Here, Piggy Piggy...

La Caja China est arrivee. Let the roasting begin.

Artsy Wednesday: Pantone Kitchen Canisters

On Monday, Libby sent me a link to these cute Pantone kitchen containers (via Apartment Therapy). Aren't they great? There's a bright blue one for tea that I really love - and that I think would look great in my kitchen.

These are a perfect gift, really, for anybody in graphic design or advertising. Back in my agency days, I would've wanted a whole set.

Molecularly Gastronomic Toddlers

My initial reaction to this Sara Dickerman article in Slate was total relief. I'm not the only one who desperately wants her kid to love food - or, at the very least, eat something vaguely unprocessed and vegetable-related - but who is encountering some, um, difficulties.

For as much guac and hummus and chicken saag as Dixon will eat off my plate, his everyday menu is embarrassingly heavy on the chicken fingers and pizza...and light on the veggies.

Dickerman tried to overcome a similar veg-hesitancy in her 4-year old son ("The Critic") by every means possible. Her latest effort involved a $200 molecular gastronomy toolkit put together by Ferran Adria, the thought being that maybe crazy texture would trump vegetable taste, and The Critic would be won over to the dark (and leafy green) side.

After my initial fascination (thinking "I am totally asking for this for Christmas!"), reality set in and I remembered that there's no way I'd spend time making tomato spheres and carrot "air" just to get Dixon to ingest a fraction of a serving of veggies.

Which suggests that maybe Dixon's reluctance has a little something to do with my laziness. Hmmm. I might choose not to think about that, either.

Artsy Wednesday: Frigidaire Sheer Look Appliances

I've been linking to Deep Glamour a lot lately, I know. Their posts are just so interesting to me.

Like this one, on Frigidaire's 1957 ad campaign rolling out a complete redesign of their kitchen appliances. The name of the line, Sheer Look, is a less apt description of the appliances themselves and more an overt attempt to lend some glamour to the new look of the stuff.

The appliances themselves look familiar to us - they're boxy and white and look like, well, kitchen appliances (in the days before stainless was everything, at least) - but they must have looked very futuristic to housewives back in the day.

The ad shows off the new line via a couple dancing through the appliances:



Old school glamour? I suppose so, of course my new school self couldn't help but think that we see much, much better dancing on So You Think You Can Dance. Proof of evolution, I guess.

Overall, what an interesting time capsule piece. There's the dancing, the design, the assumption of the consumer mindset. All of this takes place in the years just before the creative revolution - in the days that immediately precede the world of Mad Men. It's as foreign to me as if it was 100 years ago, not just 50. Fascinating.

Artsy Wednesday: Parkett

OK, so it's definitely more artsy than foodie, and yes, in case you're wondering, I did find this through the modern day Sex and the Cityish Daily Candy (what? am I worried about my nonexistent indie cred?), but how cool is the rainbow-colored rolling pin on the Parkett home page? And who doesn't love a little bit of German text in their art magazine?

(I always find it fascinating that German is the core language of art history. I remember thinking in college - really? German? What happened, Italy? But I digress.)

Really, I just love a good art magazine.

Plus, again, how cool is that rolling pin?

Trendy Monday: The Dwell Kitchen Blog

Dwell is my new favorite magazine. Oh, I know: it's not new. I've actually been reading it, here and there, for years. But for some reason - maybe it's my focus on the addition? - I've been obsessed with it for the past few months.

Reading the March issue last night, I was pleasantly surprised to see a note about their newish kitchen blog. Pretty pictures, succinct and clear writing, cool products.

All in all, pretty great way to keep up on kitchen trends, if you ask me.

Trendy: Preserve Kitchen Products

Not that you'd know it from reading any of the ten million "hot trends" lists that have been published over the past month, but the newest and coolest ideas in the kitchen aren't necessarily edible.

The line of Preserve products from Recycline (designed in partnership with Evo Design) are an ideal example. Innovatively designed and made from 100% recycled plastic, the line includes cutting boards, colanders and food storage containers.

While the trend here is that whole green thing...these caught my eye because they look cool, too. Which is, obviously, of paramount importance chez Pollard.

Christmas List

It's that time of year again: the time when multiple family members ask me what I want for Christmas and my birthday (it's the 22nd, just in case anyone would like to send me a gift. I will be 32. Which sounds old to me, but I digress.)

I happen to think that I'm just about the easiest person ever to shop for. I mean, I never, ever have trouble buying things for myself. In fact, this Christmas shopping season alone, I've bought myself a painting (a little one - we're going to decorate our new master bathroom around it - I love it), at least one Christmas tree ornament, a dress, a skirt, an awesome sweater (on sale), about five books and 10 pairs of gloves (Target has such cute gloves: 2 pairs for $1.49. Amazing!) I have also purchased gifts for almost everyone on my list, too, but really, I'm not so hard.

But just in case anyone needs help, and as a reminder for me, when I'm doing my AFTER-Christmas personal shopping, the Internet, as usual, comes through with great ideas I'd never have thought of on my own. It's the season for the blogger/ reporter "wish list" article. I've seen a million of them, but I have a couple of favorites:

Mr. Henry, Manolo's blogger of the gourmanderie, offers a few lists, including this one, which focuses on kitchenware that is not only useful, but design-y, too. He is a man after my own heart, that one. In addition to being a good list (though I've got some of what's on it), it totally vindicates one of my kitchen design decisions - the only one questioned by the architect. She was like "You'll have all these cabinets, so you can even put away your KitchenAid mixer". And I was like "The mixer stays on the counter. It is so much more than just an appliance." Plus, it's really heavy. But I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks of it as kitchen sculpture.

In Slate, Sara Dickerman takes on the oh-so-arduous task of recommending books for would-be (and be-be) food snobs. Bill Buford does something similar for the New Yorker, but with the emphasis on (mmmm) meat. Both lists are fantastic, but I have to admit that I have a preference for Dickerman's (btw, she might be my new favorite writer. I looove Buford, but something about Dickerman's content and style has been really appealing to me lately. I've been linking to, like, everything she writes).

Specifically, I really want the first book she recommends: The Food Snob's Dictionary. It's like it's written for me: kind of jokey and really designed for somebody who pretends to know more than they actually do about food. Perfect.

Of course, as I've told Cooper (so he'll get it for me), the only thing I really actually do want this year is a potato ricer. I know: the most random gift ever. But this Christmas Eve, I'll be going to sleep with visions of perfectly fluffy mashed potatoes dancing in my head...

And sugar plums, of course. Wouldn't be Christmas without them.

Kitchen Toys - My First Love

salad spinner
Originally uploaded by Kit Pollard.

Long before I started to learn to cook properly, I learned to make salads. Beautiful, tasty, crunchy salads. Salads that would feel at home on a restaurant menu.

So it fits that my very first kitchen toy was an OXO salad spinner. My mom has a funky orange Zyliss salad spinner, a wedding present from the early seventies. At first, I thought it was the most unnecessary piece of equipment ever. A few months later, I realized that it was an awesome toy.

And I bought myself one. Then I went crazy with it. Much to the amusement of Cooper and friends.

Then something odd happened. As I started to learn how to cook things beside salad, and to receive the entire Williams Sonoma catalog as wedding and shower gifts, my romance with my salad spinner waned. I had new toys to play with - a fancy French mandoline, a Nigella-inspired mezzaluna, a mixer just like Barefoot's.

These days, fickle as I am, my salad spinner sits in a hard-to-reach cabinet above my refrigerator, gathering dust. I dry my lettuce with paper towels (which, actually, works a lot better if you don't want your lettuce broken and beaten down). And I'm constantly on the lookout for a new toy.

But don't worry. I won't forget you entirely, salad spinner. As they say, you never forget your first.