The lone kitchen casualty of my last relationship was the Keurig — you know, that coffee-in-a-minute gizmo that many of you have used (and maybe even abused) in your office break room. But almost as soon as it vanished, another one magically appeared at my doorstep. Funny how these things happen. I was sent this updated beaut’, just in time for my summer beverage kick. It makes iced coffee up the wazoo and a delish Celestial Seasonings iced black tea/lemonade Arnold Palmer. And when things cool down a bit, the hot bevs will be flowing freely, with partnerships with Dunkies, Swiss Miss and Starbucks coming in the fall. 

Happy Monday newyorkavores! After a particularly raucous weekend, I spent yesterday recouping and detoxing with fresh homemade juice. After endless deliberation, I finally decided to get the Hurom Slow Juicer — an upright style that uses slow rotation to extract juice from fruits, vegetables and leafy greens without generating enzyme-killing heat or oxidizing the juice. You cut up your stuff to smallish (2”) pieces, drop them in, and voila — juice! This time around, I combined kale, apple, lemon, ginger, turmeric, celery, cucumber and parsley — a fabulously healthy concoction with nutrients galore. Any other juicehead gorillas out there, please share your recipes!

What kind of food site would NewYorkavore be without a holiday gift guide? Here we have a slew of things for the foodie who has everything, who still manages to find stuff to want (me). 

COOKBOOKS

The New Brooklyn Cookbook features recipes and anecdotes from some of the best local restaurants from NewYorkavore faves Rose Water, Beer Table and the Vanderbilt to places I’ve been meaning to try like Red Hook’s the Good Fork and The Grocery in Carroll Gardens. Perfect for Brooklyn dwellers and curious Manhattanites alike

Keys to Good Cooking: A Guide to Making the Best of Foods and Recipes by Harold McGee, more of a reference book than a cookbook, it’s a primer on how to cook, not what to cook using science and know-how. Highly educational

India: The Cookbook by Pushpesh Pant, a scholarly tome to Indian cooking with 1000 recipes — dare I say the only Indian cookbook you’ll ever need?

REALLY LITTLE THINGS

Pouring cocktails is not like cooking — measurements need to be exact. A standard size jigger is essential to any home bar unless you want too-strong drinks. And who wants that? Not me.

We all know that the morning cafe ritual is a money-suck, so bring the money-sucking home with expensive home barista tools like this rosewood tamper. Goes perfectly with the Slayer (see below).

Sure, that timer on your stove is great, when you’re cooking one thing, but what about when you have all of dinner and dessert on the stove and in the oven(s)? It’s gunna take some quantum physics to time all that right. A Polder timer can keep track of it all, and makes a cool necklace to boot.

REALLY BIG THINGS

For those with an attached garage and a love of frosty beverages: may I suggest a Kold Draft commercial ice machine. Better ice than de Beers if you ask me.

Why bother hanging those Iberico hams from the ceiling of your studio apartment without the proper means to slice them? The Berkel is the only way to go. 

Sick of the attitude at your corner coffee shop? Install your own Slayer espresso machine at home and feel free to wear crocs/drink decaf without withering looks.

My slow cooker and rice cooker — two things I took a while to decide on, but have earned a place in my heart and on my countertop. I settled on the Zojirushi 5.5 Cup Rice Cooker with Fuzzy Logic after much careful consideration and combing of the Chowhound boards. I knew I wanted one that was Made in Japan and that had some fancy features. And this one does: it makes perfect rice using an internal computer, plus, you can set a timer and have it waiting for you when you get home. I went lower-tech on the slow cooker front. I wanted the schmancy All-Clad version for a long time, but talked myself out of it, opting for a Crock Pot at a quarter of the price as I had a Target Gift Card and a party coming up. And thus far, I have no regrets. Just last night, my little cookers made me so happy with cranberry chicken (made with thighs instead of breasts, and guava juice instead of OJ) and brown/wild rice wafting through the air when I got home from work. Genius. 

One of the many reasons I cook is to save money, but what happens is that when I get in a kitchen groove, I catch gadget fever. I start adding things to my Amazon Wishlist with wild abandon. There are a few new ones on my list, a few of which are admittedly irrational, such as the new Breville Pie Maker, which is essentially a George Foreman grill that lets you make your own mini pies, which you can fill with anything from peaches to pork. Now THIS is an item I do not need but would love to play with.

I’ve been really into The New Book of Middle Eastern Food by Claudia Roden lately. Most of the recipes are pretty straightforward, so I just do a once-over and have at it. I usually add a little more spice than she calls for and sometimes make other slight variations, but that’s just the Does Not Follow Directions part of me that can’t help but stray.

I’ve been working on perfecting my hummus technique, and two major game changers have come along as of late. Firstly, I made the switch from canned chickpeas to overnight-soaked dried ones. And secondly, have been using a superpowered VitaMix Blender, which makes it so creamy and light. My results are getting to be better than what you can buy at the store, though not yet Mimi’s caliber, admittedly. All in good time.

As I suspected, grating carrots by hand is a joke compared to zipping them through the grating blade of a food processor. Prepping cucumbers for yogurt salad was also super easy with the slicing blade. The one thing you do have to do by hand is the tabouleh — if you blitz the parsley and mint in a machine, it’ll come out too fine and watery.

It seems like a lot of work, and I guess it is, but if you do it all at once, you have a week’s worth of flavorful healthy salads you can serve with meat or fish, as an easy lunch or dinner, on a plate or straight out of the fridge as a midnight snack. 

Feel free to get me some cool kitchen gadgets like this lemon squeezer,

or a high-tech Potato Masher,

Some Greek Oregano

A Staub Cocotte (yellow would be nice, but green works too)

or a PolyScience Smoking Gun. Thanks!

My goal this weekend is to take my new ice cream maker for a spin. Inspired by this article about an avant-garde ice cream man in San Fran and Tasting Table’s suggestion to make slushy cocktails with it, it’s high time I fired it up, or iced it down as it were.

If you know me at all, you are aware that I am a total gadget geek. The more specialized the kitchen tool, the better. Whereas our forebears could do anything with a paring knife and cast iron skillet, this generation of kitchen stuff junkies needs its cherry pitters, tortilla warmers, baby food makers and pimp peppercorn grinders. Whenever I hear of a completely new gadget, I try to rationalize whether or not I need it, and the answer is typically yes, and when can it be delivered. It doesn’t take much for me to come up with scenarios where a pineapple slicer or a french fry cutter would be absolutely crucial. 

Here’s one that blew my mind just today, that I saw on Tasting Table: The Wonder Plunger Measuring Cup for wet ingredients like peanut butter, honey and molasses that are otherwise impossible to wield accurately.

Another gadget, well gadget duo actually, that I know would change my life for the better is Williams-Sonoma’s jalapeno pepper corer and jalapeno roasting rack for the grill. I mean, come on, imagine the popper possibilities. It’s almost too much for me to bear.

This upcycled jello-mold light fixture reminds me of wobbly side dishes of Christmases past.

Cookie jars are cute to begin with, but this is just beyond. What kitchen stuff are you coveting?

So I guess it’s officially Japanese Day at NewYorkavore I recently happened upon the Japanese Culinary Center in Midtown, and though the prices are a bit steep on kitchen equipment, it’s still inspiring and fun to explore. And I’d definitely check out one of their ramen classes sometime.

Good gets at the Takashimaya closing sale Take 40% off everything that’s left prior to their June 5 demise, including Zen ceramics and chic chopsticks.

I’m loving my new Metro Bakers’ Rack, which I spotted at the Container Store but scored for half the price at Trailer Park Slope. Now I can proudly display my Le Cruesets and I gained some prized counterspace too.