Sprenzy Shopping Blog

As you prepare for Thanksgiving, make sure your oven temperature settings are calibrated correctly. To test the accuracy of your oven, pick up a Taylor Classic Oven Guide Thermometer. It’s Cook’s Illustrated’s top rated oven thermometer and costs around $15. It has a four inch base, which makes it easy to read and difficult to knock over. And don’t worry about toxic mercury; the Taylor Oven Guide uses blue-dyed alcohol in the thermometer.

I have an old gas-powered oven and noticed it ran hot after over baking an apple crisp. After testing the temperature settings using the Taylor Oven Guide, I discovered my oven is off by 45 degrees on the low end (200 degrees) and 25 degrees off on the high end (500 degrees). I plan on keeping the thermometer in the oven all the time and using it as the official temperature rather than the oven dial.

Where’s the best place to position the thermometer? From Cook’s Illustrated…

“We put this question to Karen S. Yaggie, a marketing representative at Taylor Precision Products, maker of the oven thermometer that won our test (the Taylor Classic Oven Guide). “The best place to get a reading,” Yaggie told us, “is the center–exactly where you place the baking dish for the food that you are preparing.” She emphasized that the thermometer should not be positioned within 6 inches of any oven wall or of the oven ceiling, floor, or door. Our tests showed that ovens do indeed have hot and cold spots. Tests on a gas range, for instance, showed the temperature differential between the bottom and top of the oven to be close to 50 degrees.

We suggest that you place the thermometer at the dead center of the oven–right in the spot where the food will be cooking – as it preheats to get a good reading. When it’s time to put the food in the oven, you can move the thermometer to the side or hang it from a rack such that it hovers over the food. If it ends up sitting fewer than 6 inches away from the interior surface of the oven, remove the thermometer until the food is finished cooking. (We also learned from Taylor that it is safe to keep the thermometer in the oven at any time except when the dial is set to “clean.”)”

If you are looking for a new instant read thermometer, Cook’s Illustrated highly recommends two models…

THERMOWORKS Super-Fast Thermapen
Price: $95.00
Average Response Time: 5 seconds
Comments: Simply the best: fast, accurate, and easy to use. The Thermapen also has the widest temperature range (-58 to 572 degrees).

CDN ProAccurate Quick Tip Digital Cooking Thermometer
Price: $17.95
Average Response Time: 9 seconds
Comments: The CDN Quick Tip was fast and accurate and had every feature we deemed necessary, including a calibration button. Not quite as fast as the mighty Thermapen, but fast enough.

Make sure you don’t overcook your turkey by picking up an oven thermometer and/or instant read thermometer. Happy Thanksgiving!

I love eating fruit but I hate peeling it. I tend to stick to simple to eat fruit, such as grapes, cherries and nectarines. Peeling a banana is as much peeling as I’ll do.

The problem is… I enjoy melons, kiwis, jack fruit and especially mangos. I have always been fortunate with someone in my life (mom, aunt, girlfriend, etc.) who doesn’t mind peeling fruit for me. Some folks say that I have been spoiled all my life with a bounty of freshly cut fruit. I won’t deny it.

To change the spoiled perception, I recently bought an OXO Good Grips Mango Splitter to cut mangos on my own. On the rare occasions when I’ve peeled and cut a mango, I have always left too much fruit on the seed and skin. As a kid, I enjoyed eating the fruit off the seed but these days I have to floss immediately afterwards to get the fibrous strands out of my teeth.

I’ve used the OXO mango splitter several times and it works perfectly to remove the seed and split the mango in half. I still had to score the halved mangos and cut the fruit from the skin. However, using the mango splitter and removing the fruit from the skin is easier and faster than doing it the traditional way… for me at least.

For the OXO mango splitter to work well, here are two tips…

1. Don’t buy extra large mangos - small to medium sized mango seeds are easily removed by the splitter. Larger mangos have big seeds that won’t pass through the splitter and will dull the blade. I was able to de-seed a very large mango but it required a lot of force to cut through the seed and the halved mango had seed chunks. It’s definitely not a recommended practice.
   
2. Forget the over-ripe mango - using the mango splitter on an over-ripe fruit will remove the seed but you’ll be juicing the mango too. Avoid the mess and stick to ripe but relatively firm mangos.

I’ve only tested the OXO Mango Splitter on the mango variety that’s widely available in the U.S. I believe it’s the Tommy Atkins variety. I don’t think the splitter is useful on a Manila mango because it’s a smaller fruit with a small seed. But I’ll test it out and report the results on the Manila mango.

I usually prefer multi-taskers to specialized kitchen tools, but I’m trying to overcome my anti-peeling fruit stigma. If you have room in your kitchen for another tool, I definitely recommend the OXO Mango Splitter. It maybe hard to believe for some of my friends, but they might get freshly cut mango the next time they come over.

For the last several years, I’ve been thinking about getting a digital kitchen scale, mainly for baking. I really like the idea of dumping ingredients by weight into one big bowl versus using multiple wet and dry measuring cups, which means faster measuring, less cleaning and more precise quantities.

Besides cooking or baking, you can also use the scale to measure food serving sizes. I have a portion control problem so it would be interesting to see how many servings I actually consume. Additionally, being a weight weenie, I can finally weigh my bike parts and verify the actual part weight versus the manufacturer’s claimed weight.

The editors of Cook’s Illustrated recommend the Soehnle 65055 (shown below).

“With the combination of an easily deciphered display, generous capacity (to 11 pounds), and roomy platform, the attractively modern Soehnle Futura has been our favorite digital kitchen scale since our 2003 testing. Recently, the Futura has been replaced by Soehnle’s new model 65055 -an even sleeker, lighter scale. Though the new model loses just over a pound in maximum capacity, it offers a more durable on-, off-, and zero-setting tare button alongside a gram/pound conversion button-conveniently relocated from the scale’s inaccessible underside-and, to a baker’s delight, extends the measurement reading one decimal place farther, into the hundredths, starting at 1 gram (or 0.05 ounces). It’s our new scale of choice.”

Cook’s Illustrated’s runner up model is the Salter Baker’s Dream Aquatronic Kitchen Scale. I opted for a less expensive model and purchased an Escali Primo Digital Kitchen Scale (shown above right). It’s a rare event that I don’t purchase the recommended/more expensive item but I decided to go with the value choice and went for the $25 scale. It has received positive feedback from Amazon reviewers.

Here are some buying tips to consider before purchasing a digital scale.

• Display - for ease of reading, choose a scale with a large display with a good viewing angle. The display should also be good distance away from the weighing platform. Otherwise, a large bowl will obstruct the digital read out. The Soehnle 65055 is a good example of these features. My Escali’s display can be blocked by a very large bowl.

• Large Weighing Platform - if you plan on weighing ingredients directly on the scale (no bowl), pick one with a large platform.

• Capacity - choose a scale with a capacity of at least 11 lb or 5 Kg. If you’re using a heavy bowl, the amount of ingredients can be limited with lower capacity scales.

• Decimals - make sure the scale can display at least one tenth of an once (0.1) weight increments.

• Buttons - choose a scale with buttons that can be easily accessed with a large bowl on the platform, particularly the tare button.

• Auto Shut-Off - is a great feature to extend battery life but it can be annoying if it’s too short and does not allow you to finish adding the current ingredient being measured. Pick a scale with at least a 4 or 5 minute auto shut-off time. 

I haven’t baked using my new scale yet, but I learned that I ate more than twice the serving size of my favorite granola. Sure, I could have used a measuring cup to determine a serving size but it’s much easier to place a bowl on a scale, tare it out and weigh the serving size. I also discovered that the 55 gram Topeak pump that I bought recently is actually 62 grams. That’s seven whole grams that I didn’t account for on my bike!

So far, I’m very pleased with my Escali scale but the real test will come during my next baking session. I’m thinking… thick and chewy chocolate chunk cookies with BIG chunks of Scharffen Berger bittersweet chocolate.

One more week until Super Bowl XLI, so there’s plenty of time to get ready for a Super Bowl party. If you are headed to a friend’s place and need to show your team colors, check out our selection of Chicago Bears clothing or Indianapolis Colts apparel. If you plan on hosting your own Super Bowl party, we’ve got you covered with everything from Bears and Colts car accessories to home furnishings, kitchen stuff and slippers.

Now let’s move on to the best part of any Super Bowl party, the food! Check out the football party recipes from Epicurious and Food Network. There are a ton of great recipes, from savory dishes to dessert.

The Carolina pulled-pork sandwiches are making my mouth water. Unfortunately, it takes 6 hours to smoke the pork shoulders. Don’t worry, there are simpler recipes, like these 18 chili recipes. I love guacamole and Alton Brown’s guac recipe looks pretty good, but I would get rid of the cumin and cayenne. Put in the real stuff and add a jalapeno or better yet a habanero if you dare. The habanero guacamole can be “accidentally” served to the obnoxious guest rooting for the wrong team.

Speaking of teams, which team will you be cheering for, da Bears or the Colts? As a Pittsburgh Steelers fan, I’m indifferent about the teams and just hope for an exciting game. However, as someone dating a Bears fanatic, I must be a defacto Chicago fan next Sunday, although I do like Peyton Manning. Who doesn’t like a 6’5” 230 lb quarterback with a laser, rocket arm?

But, I know better than to root against her Bears. There would be many serious consequences for me if I cheered for the Colts. Thankfully, as a die-hard Penn Stater, I can justify being a Bears’ fan because Chicago has three former Penn State players on the roster. Tight end John Gilmore is pictured above. The other two players are placekicker Robbie Gould and guard Tyler Reed (practice squad). There are no Penn State players on the Colts. So I’m not really rooting for the Bears. I’m cheering for Penn State!

As far as my Super Bowl party, it’s just going to be the Bears fanatic and me. She doesn’t want to deal with non-Bears fans interrupting her focus and concentration on the game. So in honor of the Chicago Bears, we will be partaking in a deep dish pizza from Little Star Pizza, arguably the best deep dish pizza in the Bay Area. The “Little Star” pizza, which is spinach blended with ricotta and feta, mushrooms, onions, garlic, is our favorite deep dish pie.

This post has taken a circuitous route from da Bears, the Colts, food, Penn State and back to food again. I told you the food is the best part of a Super Bowl party. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the game while snacking on delicious food.

GO BEARS!!!

Note: I was forced by the Bears fanatic, who also proofreads most of my posts, to add the last sentence.

“Rice cooker? Who needs a rice cooker? Just give me a measuring cup and a pot and I can make you some good rice.”

I have heard that from many of my non-Asian friends. I have no doubt they can make fine rice using a good old reliable pot. But given a choice between a rice cooker and a pot, I’m going to use a rice cooker every time. Who wouldn’t want to just wash the rice, fill the water to the correct line, push a button and walk away? If you are making rice several times a week, you shouldn’t live without a rice cooker.

Rice cookers have come a long way in the last 30 years. Back in the day, I remember my mom showing me the knuckle method. As an analytical person, I just never understood it because everyone’s fingers are different lengths. Nevertheless it always worked for me. I guess you never question mom and her cooking secrets. Knuckle method? Here’s an explanation from Chow.com:

“Every Asian kid was taught the so-called knuckle method to determine how much water to add when cooking rice. It’s an old-wives’ tale that’s supposed to do away with the need for voodoo inventions like measuring cups or kitchen scales. Here’s how it’s supposed to work: wash your rice, pour off the excess water, level the rice, stick your index finger straight down until the tip barely touches the top of the grains, then add water until it just reaches your first knuckle. Cook and you’re supposed to get perfect rice every time. It doesn’t always work. I think the correct rice to water ratio is 1:1.5.”

These days fuzzy logic rice cookers are the rage…

“The old kind of rice cooker works like this: add rice and water, then press a button. A heat sensor in the bottom knows when your water has evaporated and the rice is done (if you put the right amount of water in to begin with), and the cooker shuts itself off. It knows because boiling water stays at a constant temperature of 212°F, whereas solid matter—rice—gets hotter. Computer-controlled fuzzy-logic cookers allegedly sense how fast your rice is cooking and adjust their temperature accordingly to cook the rice more perfectly.”

The Chow article reviewed the Zojirushi ZUTTO Neuro Fuzzy 5.5 Cup Rice Cooker (shown above) which is stylish but expensive. We have a Zojirushi Neuro Fuzzy 5.5 Cup Rice Cooker and it completely rocks. It’s not inexpensive by any means, but less than the ZUTTO. The fuzzy logic makes perfect brown rice, semi-brown rice, sweet rice, mixed rice, porridge (jook, conjee or cháo), white/sushi rice, and pre-washed rice (rinse free rice).

I love sweet/sticky rice but I hated making it on the stove because it takes so long. Although, I do miss the crusty sweet rice at the bottom of the pot. But I digress. If you like different kinds of rice perfectly cooked, then I highly recommend getting a Neuro Fuzzy rice cooker, otherwise stick to a traditional one button rice cooker.