We've predicted that silicone is on its way out, but we saw more of it than ever at the 2008 Home and Housewares Show. Silicone's heat-resistant properties are still super popular in commercial product design for the kitchen. Here's a whimsical pot holder and finger guard from iSi - watch the video to see its rather unique function.

Photos below - this is a clever little design that might actually be very useful to cooks looking for potholders and oven gloves. More

Back in 1994 KitchenAid released a special edition of their iconic mixer to celebrate their 75th anniversary. Well, they're doing it again for their 90th, and here's what it looks like. They're including a new version of the old-fashioned glass bowl.

KitchenAid's 90th anniversary is not until 2009, which is when this mixer will be released. These are just prototypes; in fact, we have photographic evidence that these are not yet in real production! Click through to see... More

Yesterday we gave you a quick video tip on cleaning and caring for bamboo in the kitchen. The good folks at TruBamboo had some great products at their Home and Housewares booth, including well-priced cutting boards, utensils, and beautiful meldings of old and new. There were bamboo and silicone products like the combo colander and cutting board above, for instance. More of our favorite products below...

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Along with the new, beautiful colors from France we saw at the Housewares show last week, there was this Dijon yellow from Le Creuset. Is it really new, though? Have you seen yellow from Le Creuset before this? More below... More

Laptop, meet the cookbook. We saw the Kitchen Sync design concept several weeks ago, and we were surprised and happy to meet its designer, Noah Balmer, at the Housewares Show. Balmer received an International Housewares Association design award for the Kitchen Sync, which we hope goes into production soon.

The concept for the Kitchen Sync is quite simple, and brilliant. It's a new generation of cookbook for your kitchen - the perfect melding of the recipes you can find online and the old-fashioned cookbooks that sit on your kitchen shelves. Read on to see how it works - lots more photos below... More

Here's the second French-inspired color we'll remember from this year's Home and Housewares show: deep purple. We weren't immediately drawn to this color that Emile Henry, from the Burgundy town of Marcigny, calls "figue." The color seemed Barney-esque or a little too much like a Starbucks easy chair, at first.

But as we go over our notes and photos from the show, we're reconsidering our take on the dark purples we saw. The rich Mediterranean color could work in both modern and more old-world settings and would be a strong backdrop for many different foods, from dark brown braises to the greens of steamed vegetables. It would coordinate well with Staub's new titanium color too.

What do you think of this new color from Emile Henry? More

Cool Hunting recently ran a High Tech Toaster Challenge, looking at four new high-end toaster models. The top winner was this Breville Smart Toaster, with its countdown LED panel, slow bread submerge, and a button labeled "A Bit More" to get your bread just to that perfect toasty state. It's not on the market yet, but we checked it out at the Housewares Show!

You hear us chuckling over the "Lift and Look" function - it pops your bread up so you can take a look and puts it back down again. More toaster details below... More

Here is one of the more charming products we saw at the 2008 Home and Housewares Show this week. Watch this video! More info below... More

As we download photos and edit video of our coverage of the International Home and Housewares Show 2008, we are reflecting on our experience there. We (Chris and I) walked miles of expo floor, scouting thousands of products for home and kitchen. The show is a monument to capitalism and invention, and frankly, I was cynical about this vast consumerist machine before I even got there. The experience, however, was revealing in a way I did not expect. More

Organic and sustainable ingredients have been a focus in our kitchens for years. Now, at this year's Home and Housewares Show here in Chicago, we're seeing manufacturers launching lines of eco-friendly kitchen tools.

These new biodegradable kitchen organizers from Casabella's Clean look elegant and will be truly useful. The line, including a dish drainer, a cutlery holder and a soap dish made from bioplastics, a biodegradable product made from corn starch. More