apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Product Review: BonJour's Insulated Rhône French Press

In our survey of how you brew your coffee, French press was the clear winner. French press coffee is very rich and full of flavor, but it does have some drawbacks. French press carafes aren't good for...

Look! Heirloom Cake Cutter

Just before the cake was cut at a wedding we recently attended, we saw the mother-of-the-groom ceremoniously hand this family cake cutter to her new daughter-in-law. What a sweet moment! ...

New (Old) Find: Vintage Le Creuset Gratin Dish

We bought this dish at Cookin' in San Francisco because it is our favorite color (yes, brown) and our favorite size. Big enough to serve several guests a dip, small enough to hold a cobbler for two......

Roundup: Best of IKEA For the Kitchen

We've been blogging some of our favorite IKEA products for the kitchen - good, cheap buys that are also of good quality. Here are our picks so far! ...

The IKEA Kitchen: CHARM Grater

We have been profiling some of our favorite good deals from IKEA for the kitchen. Not everything the big box retailer sells is a good deal; cheap, yes, but not worth even the small cost. A few thing...

Jamie Oliver's Flavour Shaker: Have You Tried It?

Jamie Oliver wants to replace your mortar and pestle with something he thinks is a little more useful. See, he was in his home kitchen (read our book review!) with his trusty pestle, but it was taking...

Kitchen Tools: A Candy Thermometer

Whether you're boiling sugar, making cheese, or planning a little deep-fat frying, a candy thermometer is an essential tool to have on hand....

The Virtues of Kitchen Scales

Before I attended culinary school, I thought kitchen scales were just for calorie-counters. But on Day One of my course, that myth was debunked by the giant, old-school but highly accurate scale plun...

Silicone Hot Plates
Copenhagen

Hot plates are useful if you're the kind of cook who likes to bring your gratin right to the table, but they tend to take up space and make a lot of noise if you drop them. Not so with these compact, ...

Gentle Reminder: Nonstick Pans Don't Last Forever

We got some good advice from a magazine food editor long ago: Don't spend a ton of money on a nonstick pan. They don't last forever. Well, we had a frittata incident last week that made us realize o...

Word of Mouth: Ramekin

Ramekin (ram-eh-kin), noun: a small dish used for baking or serving. Simple, serviceable, and durable, ramekins are used in the highest of high end restaurants and the humblest of home kitchens. What'...

Reader Survey: What's the Kitchen Setup in Your Dorm?

We were all set to do a round-up of snacks and quick meals for college students back on campus when we realized that we're a little out of touch with how students are living these days! So, college fo...

Look! Better Batter Pitcher

Our only gripe about making muffins and cupcakes is the laborious ladling, spoon by spoon, of batter into the cups. We always drip and splatter everywhere, too. This little pitcher promises to make al...

Hess Unglazed Earthenware Pie Plates

Linden's Collapsible Baking Rack

Back-to-school often means baking lots of cookies, or at least it did when I was a child. Please, tell me schools still hold bake sales and children still bring cupcakes in for their birthdays. Okay, ...

Etsy Find: "From the Kitchen Of..." Custom Rubber Stamps

If you need a quick gift for a birthday, wedding shower, or housewarming party, we think these personalized recipe stamps are flat-out adorable. We're considering buying one for ourselves, for no reas...

Cook's Tool: Online Recipe Quantity Calculator

Cooking constantly tests and stretches our math abilities. 3/8 teaspoons times 7? And wait - how many tablespoons is that now? Quick! The batter is waiting! Thank goodness for conversion charts and Go...

Give It A Rest Bamboo Spoons

We've mentioned how much we love our wooden spoons - sometimes the simplest kitchen utensils are the best. Here's a slight riff on the basic wooden spoon, with one potentially helpful modification......

In Praise of the Humble Potholder

Dear Favorite Potholders, You're so great! You're always there when we need you. You so generously protect our fingers from harm. You wear your burns and stains without complaint. You willingly step ...

Strainer, Colander, Chinois: What's the Difference?

We use these words (ok, maybe not chinois so much) interchangeably to describe something, usually metal, that holds solid ingredients while liquid passes through it. It's a strainer, a colander, a...

Victorian Kitchen Timer

We need a new kitchen timer, and we just swooned over this one. ...

Expandable Bread Keeper

Where do you keep your bread? We recently answered a question from a reader about how to store bread. We recommended a good bread box, and there were some great suggestions in the comments as well. ...

Kitchen Tools: Do You Use a Dough Whisk?

To us, these dough whisks look like a fairy princess's favorite magic wand, but apparently many bakers consider them an essential kitchen tool. Do you use one?...

Mandoline for Tiny Kitchens: SwissMar Swiss Classic Peeler Trio

Recently I came home from a tradeshow with the usual bag full of goodies that usually get donated or given away, and came across a tidy little package from SwissMar: three peelers with different blade...