We Talk Shop

Ok so I am a self-proclaimed kitchen gadget freak! So when my blender died – I went on the hunt for a small appliance that I

could use to make shakes and sauces. The primary purpose is for shakes, because my husband loves to make milkshakes, protein shakes, and smoothies. But I hate cleaning up the blender.

So I was in Macy’s and saw the Bella Cucina Rocket Blender– it was on sale for $29 not bad. I know what you are thinking; you are remembering shopgirlTanya’s not so favorable review of the Magic Bullet. And believe me, I was too, when I first saw this – but believe me when I say, this is nothing like the Magic Bullet. It is a hundred times better.

I love this blender, it is small and compact and incredibly powerful. It crushes ice without any problems. It makes the perfect smoothies and clean up is a breeze because you only have to remove the blade. You mix everything right in the cup so you only have two things to clean. Perfecto!

I even used it to make pesto and salsa and my food was chucky and not pulverized. Another plus is that it looks great, so you won’t mind keeping it out on the counter.

If you are in the market for a blender, give this one a try; I am sure that you are not going to be disappointed.

Find it at Macy’s

It’s a spoon. It’s a spatula. It’s a spoon-spatula. Leave it to the Swiss to make hip gadgets. Not only is the silicone kitchen gadget aesthetically pleasing, but it’s multi-functional, too.

The spatula is both flexible and stiff, and with the handy-dandy spoon you can save the time of getting a second utencil (not to mention the cleanup). I find myself grabbing this before a using a regular, flat spatula because I can not only stir with it, but also use it to place food in a bowl or pour batter into the baking pan.

The only drawback I’ve come across so far is that the handle could be a little stiffer. When stirring a thick batter, I had to hold the spatula toward the spoon like gripping chopsticks, otherwise I couldn’t get a good stir going. The handle itself though provides a solid, comfortable grip.

Get it! You can buy it at a Bed Bath & Beyond or Linens ‘N Things near you or online for $7.99.

Hello, my name is Tanya, and I am a tea addict. Hot on the heels of shopgirl_phaedra’s chai tea latte post comes another tea product for us pure tea lovers. (Not knocking the chai tea latte though as I’m an equal lover of all things tea and ready to run out and buy that latte machine now …)

I was not acquainted with Teavana until I got home the other night to find a gift bag left on my counter. (Unexpected gifts are the best kind; you know people are thinking of you even when it’s not a special day.) In my gift bag was the Teavana Perfect Tea Maker, the perfect tea spoon, two cans of loose tea and a can of German rock cane sugar. It was as though the tea gods looked down upon me and bestowed a thank you gift for my devotion.

The Teavana Perfect Tea Maker is an easy-to-clean loose tea steeper that makes the perfect cup of tea. The back of the loose tea can tells you how long to steep your tea depending on the type you have, and they have so many flavors and types of tea, your head will spin. (In my case, my Rooibos Tropica required 1 1/2 of the tea to be steeped for 5-6 minutes. And the result was nothing short of delicious.) Oh, and btw, you not only get instructions for hot tea, but also for iced tea and herbal iced teas.

Teavana also sells the Perfect Tea Mug, but it’s not necessary to buy this as well. I’ve used two of my ceramic mugs, one with a smaller mouth, and the tea maker fit on both. (Although on the mug with the smaller mouth, I did need to move it around a little to get the proper fit.)

Get it: Online or in stores: $17.95 for the two-cup tea maker, $32.95 for the four-cup.

I was walking through Bed, Bath and Beyond one day and saw Plink. I love the smell of lemon and the word plink, so on an impulse, I tossed it in my shopping basket. It’s purpose is to clean and deodorize your garbage disposal and sink, and it’s simple to use. Just plink one of the nickel-sized, liquid-filled balls in the disposal, turn on the water and let the disposal run for about 15 seconds. The lemon smell permeates (love that word, too) your kitchen, but it doesn’t do anything to clean the sink, and I don’t plan a deep investigation in that dark hole leading to the disposal to determine how much it’s breaking down the ick. The real disappointment though is that the lemon scent is brief. Possibly if my disposal had a putrid smell to begin with, I would notice more of a result. After two uses, I doubt I’d purchase the product again.