Home and Kitchen Reviews

A passionate home cook that has been honing her cooking skills for the last 25 years, concentrating on Italian food for the last 10 years, writes this review. My favorite cookbooks are "The Professional Chef" by the Culinary Institute and "Culinary Artistry. Cooking is my form of therapy. I purchased this product when I began using citrus juice in many of my meals. This product is very useful and has many more applications than just straining juice.

Pros:
1.Excellent for straining citrus juice to keep the seeds out of your foods
2.Fits well over the top of a blender jar
3.Hooks easily to the side of pans to keep if from slipping
4.Great for straining spent vegetables from sauces
5.Excellent for removing small pasta from boiling water
6.Handle stays cool so that you don't need a potholder
7.Nice flour sifter
8.Makes a nice yogurt strainer for making a healthy non-fat yogurt cheese (line the inside with a paper towel or a couple of layers of cheese cloth)

Cons:
1.Cleaning is a little tedious (I find it works best if you soak it in another vessel that is filled with hot soapy water and use a brush to remove the residual "gunk")

Overall, the concept is good and the product is useful and well made. I recommend this product to anyone that loves to cook.

Finding the right items to start the perfect kitchen for two is so easy thanks to OXO. I love their good grips products. All the handles look great, but are also very comfortable and practical. This strainer fits in well to a kitchen for feeding 2 or 3 people. You can use this double rod strainer not only for straining, but also for sifting flour, draining, and if need be - awkwardly steaming veggies over boiling water.

It seems most people might go for the 8" instead, but this one works perfectly for making gnocchi from scratch. You have to make few enough in each batch that they can all rise to the top at once. Then you scoop them all up with the strainer (the bigger strainer may be hard to fit in many pots). Drain the gnocchi and place on a paper towel. Since you can do all this with one hand, you can use your other hand to grab more gnocchi to start a-boilin' quick as can be.

Whatever you use it for, this is a high quality strainer that will last.

The mesh is double which makes it very strong and the handle is comfortable and strong... It is great for small items that might go through the holes of another strainer. This is the best mesh strainer I have. It is small in size. I love it for tiny pasta, crushed pineapple, etc.

This grill/griddle is so much better than my previous grill. I love the dual temperature controls. It's much more convenient that having all of the individual plates...where do you put the hot "used" plate when you want to use another one right away?? This one is "all in one" and wonderful!

loved this grill, unfortunately we have only limited counter space otherwise I will put this grill permanently in the counter. My husband loves the burgers that I made from this grill. They lean and delicious!!!

recommended it to anyone!

I really enjoy cooking with the combo grill/griddle, its saves a lot of time on breakfast, lunches and dinners you get more meals at one time

I, too, was surprised by the negative reviews for these cookie sheets. My mom has had a set of these pans for years and years and were the only ones I've ever baked with until recently, when I had the misfortune to bake cookies with several other types of cookie sheets, many of which resulted in over browned cookie bottoms. My boyfriend's mother uses these cookie sheets too and I plan to order a set of my own now. Just as a note to potential buyers, these are not no-stick sheets- you probably will have to grease them (not with butter which burns, don't do as one of the other reviewers...). It's up in the air right now as to whether or not the material on no-stick cookware (and hairdryers, toasters, etc) has negative effects on human health. Using items with no-stick surfaces kills birds, so it seems likely it's not that good for people. A little off topic, but just putting that out there.

I love these cookie sheets. If the cookie is done on the top, they're ready. You don't have to worry about them burning on the bottom. Once cooled a bit, cookies slide right off the sheet.

I was baking cookies tonight for an exchange at work tomorrow. When looking for my cookie sheets I noticed this airbake one. I vaguely remember getting it for Christmas last year, but have never used it. I put one set on the airbake and another on a regular cookie sheet (neither with any grease) and my normal pan burned the bottom and didn't cook the cookies through. The airbake worked perfectly!! The cookies barely stuck (after removing the cookies, you woulc barely tell that I had just baked on it). I recommend them to anyone. I even tried one more identical batch switching the airbake and regular sheets in the oven to make sure it wasn't because of the racks that they were placed on. It wasn't. Airbake definitely works.

Wonderful. Non stop using it from range top to oven.
$10.00 less than in the stores.

Being the proud owner of several other Lodge cooking vessels, I boldly tried my hand at frying. All I can say is wow.
The chicken fryer works wonders on chicken, veal, and cube steak. All of the cast iron properties come in to play when using the fryer, and it provides the control and the stability needed when frying foods. The heavy weight gives it stability, and the heat retention properties mean that you can control your cooking efforts more efficiently.
Try the fryer, you won't be disapointed!

I received the original order with a broken handle and it was promply replaced with free pick up. The deep fryer is one product also that is hard to find. I have been looking for this type for a long time and I have not found them in other store including big stores like bed and bath ,wal Mart or other store . The price is really right for me also.

I ordered this item. I loved it so much I ordered one for my mother. It is very elegant looking and it doubles as a punch bowl.

FYI, it is listed at $9.99 and you think WOW what a bargain and then you get to checkout and shipping is the same price (about $9.98)but it is glass and a little heavy so I suppose that is about right. $20 is still pretty reasonable anyway.

I love it.

Love this cake plate. Looks like our retro 50s kitchen. Its solid, well-formed glass with fluting on the base, a nice touch. And you can't beat the price. Our dinner guests are always excited about desert when they see it displayed so adoringly. I can't think of a single thing bad about it. Well, maybe the cleaning part.

I wanted a glass cake dish for a long time. This was perfect since it also turned into a punched bowl. It is very sturdy and nice addition to my counter.

I've decided to replace my teflon pans with cast iron and this is one of the first ones I bought. So far it has been excellent. The large size is fantastic, though it's definitely heavy. My arm muscles are getting a workout! I'm glad I got it pre-seasoned, since that was one less thing to hassle with. I have found that cooking with cast iron makes food taste better. Kind of surprsing. I'm not sure why this has been the case, but my husband and I have both noticed it. I have to say though, it is very different than cooking with a regular teflon pan. At first I kept burning everything. Cast iron gets very hot and maintains a steady hot temperature. I'm finding that I'm basically cooking everything in this pan on med-low heat, where I would have used medium heat. Overall, I'm happy with my purchase though and plan on getting a couple more cast iron pans

I bought it for my Fiance and she loves it. It's great for frying chicken.

After reading about possible cancer risks from non stick pans, I got a cast iron. Now I'm going to get another smaller one and pitch all my teflon. Cast iron requires a little extra care, but it works very, very well.

I bought the cocktail kit after receiving a Margarita set in order to make the drink. It has everything a beginner would need to start mixing drinks, and it comes with a nice book of tips and recipes. I have definitely impressed some friends.

My only complaint is that the jigger measurements are 2/3oz. and 1 1/3 oz.

Well, I have just purchased a set a couple of days ago, and I must say all of my friends have given me a lot of compliments on the drinks I made for them.This set comes with a wonderfull recipe book with a lot of great tips. Thanks a lot.

A great little pitter at at great little price! Does its job quickly and well. Cleans up in seconds.

I received this grinder because I had purchased a defective Melitta Grind & Brew coffee maker through Amazon. The coffee maker had electrical problems and I sent it back to the manufacturer as the manual instructed. To make a very long story short---Melitta was not able to replace the coffee maker. They stopped making them. Amazon had my money and I waited over 4 frustrating months for a coffee maker. Amazon would not help me and after many, many phone calls Melitta sent me another coffee maker and the coffee mill to compensate for the Brew and Grind. Grinder malfunctioned periodically and finally died with in 9 months. WARNING--DON'T BUY MELITTA PRODUCTS AND RETURNS FOR DEFECTIVE MERCHANDISE SHOULD BE RETURNED TO AMAZON.

I use a fine grind to make coffee with. The fine setting of this grinder wasn't close to the fine grind that I get from the grinders at my local supermarket. I have a Krups 203B which does a much better job even if I have to guestimate when it is done. I am not satisfied at all with this product and consider it a waste of money.

Our old Black and Decker Coffee Mill was getting louder every day, so I was glad that I found the Melitta on sale at Amazon. I have forgot the name of the gentleman who suggested how to calibrate the grinder in the reviews. But I followed his directions and set up the grinder so that it now will do a very fine grind for my little expresso maker and a nice coarse grind for my french press coffee maker. The grinder is very quiet and I like the preset timer settings. I usually use the "4" time setting and measure the grinds for one or two cups with a standard coffee measure. The covered receiver cup works to prevent the coffee dust from escaping when grinding.

All in all I am well pleased with the Melitta MEBG8B Coffee Mill.

Tom
Eastlake, Ohio