Lark & Lola

I've been wanting to start a new blog series called "Favorite Things Friday" to share some of my favorite products with you. Everything from makeup to cleaning products to {today's} kitchen gadgets and then some--hey, if Oprah can do a Favorite Things series, so can I!

I decided to start with something easy for my first post, I'm going to show you a few of my favorite new kitchen gadgets by a Swiss company called Kuhn Rikon. {Pronounced "KOON ree-KAHN"} Their products have truly blown me out of the water lately. Here's why...

I'll start with my first ever Kuhn Rikon product, a can opener I got a couple months ago. My husband and I celebrated 8 years of marriage this January, and one night as I was straining to open a can of beans with our old can opener, I realized that the piece of trash {which was rusting, but had never worked well} had been our one and only can opener for our entire 8 years of marriage. I nearly snapped my wrist off before deciding to divorce the 8 year old piece of junk once and for all. I was so fed up, I went straight to my computer, pulled up Amazon, and hunted the can opener with the best reviews. Five minutes later, I had ordered this Kuhn Rikon can opener and was back to making dinner.

When it arrived, it proved to me that the rave reviews were truly right on. I love this can opener. Also, I deserve this can opener, after 8 years of a strained relationship with my last can opener...

Why do I love it? It's different to use than any other can opener out there, but once I read the directions and got the hang of it, I was opening cans without any straining. It cuts the can by crimping the edge, and then you use the little white button and the "beak" on the sides to pry off the lid. No mess, no cross-contamination, the can opener never touches the food directly, it cuts smooth edges, it's effortless to use, and it helps me keep my favorite silicone spatulas safe with I scrape the cans!

On the other end is an additional tool for opening drinks and cans with ring tops. Those of you who spend valuable money getting manicures can thank me later. ;-)

I LOVE my new can opener, and I was impressed by Kuhn Rikon. I know it seems like a small thing to rave about, and maybe it's that I was coming off the rebound from a 8-year relationship with a deadbeat can opener...but the design and brilliance in this product says something about Kuhn Rikon, in my opinion. The Swiss are geniuses, I tell you!

So, when Amazon sent me this second Kuhn Rikon product a few weeks later to test and review for them {I do reviews for Amazon through the Amazon Vine program, I must have been targeted for reviewing Kuhn Rikon products because of my recent purchase}, I was excited to try another product by Kuhn Rikon.

Behold, the Swiss Pull and Chop:

Do you have one of those choppers with the plunger? Because that's what I've been using for forever, the one from Pampered Chef. But now I've moved on, because I like this Pull & Chop even better. It's basically just a cup with a removable spinning blade attachment, and a lid that operates it.

I really wasn't sure when I first got this product, but since first trying it I've used it countless times and I love it. You just put your food in {in this case, I'm doing a whole medium onion}, put the lid on, and pull:

Depending on how many pulls you give it, this powerful chopper can give you anything from chunky to minced. See here, as I took a picture with each pull, from 1 to 6 pulls:

It's extremely efficient, easy to use, and easy to clean. I even made a double pie crust dough in it last week, it was a tight squeeze, but I did it. So much easier than pulling out a food processor. The instructions also include several recipes for things like hummus or salsa, you just place the ingredients in the Pull and Chop, and then you can mix/chop, pull the blade out, and serve! Love it.

Finally, I was also given the opportunity to try these silicone "Splatter Guards" from Kuhn Rikon.

These are very versatile kitchen gadgets that come in a variety of colors, see for yourself. They are splatter guards, for when cooking with things that have a lot of oil and heat. But you can also use them to help strain pasta in a pot, keep microwaving food covered but vented, and according to the label, you can even bake pizza and cookies on them--as they are oven safe for up to 450 degrees.

I decided to test this today, since I happened to have some cookie dough around.

Sure enough! I'm excited to use them for pizzas, since they're the perfect size. I also really like the handles.


So there you have it, Favorite Things Friday No. 1! Kuhn Rikon is a brand I had never heard of until a few months ago, but now I'm sold, I'll try anything they make because so far I've loved using their genius products. And the reviews on Amazon for their products speak for themselves, almost all their products seem to have 4 & 5 stars. I really have my eye on their Watermelon Knife next...