Serving

A lazy Susan can make organizing the kitchen a little easier, whether it's placed on the counter or on the table. But only a few lazy Susans are really attractive enough that you might want to put them out when you're entertaining. The Stainless-Steel Lazy Susan is one of those: with its shining base, it looks good anywhere. The actual surface of the lazy Susan is nonslip silicone that will keep bottles and other items upright even if you build up a little speed spinning it around. The surface is gray and blends nicely, especially when you place … Read more

In my head, I plan elaborate, healthy meals. And then I sit down to dinner, and I get distracted by the potatoes and overlook the string beans. I'm not alone; many people have great intentions that somehow fizzle away when it's time to actually, you know, bring it to the table.

The Design for Health plate, made by designer Jeffrey Harris, puts your meals back in proportion, with a visual cue reminding you that you want your meal to be a quarter protein, a quarter starch, and half vegetables. At 9.5 inches, this plate is smaller than … Read more

When it's too hot to even get off your ass and stick your head in the freezer, who ya gonna call?

PR2, that's who.

Engineers at Menlo Park, Calif., robot start-up Willow Garage have hacked their PR2 humanoid platform to make it deliver fridge-fresh, cool beer straight to their desks. The droid even wields a bottle opener for easy access.

PR2 can fold towels like nobody's business. While 11 PR2s are being loaned to universities around the world as part of an open-source research project, beer-fetching chops will doubtless make them more popular.

We've seen some … Read more

Ah, the Fourth of July holiday weekend, when we celebrate our freedom by drinking beer. But really, how free are you if you have to get up and get your own beer?

Developer Steve Norris, who has an absolutely fabulous sense of humor, is hard at work on a Beverage Delivery System (BDS), a fully automated inter-home delivery system he hopes will solve the "problem that has plagued mankind since the invention of the canned beverage."

The system comprises two discrete elements working in tandem: Baxter, the transport component, and RoboFridge, a fixed location dispenser robot. You sit … Read more

I have a house full of the pickiest eaters in the entire world. One of the few foods everyone here will eat is a banana, provided that there is not even a hint of a bruise on it. Hanging my bananas up has become a necessity. The Kamenstein Banana Hanger with Slicer provides a nice alternative to the many less-than-elegant banana hangers out there. It is constructed from stainless steel, and is weighty enough that it won't tip over if you get a particularly hefty bunch of bananas.

The Kamenstein Banana Hanger with Slicer offers an additional feature not … Read more

It's summertime, and that means salads for more meals than the rest of the year. My set of salad utensils is getting quite a workout. In order to make sure that my hands aren't getting the wrong kind of work out, though, it's important to look at the ergonomics of serving salad. Those long-handled spoons and forks just aren't always ideal. The Ergonomic Salad Hands offer an alternative. These salad hands have ergonomic nonslip grips that fit right into the palm of your hand. You're not limited to using these salad hands with salad, either: … Read more

Restaurants often make use of special dishes to make appetizers and other foods look even more appealing and there's no reason not to use the same tactic if you're serving food up at home. It doesn't hurt if such special serving dishes make cleanup easier, too. The Appetizer Serving Cone, designed with fries, mozzarella sticks, and other treats fresh out of the fryer in mind, is easy to use and clean up. It even helps such treats stay fresh because they don't sit in grease the way they might on a plate. Twist a paper liner … Read more

Growing up, I thought that the whipped cream we bought in disposable cans at the grocery store was great. That is, I loved it until my grandmother picked up some real cream and took her mixer to it. Fresh whipped cream tastes incredible, especially in comparison to the store-bought stuff. The Mini Cream Whipper makes getting it easier than standing at the counter with a mixer and a bowl of cream indefinitely, though. When filled with cream and fitted with an N20 charger, the canister instantly produces whipped cream. It's the method that many restaurants rely on to provide … Read more

I'm a big fan of advance preparation. Before my kids go to bed, I like to set out clothes for the next day, set out their schoolbags, and pack their lunches. But my kids love to have things like soup, rice, couscous, or other need-to-heat items in their lunches, and those get packed in thermoses. Which cannot go in the microwave. So I either have to make them in the morning and stress myself out or heat them in a different container and make more of a mess. Neither option appeals.

The Aladdin mini lunch bowl is a clever … Read more