Metal Steel Blogs Sources

This toaster is a piece of junk! I ordered it and when I received it the lever on it would not stay down to toast. I exchanged it thinking it may have been that particular toaster. Nope! The new one does the same thing! I am very disappointed as I would not expect this from a kitchen-aid product.

Looks nice, feels solid, but the mechanism holding the toast down against the internal springs broke after all of 6 pieces of toast- it no longer latches into place. Meanwhile, I had recycled the shipping materials- a lesson. After a few weeks of manually holding down the lever to toast the toast, I gave up and bought a Black and Decker from a local store for half the price and it works like a charm. The internal mechanism in this unit appears underdesigned.

These skewers are great – they make cooking kebabs easier and hence more enjoyable to me. They really are flat so they don’t rotate. By hand these are easy to clean and I haven’t had any rust problems (I don’t own a dishwasher). I don’t own a grill either so I make all of my kebabs under a gas broiler. I make a *lot* of kebabs (from Indian to Vietnamese to BBQ, see images for an example) and I went through soaking bamboo skewers like lots of other people. I also wasted money on those metal skewers with the “B B Q” on the ends (available on Amazon). They’re terrible (I reviewed those as well). Finally I bought all 3 sizes of the Steven Raichlen skewers together with a mandoline slicer and got the cheapest one free by the 4-for-3 promotion. At first I found it a little difficult to get the skewers through certain types of meat, and I poked myself a few times (nothing serious). I decided to sharpen the ends of the skewers myself. I have to be more careful now, but ultimately I think it’s safer since the skewers just glide through the meat and I don’t have to force them and they don’t slip (similar to why sharp knives are safer than dull ones). I uploaded an image of a sharpened versus nonsharpened skewer end.

Kebabs are a great food in my opinion — delicious yet easy, fast and fairly inexpensive (depending on the meat you choose, of course!). It usually takes me about 30 minutes to get a marinade together and prepare the meat, then I let them sit in the fridge for a day or so. Cooking kebabs under the broiler is quick and easy, cleanup is a snap, and a citrus splash, some dipping sauce (either a chutney or the rest of the marinade cooked down to a paste) and a simple side dish (from homemade potato salad to a green salad to other, various veggie kebabs) complete the meal. Wash it down with a homemade ginger kombucha and finish with an espresso for dessert. I am an avid cook and have bought lots of equipment and cookbooks on Amazon. Eventually I will review all of them, especially the cookbooks, so you can see which kebab recipes I like for whatever it’s worth.

Because it’s late in the “Grilling Season” here, I haven’t yet got to use these skewers but they seem to be of good quality and durable. They ARE magnetic though so, I wonder about the stainless steel content. I’ve looked (online and in stores) for a better skewer and found none quite like these.
Well packaged too, would make a nice gift for someone!

This toaster lasted about a year. I bought it because I was tired of cheap toasters. This is just another “Made in China” POS. It looks nice and has a nice feel to it though. After about six months, one of the plastic handles broke off. A couple of months later that side of the toaster would not stay down. A few months later, the other side did the same thing. Buy something else, this is not high quality KitchenAid like you would expect.

Like most people, I own Kitchen Aid products and have been very happy with them in the past. I did the research and was alittle concerned with some of the reviews but thougth it wouldn’t happen to me. The toaster is alittle over 6 months old and one side will not stay down or latch, I had the same problem with the last toaster ($30 and three years old) Spending top dollar doesn’t mean top quality. It’s obvious kitchen has lowered their standards.

Purchased these for use on cast iron and hard anodized aluminum cookware. It was actually looking for more Calphalon brand SS utensils, as I have two that I have been very pleased with, but it seems that the line I wanted had been discontinued. In comparison, these are not as sleek and polished, or as well crafted. However, they are half the price or less, and work well enough. Good weight and balance, good grip surfaces. For what they are, I’m well pleased and would purchase them again.

The Norpro stainless steel pie pans are a great product, exactly as advertised. Buyers should be cautioned regarding their choice of suppliers of these products, however. One can run into suppliers who apply a full shipping charge to each, individual pan in a light shipping envelope. Others seem to indicate they have only a single pan in stock, forcing you to pay a full shipping charge for that one and another full shipping charge on a following day when the supplier discovers another pan to sell.