Hostess Gifts

There are at least 2 major issues with Champagne stoppers: they take up too much space on your refrigerator shelf and in your drawer and they’re awkward to use. Often they simply don’t work, because they cannot withstand the pressure from the bottle. And many are just plain ugly.

Now you can banish all those issues from your bar!

There are so many times that we all want freshly grated cheese on some dish: for us, last night it was grilled eggplant slices. Tonight it’s haricots vert. Every other night it’s Zucchetti alla Colbrook - the summertime substitute for real pasta. And when we can go back to real pasta, oh yeah!  .... yum!

But how do you apply really fine, really focused freshly grated cheese, not too much, but on the plate, on the food? Flat graters work, but not always so neatly. So what do you do?

Occasionally life hands you lemonade when you thought you only had lemons … right?

When we started testing oil pump spray bottles, we looked at several and, after testing, made our choices … you’ve seen those we’ve recommended and have bought many ….  but there was one other pump sprayer out there that we wanted to recommend, but it was too expensive: the “Quality/Value/Price” algorithm just wasn’t right … until now ….

The “Pepe” Chili Mill from AdHoc features the unique SchneidWerk® cutting mechanism - a special stainless steel blade that cuts your choice of dried chilis against sharply etched teeth - so that you can enjoy the more intense, “fresh” flavor of real chilis, even when dried, instead of merely crushing long-dried pepper flakes onto your dish! Freshly cut = more flavor!

And the Voyage offers the same features and benefits, in a sleek compact highly-portable design … so you can have your own chilis conveniently available wherever you are … in your picnic basket, at your favorite restaurant, on your popcorn at the movies, etc. … yes, we know folks who love their chilis anytime, anywhere! And the Voyage from AdHoc makes it possible.

It’s all that simple: put the dried chilies of your choice into the storage portion of these Cool Tools - either the acrylic chili-shaped top of the Pepe or the simple smaller, more portable container of the Voyage - and turn the top. The unique SchneidWerk® cutting mechanism is the heart of these Cool Tools. You can cut the chilies into the removable base to measure before adding to your dish, or you can remove the base and cut the chilies directly onto your plate or dish. Then replace the base - it acts as a cover - to avoid making a mess on your table or countertop.

Salt and Pepper: essential ingredients in almost every recipe, and therefore in every kitchen and on every tabletop! And there are so many ways to ‘deliver’ these ingredients to your food … we offer electric (Piper’s primary faves!) and manual (Kennedy’s personal preferences!) But the good ones have a few things in common:

• rapid, consistent and evenly distributed throughput,
• adjustable grinders for individualized preferences,
• comfortable ease of use, and
• no messy “leave-behind” on your countertop or tabletop.

Over these 5+ years of searching worldwide for truly Cool Tools, we’ve learned a lot, our requirements have become stricter, and the possible field of acceptable choices has narrowed. But this product truly is one of the best! And it’s from one of the first companies we worked with when we started our business!

With more of us printing recipes off the internet (maybe even some from Colbrook Kitchen!), someone had to come up with an elegant solution for getting the recipe off the counter and into an upright, readable position...and someone did!

Trivets are essential tools for handling or serving any hot dish, to protect your countertops or your dining table. If you have ever forgotten to use one, then you’ve never forgotten the damage a hot dish can do, especially to wood. Everybody has some sort of trivet, or maybe a few trivets, or maybe even a collection …but simple is better: “X” marks the spot, with the blomus® Knik™ Trivet.

There are “basics” in every kitchen: those tools that you always need, and use constantly. But often these are so simply utilitarian that they also are boring to look at: they perform their role, well enough, but they’re not particularly attractive. The Butter Dish is an excellent example of this quandary: it’s often a banal piece of molded plastic that came with your refrigerator …. But it doesn't have to be that way: as we know, function and design can be combined, and where possible, should be!

And we’ve found an answer … the “Basic Butter Dish” from blomus (which is anything but basic)!

Decanting wine is often necessary: whether the wine is young - when it will benefit from exposure to more air - or old, when filtering out sediment is essential. There are other tools that perform these technical tasks very well, like the Nuance Wine Finer. But there is an artistic dimension to enjoying wine that requires more elegant presentation, and for that we have wine carafes.

The problem is that we may need to decant more frequently than we actually do, because ...well, sometimes it can be complicated. The “ritual” of opening and pouring and candling into a carafe requires extra equipment, in addition to the carafe, and so much attention to detail that sometimes it just seems inconvenient ...and so we don’t do it. And then we end up drinking young tight wine, or chewing on bits of cork or those globs of sediment hiding in the bottom of the glass as the last of the bottle approaches. Right? ... Wrong!

In order to simplify this task, what we need is a multi-function single unit, combining the technical tools - the carafe, the filter, and the aerator - in one elegant package of glass and stainless steel. A piece of beautiful design, performing its functions in a highly efficient fashion. A Cool Tool.

We love cookbooks and have a huge library of them, but it’s not something we’ve chosen to carry at Colbrook Kitchen… until now. But then, this isn’t just a cookbook--it’s a guidebook for anyone who invites people over (or would like to) and wants to do it with a maximum of style and a minimum of stress.

Steven Stolman, clothing designer, former president of Scalamandre Fabrics, author, and self-proclaimed serial entertainer, shares his secrets, not only of how to be a gracious host, but how to be a great guest as well. Steven is the author of 40 Years of Fabulous and Scalamandré: Haute Décor. And he's our cousin!
He freely admits to using lots of shortcuts and packaged products to make life easier, and these tips and many others are part of the wit and wisdom that fills these pages and will make everyone from the novice to the veteran party thrower a more confident and successful host. And along the way Steven shares recipes for everything from Pimento Cheese through Chicken Milanese to Sorta Strawberries Romanoff.

We love smoked food, starting with pork barbeque (there is no other kind, you know!) and evolving to include chipotles of a variety of chilis, and smoked tomatoes for homemade ketchup and tomato sauce. And all manner of fish, poultry and meats! But these have been major day-long projects in the Big Smoker - done very low and slow for hours. So it doesn’t get done as often as it might, because it’s a bit of a hassle.

No longer! We’ve found an indoor stovetop solution that enables you to have smoked whatever, whenever, in a remarkably short time! And you can use it on your outdoor grill too!

With the recent rush away from glutens, we have been looking for appetizing alternatives to wrap our food for easy eating.  We love a nice warm corn tortilla; our favorite filling is Carnitas topped with Pico de Gallo and other traditional accompaniments, but there are so many choices: both traditional and adventurous. This does, however, present a couple of challenges. First, how do you warm the tortillas? And then how do you keep them warm, especially for a crowd? Many approaches to these issues have been less than satisfactory, until now.

Don’t you love it when you go to a restaurant, and they serve a beautiful olive oil with herbs to dip your bread in? It’s so simple, yet so good, and it’s healthier than butter. Of course, you can easily do this at home for the pleasure of you and your guests. So what takes this simple preparation of herbs and oil (and we like to add some grinds of smoked chili) to the next level? What makes you feel that you’ve been transported to a cafe in Provence or Tuscany? It’s a bit of old world charm that comes from a hand-crafted olive wood bowl in which to serve it.

And this beautiful bowl can be used for any number of small condiments, nuts, olives, crackers or anything else that you want to show off!

The Olive Boat from Carré is an excellent example of the combination of functionality and design: the “beauty” that we look for in a Cool Tool.

This classic design makes serving olives - whether cured or straight out the jar - easy and convenient. Olives line up neatly in the Olive Boat and can be retrieved easily from either end … and refilling even while your guests continue to enjoy them is quite simple. Cleanup is doubly simple: as with any good piece of wood, no soap or water required. Simply wipe away the excess oil, while leaving behind whatever oil is naturally absorbed by the wood, to achieve the double benefits of cleaning and seasoning. You’ll use this frequently in your home, and it makes a great gift!

We love serving whole grains of salt at the table--you get a burst of flavor and a great crunch... and for those watching their salt intake, you use less because what you're using has such intense flavor.

There are many salt dishes out there: we have a small collection of beautiful glass and silver pieces, dating from the 19th Century (it really wasn’t THAT long ago!). But the major issues for all these pieces is the oxidizing effect of salt on metal spoons left in the salt, and on metal bowls left filled with salt. It’s a damaging toxic mess waiting to occur.

That can all be avoided with the Olive Wood Salt Dish and Spoon from Carré.

The plethora of non-stick surfaces in all our kitchens require a variety of non-metal utensils. Wood is the traditional go-to material, and there are many choices, from bamboo, to oak and cherry. But for beauty and durability, olive is the choice. And as many old olive groves around the Mediterranean go out of production, local artisans are discovering that making olive wood utensils also is the sustainable choice. These are being executed in both traditional and innovative designs, with exceptional functionality … Cool Tools, each and every one!

As we’ve said often before, we love salt! We cook with it, and we dress our dishes with it. So we always want some salt - and sometimes two varieties - immediately at hand in the kitchen. There are many designs of salt dishes, but two design features are preferable in a salt dish: it should have a cover, to protect from moisture and food, and it should look good, because it is constantly on display on your countertop. And on this last essential point, there are few things more beautiful than the wood grain in olive wood.

These olive wood salt dishes are being offered in both traditional and innovative designs, both with exceptional functionality … both very Cool Tools!

When we reviewed the original Charles Viancin Lilypad Cutting Board, we talked about the many choices of cutting boards, including the fact that we all probably have several, in various sizes and materials, in our kitchen. Everybody has to face these choices. Piper has written a Cool Tip on this subject and, in prior first cutting board reviews, we summarized the basic criteria for making these choices:

• Size: it should big enough that the cut food doesn’t fall off, but small enough that moving it doesn’t constitute exercise;
• Sturdy: it shouldn’t move or curl while in use;
• Durable: it should be firm enough that cutting on it won’t gouge it to shreds, but not so hard as to damage your knives;
• Convenient: it should be the right size - or sizes - and it should be dishwasher safe, so that we can be sure it’s really clean the next time we use it; and, finally,
• Beauty: it should be beautiful in your kitchen - or wherever you use it - because, as  William Morris said, you should “Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."

Alas, a couple of years ago the Charles Viancin Silicone Cutting Board was discontinued--it was just too expensive to make. We, and many of our customers were devastated, because it really was one of the best cutting boards on the market. Well folks...IT's BAAACK...in cool designs...and at an even better price!

When Kennedy and I started Colbrook Kitchen, we each found a tool that to us epitomized the concept of a Cool Tool: high design, high functionality and unique--something that in all our years of prowling cookware shops, we had never seen. For Kennedy, it was the Joseph Joseph Garlic Rocker, and for me it was the Charles Viancin Lily Pad Lids. And it seems that you all agree, because these are our two best selling Cool Tools.

A few months ago, when I was making a strata that needed to sit in the refrigerator overnight in a rectangular glass dish, I wondered why the Charles Viancin silicone lids couldn’t be made in squares and rectangles to cover the glass dishes that we all use. So I emailed Charles and asked. I wish I could take credit for turning this idea into a product, but in fact, as great minds run along the same paths, he had already thought of this.