Cool, velvety, and smooth, nothing beats a cold brew for a caffeine kick. A cold-brew specific coffee machine is designed for cold brew, with features designed for minimizing acidity and ensuring grounds are kept out of the liquid. Models range from low-tech to high-end, providing you with plenty of options to make the perfect cup, every time.

This product uses an infusion method to create cold brew, meaning that set up the evening before is essential. Add grounds to the center infuser; fill the carafe with water, and wait 8 hours before sipping. A longer brew yields stronger coffee; infuser can be left in for up to 36 hours. Once the brew is made, it can be stored in the airtight pitcher for up to two weeks in the fridge.

The “nitro” in nitro cold brew comes from nitrogen cartridges. The nitrogen gas blend gives your cold brew a foamy, beer-like top as well as a smooth blended taste. But to make nitro, you’ve first got to have cold brew on hand. Either DIY or use a cold brew blend from the store, then screw on the top and load in the cartridges. A few shakes later and an hour or so in the fridge, and your nitro is ready — minus the long coffee shop line and pricy beverage tab.

This design-conscious model looks good on countertops, and provides an even brewing process for hot or cold coffee. The “Rainmaker” top — a perforated filter — is designed to evenly distribute water on grounds for a rich, even concentrate. Once steeped for 12 to 24 hours, the concentrate can be mixed with ice and cold water for a cold brew, or with hot water for a hot coffee. The model can also be used for ice teas as well.

A beverage refrigerator can quickly go from a “nice to have” accessory to an essential. Whether it’s keeping water bottles cool in a home office or having a wet bar readily stocked for evening cocktails, a beverage refrigerator serves two purposes: Not only does it hold chilled beverages at the ready, but it frees up storage space in your primary refrigerator. And while anything can “be” a beverage fridge, specially designed beverage refrigerators have unique components, including specially calibrated temperatures to hold your favorite beer just above freezing. From low-key to luxe, here’s the best in keeping every drink — from your ales to your zinfandels — at the exact right temp.

This low-key model offers 3.2 cubic feet of storage, including a small freezer that’s ideal for holding ice. Door can attach to swing in either direction for maximum flexibility. Can easily hold beers, wine, and other beverages in a wet bar or garage or can be used as spillover storage to keep snack supplies cool.

This model can instantly upgrade the decor of the wet bar. But it does more than look cool. A precise temperature calibration is created by circulation fans working in tandem with the unit’s compressor. Unit can be set via a touchscreen to as low as 36 degrees, so you can keep up to 140 standard-size beer or soda cans perfectly chilled.

Displaying the wines you are serving is helpful to guests — and giving them access to choosing their own pours brings the party to the next level. This vertical wine refrigerator makes all bottles easy to access via sliding racks. Temperature setting runs between 41 to 68° allows you to pick the ideal temperature for your bottles.

A beverage fridge doesn’t have to take up major real estate to make a difference. This 1.7 cubic foot model has a footprint just under 2x2 but can hold up to 65 cans. A removable shelf allows you to customize your storage space, although the model is designed primarily for standard size beer and soda cans. Temperature ranges from 37 to 60° F with seven different thermostat settings give you options in just how cool you want your beverages.

We’ve been trained to think about the basic design and usefulness of a kettle since kindergarten: “I’m a little teapot - short and stout. Here is my handle, here is my spout.” That friendly little ditty dates back to 1941, when tea was all the rage in Britain during the second world war. Today, it’s a good reminder that when it comes to shopping for a kettle, the basics are always important. Much has evolved over the decades - electric kettles are the latest appliances to love thanks to their energy-efficient construction. Here are a few electric kettles that will fit you to a T.

This electric kettle has every feature a coffee or tea fan needs, including real-time temperature display, a count-up timer, gooseneck spout and BPA-free construction. The kettle can be adjusted to single digit increments, allowing you to brew the perfect cup.

This gooseneck kettle looks like a droid straight out of Star Wars. Aside from its “Empire”-friendly exterior, it features an auto shut-off switch, stainless steel construction, a chemical-free lining and five temperature presets. The spout is designed for optimal pour-over rates and the counterbalanced handle makes the entire experience more comfortable.

Boil up to a liter of water quickly with this 1,500-watt kettle from AmazonBasics. The filter can be easily removed for easy and frequent cleaning. It’s ideal for anything from tea to coffee or even cooking instant soup.

The stunning look is probably the first thing you notice about this kettle, but wait until you use it. A halo of blue LED lights illuminate the pot when it’s in use while a planet-friendly liner safely boils water without the danger of BPA particles. An auto shutdown button keeps the kitchen and house safe when brewing is complete.

Have you tried cooking with an air fryer? These handy little countertop devices circulate hot air around food to create what’s essentially a convection oven. It is especially handy for traditionally fried foods, such as chicken tenders, potatoes, and more.

The end result is a crispy and delicious meal without the need to use dangerous and unhealthy hot oil. Families in particular love the air fryer because most models are simple enough that even a child can use them with minimal supervision. Most even feature pre-set displays that allow you to get the right temperature and time every single use.

Our team has put together a list of our favorite air fryers. Take a look and find one that meets your family’s needs and budget so that you can try out the process for yourself.

Of course, we already love Ninja for their vast selections of blenders and other household appliances. But their air fryer definitely does not disappoint. This 1550-watt programmable unit offers a temperature range from 105 to 405 degrees, allowing you to cook your favorite foods in a healthier and safer way. In fact, the spacious interior allows you to cook up to two whole pounds of french fries—enough for a hungry family or a group of sports fans ready to watch the game.

If you’re looking for a basic but affordable model, this fryer is an excellent choice. A compact design and scratch-free finish makes this unit a top pick for those who want to see what owning an air fryer is all about, but don’t want to commit to using it daily. Four color options are available, and an LED display makes setting cooking times and temperatures an easy task.

This model by Cosori is an ideal choice for a number of reasons. Eleven presets give you the option of cooking your favorite meals for the perfect amount of time every single time. Three color options easily coordinate with your existing appliances and kitchen style for a modern appeal. And the cooking basket is dishwasher safe, making it an excellent option for busy families who don’t have time to hand-wash.

Featuring a sleek design with a modern appeal, this air fryer features a 5.8-quart capacity, which is spacious enough to prepare just about any meal. Eight cooking presets make it easy to get the right temperature for your favorite foods including fries/chips, pork, chicken, steak, shrimp, cake, fish and pizza. It even features a great stop and start button to allow you to change time and temperature right in the middle of cooking.

Perhaps the best part about this particular air fryer is the numerous accessories it comes with. A divider for the cooking basket makes preparing two kinds of foods at once simple, while additional pans like the cake pan, an 8-inch pizza pan, and a silicone cupcake pan allow you to branch out into trying new recipes.

We love snacking on a good cracker. Some only come out when guests are over, like salty, snappy flatbreads that double as hors’devours. Others are best eaten when no one’s around, like a rich butter cracker or a cheesy, nostalgia-inducing childhood snack. Then there are those that put on a good face — vegan! gluten-free! low-cal! — that are likewise addicting. Either way, crackers in your pantry are a must. These are our favorites.

Schmear them with goat cheese. Smother them with hummus. Speckle them with leftover chicken salad. Or just eat them straight out of the box. These pantry staples are so simple (just whole wheat, oil, and salt), there’s really no end to what you can do with them.

This tasty, vegan, gluten-free option might actually drive you crackers. (In a good way.) The savory, sesame-studded crisp adds dimension to everything from smoked salmon to peanut butter and, unlike many gluten-free options, doesn’t crumble under pressure.

The perfect runway for a gooey glob of Brie? A salty, sourdough flatbread. It’s like a cross between a cracker and a breadstick, and it most definitely deserves a spot on your cheeseboard.

The salty, crunchy, cheesy crackers of your childhood are just as addicting as an adult. Good luck putting the bag down once you open it.

Conveniently packed in a portable pouch, these go-with-everything butter crackers are ready to travel at a moment’s notice.

Made with a heart-healthy blend of almond flour, sunflower seeds, and flax seeds, these gluten-free crackers are great for snacking throughout the day, guilt-free. They come in a variety of flavors, including cheddar, which is reminiscent of a not-so-bad-for-you Cheez-It.

These petite toasts make a great foundation for bite-sized bruschetta, a touch of tapenade, or a dash of caviar. Leave it to the French to make a cracker this cute.

The classic butter crackers need no introduction. Whether you’re covering them with Cheez-Whiz at 3 a.m. or knocking them back by the stack-full, these salty circles always hit the spot.

When it comes time for entertaining, you want a cracker that pleases the crowd — and looks good on a platter. These Scandinavian flatbreads fit the bill, whether you doll them up a la avocado toast or just schmear them with some cream cheese and top with cucumbers.

Can’t decide between Wheat Thins, Goldfish, and Ritz crackers? Get ‘em all. The 40-pack comes with two single-serve bags each of a variety of classic crackers and is perfect for packing lunch boxes, keeping the office snack drawer stocked, or just nibbling throughout the day.

Maybe it’s because they remind us of old diners. Or maybe it’s because they’re always there for us when we need to jazz up a sad desk lunch. Either way, we have a soft spot for soup crackers, pun intended.

Whether you’re interested in spiralizing vegetables to replace carbs or simply to work more vitamins and nutrients into your diet, spiralizers are ideal for helping you get the vegetables you desire in fun and easy-to-consume ways.

The original Spiralizer can handle almost anything. Packed with five heavy-duty stainless steel blades, the firmest root vegetables are no match for its ability. Get perfect spirals of sweet potatoes, beets, and even fresh ginger to upgrade your favorite salads and snacks. This model comes with four creative recipe e-books to help get you started shredding, spiralizing, and slicing in no time.

Featuring a total of five different spiralizing blades, this machine offers home chefs the opportunity to try new flavors and textures in their meal preparation. Zucchini noodles, curly fries, and Durable and extremely simple to operate, you’ll find yourself boosting your body with more vegetables than you ever thought imaginable.

Featuring a system that offers compact storage and easy cleanup, the Fullstar vegetable spiralizer is an excellent choice if you desire the functionality of larger spiralizers, but have a small kitchen with little room for gadgets. It also contains your cooking “mess,” making clean up afterward an easy chore.

Spiralizing your vegetables has never been so easy with a simple twist of the wrist. This low-cost and convenient tool is a handy sidekick when you only need to do light spiralizing. Don’t be fooled by its small appearance, it features dual blades for thick or thin strands. Perfect for micro-sized kitchens, the Veggetti eliminates larger machines equipped for bigger households.

In today’s world, touch screens and voice commands can connect you with just about any music you’re in the mood to hear. But there’s something special about turning a knob on a radio and the careful precision it takes to land exactly on the right station without hitting static. Maybe it’s the nostalgia for simpler times or maybe we just prefer the ever-so-slightly fuzzy sound of a local college radio station coming through FM rather than WiFi. Even if you’re a diehard Internet-only listener, we can all agree that radios are still cool and they’re perfect for keeping on your kitchen counter. Whether we’re cranking up electronic beats to get us through the morning rush or winding down with classic jazz to prepare dinner. These AM/FM radios are the full package—attractive designs inspired by the past but built with contemporary features to suit the listening needs of present day.

You’ll not only have the ability to spin that “Siamese Dream” CD you still listen to but you’ll also be able to adjust the sound to perfection with the built-in equalizer. Best of all, you can adjust it from afar using the convenient remote control it comes with. Use it as a clock, tune into AM/FM or connect to Bluetooth, this radio looks like a million bucks and plays like one too.

It could take up permanent residence on your counter but it’s also portable, so you can bring it along with you to the beach or on a picnic. Get all of your AM/FM radio needs or use the auxiliary input to connect to other devices. Available in six rad colors schemes.

We were all taught never to judge a book by its cover, right? With this radio, you’ll get AM/FM, Bluetooth as well as treble and bass controls. A sharp vintage design and quality sound at a good value.

It has a heavy, well-constructed feel, hence a bit pricier than the others but completely worth it. The sound is crisp through both AM/FM but you’ve also got the option to stream through Bluetooth if you’d rather listen to your latest Spotify playlist while baking your favorite cake.

Along with AM/FM, you can also connect via auxiliary to all of your favorite music sources. Lauded for its precise tuning, it features an LED indicator light that confirms when you’ve achieved the best possible reception. Need bigger audio? The line out jack in the back allows you to easily hook up to a second speaker.

Always bubbly and often infused with fruit flavor, sparkling water brands have built a loyal fanbase. Whether you’re looking to pour it over ice to quench your thirst or mix into an exciting new cocktail or mocktail, you’ll find a wide variety of options to choose from and these are our top picks.

S.Pellegrino was making sparkling mineral water way before it was cool — hundreds of years before Americans caught onto the trend. Maybe that’s why the classic Italian brand, now owned by Nestle, mostly skipped over basic infusions for its canned offerings in favor of more exciting flavors like Blood Orange & Black Raspberry, Dark Morello Cherry & Pomegranate, and Tangerine & Wild Strawberry.

Though it’s been around since the 1980s, it’s only in the last decade that LaCroix has become a household name with its popular Lemon, Lime, Pamplemousse (grapefruit), Coconut, and other “naturally essenced” sparkling waters. The brand now offers 17 flavors in the original 12-ounce cans, including Razz-Cranberry, Pastéque (watermelon), and Limoncello.

Fairly new to the market, Spindrift set itself apart from the competition by using real fruit juice instead of “natural flavors” to enhance its sparkling water. Its 11 flavors contain anywhere from 3% to 10% real fruit juice. The addition of juice means each can has a handful of calories, but the payoff is (ironically) a more natural fruit taste. In addition to standard flavors like Lemon, Lime and Grapefruit, this brand offers more distinctive options including Pineapple, Cucumber, Blackberry, and Half Tea & Half Lemon.

Spreading two slices of Wonder Bread with a thin coating of sugary fruit preserves and peanut butter is a rite of passage for many who grew up on brown bag lunches. But in the following decades, jam and jelly options grew up too. Today, there are a myriad of flavorful choices to dazzle any palate. From brands that specialize in dietary restrictions to gourmet manufacturers who turn out an array of unique flavors, there’s a jelly or jam out there that’s waiting for you.

Here are our favorite picks for fruit jams and jellies.

This all-natural jar of fruit preserves hails from Essex, England. Made in small batches, the texture and flavors are unbeatable. Since 1885, the Tiptree brand has held its manufacturing to the highest standards and the quality and taste of their locally grown fruits has become beloved by many.

Good Good is true to their name, specializing in a range of sugar-free products, including this sweet strawberry jam. The natural sweetener Stevia provides the necessary zip in its blend. The ideal choice for those with specialized diet restrictions.

These award-winning jams make the perfect spreads for breakfast treats, including pancakes, breads and pastries. (And never underestimate the ability of a good jam as a glaze on meat.) Stonewall’s story doesn’t go back as far as Smucker’s, but they’ve been in the jam business since getting started at farmers’ markets in New Hampshire the early ’90s. Their first recipe - wild Maine blueberry - is based on the family’s blueberry pie. Now based in Maine, their company headquarters is visited by 500,000 tourists each year.

This assortment of jams from Bonne Maman are perfect for packing to the beach, tea parties, or brown bag lunches for the office. The French favorite has long been known for its iconic jar packed with the freshest fruit available. With no additives or preservatives, this jam is great alongside hard cheeses or using in recipes.

Whether you’re baking bread at home to feed your family, you simply love baking, or you’ve decided to try your hand at baking bread as a culinary challenge, the right bread pans are crucial for bread baking success. You’ll want pans that give you a beautiful crust for your bread while releasing without a problem for the perfect loaf. We’ve put together a helpful list of some of the best bread pans available. And with a little help, you’ll find the perfect pan that’ll help you take your bread making to the next, delicious level.

These multipurpose pans not only work well for bread, but they are perfect for whipping up cobbler cakes, quiche, pot pies, lasagna, rice crispy treats and more. Instead of metal, these pans are made of flexible silicone that feature a non-stick finish, allowing for the quick and easy release of your baked goods. The silicone is also odor- and stain-resistant and can be hand washed or put right in your dishwasher for easy cleaning.

This 1-pound loaf pan is perfect for first-time and casual bakers experimenting with their bread making skills. It features a unique fluted design that adds additional strength to pans for war resistance and helps facilitate better air circulation, ensuring bread bakes evenly. The nonstick coating is both BPA and PFOA free and offers easy cleanup and the effortless release of your baked goods. Simply wash with mild soap, hot water, and a gentle sponge after use to protect the coating.

If you’ve seen those longer, larger loaves at the grocery store and wondered how to create them at home – these pans are the answer. This Pullman-style pan is a larger, longer pan that makes the commercial-style bread loaves you often see at the market. These pans bake beautiful bread and use heavy gauge, commercial grade aluminized steel, which means the pan will hold up to daily use without a problem while offering high-performance capabilities. The USA Pan features the Americoat coating, which offers the benefit of quick release of your baked goods as well as easy, fast cleanup when you’re done baking.

Bread pans are notoriously difficult to grab and remove from a hot oven, and one of the best features of this loaf pan is its grippy handles. They’re designed to make it easy to grab onto the pan, so the metal doesn’t slip out of your grasp when you’re pulling it out of your oven. The long-lasting, high-quality nonstick coating promotes both easy cleanup and excellent food release, whether you’re baking bread or anything else in the pan. Made from out of heavy gauge steel, the loaf pan resists warping, even with everyday use, and is both oven-safe up to 500 degrees and dishwasher safe for added convenience.

We’ll always have a place in our hearts for good old-fashioned peanut butter, but let’s face it, almond butter tastes great too. Add it to smoothies, spread it on celery, bake into breakfast bars, or eat it straight out of the jar, almond butter is a terrific addition to a healthy diet. Here are our favorite brands of almond butter to help you branch out a bit.

This almond butter is made from blanched California almonds to give it that silky texture. It’s also gluten-free, non-GMO, vegan, paleo and kosher. A few added bonuses: It’s free from added sugar or salt, and there’s no need to stir before serving or for refrigeration after opening.

Justin’s butter is no-stir, gluten-free, non-GMO and kosher. But you’re really wondering what the other six flavors are, aren’t you? (Classic peanut, honey peanut, honey almond, maple almond, vanilla almond, chocolate hazelnut.)

Pecans and almonds are both great sources of protein. This no-sugar-added flavor uses natural ingredients to provide the necessary sweetness. And “pecan pie flavored” almond butter? Here! Take our money! (Pssst. It’s also available in blueberry cinnamon bun, peanut butter cup, apple pie and chocolate banana flavors.)

You’ll want to give this crunchy-style butter a good stir before serving (and even plop it in the fridge for a few minutes to firm it up a little). Brand loyalists rave about the flavor and texture, which comes from macadamia nuts, almonds, cashews, coconut butter, MCT oil and sea salt.

Like many of our recommended brands, Barney Butter is made in a dedicated peanut-free facility, so allergy sufferers need not worry. These travel-friendly portions come as 0.6-ounce packets in a box of 24.

Most home chefs can cook a great meal with simply a good kitchen knife and a high-quality pot or pan. But when you’re ready to advance your culinary skills, a stand mixer is a good place to start. When working with heavier mixes - bread and pasta dough for example - or when facing a task that requires repetitive whisking (whipped cream and meringues come to mind), a stand mixer is your best option. If you’re thinking it’s time to upgrade your kitchen tools, here are a few stand mixers we recommend.

KitchenAid is almost synonymous with stand mixers - its signature sleek design and art deco palette of colors is easy to recognize. But it’s the powerful mixing action and bevy of available attachments that keep KitchenAid’s customers so loyal. Mix, knead and whip your meal’s ingredients with ease using the available 10 speeds of the power hub. This particular model also includes several useful attachments including a coated flat beater, coated flat dough hook, a six-wire whip and a one-piece pouring shield.

Cuisinart’s mixer offers 12 speeds to let you choose from a gentle “fold” option to a super quick “whip” setting. It’s available in white, silver and red, so it’s ready to match pretty much any kitchen design. Accessories included are a dough hook, flat mixing paddle, whisk and a splatter guard with a pour spout. With optional accessories, your Cuisinart can become a pasta maker, meat grinder and even an ice cream maker.

This mixer from Aucma is a beast with 660 watts of power, six speeds (including pulse functions) and a handful of accessories. The head also tilters for easy access to the bowl.

This 3-quarter mixer from Dash has many of the same features as fancier machines - six speed options, plenty of attachments - but it takes up much less space in the kitchen. It stands ready for kneading cookie dough, beating eggs or whipping up a frothy meringue.

In the writer Fanny Singer’s childhood home in Berkeley, California, her mother, the chef Alice Waters, makes her own red wine vinegar. It’s in a little cask with an old mother that’s been active for decades. Waters decants all the red wine that doesn’t get finished and puts it in there, tasting as she goes and correcting as needed. “She’s like a little chemist, mixing the different vinegars,” Singer chuckles over the phone. This homemade red wine vinegar is one of the key ingredients in the salads Singer and Waters make for themselves every day.

Since quarantine, the two have been living together and eating way more lettuce than usual. “We’ve always had a garden with great vegetables and herbs, but have never, until now, had a dependence on greens,” Singer tells me. “But when the pandemic happened, we were going through lettuce so quickly. We needed to grow more.”

Singer recalls a time, decades ago, when their whole back garden was filled with rows and rows of lettuce. Her mother got seeds from her godmother and planted mesclun greens. “My mom grew the salad for Chez Panisse back then,” Singer says. Now, the lettuce comes from Bob Cannard, whom she calls “arguably the best farmer in North America.”

As Singer and I wax lyrical about lettuce for what feels like hours, she tells me about one particular trip she took with her mother to Japan. At a restaurant there, she had, for the first time in her life, various wild harvested greens, buds, ferns, and shoots that were only available for a short two weeks, right at the beginning of spring. The chef turned them into tempura, which laced the deep, nuanced bitter greens in a crisp batter that was at once sweet, savory, and salty. “There was a real sense of temporality,” she tells me. “You eat these things right in their moment to remind you of the winter that has just passed, and that you have to continue to eat to move on.”

For Singer—whose chewy, lyrical food memoir, Always Home, came out earlier this year—the key to a restaurant’s success is this care for ingredients, and an understanding that the best food starts with a strong relationship with farmers. “If you have good greens,” she says, “you don’t need much else.” Her mother shares this ethos, both at her restaurant, which is famously known for its locally grown California produce, but also when traveling with her daughter. As Singer reveals in my favorite chapter dedicated to salad:

The mother and daughter’s lifelong adoration for “a few leaves” has meant that a simple green salad—to be specific, “a plate of crisp, beautiful leaves, dressed in the correct amount of balsamic-free dressing,” as Singer writes in the memoir—has become the family’s litmus test for a good restaurant. It also happens to be “a very straightforward way for Chez to telegraph its central values. Even the humblest dish on the menu is special.”

And it is. As I recall my first meal at Chez Panisse years ago, it’s that first bite of salad—a fresh, crunchy Little Gem number—that would stick with me for life. “Oh, this is what they mean by farm-to-table,” I said to my date at the time. The lettuce itself wasn’t just perfectly textured, cool and crisp; it was sweet and flavorful, as well. I had never tasted lettuce like that—never even knew lettuce could taste like that.

What drew me most to writing an entire piece about this salad is the ritual that goes into making it, not just at Chez Panisse, but at the Waters household, too. From the avicerating of the garlic clove in a Japanese mortar to the drying of the lettuce, salad prep for Singer and Waters sounds almost religious. “My mom is very noise averse. She hates vacuum cleaners, salad spinners,” Singer says. Which is why Waters keeps on hand six to eight cloth towels specifically designated for drying lettuce—and she won’t let her daughter use them for anything else. There’s a real ritual to this lettuce drying practice, not in any precious, sentimental way, Singer emphasizes. “Just in a caring way.”

Recipe: Simple Chez Salad Dressing

This is basically the dressing I make at home, though I’m flexible about which types of acid I incorporate, often replacing the Banyuls vinegar that Chez uses with a bit of sherry or apple cider vinegar or lemon juice. Start by placing a clove of garlic and ½ teaspoon of sea salt in a Japanese-style mortar (suribachi) or marble mortar and use your pestle to grind it to a translucent paste. Cover the garlic with 1 tablespoon of red wine vinegar and 1½ tablespoons of Banyuls vinegar and allow it to sit for at least ten minutes so that the acid has time to mellow the heat of the allium. Whisk in a scant ½ teaspoon of Dijon mustard and then add 6 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, beating vigorously to emulsify. Add a grind of black pepper at the end and taste, adjusting for acid balance and salt—I like mine on the acidic side, so tend to err on the more vinegar end of the spectrum. Use this to dress enough salad for six.

—Fanny Singer

Excerpted from Always Home: A Daughter’s Recipes & Stories by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. Copyright © 2020 by Fanny Singer. All rights reserved.

You don’t need a plane ticket to indulge in signature gourmet cookies from overseas. Break from the usual and impress family and friends with some global baking knowledge—take them to Norway, Italy, and the Netherlands with these cookie irons.

Its lacy imprint and wafer-thin delicacy instantly sets this cookie apart from the ordinary. The CucinaPro machine comes with a stress-free, non-stick surface and allows you to make two 5-inch cookies at a time. Serve them with a simple showering of powdered sugar, mold them into the shape of a cannolo for stuffing, or use two to create a dainty Nutella sandwich. The possibilities are endless.

Though commonly made during the holiday season in Scandinavia, these cookies are fun to make and delicious to eat all-year long. Simply crisp up a thin layer of batter until lightly golden, then roll into a cone shape using the plastic shaper tool. Fill them with fresh custard and berries or pack them with homemade ice cream.

Traditional stroopwafels are meant to sit atop of your coffee mug, slowly allowing the steam to warm up the spiced, syrupy center into a gooey sweet-toothed fantasy just in time for your first bite. Though most of us don’t have the patience to wait even 30 seconds to warm up the center, stroopwafels can be eaten hot off the griddle.

From family-sized models for heating up large feasts to compact models for smaller kitchens, these countertop microwave ovens can meet any cook’s needs.

If speed is what you’re looking for, this microwave oven from Toshiba has a half dozen reheating settings for standard food items like pizza, potatoes and vegetables so you can start cooking with one touch. The black stainless steel exterior should fit in with most modern kitchen sets.

Panasonic’s microwave has the size and power to handle any sized feast. It also features sensor reheat technology to determine the right power level and monitor cooking results. If your food is still in frozen form — no sweat — the oven’s Inverter Turbo Defrost feature will handle the thawing with ease.

This space-saving microwave oven from Amazon packs a punch. Just say, “Alexa, reheat one cup of tea” and let the oven go to work. Despite its size, this oven still has many of the bells and whistles of larger competitors including 10 power levels, a timer, child lock and a turntable.

The first countertop microwave oven reportedly was created in the late ’60s, so this retro look is definitely more style than an actual reproduction of an early model. (And those babies weighed a ton!) Still this Daewoo model does the job with great looks and five power levels up to 700 watts.

After a long day, the last thing you want to worry about is “what’s for dinner?” Here are our top picks for pressure cookers.

The “Insta-Pot” can do it all. It goes beyond what a traditional pressure cooker can do and also works as a slow cooker, rice cooker, steamer, sauté, yogurt maker and warmer. With 14 settings to choose from, your favorite meal is a button away. There’s a reason for its legions of fans.

The Cuckoo rice cooker is our favorite worry-free rice cooker. While other methods of cooking rice can leave the grains soggy and overcooked, this machine is designed with a special water drainage system that collects excess water vapors to lock in the flavor and texture of your rice every time. We love that clean-up is a breeze with the auto clean function. This rice cooker will soon become your favorite kitchen device.

The Ninja pressure cooker combines the best parts of a pressure cooker and air fryer into one diverse machine. This cooker boasts an 8-quart pot that is large enough to hold a 7-pound chicken. One of our favorite features is the dehydrator that removes moisture from vegetables, fruits and even meat for a delicious snack.

Meet the newest Presto 6-quart pressure cooker. This machine cooks food in a matter of minutes while preserving flavor and nutrients. We love that the pressure regulator automatically maintains the correct pressure so there’s no need to worry about overcooking. This is a great option for smaller workspaces.

There are few family dinner traditions as treasured as a juicy roast that can only be properly carved with an electric knife. The whirl of the knife’s motor can practically trigger your hunger as a signal that dinner time is near. Turn up heat on your next family feast with one of these electric knives.

Available as a one- or two-bladed knife, this electric carver from Cuisinart also has a 5-foot-long cord so you won’t have to sweat reaching from the electric outlet to your table. It’ll make quick work of meat, bread, vegetables and more. The blade is removable and dishwasher safe.

Carving a bird or a roast is a chore that is best conquered with the right electric knife. This Hamilton Beach set includes all the tools you need for the task, including a serving fork that can hold the meat steady and allow you to take it straight to the plate. Let the oscillating double blade do the work for you safely and quickly.

Seafood lovers rejoice! A fatigue-free grip, long power cord and heavy duty motor are just three of the perks of this knife from Rapala. Thanks to its razor-sharp blades—cut through pesky fish bones with ease on your favorite catch for fish like salmon, bass, trout, and more. The removable blades are 7 1/1 inches long and dishwasher safe.