Bad Gadget” posts. If not, let me suffice to say that I am a gadget skeptic. More

A Tale of Two Gadgets

11 Jan 2013 2 Comments

by scolgin in Food, Good Gadget, Bad Gadget, Humor Tags: , , , , , , ,

I’ve written so much about kitchen gadgets that I always find myself surprised when I find new ones to talk about, or new things to say about them.

In the past, I’ve mostly compared the virtues of good gadgets with the folly of the bad. For Christmas this year, I received two gadgets both of which, I think, fall into the general realm of the latter.

The first arrived in my Christmas stocking, and I was immediately fond of it — not so much because I imagined ever using it, but because a.) it came from Santa, b.) it had French writing on it, and c.) it had a cute little egg with a face on it.

IMG_2945

This is the kind of gadget children love — like heart-shaped cookie cutters or the circus animal waffle press I got my one of my kids for Christmas last year. More

Random Thoughts for a Tuesday

04 Sep 2012 10 Comments

by scolgin in Good Gadget, Bad Gadget, Observations Tags: , , , , , , ,

One of the new little chickens in our coop died today. Something happened to its legs, which for chickens — like horses — is pretty much a death sentence.

New chicks (and two Guineafowl) at the water bowl

I’ve gotten used to a chicken dying occasionally — they get stuck in strange places, the coyotes get them, etc. — so it doesn’t phase me so much. Less blasé, however, am I than the chickens themselves. They just sort of step over their dead friend and continue about their business, casting each other glances every so often as if to say, “What’ya suppose is the matter with Larry?” More

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