Stuff Geeks Want

I hate chopping up garlic and smashing it with the side of a knife is messy. Time to get a garlic press.

But the biggest problem with garlic presses is that the mesh holes the garlic comes through are difficult to clean. Not with the Kuhn Rikon Epicurean Garlic Press. When you open it, the hopper liner flips out for easy cleaning, something we haven’t seen on any other model. Together with it being stainless steel, the people at America’s Test Kitchen voted it best garlic press in a recent test.

Buy for $38 from Amazon

Distinctive. Elegant. Classy. Attractive. Those are the words that come to mind when you look at the Dous beverage glasses designed by Luigi Bormioli.

What makes ‘em neat is their double-walled design that makes them heat-resistant. Translation: The glasses won’t sweat like you will on a hot summers day. The 16-ounce tumblers featured here are ideal for sipping hot or cold drinks in style.

Oh, and did I mention how attractive they are?

Buy 4 for $27 from Amazon

Finally, there’s an effective way to bring ice cream to the beach or ballpark. The insulated Ice Cream Tubbie from Zak Designs is a foam-core insulated portable container with a freezable gel lid that helps keep a pint of frozen treat from melting for up to 90 minutes depending on the outside temperature.

Buy for $12.50 from Amazon

Let’s face it, wine refrigerators are expensive and big. But stacking beverages in the frig isn’t easy and you can’t always stand up wine. But the RakaStaka concept is so simple and so much fun you easily forget how flexible it is depending on how much soda, beer or wine you have.

The ingenious design of the plastic racks let you place it between rows to configure a secure and space-saving way to fit drinks in your fridge. The RakaStaka is available for not just wine bottles (as you see on the right), but for can drinks and beer bottles as well.

Buy for $10 from Amazon

Aunt Jemima would have been proud. It’s the “first automatic pancake machine intropduced into the U.S.”, or so says Seattle, Washington-based ChefStack. It’s the ChefStack automatic pancake machine and while it’s mainly for restaurants and commercial operations, a company spokesman told us by phone today, “we’ll starting selling to the public later this year.”

The microwave-sized unit uses pre-made batter that comes in pouches and cranks out four-inch diameter pancakes in about 30 seconds that are 97 percent fat-free.

The company says it’s perfect timing to introduce this $3,500 pancake shooter the America. They claim pancakes are a “comfort food” that has “experienced a resurgence over the last twelve months as a result of the economic downturn.” I’m not seeing people eating pancakes in the car like a Quarter-Pounder, but we’ll let that slide.

Buy for $3500 from ChefStack

Remember those episodes of 30 Rock where they’re trying to market GE’s new portable microwave?

It turns out it’s already been done, albeit slightly bigger than in the show (but also slightly cuter, like Tina Fey).

The iWavecube is “the world’s smallest and first personal microwave”. Perfect for dorm rooms or camp grounds, the iWavecube features 600 watts of power and can easily accommodate large mugs or bowls. It also comes in a bunch of colors and costs just $99.

Buy direct for $99 from iWavecube

You already know the formula for being healthy: eat nutritious food and exercise more.
So why are you still out of shape?

A lot of people think if they work out they can eat whatever they want. Keep telling yourself that.

The easier side of the equation is eating better. You might skip a day (or a week, or a month) at the gym, but chances are you still eat every day. So why not make it count? Oh, that’s right: because eating healthy sucks, at least that’s what your taste buds tell you when you munch on a raw beet and kale, or try to chew on some wheatgrass.

To help yourself eat more fresh fruit, vegetables, and leafy greens, you need to get a masticating juicer. Unlike your normal centrifugal juicer which basically beats the produce into submission to get its nutritious juice out, a masticating juicer simulates “chewing” the food. This lets you get out both more juice and nutrients, and makes it possible to juice leafy greens and wheatgrass.

We recently picked up Omega’s J8005 Commercial Masticating Juicer. Along with Champion, Omega is the most respected name in masticating juicers. We tried the Champion 2000+ Commercial Juicer, but despite its rugged looks prefer the Omega: it simply gets more juice out the things we throw at it.

My mornings now start off with a shot of wheat grass (add some mint and lime to make it more palatable), late-morning snack consists of an all-fruit shake (using a conventional blender), while my afternoon snack is usually a blend of spinach or kale, carrots (including the green leaves and stem, they’re the most nutritious!), a beet, some celery, and whatever else I might feel like. I add a dash of fresh ginger root (yes, you can also juice that) for flavor.

And I feel so much better for doing so.

While you’re eating nutritiously, pick up Green for Life, a ten-dollar tome anyone serious about changing their eating habits should read.

Buy Omega J8005 Commercial Masticating Juicer for $259 via Amazon

At the dawn of the computer age, futurists predicted it.  In 2009, ASUS delivered it. 

I’m referring to the Eee Top ET1602, a countertop computer with a touch screen interface that makes the included keyboard and mouse optional.

Here’s what I’m most excited about:

1. Built-in WiFi (802.11b/g/n) means I can set this bad boy up anywhere in the house.  Recipes and shopping lists with Internet radio in the kitchen?  Done.  Media center in the living room controlling access to hours of video and audio content from the Web?  Done.  Google calendar on my refrigerator?  Done!
2. Gobs of USB ports means I can hook up any external devices I want, whether it’s the Drobo for loads of external storage, an external DVD drive, or the TV tuner and capture device that could power my homebrew DVR machine.
3. Its small size and carrying handle mean I can pick it up and move it wherever I can find power for it.  I’m not stuck with it in one location simply because it’s too bulky to move.
4. Its 15.9 inch LCD screen means that, while it may not replace the monster LCD or plasma TV in the living room, it could easily serve as a smaller, more intimate entertainment device for the coffee table (it actually seems to lack video output, which could be a handy feature if you wanted to show those YouTube videos on that monster TV). 

Available in black or white, it retails for $599.  This makes it an inexpensive way to offload some of the tasks you’re using your more robust systems for.  Don’t expect to do serious work on it, but for entertainment and information, this is perfect.

I am buying this machine simply because the idea of having an Internet-based calendar easily accessible in the home for the whole family, and this calendar can do so much more.  Now if we could just perfect that wireless power idea…

ASUS Eee Top ET1602 for $599 from Amazon.com

When it comes to enhancing your kitchen, you can’t go wrong with a good knife or two, which is why we’re digging on Shun Steel’s 3.5-inch vegetable knife and 4-inch paring knife.

What make’s these Shun Steel blades so sexy? It’s not just the angled handle that’s more comfortable to use or the “VG-10 stainless-steel clad with 16 layers of SUS410 high-carbon stainless steel on each side, producing a 33 layered rust-free Damascus-look.”

It’s the price: right now, each knife is available at nearly two-thirds off via Amazon, which is pretty much unheard of. Just a month ago, these knives were selling for twice what they currently are, and there’s no telling when the prices will ratchet back up again. (Amazon sells a lot of Shun Steel blades, but only these two are currently discounted so much.)

Pick one up and feel the difference! (And don’t forget a quality sharpening steel).

4-Inch Paring Knife for $34.76 ($106.95 retail)
3.5-Inch Vegetable Knife for $31.17 ($95.95 retail)

Got a room in your house that’s always warmer than the others in summer, and always colder than the rest in the winter?

Yeah, so do I.

You need this register vent booster. I just ordered mine, and can’t wait to install it.

The idea is so simple, I can’t believe I haven’t seen it somewhere else. Basically, it creates more air flow from your normal air ducts, so that those rooms get more cold or hot air, as needed, than they would normally. And the price tag is a lot less than having an HVAC company come out and “balance” your ducts in your attic or under your house.

They cost $70 normally, but happen to be on sale right now for $60. Pick on up at ATrendyHome.com.