A 2-slice Viking Professional Toaster “Caught My Eye”

Right now there are some very good holiday deals going on and here’s one that “caught my eye”. A bright red Viking 2-slice Professional Toaster that’s $100 off the regular price at Cooking.com.

We have a decent, inexpensive toaster now that works ok but this one has a lot of style and looks like it’s built for the long haul. I’m not going to spend $250 on any toaster. I don’t care if it toasts 5 bagles and 10 slices of bread but take off $100, I’d think about it.

According to Viking, this toaster is professional-grade and offers restaurant quality toast (I didn’t know there was a difference). The toaster is built with plenty of insulation to keep the heat in thus maximizing the toasting process. Made of stainless steel with “hydraulic engaging and lifting action levers” (sounds like a truck’s lift-gate) and wide slots to accommodate bagels, the toaster features Viking’s exclusive design and tooling. Ok, I’m interested and it would look very cool next to my red blender and red food processor.

One reviewer said, “We’ve had a lot of toasters, and this one is by far the very best. Bread, bagels, English muffins, pop tarts, frozen waffles, it handles them all very well and toasts evenly…If you can spare the cash, it is a great toaster and should be the last toaster we ever have to buy. It also looks great on the counter.”

It also comes in white and a 4-slice Model .

I’ve already purchased a bunch of Christmas presents for my wife and me at Cooking.com so I can recommend using them. They offer competitive prices and good service even around these busy holiday times.

Right now there are a bunch of great deals going on some of my favorite cookware and kitchen items plus they have some special shipping deals. Here’s the link to their Special Values page including KitchenAide, All-Clad Cookware, Calphalon, Henckels and a lot more. I’ll be offering some more gift ideas over the next couple of days in my “Caught My Eye” category.

I’m not sure about your, but I find shopping on the Internet and staying out of the frenzy at the malls much easier. Either way, Happy Holidays.

Caught My Eye

While browsing through my endless stream of catalogs, this Esperienze Wine Decanter “caught my eye” in the Wine Enthusiast. I am a huge fan of wine decanters and have several.

Not only are they elegant to pour wine from, they serve a very useful purpose by exposing wine to air and thus allowing a young wine to soften and an older wine to open up. With older wines, there is often the need to “decant” them to separate the wine from the sediment at the bottom of the bottle.

I’ll work on an article about the whys and how’s of decanting wine and post it on my web site but for now I just wanted to share with you this very beautiful and useful decanter that caught my eye.

The Esperienze Wine Decanter is from Luigi Bormioli and is designed by Federico DeMajo. Made in Italy, this decanter is lead free and has been designed with tiered concentric circles (ripples) at the bottom to help facilitate the combination of air and wine. When you pour wine from the decanter, it flows over the ripples allowing more oxygen to be introduced to the wine.

If you are decanting an older wine, I’m guessing some of the sediment will get stuck between the ripples making it easier to decant. Either way, it’s a gorgeous looking decanter and I know just who I want to give one to this holiday season.

Measures 9 ½ inches high and weighs 88 ounces.

You can find it at the Wine Enthusiast by clicking this link: Esperienze Wine Decanter .

Going through that same Uncommongoods.com catalog, my eye caught another interesting piece of merchandise that may be a sleeper gift for anyone who loves to cook. It’s called Foodie Fight and is a trivia game that let’s “foodies strut their culinary stuff.”

I like that there are now games for us foodies. This one has over 1,000 questions on subjects ranging from culinary science, food history, famous chefs and exotic cuisine. It comes with 169 trivia cards, 108 pieces, and 6 game boards.

If you enjoy buying cookbooks, subscribing to cooking magazines or spend hours watching the Food Network, you are going to love this game. It’s on my list. I just hope my wife reads my blog.

The game can be found at Uncommongoods.com and costs $19 bucks plus shipping.