I have a regular crumber that I use to clean up after a busy cooking session, but the Pico Bello Crumb Sweeper from Koziol is a nice playful take on the standard waiter’s tool.

I think this crumb sweeper would be a fun clean-up tool for the kids, especially if your child likes dogs. So whether it is table crumb duty or sweeping up a spill on the floor, this product might be worth a try to motivate cleaning.

With that said, it is rather expensive at nearly $23, so I would make sure there is a good chance your child would use it before buying it. Also, I have used a crumb sweeper in the past, and the brush tends to get pretty yucky. I would try to avoid sweeping up oil, honey and other sticky substances that might gunk up the brush. Once that happens, the brush will simply spread the oil and stickiness around.

You can purchase this item at Amazon among other places on the web.

I love the clean styling of Beth Mueller’s ceramics. Each item is hand painted, glazed in white, and usually adorned with some sort of short message or word. If you visit her website, you will see a large selection of items she has to offer, to include vases, dishes, and vessels of all shape and size. She also makes paper and cloth products too.

Beth studied art in college, but also studied print making in Italy and apprenticed to a potter in Detroit. Wherever her training comes from though, the combination is brilliant; she produces strikingly simple yet elegant pieces.

I really like her children’s eating sets, such as the one shown, and her counter-top compost bin and asparagus platter.

Her pieces would make great gifts for almost any occasion and can be found at several sites online. Some places to check out are Uncommon Goods, Zanisa, and Artful Home, and you can even purchase her milk bottle vases through Amazon.

My pantry has a lot of smells in it: spices, oil, garlic, and a lot of others to include even dog food. But now I have decided to get a deodorizer to neutralize the air a bit, and after some research I am going to purchase some activated charcoal.

The Chikuno Cube of bamboo charcoal to the right has a honeycomb structure to give it more surface area to collect all of those unwanted odors. The cube supposedly lasts for a year and can be recharged by leaving it out in the sun for six hours.

The second option is a similar charcoal cube made from Korean oak called the Kuro Cube. It doesn’t have the micro-hive structure, but it basically does the same thing and can also be recharged outside. This product supposedly lasts for ‘years,’ though I am not exactly sure how long that is in product life.

Both cubes are billed as being green products as they can be crushed up and put in the garden once they are finished. They can also be used for a year or more so you will avoid buying all those other products to freshen your house.

Some people comment on the price being too high, but at $25+ I think it is a bargain considering how long these products last. As for using baking soda, that odor solution is over-hyped. Yes, it does absorb some odors, but it is not nearly as effective as claimed and doesn’t last as long. Food Network’s Ted Allen did a test a while back and found that baking soda does work but activated charcoal works better.

With that said, there are many different charcoal deodorizers on the market. One cheaper option is Fridge-It. The colorful cubes cost about $4 and are definitely worth a try. I might purchase all three products in this post to see which I like best.

You can order the Chikuno Cube from Delight.com for $28.50 and the Kuro Cube can be purchased at DWR for $25. The Fridge-It can be purchased from Amazon for $3.99.

I have been a fan of Paul Smith’s iconic colorful stripes for a while, and now you can get some expensive bone china to bring that color to the table. To the right is the breakfast cup and saucer of his, and one setting will cost $135. You can check out his coffee and tea service sets at paulsmithusa.com. Just click on the online shop and you will be redirected to the UK online shop. A set of four coffee cups, creamer, and coffee pot will run you $900+.

Real Simple magazine often has tips related to all areas of life to include cooking and quick recipes. Recently I have been going through a backlog of issues and here are some of the food-related ones that stuck out.

• Put marshmallows in your brown sugar to keep it from getting hard.
• Use wine bottles for boot supporters to preserve their shape. (Ok, that technically isn’t related to cooking, but it is good to recycle those bottles.)
• Drop a few raisins in flat sparkling wine to give it some added bubbles. (This seems a bit weird, but I am willing to try it if the wine has already gone flat.)
• Use an old ketchup bottle as a pancake-batter dispenser. (You might end up wasting a lot of time trying to get the batter in the bottle though, so choose one with a wide neck.)
• Clean your kitchen sponge by heating it in the microwave for one minute. (That sounds reasonable.)
• If you want to clean hard-to-reach places in bottles, put some egg shells in with some warm water and a dash of soap. The shells will help scrape away the residue inside the bottle. I guess it’s worth a try.

A lot of Real Simple’s tips though border on the absurd. For instance, chopping tomatoes with a scissors. Seriously? I know there are hundreds of ways to cut things with different sharp implements, but I can’t see this really saving time. Another tip recommends switching water in flower vases with a turkey baster. That sounds ten times harder than just pulling the flowers out, dumping the water, and refilling the vase. And do we really want to cut up old Ugg boots to use as pot holders or use Crocs as hanging planters?

I just arrived back from the International Housewares Association (IHA) expo in Chicago. It was a fun show to go to, and a great place for those who love kitchen equipment. There were over 2,000 exhibitors showing kitchen and housewares, and I only visited a fraction of them. This time I was mostly focusing on glassware as I am trying to launch a glassware business in the fall sometime, but it was hard to keep away from all the new and unique products.

It was also interesting to attend the cooking theater where several celebrity chefs were giving demonstrations. All in all, I saw Cat Cora, Mario Batali, Paula Deen, Rick Bayless, Todd English, Michael Symon, Ming Tsai, and Stephanie Izard (Top Chef Champion 2008). Richard Blais from the 2008 Top Chef season was also working the SousVide Supreme booth right next to the theater. I also got to see Emeril Lagasse when he made a stop at the All-Clad exhibit. There were also a few other Top Chef contestants hanging around.

On Monday I also attended a benefit dinner at The Publican restaurant sponsored by the Grammy-award winning chamber music ensemble, Eighth Blackbird. You can read about the benefit here. It was a fantastic time with great food and music. Eighth Blackbird performed a concert before the meal and then we walked over to The Publican restaurant where Mario Batali and chef of The Publican, Paul Kahan, prepared a wonderful meal. It was a really good time.

Anyhow, after I finish sorting through all the information that I collected during my visit, I will be featuring some interesting products from the IHA show.

Most times I am for good design, but if design starts to trump function too much, I have to give a product a thumbs down. In my opinion, this dish rack is one of those items. Though I can appreciate the sleek space-saving design, I can’t imagine it would be useful to most people, and even for those who might find it handy, I highly doubt they would pay $110 for it.

I wash all my dishes by hand, so I love it when new products come out that assist in that process, but here are just a few of my concerns with this product.

• It doesn’t hold many dishes. Even a two-person family would push this to the limit.
• Odd-sized dishes that aren’t cups or plates won’t fit well. Even utensils don’t have much of a place.
• Eventually someone will tip it over and break a whole rack of dishes.
• There is no draining mat or drip tray to go underneath. At that price I think one should be supplied.
• Again, the price at $110 is pretty ridiculous.

Now with that said, the designer is Spanish, and I could see this being used in small European kitchens or an efficiency apartment in New York City, especially if there is limited counter space and no dishwasher. The rack also saves space by folding up and will have a smaller ‘footprint’ on your counter when in use, but I would also be concerned that it might not fit under cabinets well. Lastly, I will admit that European sinks often have a built in metal draining rack, so the draining pad/tray may not be an issue if you have a European-style sink.

Despite these redeeming traits and scenarios, I still think this product is not very functional, especially if you have a family of more than one person. If you live in an average-sized home, you will have enough space for a dish rack that is much more useful, yet costs a lot less. Yes, the product does look great, and it is clever how it folds up, but no matter how useful it might be for tight spaces, there is still the $110 price tag to consider too.

Despite my humble opinion, many design blogs and several magazines (including Dwell) have featured this product, so there are people who like the concept. If you are one of those people, you can find the Aurea dish rack designed by Ernest Perera at the Conran Shop. Other shops will also sell it online, but it is usually more expensive.

This design-oriented dustpan from Alice Supply Co. will add some color to the otherwise mundane and dirty task of sweeping up in the kitchen. I am glad that designers are finally remaking some of these less glamorous tools of the home. And the Alice Supply Co. is doing just that with hoses, brushes, plungers, pails, brooms and toolboxes through their hip housewares line.

Former fashion industry executives Maria Barnes and Raili Clasen were south of the border one time and noticed brightly colored pails and brooms in an old hardware store. From there it only took some margaritas to come up with the concept of the Alice Supply Co. Of course, some may object to the somewhat stereotypical woman printed on the pan, but the logo and company name is a nod to Alice on The Brady Bunch. I still wouldn’t recommend husbands to give this as a gift to their spouse though.

I couldn’t find the orange dustpan sold online, but you can shop directly through the Alice Supply Co. and buy a lime green dustpan along with some other designs. The cost is $18.

I recently visited a home store in Minneapolis called Twin Cities Green that features ecologically friendly products. They have a range of home and kitchen products that are easy on the environment. You can find their entire collection at their online shop.

Of special interest was a set of children’s plastic cookware. The company that produces it is called Green Toys, and they make their play sets using recycled milk jugs. But not only is environmentally conscious production, the sets are well-designed and look great. The Green Toys Chef Set seen above will be coming out on October 15th and you can pre-order it at Amazon.com. 

Though Twin Cities Green didn’t have this item yet, they probably will in the future. I also liked the cookware and dining set. I enjoy shopping at this store, and recommend stopping by if you live in or near Minneapolis. Other items of interest were: salvaged barn wood dining tables, a compost tumbler, bio-degradable outdoor cups and utensils, recycled paper cutting boards, and locally made soaps among other items.

Sagaform out of Sweden has beautiful products, unfortunately you can’t really shop for their stuff online in the US unless you look for secondary retailers — and even then you may not be able to find what is in their catalog. You can look through or print off their 2009 catalogs on their site. The hyperlink above goes right to both catalogs.

There are some really beautiful Nordic-style, contemporary items in there. You may recognize some products like the colander from cooking magaizines, but most of them are new or may be unfamiliar. I will put some of my favorites from the Christmas catalog below, but the regular 2009 catalog has many outstanding products in it. 

For Christmas though, take a look at pages 20 – 31. The cups on pages 20 to 23 are really beautiful. The ‘Season ungsform’ (serving platter) on 26 is another beautiful piece. Also, the porcelain coffee cup on page 28 and 29 is interesting (though similar to what you can get on MoMA). And the barware page is brilliant. The snaps carafe and water bottle are both simply striking and beg to make you drink (in one case booze and the other case water).