Whether you’re really unskilled at BBQ’ing, or have just always wanted a pair of tongs with a built-in LCD display, these digital BBQ tongs look like a half-decent accessory for what little there is left of Summer. Sensors in the tip measure the meat’s internal temperature and sound an alarm when it’s ‘done’ according to one of the seven meat-type presets you’ve selected. It of course also includes a built-in LED flashlight for grilling in the dark or during a solar eclipse, and runs off 2xAAA batteries which are actually included. $39.98 from Taylor Gifts.
Have you ever been out hiking and gotten stranded? I can’t say that I have, but I can only imagine that it would not be a fun ordeal. One problem you’ll no doubt run into if unprepared would be finding food. I’ve never attempted to forage for food, and really wouldn’t know where to begin. The smart move is to pack some kind of food in with your hiking gear. If you’re really smart, you might pack these HotCans.
These cans come in three flavors (Beef Casserole, Sausage and Beans, and Vegetable Chili) and heat up of their own accord. Just remove the lid, pop a few holes and wait for the steam to start rising. Who knows how tasty the meals are, but if you’re unable to get a fire going, any hot meal is going to be awesome. At $8 a can they are a bit expensive, but when you’re not hiking they would go nicely in your fallout shelter.
Just because you’re trying to live an eco-friendly lifestyle doesn’t mean you should go without such luxuries as blended drinks. That’s why Peddler’s Wagon is selling this Stationary Bike Blender Kit which basically lets you mount a pedal-powered blender to the back of your bike.
Now the key words here are ’stationary’ and ‘bike’ since the blender is only designed to be used while your bicycle is mounted to a stationary trainer. Technically there’s nothing stopping you from taking a spin around the block while mixing up a smoothie, but there doesn’t appear to be any tie-downs for the included Oster pitcher, so there’s a good chance it wouldn’t stay attached to your bike for that long. You can order the kit from the Peddler’s Wagon site for $249, but at that price you better be enjoying a fancy drink for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Yep, it’s official, I’m an idiot. This was indeed an April Fool’s gag, however, I have held a tube of actual bacon paste in my hand, so I know it’s a real product.
Were it not for the fact that there was once a small tube of this stuff in my fridge that I brought back from Amsterdam, I would have assumed that Squeez Bacon was a holdover from ThinkGeek’s April Fool’s Day antics. But I’m afraid this stuff is as real as it gets. It was originally created by Vilhelm Lillefläsk shortly after WWII by precooking and blending real bacon to create a delicious paste. The process is still relatively similar today, though it’s been refined to a “patented electro-mechanical process” which actually results in a product that needs no preservatives or other additives, just old-fashioned bacon goodness!
Available from ThinkGeek for $7.99 a bottle, Squeez Bacon is a bit more expensive than other domestic condiments, but it’s got one clear advantage over ketchup, mustard and relish; It’s bacon!
I’m sure that plenty of you were at one time a college kid, or were broke and trying to make it on your own at 18. Eating pizza 5 nights a week was considered normal ordeal, which meant that you had a lot of empty boxes and old paper plates lying around. Sometimes I used to tear up the pizza box lid and use it for paper plates. It was a nice way to use less plates, and the boxes took up less room on top of the fridge when they were in pieces. Unfortunately if there were any leftover slices, we had no boxes to keep them in. Sure, we’d use ziplock bags, if anyone ever remembered to buy them.
Now enter the GreenBox. It’s a regular-looking pizza box that has some cool hidden features. The top breaks down into four small plates, while the bottom becomes a small storage box. All it takes is a few quick tears and you’re done. I know that I’d love it if my pizza started coming in one of these boxes. It’s green, I’m using less paper and plastic, not to mention the fact that the boxes are taking up less room in my kitchen.
How brilliant is this? The Boogie Woogie salt and pepper shakers designed by Hauke Murken and Sven Hansen each feature a set of over-sized wheels allowing them to be rolled across the dinner table whenever anyone asks you to pass the salt and pepper. I assume the shakers are weighted on the bottom so they remain upright at all times, even when being rolled, and the anodized aluminum finish is the icing on the cake, or salt on the fries, depending on how you look at it. The best part though is that this isn’t a concept, but an actual product that will be hitting store shelves sometime in May. Though which stores specifically remains a mystery.
It might have brought you years of frustration as a child, but as a grown-up you can now use the power of the Rubik’s Cube for good. Or at least good taste. This set of salt and pepper mills are made to look like the iconic twisting puzzle cubes from the 80’s, but instead of messing up the colored grid pattern, the twisting motion is actually used to grind out your choice of salt or pepper.
They’re available from I Want One Of Those for about $16.55 each. Yeah, you have to buy them separately.
Ready for a new addiction? How about ‘whiffing’ chocolate? Yes, that’s right, now you can satisfy all of your most serious chocolate cravings without even chewing… Just inhale a mouthful of aerosolized chocolate powder from a vaporizer: “it fills your mouth with almost pure chocolate – it tastes really good.” Oh, and incidentally, the powder has zero calories. The Le Whif inhalers are disposable, and cost about $2.50 each if you buy them in singles. Each one is good for a couple whiffs, and they come in mint chocolate, raspberry chocolate, mango chocolate, and of course plain, unadulterated, hardcore chocolate.
Even though it’s April 10th, I’m still kinda wondering whether or not this is real, especially since the company has bigger plans on the horizon:
“Chocolate is only the beginning – we’re going to be unveiling more different types of food in the future. Two Michelin-starred chef Thierry Marx is even working with us to develop meals, such as a mint-flavoured inhaler to go alongside his lamb dishes. Eventually we could be having three course meals this way.”
Three course aerosolized meals. As long as we’ve got some Soylent Green to flesh it out, we’ll never have to worry about food ever again.
A bakery in Shoreditch, London called Albion Cafe is now able to let their loyal customers know what’s fresh out of the oven thanks to the ever-growing social oddity known as Twitter. (@AlbionsOven) The BakerTweet is an Arduino-based box equipped with wifi that allows someone at the cafe to turn the dial to what’s cooking, and then simply hit a button to send a tweet to those following. The BakerTweet was actually developed by Poke, a “digital creative agency” who just happens to be located across the street from the Albion Cafe. Coincidence? Obviously not, but getting fresh baked goods first is as good a use for Twitter as I can think of.
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