Post Punk Kitchen Forum

Now I want Escher cookie cutters too!

BTW the Cooks Illustrated "best buy" recommendation for garlic presses is $15 on Amazon, and works quite well - we're on our second one over the last six years, which is pretty good for that price, I think.

As for a mandoline - large mandolines can be expensive, but I really like the Kyocera one recommended to me by a cooking instructor for $20. It's small, no setup, adjustable with a ceramic blade (doesn't rust) and I've had it for several years now and it's kept its edge - it's here.

do you get the like thin skin left inside the garlic press after you use it? im not talking about the peel but like a membrane.
that's what annoys me about the one i have.

With the pampered chef one, I think it does leave behind a membrane, but I never notice it because I use it without even peeling the garlic first. As long as I have to scoop something out, might as well scoop out the whole peel and all.

Great post - wish I had seen it before I made my list for my family!

Here are some things I asked for:
- Crock pot
- Pizza peel (we were recently given a pizza stone, but we smushed our pizza trying to use our hands to put it in/out)
- Pyrex glass storage bowls set
- a nice chef's knife

Things I have that are good gift ideas:
- cupcake carrying container (the bottom of mine is a muffin tin, so it's practical!)
- a nice frying pan (if you aren't ready for cast iron, we got this pan http://www.amazon.com/Nordic-Ware-Cast- ... pd_sim_k_2)

what on earth is a pizza peel? im intrigued!

we do have a crockpot though it seems to be a small one as often the things i make it in fill it right to the brim.

i bought a cupcake carrying container on sale at stop and shop a year or so ago. it's like a tupperware type material and one side is i think 12 spots for regular sized cupcakes and the other size is a bunch (24? 36?) of spots for the mini cupcakes. it's really cute and i use it everytime i make cupcakes to store them but the only thing is it's really large so the only place i have to store it is on top of my fridge

between my husband and my parents i ended up asking for:

Vegan Eats World
Chloe's Kitchen

a 9" springform pan
2 silpats (since they are expensive i asked for 1 from my parents and 1 from my husband)
the tofuxpress
a mandoline (whichever was the one someone recommended)
the car shaped garlic chopping thing from thinkgeek.com (i couldnt help myself!)

we'll see what i get. any of them would be a good addition to my kitchen!

It's the wooden paddle used to transfer pizza on and off of a pizza stone! You've probably seen them used at restaurants, but they sell ones made for conventional ovens that are smaller, like this one I asked for: http://www.crateandbarrel.com/pizza-pee ... 53#reviews

I never knew it was called a pizza peel until recently, so no worries :)

After trying to use our new pizza stone without one, which was a near disaster, I want one really badly!

ahhhh i get it. makes sense!

we have a pizzazz pizza maker
(a way older version of this) http://www.amazon.com/Presto-03430-Pizzazz-Pizza-Oven/dp/B00005IBXJ

and my husband just forms the crust right on the metal thing so we dont have to pick it up off the counter. we buy a premade blob of whole wheat dough from the supermarket.
by the time it's cooked it's easy to get off the metal thing and we just slide it right onto a cutting board.

actually the pizza maker is one of our favorite kitchen thingies if people are looking for something else to add to their list. we use ours all the time and we only have one type of pizza we ever make (a Mexican pizza, yum!)

I saw a few things on there I'd be proud to own and I do indeed own that cherry pitter.

I think my partner might have gotten me some stuff from that list.

I am hoping for the barfing Chicken. Ill drink wine out of it. Or nog.

This is funny because I don't have cookie cutters and husband is getting me the 100 pack from Bed Bath and Beyond. One thing on my list is magnetic spice holders. I have two spice cube holders the can fit 36 spices, but have more stacking up. So I thought the magnetic one would be good to put on the fridge for my mostly used spices.

I just got a cast iron pan about 2 months ago, and I love it. I got the Emeril one, and it works great. The inside is not as smooth as others, but it has not been an issue so far. I ruined all my nonstick cooking tortillas, so the cast iron has replaced those. A tortilla press is nice. I have one and want a bigger one.

I found this from a HuffPo link today. It's a toaster that you can roll up and put away. It folds over too so that you toast both sides at the same time.