Kitchen
This blender was one of my first kitchen investments at 24 when I wanted something in my small kitchen that would do many things in one. For almost 15 years I use this often every week, it's powerful enough for anything (I always like to put ice in it and show people how in less than 5 minutes I have scaulding hot water just from its speed) and is great for soups from scratch (no need to use the stove as the friction cooks the soup, and friction heat tastes better than stovetop heat) or to make homemade ice creams, smoothies, and any type of drink imaginable. It's great for solids too like nuts, grains, making fresh dough, and mixing items. The thing is built to last decades and they have a good resale value as even a used vitamix has years of service left in it. It's pricey, but definitely pays for itself.
For about a decade I have always enjoyed these automatic coffee and espresso machines. For those really into crisp coffee where you can taste the beans growing environment, I haven't found a better line of machines and that offers so much convienence in a single machine. Well built machines.
Their line of induction (magnetic) rice cookers makes your rice or grains any texture from hard and separate to soft and sticky, and I like that it includes a 'soak' mode to soak the rice first for a few hours, enhancing its' flavor,texture, and gaba/health benefits. You can't burn or mess up with an induction cooker. I stick with brown jasmine or brown basmati rices.
I like to marinate my shrimp, chicken, and veggies, but putting them in a ziplock along with olive oil and whatever mix of spices and all, then shaking it up and putting it in the fridge overnight; it means i have to plan ahead, something i am not the best at. This machine serves a couple great purposes, you throw in whatever you want along with the marinade, then just hit one button. It then removes all the air from the container, which turns the items into a sponge and they suck up all your marinade all the way through, plus the vaccuum acts as a tenderizer as well, and instead of waiting overnight for a marinade which penetrates maybe 10-25% through your items, this machine does it in 15 minutes and the marinade will get all the way through. I find it pretty useful, and it gives great texture to shrimp and chicken as well.
I've always gotten their convection ovens over the years as they serve many functions and never fail my simple needs for a countertop oven; toasting and baking, pizzas from scratch and rotisserie chickens, all in one unit. Another great machine.
I know theres better ways to make green tea, and tea purists would never use such things, but I drink tea daily, and I dont have the time or room to do it proper, and since there's no perfect automatic teamaker out there yet, I use their electric french press water boiler to make all the teas and tisanes I enjoy. Boils a liter in about 3 minutes and auto-shutoff. I can't wait for when they fix all the bugs out of the perfect automatic teamaker (it's got to have adjustable temperature, adjustable steeping time, and use pyrex/glass not plastic).
Not everyone needs a juicer, but I like to get juices from fruits and vegetables including ginger, and to make nut butters and fresh cacao paste and well, just anything i can think of crushing to a pulp. Very easy cleanup and not like the messy juicers of the past. Although I am forever burned out of wheatgrass and can't ever think of it again. Apple juice is probably my most made juice, with some agave and cinnamon added.
A simple hydroponic setup for those without an outdoor garden or just wanting to experiment with it, just add water once a week and you have all the basil and herbs you could possibly use. Plus the running water and plants help freshen the air. It uses less than $3/month of electric. You don't have to use their seed kits, just find some heirloom seeds online and use your own. I prefer various types of basils and chilis to work with, and it's so nice to just clip it fresh and cook. Not much to caretake with these machines, especially the pro200 or deluxe model.
The best under-counter or countertop water filters I could find when researching, plus you can customize your exact needs for water cleaning by building a custom 'kit' or particle removals based on where you live and get your water from. I wanted the best item to get out all the flouride possible and this is what kept popping up in studies and reviews, and they do have a good following around the world.
Their Q series of small patio grills is a nice way to cook chicken, shrimp, tuna, and vegetables with easy cleanup and really compact size that stows away in a closet. I wish I bought one way sooner in life because it's so nice to learn how to grill, and there's nothing like grilled food, a different texture and taste to most any food over cooking in the kitchen. Chicken is the only meat I eat so I dunno about the rest.
If you drink coffee daily, buying your own coffee roaster pays for itself in two years or less. The taste difference between fresh 2-5 day old roasted coffee versus 4-6 month old stale store-bought coffee is a wide difference. It's a pleasure to find good organic green beans and roast them to the exact degree you want, I learned so much about the 7 stages of roasting beans and how to get just the right flavor you want. Green beans are cheap online at places like sweetmarias.com
For a paper-thin santoku knife that doesnt even bend the skin of a tomato when cutting through it, these are a great line-up of knives for the price. I like the feel of them in use, and they have a great lineup although two main knives are all I need.
I use this rotating slicer to mostly make raw zucchini angel hair pasta, which is a delicious dish with olive oil, salt, pepper, and fresh garlic mixed in. I try to stay away from pasta and breads and using this for zucchini pasta tastes even better than real pasta. It makes other thin-sliced items as well like cucumber and carrots and so forth. I had to sell my prior mandolin when I sliced a portion off the side of my hand when daydreaming and slicing zucchini, and this item is a better fit for my needs anyways. If you need anything thread-thin this is the item, I'm sure it's great for potatos too.
My garlic crusher, can opener, corkscrew, tongs, cookware, small knives, peelers, shredders; I own dozens of rosle items in the kitchen, as everything of theirs is thoughtfully designed and has a nice style to them all. It's a step up from OXO items when you get serious in the kitchen. I love roasted garlic bulbs, and garlic on alot of foods, and I know you can put a small bulb in a large oven for an hour to roast it, but that's not too efficient. So I use this small, fast, cost-effective cooker to roast it instead, I know it's a 'gadget' but the money savings alone in electric pays for itself and I can't fault that.
Bedroom
The singlemost item which changed my life was buying these shoes. Whethey they seem unsightly or not is secondary to the fact that they helped me so much; I have seriously flat feet, I have scoliosis of the back, and I have alta patella of the knee. A real wreck I am. It has always been painful to walk long distances, but these shoes changed all that and walking went from a dread to an exciting new extension of life. Even if you aren't as physically defective as me, these still will help your muscle toning, your posture, and overall health.
The concept is that when walking our feet need more of a arc than a flat surface in order to walk, so these simulate if you were walking barefoot on a beach, your feet slightly sinking into the sand and allowing your hips and muscles to use a normal smooth motion instead of just the bang-bang-bang of shoes on concrete. At first they feel awkward because the mind has to release the concept of flat on flat, but after a week you don't think about it and it becomes almost as if you are being propelled forward. I am so thankful for these shoes and I found them at the perfect time in life.
I still have things I wrote at age 7, and even then I enjoyed working by candlelight, and since childhood I have always preferred reading, writing, and studying by candlelight. Something about the 'analog' warmth of the flicker and the shadows it makes a room move in really captivates me over a lamp, it stimulates some part of my mind nothing else can repeat.
Now that smoky, drippy, fast-burning regular wax has been replaced by soy-based wax (I don't know how soy can be used for so many things), candles are now smokeless, dripless, and burn in the dozens of hours (although soy candles are significantly more money). The smell from soy-based candle scents are much more pure than the waxy scents of times past.
I have purchased possibly every candle brand in the commercial markets over two decades, and this brand has some of the best scented ones with unique mixes of pure oils of natural varieties. Buying candles online is not advised unless you can smell them first, and candles smell different once they are actually burning. I could not find the companys website, so this is just some candle retailer who lists some of the ones available. I just rotate the ones I burn so that I don't get sick of the same scent nightly.
If money were no object, the absolute best candle, and you'd have to smell them to know how they are above all other scents, is the Diptyque line of which some descriptions are on THIS site, since Diptyque's site is down for now. Of course, $60 for a regular size glass candle is alot but the scents are frightenly realistic.
It is not exactly a exercise machine, this actually just lets me hang upside down for a few minutes, some times in the morning and some times at night. We know gravity is a bitch, so this item lets my muscles and spine decompress, lets my lymph nodes drain a little, and just overall lets the body undo some of the days stresses. It is amazing how from scalp to toes you feel everything falling into place when upside down. It helps to wake me up in the morning, and it relaxes me at night. There are lots of benefits in being upside down, you'd really have to try it first, in spite of looking silly. Just takes 3-4 times to get used to; at first you think your eyeballs are going to pop out.
Now that LEDs have become somewhat affordable, and the newest generation is finally brighter than regular bulbs, plus it costs pennies a year to run a lamp, this all means I can now feel good about investing in led lightning and ditching all regular bulbs (which I did in 2007). This particular light can be set to any color you could think of and any brightness as well, all by remote control. If I'm not using candles I have my led lights or led desk lamp on. I love being able to set the color and strength of light to fit my moods. My many, many moods.But I like the deepest blues when going to sleep, and nice yellow/green combos during work times. When we all move to leds we will be saving the world and out wallets alot of strain. That time is right around the corner because they finally have no weaknesses, and soon leds the size of a pinkie-tip will light up a whole room nicely.
I've used an air cleaner of one brand or another for about 20 years, and there is definitely a difference with one in your living space. Once you change its' filters and see the junk in them, it's quite a shock to know that is what otherwise would be lying around everywhere in a thin veil. Now I've evolved to the iq-air line of air cleaners, which runs air through 4 types of filters to remove dust, 'living' things, molds, chemical things, and other things that normally would 'thicken' my air. This brand is used in surgical rooms, and is the only air cleaner qualified to remove tubercolsis and a bunch of crazy diseases/bacteria from the air. The final stop in the search for the best air cleaner.
I have also used an air ozonator for over 20 years as well. A 'true' ozonator makes o3 which breaks down to o2 (clean oxygen) within a couple minutes, and that helps purify your air, sort of like 'bleaching' the air. The mistake people make with them is keeping it set too high, you should never be able to tell an ozonator is being used; it should always be set right 'under the radar', because you want to intake the scentless pure o2, not the bleach smell of o3.
I guess every man has to have his toolbox and garage, but 50% of things I need done at work and home can all be accomplished with my dremel and the various accessories they have for it. The first piece of equipment someone should have once they realize they need 'tools' for fixing, cleaning, drilling, and little crafts. Very handy.
My mattress is just 3 stacks of tempurpedic atop each other on a wheeled platform bed. All I can say is I rarely ever wake up at night once I finally fall asleep, it's always a solid sleep, and wherever I can find a place to put tempurpedic, I'll put it there.
Believe it or not, but much of my items I got from Big Lots, the discount clearance chain around the country. Sometimes they suprisingly have nice rugs and chairs and blankets and tables, and even food items. So I went once and stocked up on basics to call a room a room, otherwise it would be pretty bare.
... and see the 'hardware-ergonomics' section too for other items | Food & Drink
There's one thing I collect for the sake of collecting, and that's hot sauces. It's only because I really love hot foods and sauces and can appreciate the different types of heat and places where I feel them, my favorite heat being wasabi with its' sinus heat, and my least favorite is the jalapeno with its' heat of a cheaper tongue burn. This company has a good line of snacks, mostly the chips, I used to buy and eat them by the case until I got sick of all the flavors. I do still buy their collectors bottles though, as they increase with value over the years and hopefully will continue to do so. My first bottle I bought for $100 and it spilled inside my car, and today it's worth over $3000. Too bad.
Most honey is just pasteurized (anything living/healthy is killed in it because its heated before selling) sticky sugar and used as a sweetener. This is an unpasteurized (living) honey with lots of healthy bacteria swimming around, and also has a very high content of hydrogen peroxide which can be beneficial to the digestive system, open wounds, and elsewhere. This is one of those few herbal medicinal items which actually helps resolve multiple health issues inside and outside you, especially with digestive problems, and you can 'feel' it working when you take a spoonful. I buy the 25+ variety of it, and use it in place of most medicines, I do not use it in foods or drink, it's purely for health and too expensive to put into your tea on a whim. It's one of those "from the exotic islands of new zealand comes this limited supply of..." type of deals.
This is just a health drink, a living bacteria culture that populates the digestive system with good healthy bacterias. I've always believed that the 'tiny living guys within' is our first round in breaking down foods and drinks so that we can absorb them. It's hard for people to maintain a good balance of good bacteria and most have too much of bad bacterias, which results in dozens of problems and not just digestive ones. Yogurt, yes, has a small amount of good bacteria (but even then people eat pasteurized yogurt mostly which is dead), but kombucha is the powerhouse end-all be-all of getting good bacteria in you.
This site lists some basics on it, and HERE is an article on it. Now, you can get a living kombucha culture and make your own (just feed it some tea and sugar and it will grow for months and keep generating this juice and finally make a 'baby' before dying off) but that is a process if you have the time to do such things in life, or you can buy it by the bottle at stores, but you MUST get it unpasteurized if you really want to experience its' effects, because again, pasteurized means dead, and dead bacteria doesn't do too much for you. J.T. Synergy is a brand in health stores that is a good one to get, and all kombucha tastes like carbonated pickle-juice with a touch of apple cide vinegar, and it does have a slight alcoholic content. I buy a living concentrate of it online and just take a sip a day, enough to get the bacteria throughout me. Some people drink it daily and swear by it, and some people feel its' effects immediately like a 'high', it just depends on the person, there is nothing that works for everyone.
I've been making and drinking tea for 20+ years as I've never really been into sodas (with corn syrup and preservatives and things which twist my stomach around). This site sells a nice collection of teas, from black (the most 'roasted' teas), and green (the lightest roasted and healthier ones), to white teas (the 'cream' of the tea plants, the pick of the litter), and tisane teas (teas with herbs instead of the actual tea plant). The descriptions and selection is good and it's nice to read through them all if you are into teas, so once a year I place a big order for the all teas I will want for the year, and since some teas are only available for so many weeks a year (because monkey pick the leaves or the blossoms open only once a year, and such things) you have to buy when it's available, not when you want it. I usually drink my tea cold since I brew it in batches. HERE is another tea site worth browsing.
This is where I buy my green coffee beans which I roast, but they sell roasted beans too. I know there are better single-estate organic coffee beans, but this store has a good-enough variety and such great descriptions that it makes it easy to know what you're getting. I only wish they had more organic/free-trade beans, as I prefer to buy such things if given the choice. If you roast beans yourself, the descriptions of roasting and flavors is so in depth you'd never guess there could be so much to say about a bean. the best place to learn about coffee beans overall. HERE is a good place to get roasted hawaiian beans, really delicious but shipping costs can be overwhelming unless you get a good sale.
I've been experimenting with making aging my own vanilla extract with fresh vanilla pods and the best white rums I can find, because I enjoy using vanilla in recipes like some people use salt; it gives a connective bottom-end to some tastes/flavors. but vanilla is overall a flavor that for me never gets old, and if needed can be hidden behind other flavors yet still serve a purpose. I like my bottle stuffed with 50 giant pods and rum and seeing it thicken over time.
I mention thai food a few times here; it's my favorite and good mexican is my second favorite. If you can't whip up curry dishes or thai soups, and who can when things like galangal, kaffir, and lemongrass isn't at publix, then this site does have the best prepackaged thai items. I have tried most all brands and I've tried everything this place sells and everythings been pretty good. They have good specials when you sign up for their monthly emails. The thai tea is fantastic when you add the coldest milk possible and lots of ice, because making thai tea from scratch can get pretty messy since it stains everything around the kitchen.
For 5+ years I've been sometimes using agave nectar instead of sugar or honey, depending on the 'type' of sweet taste I am trying to get at. Agave is very sweet and tastes like a 'cooked' sugar, but it's much healthier than sugar or honey. It's from the same cactus plant that tequila comes from, and this companies agave has a taste I prefer over other agaves I've found. I will always enjoy trying all the types of sugars there are, and you'd be surprised at how sugars can vary in flavor, but when I can use agave without ruining a taste, I will use it because it's much much healthier.
I rarely buy prepackaged food unless it's something organic with few additives. This brand makes the best of all prepackaged foods, simple ingredients and comes close to the fresh-made versions, plus they make it in my favorite ethnic food, thai. The coconut, ginger, chilis, limes, and herbs are all things close to my heart and tongue. If you can't go out and shop for all the fresh ingredients to make thai, this lineup which is at any store can do the trick. Second to this company would be the 'annies naturals' lineup for prepackaged foods.
If I am not drinking green tea or water, then I treat myself to coconut water by zico or another brand of fresh coconut-water-only ingredients. There's alot of benefits to drinking it over most all other drinks for energy and overall health, this link lists some of the benefits. It goes instantly into your bloodstream to hydrate and give the right nutrient, and has actually been used as a replacement to human blood during wartime since it's so close to human blood plasma. I think it might be the one thing even better than pure water itself when it comes to health and hydration.
An asian (mostly thai) online store. If you are looking for a certain spice, fresh food, or asian condiment, or if you just live too far away from a good store, or don't have the time, then this site has the biggest selection I've found online. There's also good recipes and hints listed on this site, it's a good resource if you are into thai food. My mouth waters just thinking about it.
I have never used them as it would take a bigger wallet than mine to afford the luxury of home-delivered foods, but here's a organic food delivery service for south florida. Their selection of fruits and vegetables include magical and delicious looking things i never knew existed. Browsing through their site could be a good incentive for me to work harder, but if you can afford it, there's the best selection of any home-delivery place I have found online.
If you are into cheeses this online site has the biggest selection I've found. Once a year I place an order with them for about a dozen cheeses, especially when they have a good sale. I think they have over 500 cheeses, and they are pricey, but otherwise where else can you find some of these cheeses. I've had about 150 types so far, and truffle cheeses are my favorite, I sit in front of the fridge and nibble at a pound like a rat in the dead of night.
Fresh real wasabi is very hard to come by, even if you think you've had it, you probably haven't. That's because once plucked from the ground the root only remains fresh for a few days, and when it is grated the heat only lasts for minutes. Everything in the stores and everything in even the best of sushi restaurants is just horseradish with green coloring, and once you try real wasabi only then can you tell the difference. This site sells a powdered form, which is very new since even making it powdered is difficult. Fresh root goes for about $75 a pound.
This is actually a kitchen appliance, but it lets you make carbonated water and sodas. I just put some regular ole' water in a glass bottle, put it in the machine, pump it 3 times, and ta-da, it's carbonated. From there you just add the flavoring you want, I like to add fresh lemon or limes, or fresh ginger and honey, or vanilla and cream with perhaps a touch of cherry juice. To be able to make your own fresh 3-ingredient sodas is fantastic, and really cost effectivel if I went to the store to buy a liter of organic soda I'd pay about $2, with this it is about 25 cents at most, so it pays for itself in a year. But you have to like penguins.
In case you didn't know it, Amazon actually has an impressive collection of organic foods, all with free shipping and good prices. I'd say 1/3rd of my food now comes from Amazon, I just feel bad when my UPS man comes to my door multiple times a week with the cases saying "geez man whats going on in there that you got so many things coming from amazon all the time?". Keep Amazon in mind if you need healthy food in bulk. No shipping, no taxes, better prices than costco.
Here's just some random facts about olive oil, I use it 90% of the time over butter, and I love trying and buying new types of first cold pressed oils wherever I can find them. I put olive oil on most every food I make because it is just so healthy and it just so good to taste when you buy a 'real' olive oil not just some 'cooking' lower brand and quality.
Otherwise I cook alot with coconut oil which is extremely healthy as well and better for higher temperature cooking. If cooking veggies or asian I could also use sesame and grapeseed oils as well.
Here's an online store which has a nice selection of spices, I like trying various peppercorns and salts from all over and tasting the differences. I use very little salt, and often use pepper, on most foods, and other spices I rarely use, but Penzeys, the link here, has one of the bigger online selections if you need to stock up before the Spice Wars of 2012. Good for learning about spices as they explain each clearly.
These are the 'supplements' I've been taking for about a decade now. I've tried dozens of nootropics and supplements but this is what I have settled on and stuck with. To each his own.
Dining
A personal taste, but I like the smooth lines of this silverware, especially the 22 line.
I'm into selecting exact salts and peppercorns, so I make sure I can use an adjustable electric grinder to get exactly the size and texture of both. These grinders are solid machines, built before they made cars.
They're lightweight, unbreakable, bacteria-resistant, renewable, and inexpensive. Plus they dont look too bad, so I replaced all my plates, bowls, cutting boards, and such all with bamboo items.
For plastic glasses I like these the most, they have a 'vaccuum' seal in their walls, so they keep drinks literally cold/hot for 3-5x longer than regular glasses, and they don't 'sweat' like regular glasses. They are very lightweight and don't break, and I believe a there's a lifetime warranty from the company even if you break them by accident. I prefer the plain clear ones with nothing fancy on them.
For real crystal glasses, I like their line of simple glasses in their glassware section, nice clean design and blown by hand, and they too are 'double-walled' so they don't sweat, and they keep drinks hot/cold for hours, but they are very fragile and need tender care, being thin glass. Most of bodum's items for coffee and tea are all great accessories though for the price.
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