Ozeri Green Earth Non-Stick 12″ Wok

We use dinner time here at my house to “travel the world” and eat foods that are inspired by many exotic ethnic dishes. One of the favorites, for Hubby at least, are our trips to “the Orient”, and thanks now to Ozeri, we have a new spin on our old classic with their fabulous Green Earth non-stick Wok.

Ozeri’s smooth non-stick ceramic coating is is second to none, and where we’ve had issues within months with some of the larger company’s non-stick offering (Calphalon, I’m looking at you), we’re going on a year with some of our Ozeri Green Earth pans working like the day we got them. Wok cooking will also made a huge difference with our stir-fry dishes and got a nice sear on the veggies while leaving them crisp, and browned the meats very well while leaving them tender. And clean up was a cinch, I’m talking a rinse with hot water and this pan was nearly clean! The handle stayed cool even with medium-high heat, and there was enough real estate in the pan that I could feed us both of us with a single pan! Made from heavy die-cast aluminum, this pan is made to last and provide years of use. And Ozeri’s patented ceramic coating is 100% PTFE and PFOA free, so no harmful chemicals are going to be leaching into your food! And yes, for those of you wondering, it has a magnetized induction stove safe base.

If I had one thing that was a slight problem for me, it was storage. This is a big pan, bigger than the 12″ sizing would lead you to believe, and I had a hard time getting it in with my other pots and pans. It’s not heavy, it’s actually quite light for it’s size, it’s just so large I may need a shelf of it’s own. And because it’s Ozeri, you can be sure they only want 100% customer satisfaction and will go out of their way to get you there! If you enjoy cooking with an Asian flair, I can not recommend this pan highly enough! You simply must have one in you kitchen!

 

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I received the above product(s) free of charge from Ozeri. I am not obligated to provide a positive or favorable review, just my honest opinion. My review is based on my experience with the product and/or brand, which may differ from yours.

 

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Ozeri’s Green Earth Frying Pan 3-Piece Set

I always have my cookware radar tuned for a decent set of non-stick pans because let’s face it, they just don’t last anymore and eating the non-stick coating is bad for your health. And I don’t care what anyone says, there’s always a place in my kitchen for a good non-stick pan because there are times you just want the ease, simplicity and convenience of warm, cook, wash and go. I was so looking forward to Ozeri’s Green Earth frying pan set, especially since I recently tested and loved their other Green Earth pan so much.

But while there are definitely some areas where this set will shine, it fell pretty short of the mark I set for a must-buy pan set. For starters, the Greblon ceramic non-stick coating is slick and probably the most non-stick of any pan I’ve had, ever. But that is a double edged sword, in that while nothing stuck at all ever, it also would not brown or even remotely sear anything to save it’s life. And I know what you’re saying, you don’t buy non-stick to sear anything, but every non-stick pan I’ve had since the mid-90’s has allowed me to get a decent bit of browning on the meats I cooked in them, even the prior Ozeri Green Earth ceramic non-stick pan, but not any pan in this set. Even the Asian-inspired Fried Rice from Trader Joe’s would get a crispy crust on the bottom, but not in these pans. If I had to hazard a guess, the waffle-like texture on the pan’s surface might create air pockets while cooking that does enhance the non stick properties but also won’t allow any decent browning. So, things like scrambled eggs and pancakes might be dynamite in this pan, but browning meats will just not happen. The pan washed up like a dream and the heat-resistant silicone handles on these pans are oven safe to 350 degrees and make handling even the hottest pan no problem. The slippery non-stick coating is 100% PTFE, PFOA and APEO free, which means no heavy metals or chemicals were used to manufacture it, which means it’s a healthier alternative to older generations of non-stick pans. The pan is light thanks to cast aluminum construction, and while it heats quickly and evenly, the heat does quickly dissipate. You get a 12″, 10″, and 8″ size pan in this set,so there’s a size there to accommodate any size household.

There are some real nice features to these pans and I can totally see them being indispensable for certain cooking styles and certain kitchens, but unfortunately mine just isn’t one of them. It’s pretty rare when an Ozeri product is a miss like this for me, but I’ll grade them on the curve and say that while it doesn’t work for me, it might work better for others, and as always, you just can’t beat Ozeri’s dedication to customer service. They stand behind their products 100% and customer satisfaction is their number 1 priority, so I encourage you to give these pans a try and see if they work for you!Let’s not forget the included “value added” green felt pan cozies, which make storage simple and easy allowing you to “nest” you pans without any feat of damaging the ceramic non-stick surface!

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I received the above product(s) free of charge from Ozeri. I am not obligated to provide a positive or favorable review, just my honest opinion. My review is based on my experience with the product and/or brand, which may differ from yours.

Ozeri Green Earth 10″ Ceramic-Coated Non-Stick Frying Pan

I cook every day. Sometimes twice a day. So I need tools that will keep up with me, and not give up the ghost in a few weeks time, but stick around for the long haul. It’s not easy finding products that meet these metrics, but so far, this Ozeri Green Earth ceramic-coated frying pan is up to the task.

Some people will try to convince you that there’s no place for a non-stick pan in a serious kitchen. Well, I take my kitchen very seriously and there’s always a place for a good non-stick pan. From quick scrambled eggs, to a bag of asian-style fried rice, to some frozen veggies stir-fry style, the times you want a quick, good, home cooked meal but don’t want the hassle of stainless steel or anodized aluminum and the cleanup involved. Ozeri has utilized an “ultra-safe ceramic coating inspired by nature which is 100% PTFE and PFOA free”. So it should be a “healthier” alternative to traditional non-stick pans and the fumes they can release. But it has the same drawbacks as traditional non-stick, in that searing (and really, all really high heat cooking) is just not possible, because it will break down the non-stick coating quickly. It does still brown very nicely without drying out the food, and glazes with a high sugar content didn’t burn at all. And preheating the pan is a no-no. Which, depending on your preferences is a plus or a minus. And no metal tools either. But, if you’re like me you have a drawer full of plastic and wood kitchen tools so that’s not a big problem. And the coating on the Ozeri Green Earth pan stands up to those plastic and wood tools just fine. The base of the pan is even magnetized for induction cooking ranges too! The Bakelite handle feels flimsy and has some give in it, and even though Ozeri boasts heat-resistance for it, though I can’t readily find what temperature it’s safe to, so I’d not use it in the oven out of an abundance of caution.

So far, after 2 weeks of nearly every day use this pan has held up to all the meals and concoctions I’ve thrown at it. Nothing has stuck, or even given a hint that it will. All it needed was a light coating of peanut oil before the first use, and a teaspoon of so of oil when cooking for browning or flavor. It cleans up quickly, with no residue or scrubbing at all. Did I mention the Ozeri Pan Protector included at no additional cost? Yeah, that’s just awesome. So stacking any future additions to my Ozeri Ceramic pans will be a breeze! And it’s competitively priced with competitors, all backed by Ozeri’s stellar customer service. I can see no reason to not add this Ozeri Green Earth Ceramic Coated Non-stick Fry Pan to you kitchen.

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I received the above product(s) free of charge from Ozeri. I am not obligated to provide a positive or favorable review, just my honest opinion. My review is based on my experience with the product and/or brand, which may differ from yours.

 

 

KOVOT 12-Piece Slicer &Dice Kitchen Gadget

I spend a lot of time in the kitchen, and prep is usually a huge part of that time. So I’m always on the lookout for tools that will cut down on prep time and make my “fancy” meals a lot less work than they need to be. And this KOVOT 12-piece Slice & Dice fits the bill nicely! I haven’t enjoyed a kitchen tool this much since my Ninja Prep Blender!

Whether you need to dice peppers, onions, or potatoes, or you need celery, carrots and onions for a mirepoix , this little Slice & Dice is just what the doctor ordered! No more little “escapees” from the cutting board to fall on the carpet. No more “onion eyes” and more mess to clean repeatedly. Because everything you slice, dice and chop goes right into the storage container right beneath the blades! And, I might add, the container has little non-skip, non-slip feet to keep it firmly anchored in place while you work. There’s an assortment of double sided blade inserts to fit any and all of your chopping needs, as well as a mandolin slicer for my pear tart I plan to make this holiday season. There’s a grater for the variety of cheeses I put in my homemade mac and cheese, a peeler for the apple and raisin bread pudding, there’s really a tool for every course and meal! At $18.99, you get a lot of kitchen tools for one low price, and they all store away in the included container when you’re finished. With the holidays in full swing, and much eating and entertaining to be done, I just couldn’t imagine getting everything done as easily as I did with the KOVOT 12-Piece Slice & Dice.

I would recommend hand washing everything, or limiting things to the top rack of the dishwasher if necessary. It’s really the best way to keep corrosion and rust on the blades to a minimum. I would also be careful how much force is used when you have harder root vegetables, as some of the blades seemed like they could be bent if I applied too much force.

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I received the above product(s) free of charge from Sharps Gear.  I am not obligated to provide a positive or favorable review, just my honest opinion.  My review is based on my experience with the product and/or brand, which may differ from yours.

ROHA, Inc. Digital Kitchen Scale Review

ROHA, Inc. has another hit on their hands here, with their sleek-looking kitchen scale. I’ve not had a lot of luck since I bought my old Salter kitchen scale lo, those many years past. While for most folks who cook don’t really need a scale that’s accurate to the gram, here we measure stuff pretty minutely, be it from my kitchen experiments, or Hubby’s various sundry workout potions. Have I finally found the heir apparent to my beloved Salter? We shall see.

To start, this is a good looking gadget, what with it’s single piece of tempered glass and bright blue backlit LCD screen. But looks are really secondary to performance, because in this house, function trumps form any day. So we tested the ROHA, Inc. digital kitchen scale against the most accurate, to-the-gram scale we own. And it held up, gram for gram, ounce for ounce, being dead accurate every time.

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What I didn’t quite understand is the different settings for “water” and “milk”. It just seems like adding a different setting just because you could. It makes no sense and serves no practical purpose. Just kind of silly, really, but the scale is accurate and easy to clean, with the controls being manipulated by the touch-sensitive tempered glass “buttons”. What’s so nice about that is that there’s no way for powder, schmutz of flour to end up in the mechanism, or under and around any actual physical buttons. And again, batteries are included, and I can’t tell you enough how much I appreciate any company that does that. It has all the stock features one would expect from a quality scale, like an auto-off, tare function, it’s switchable from grams to ounces with a simple touch, and ROHA, Inc.’s “No Questions Asked” 90-day money back guarantee.

So there it is. I think my venerable Salter scale is going out to pasture, probably on some farm upstate where it can romp and play with other old scales and live out it’s days as free-range scale. At least, that’s what I choose to believe. So welcome to the kitchen, ROHA, Inc. Hope you enjoy your stay!

**BONUS ALERT!** Limited Time Offer: Enter Code G8GEF6O5 at Amazon checkout and ROHA, Inc. will include their Measuring Spoons Set, valued at $9.95, With Your Order for FREE! Enter code G8GEF6O5 at checkout. Here’s how(restrictions apply)

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I received the above product(s) free of charge from ROHA, Inc..  I am not obligated to provide a positive or favorable review, just my honest opinion.  My review is based on my experience with the product and/or brand, which may differ from yours.

Kuuk 3-in-1 Vegetable Spiralizer Review

Every now and again, you see and hear about a product that intrigues you. The idea seems sound, and it has the possibility to open up some new horizons for you. And then you get that product, and you feel that crushing disappointment of potential squandered. That pretty much sums up my experience with the Kuuk Vegetable Spiralizer. And then, to add insult to injury, their after sales support was atrocious. So let’s go over what went right and what went so very, very wrong.

For starters, the idea is pretty neat. In theory, you have a wonderful hands-free way to make healthy, vegetable “pastas” and your own home-made fresh curly fries. It’s made from BPA-free plastic, and it’s under $15. Then you try it and the wheels come off this little red wagon pretty quick. For starters, it’s made with the absolute cheapest materials available. Not “cheap”  as in “affordable”, but “cheap” as in many corners were cut. The metal shaft that holds the crank handle to turn the vegetable holder bent while trying my first potato. Bent. While turning a potato. Yikes. Second, for the product to even work, you need to cut some of the end off for a flat surface for the teeth that hold it to bite into, and the other side flat as well to make good contact with the blades. So you’ve wasted a good potion of food before you even start. The teeth are also plastic, so they don’t bite or hold well. 3 times we had to put the potato back on the teeth. And then to add insult to injury, we had a long potato “tube” from the center of the tater that we could do pretty much nothing with. The blades did their job fairly well, though. They even shaved off a portion of the plastic teeth that held the potato, so you know they’re sharp. I would have liked to try all three styles of blade they advertised, but alas, Kuuk only put two in the box. When I contacted them about this, their sole solution was to blame Amazon and send it back to Amazon for a refund. This was a sealed box. That’s not Amazon’s fault. When I pointed this out and that I received this item for free for the review, iHeadphones (the company that apparently handles distribution for Kuuk) said they’d look into it and then ignored all subsequent emails. Ooooookay then. If that’s how they treat someone who is supposed to be promoting their brand, I don’t hold out much hope for them giving a rat’s behind about the people who gave them money.

In the end, this product was a giant disappointment. From the poor quality of the build, to the missing parts, to the shoddy after-sales service I received, I can’t think of a single reason to recommend this product. It’s one of the few I’ve ever received for review that went straight in the trash. I still hope to one day try a spiralizer from a reputable company, so hope is not entirely lost for the idea, but I have no hope for Kuuk or iHeadphones. I would avoid their products.

 

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I received the above product(s) free of charge from Kuuk via iHeadphones.  I am not obligated to provide a positive or favorable review, just my honest opinion.  My review is based on my experience with the product and/or brand, which may differ from yours.

 

Ninja Master Prep Food & Drink System

I have had some experience with Ninja kitchen systems, having just this year gotten to try out a Ninja Mega Kitchen System. While it was uber cool, and did a lot of things well, I had many dedicated kitchen gadgets that did what the Ninja did, but better. So when I was offered to try out a Ninja Master Prep System, I was game but went in with my eyes wide open.

Like the previous Ninja branded system I used, this one is pretty cool, and does tasks that I previously had to do by hand or with multiple different kitchen gadgets. The Ninja Master Prep system seems indispensable to people who cool a lot (like me!) what with being able to prep multiple things, both sweet and savory, all with just swapping out the Ninja Master Pod (head unit). And with everything but the motor being completely dishwasher safe, prep and cleanup is a breeze! With a large 48 oz. pitcher and a smaller, 16 oz. bowl, it’s good for big jobs, little jobs, and everything in between. The dual-stage blades can be separated for even smaller jobs, but with 4 blades per spindle, and two different spindles, you have enough sharp stuff to make mince meat of just about anything. The work lids seal (almost*) watertight, so there’s very little chance of spilling or messes to clean up. And if you blend a little too much, not to worry, there’s storage lids included. So you can go from countertop prep to kitchen shelf store with no effort at all.

Alas, it’s not all wine and roses with the Ninja Master Prep system. For starters, the warranty isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. You have to pay shipping for your defective unit (bummer!) and shipping for your replacement unit (MAJOR bummer!) essentially making the cost of replacing a new, defective unit on par with buying a new, non-defective unit. Next is the plastic gears that drive the very powerful 400 watt motor. Should you attempt to blend something particularly hard, or thick, the gears could strip and break, rendering the unit useless. And there is plenty of anecdotal evidence all over the net and Amazon to support that this can and does happen, from time to time. Lastly, I must get to my (almost*) comment above. The top of the worklid has space for the blade spindle to pop out and meet up with the Master Pod gear and drive the blades. But if you’ve filled the Prep Pitcher or Prep Bowl too much, or blend too long or vigorously, whatever you blend has a very good chance of spurting out the top, and this happened to me every time I’ve used it so far, to varying degrees. I have no doubt this will eventually make for a horrible, gummy mess as it’s nearly impossible to clean effectively. The same goes for some small crevasses and nooks that will hold onto schmutz and be nigh unreachable without the dishwasher. Sometimes you just want to wash things in the sink and get back to it, but that’s not going to always be possible. And that’s not even mentioning what’ll happen should the gasket that seals that part fail and moisture get into the motor housing.

All those things are a shame, because I really like this unit. It does everything I ask of it, blends like a dream, chops when I want things chopped, and pulverizes when I need something pulverized. So while I can’t give it the vaunted “5 Star” rating, I can go as high as 4 because you can’t really hold a potential failure against something that as of this writing is still going strong.

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I received the above product(s) free of charge for the purpose of review.  I am not obligated to provide a positive or favorable review, just my honest opinion.  My review is based on my experience with the product and/or brand, which may differ from yours.

Kuuk Salad Spinner Review

It’s no secret that many heads of lettuce have met their demise here in our home. In fact, a great many type of produce have, and the one thing they all had in common was being washed and spun dry. I’ve put many a miles on my old OXO salad and herb spinner. So many that the brake no longer worked, and the top started falling apart. Shortly after replacing it, I got an offer to try a version from Kuuk, and boy was I jazzed. Two is always better than one and imagine how much produce could be run through our little cleaning assembly line with 2 spinners going at once!

Sadly, it was not meant to be. While this Kuuk spinner really tries to look like many of the leading brands available in stores, it falls way, way short in design, quality and function. For starters, it’s made quite cheaply. It’s priced competitively, at only $19.95, but it just isn’t made with materials that will last a long time. The major pluses for this are it’s price point and large size. It goes quickly downhill from there.

The design, though, is really where things fell apart for us. From the “latching” lid, to the spinning crank, to the entire unit being unbalanced, it’s just awkward and difficult to use effectively. While most of us have, at one time or another, pressed down the plunger on a spinner, the Kuuk spinner uses a crank lever to spin the mesh strainer inside. And heaven help you if you don’t hold the container firmly on the counter, because it’ll wobble like an unbalanced washing machine and fly right off the counter. And the latch on the side that is supposed to keep the lid on is difficult to line up if only because the plastic the lid is made from has so much flex in it.

In the end, I was disappointed in this product. I wanted to like it, and wanted to really be able to use it more often, but at the end of the day, it just wasn’t meant to be. Also, my experience with the company with another of their products left much to be desired, and I’d be lying if I told you that that didn’t factor in more than a bit when it came to how I felt about this product. Nobody wants to buy products from a company that won’t stand behind them.

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I received the above product(s) free of charge from iHeadphones. I am not obligated to provide a positive or favorable review, just my honest opinion. My review is based on my experience with the product and/or brand, which may differ from yours.