Washing dishes with CleanGenuity

February 9, 2010 in Article, Cool Stuff, Poll, Product | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

Ooh, sudsy!

Today The Kitchn posed the question, What is the best way to wash dishes?

The commenters offered up a variety of techniques — filling the sink with water, washing each dish separately, throwing ‘em in the dishwasher and calling it good.

We’re pretty open minded when it comes to techniques, but when it comes to tools, well, that’s another matter entirely. We’d like to apologize in advance for potentially offending any dish towel users out there, but…EW! We just can’t handle the soggy, never-quite-clean-”ness” that is used dish towels.

So to rid the kitchens of the world of dish towels, we created a line of awesomely effective kitchen cleaning tools aptly titled CleanGenuity.

Ta da!

Here’s some info on our sudsy wonder-tools:

CleanGenuity’s intelligent collection of Sudster cleaning tools establishes a new level of creativity and style in the kitchen cleanup category. The goal of the CleanGenuity kitchen cleaning tools is to make the often mundane task of dish cleaning, a little more fun.

The Drinkware Scrubber is equipped with a cross-shaped scrubber, which allows it to compress down to the diameter of a champagne flute or expand inside of a vase or other flared vessel.

The Wand Scrubber and Hand Brush offer two working-end options, a stiff brush for quickly clearing plates and a scrubbing pad perfect for efficiently cleaning pots and pans. The Wand Scrubber and Hand Brush heads are detachable, interchangeable and replaceable for versatility and convenience reasons.

The Sudster Wand Scrubber, Hand Brush and Drinkware Scrubber all feature squeezable handles and dripless silicone valves. To refill, simply twist off the handles and pour in any type of dish soap. The products’ clear bodies make it easy to check soap levels so the user knows when it is time for a refill.

The organizer of it all, the CleanBase Sink Caddy fits on the counter near the sink, collecting excess water and keeping the Sudster tools all in one place. Able to hold both tall tools in its clear vessel holder and shorter tools on the low landing pad, the caddy is a versatile and functional addition to the CleanGenuity collection.

And a bit of exciting news…these tools will soon be available in brand new colors. We’ll debut the CleanGenuity tools’ new look on our Facebook page sometime in the near future, so stay tuned!

Super Bowl Food – Idea 3

February 5, 2010 in Food, Product, Recipes | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

Well, dear readers. We’ve reached the end of our 3-day, 3-recipe, Super Bowl extravaganza. Our last recipe recommendation is an appetizer that can be salty or sweet, depending on your mood.

The Sweet Corn Cakes/Fritters from Chop Onions, Boil Water are best served either sprinkled with salt or drizzled with honey.  We’ve been wanting to dabble in fried food, and think this is the perfect opportunity.

Sweet Corn Cakes/Fritters

NOTE: This recipe includes peanut oil.

Photo via Chop Onions, Boil Water

Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp of baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp white sugar
2 cups whole kernel sweet corn
1 egg lightly beaten
1 TBS peanut oil
1/2 cup milk
3 cups vegetable oil

Step 1: In a mixing bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Stir in sweet corn kernels. (Hello, PalmZipper!)

Step 2: In another mixing bowl, beat the egg, peanut oil and milk together.

Step 3: Combine wet and dry mixtures together, stir until just blended.

Step 4: Heat 3 cups of oil in a heavy pot to 350°F

Step 5: Drop tablespoons of the batter into a the hot oil and cook, turning occasionally until golden brown.

Step 6: Drain on paper towels and serve warm, brushed with butter, drizzled with honey or sprinkled with salt.

Have a fabulous Super Bowl weekend everyone! Be on the lookout for a follow up post details our attempts at recreating the Motherload Cookie Bars, Rosemary-Lemon White Bean Dip and Sweet Corn Cakes/Fritters.

Super Bowl Food – Idea 2

February 4, 2010 in Article, Food, Product, Recipes | Tags: , , , , , | 1 comment

Seeing as we ruined your diet yesterday with our Motherload Cookie Bars recipe, we’re lightening things up today with a healthy alternative to bean dip.  Rosemary-Lemon White Bean Dip, to be exact. We discovered this delicious recipe, crafted by Mark Bittman of the New York Times, on one of our all-time favorite blogs, The Kitchn. Easy to make and diet friendly, we think this dip has potential to become a staple in our “What should I bring to the party?” recipe file.

Photo via The Kitchn

Rosemary-Lemon White Bean Dip

via Mark Bittman, The New York Times

Ingredients
  • 2 cups cooked white beans, like cannelini, drained but moist
  • 1 to 3 cloves garlic, peeled
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
  • 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 teaspoons minced fresh rosemary
  • Grated rind of 2 lemons

Step 1: Put the beans in a food processor (if you don’t have an electric food processor, try starting with VeggiChop and then using a blender) with one clove of garlic and a healthy pinch of salt. Turn the machine on, and add the 1/4 cup olive oil in a steady stream through the feed tube; process until mixture is smooth. Taste, and add more garlic if you like; then, puree the mixture again.

Step 2: Place the mixture in a bowl, and use a wooden spoon (or maybe a Switchit Spoon?) to beat in the rosemary, lemon zest (where’s your PalmZester?) and the remaining tablespoon of olive oil. Taste, add more salt and pepper as needed. Use immediately, or refrigerate for as long as 3 days.

I think we’re going to serve this dip with either the pretzels shown in the above The Kitchn photo or with pita chips.

Anyone tried this recipe before? Or maybe planning to try it this weekend? Let us know how you liked it!

Super Bowl Food – Idea 1

February 3, 2010 in Cool Stuff, Food, Recipes | Tags: , , , , | 2 comments

Super Bowl Sunday is only 4 days away, and you know what that means. Good grub, and lots of it. What are you bringing to the party?

I’ve got three recipes to try. One dessert, one dip and one appetizer. Over the next three days I will share each of these recipes with you. Feel free to give them a try! I’d love to hear what you and your friends thought of them. Especially if I mess up and/or ruin a recipe, which I often do. *sigh* I figure between all of us, someone’s got to get it right :)

First up is dessert. Introducing the delightfully sinful Motherload Cookie Bars courtesy of Lick the Bowl Good and Confessions of a Bake-a-holic via Picky Palate.

Photo via Lick the Bowl Good

And yes, that is what it looks like. Four types of cookie layered on top of one another and drizzled in chocolate. I’ve been looking for a reason to justify baking these diet demons, and I think the SuperBowl is the perfect excuse opportunity. And the best part? You don’t have to make all the dough from scratch!

Motherload Cookie Bars

Layer 1: Sugar Cookie

  • 1 Roll of Pillsbury Sugar Cookie Dough

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 9″x13″ pan with foil and spray with cooking spray. Press sugar cookie dough evenly into pan.

Layer 2: Double Chocolate Chip Cookie

  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 6 Tbsp. packed brown sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 tsp. vanilla
  • 3/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp. flour
  • 1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp. cocoa powder
  • 1 tsp. baking soda
  • 1/8 tsp. salt
  • 3/4 cup chocolate chips

In a large bowl (Nesting Bowl?), cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Slowly add egg and vanilla until well combined.

In another bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Slowly add to wet ingredients. Stir in chips (Switchit Spoon?). Layer over sugar cookie layer, pressing gently.

Layer 3: Peanut Butter Cookie

  • 1 cup creamy peanut butter
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 egg

Place all ingredients into a bowl and mix until combined. Press over chocolate cookie dough.

Layer 4: Chocolate Chip Cookie

  • 1 stick softened butter
  • 1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp.granulated sugar
  • 1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp. packed brown sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 Tbsp. pure vanilla
  • 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 bag chocolate chips plus more for drizzling

Cream the butter and sugars until well combined. Beat in eggs and vanilla until combined. Combine flour, baking soda and salt in separate bowl (SleekStor Measuing Cups?). Slowly add to wet ingredients along with chocolate chips. Spoon the dough evenly over peanut butter cookie dough but don’t press, just leave uneven.

Bake for 35-45 minutes or until center of dough is cooked mostly through. Edges will be brown. Monica of Lick the Bowl Good recommends covering the pan with foil during the last 15 minutes of baking.

Let cookies cool completely. Lift out of pan with edges of foil. Drizzle top with 1/2 cup melted chocolate chips if desired. (optional)

NOTE: You can layer dough and refrigerate until ready to bake.

And that’s that! Be on the lookout next week for photos of my attempt at baking these suckers.

‘Til then!

Chef’n Blogger

Hating on salad

February 2, 2010 in Food | Tags: , | 1 comment

The Chef’n Marketing Team is on a healthy eating crusade. We’re eating quinoa instead of pasta, replacing brie with Laughing Cow Lite, and choosing to layer our sandwiches with turkey rather than roast beef. That’s a lot of lunch-time sacrifices, people.

Most of the time our healthy meal choices make us feel good. We’re proud that we stuck to the diet plan yet another day, and happy that we’ve earned ourselves a glass of wine or beer at dinner (No need to point out the dietary cancellation effect of said alcoholic beverage. We’ll just ignore you.).

But today, was not one of those “feel good” days. Today all we did was pick unenthusiastically at our healthy lunches while daydreaming  about the unhealthiness  we wished was on our plates.

I personally wished my salad of spring greens and assorted vegetables (FYI: Raw green beans in salad? Not that good.) would magically transform into a cheeseburger and onion rings. No catsup,  mayo or tomato. Just mustard, barbecue sauce, lettuce, pickle and onion. Please and thank you.

Jessica, our marketing manager, asked if anyone wanted to trade her lentil soup and Luna Bar for some teriyaki, egg rolls and chocolate chip cookies. Weird combo, right? But hey, when you need a cookie, you need a cookie.

And I’m willing to bet our production artist, Kyle, would have given his brand new house for a cheese- and pepperoni-laden pizza. And not just a slice, the man wants a whole pizza. Unfortunately, he was stuck with a rather boring turkey sandwich. Whamp whaaamp.

What about you? Any struggles with your diet? What bad-for-you foods do you usually crave?

Food52 talks beets

January 29, 2010 in Article, Food, Product | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

Beets

Photo via Food52

We love beets and we love the blog Food52. So when Food52 did a post on roasting beets we found ourselves in food blog heaven. According to Food52’s Amanda, the trick to cooking beets is to “soften them while also concentrating their sweet flavor.” Apparently, traditional roasting techniques and boiling are not the way to go. Unless you like beet “jerky” or beets a la “soggy sponge,” that is.

Amanda recommends a roasting technique she read about in Tom Colicchio’s book, The Craft of Cooking. The Top Chef judge roasts beets in a foil packet. This way “the roasting condenses the beets’ sweetness while a layer of steam inside the packet keeps them moist.” Sounds good to us! Here’s how to do it:

1. Heat your oven to 350 degrees.

2. Cut off the leggy root and the tops. Then scrub the beets if they’re dirty. We recommend a Chef’n PalmBrush.

3. Lay a large piece of foil on a baking sheet, leaving half the foil hanging off one end. Place the beets on top of the foil. Sprinkle the beets with olive oil — just enough to dress them like salad greens — and season with salt and pepper. Fold the foil in half to make a packet and crimp the edges.

4. Bake until the beets are tender (you can check by piercing a fork through the foil). Approximately 40 to 60 minutes, depending on the size of the beets. Let them cool in the foil packets.

5. When the beets are cool enough to touch, remove them from the packet and peel off the skins — they should slip off like Concord grape skins.

Ta da! Perfectly roasted beets :)

Chef’n in Brazil

January 28, 2010 in Article, Press Coverage, Product | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Brazilian magazine Revista Imobiliare recently dedicated an entire page to Chef’n and arta products. The feature includes the Emulstir, G’Rabbits, Mix Pepper Grinder, 4-in-1 Cheese Grater, GarlicZoom XL and arta Cocktail Shaker.

A big thanks to Andre for passing this along!

Wondering what arta is? arta is a new brand of hip, casual bar and serveware created by Chef’n designers. Same designers, but a new look, a new brand and a new identity. More news on arta coming soon!

What spice/seasoning could you not live without?

January 27, 2010 in Food, Poll | Tags: , , | 3 comments

Not including salt and pepper, what is the one spice or seasoning you can’t live without?

We’re torn between garlic salt and rosemary. But then there’s also oregano. Oh, and paprika! It’s so hard to choose…

G’Rabbits win Australian H&G Style Award

January 26, 2010 in Article, Cool Stuff, Press Coverage, Product | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Congratulations to our G’Rabbit Salt and Pepper Grinders that won an Australian House & Garden Style Award in the Tableware category. Our bunnies our bouncing on to the tabletops of people all over the world!

The Knot features three Chef’n products

January 25, 2010 in Article, Cool Stuff, Press Coverage, Product | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Not once, not twice, but three times! The Knot Weddings Magazine featured three Chef’n tools in its January 2010 “Your Wish List” registry spread. The Slicester and Parmesan Cheese Grater appeared in the “Adoring Orange” section and the Ice Cream Scoop was included in the “Lovely Yellow” section.

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