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| At Home Thursday, Dec. 10, 2009
GET A GADGET The best thing about kitchen gadgets is their variety. You can please techies and Luddites alike; you can be extravagant or frugal, practical or whimsical. To help with your shopping, I've compiled the following list, sure to contain something to please the cook (or cooks) in your life. 1. Marcato Atlas hand-crank pasta machine. Decidedly low-tech, but it works as well as any fancy electric version and will last forever. This is great for the weekend cook who likes to play in the kitchen. $70 to $100 at La Cuisine in Alexandria, Target, Sur La Table and Williams-Sonoma. 2. Marble mortar and pestle. Simple, functional and beautiful. Another low-tech choice, but what a great way to work off stress while creating something delicious, whether it's pesto for pasta or a blend of pounded whole spices for masala. From $30 at La Cuisine. 3. Stovetop Neapolitan espresso maker. No, it doesn't steam milk, but it takes up a lot less space and is a lot cheaper than a fancy espresso machine. A classic. $22 to $99 at http://www.fantes.com. 4. Immersion blender. For the soup (and sauce) chef in the family. Sleek and practical, some models come with a chopping attachment and/or a blending beaker. $30 to $120 at Hill's Kitchen on Capitol Hill, Sur La Table and Target. 5. Wind-up birdie salt and pepper shakers. Serve up a bit of whimsy with your holiday dinner with these colorful French table toys: Just wind them up and send them rolling on down to the other end. By Crea Crea; $19 at La Cuisine. 6. Portable induction cooktop. For the molecular gastronomist in the family. Slick and energy-efficient, this cooktop relies on electromagnetic energy to heat iron or steel pans without heating the surface around them. No flames, no fumes, and it does everything from sous vide to sear steaks. And it boils water in minutes. From $175 at Amazon.com. For more gift suggestions, continue reading the 12 gadgets of Christmas. – Domenica Marchetti GROW IT Tip of the week Plant before the ground freezes. Trees, shrubs and even perennials can be planted as long as the ground remains unfrozen. Make sure that backfilled soil is free of air pockets and the plants are well watered. At the end of the month, once the soil is cold, apply a four-inch layer of winter mulch to prevent frost heave. Reduce the mulch to two inches in March, and keep it free from trunks and stems at all times. • Adrian Higgins blogs about salad greens • Digging In HOW-TO Q:My vintage 1951 house has its original parquet wood flooring. Most of it is in good shape, but one swath is really worn down. Do I need to replace the worn-out tiles, or can parquet flooring be refinished, like regular planks of wood, with a wood sander? Falls Church A:Parquet wood flooring can be sanded down and refinished, but the process is trickier than with regular planks. Because the pieces are arranged in different directions, there's no practical way to obey the standard advice of always sanding with the wood grain. Cross-grain sanding inevitably leaves visible scratches. To get around this, professional floor finishers follow the standard sanding by going over the floor with a buffing machine fitted with especially fine sandpaper or a screen. The buffing removes the cross-grain scratches. One company that offers this service, Hatcher's Floors in Springfield (703-451-0459, http://www.hatchersfloors.com), charges about 10 cents a square foot, on top of the standard refinishing cost of about $2 a square foot. (Read more) – Jeanne Huber  | |||||||||
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Home: 12 Gadgets of Christmas, Salvaging Parquet Floors
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1 التعليقات:
Hi can you tell me some
parquet flooring sites.?
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