During yesterday morning's survey of tech news, I came across a Gizmodo post on a "smart" fridge that is trending on digg.com.

A smart fridge as a concept is not new. The advent of self identifying RFID (radio frequency identification) chips was supposed to produce new innovations in supply chain management from real-time purchasing at storefronts to warehouses that inventory themselves. According to the hype, RFID tagged groceries were suppose to allow people to have intelligent fridges that could keep an inventory of what food they had, what products are going bad, and what they should pickup on their next trip to the store. Some designs even mentioned e-mailing a local grocery store to pre-order food. As someone who frequents farmers' markets, local bakeries, and small family-owned ethnic grocery stores, good luck with that!

Designer Ashley Legg of Yanko Design (the same design group that tried to engineer multi-tasking kitchen knives) decided to move forward on the smart fridge concept, without RFID. Though, her design no doubt has the scalability to add a UPC reader or RFID capabilities. At least, that is my hope...

Legg's Smart Fridge is apparently meant to encourage non-cooks or rarely-cook cooks to cook, potentially a high tech step in Jamie Oliver's food revolution. Assuming the groceries you purchase are themselves healthy and not too processed, the fridge comes up with a recipe based on what it thinks it has on its shelves. It will then guide you in preparing the dish, literally spoon-feeding you instructions. The one string attached: You have to tell the fridge what food you buy, how much of it you purchased, and ultimately how much you use.

Equipped with a bottom-drawer freezer and a door with an embedded touch screen, the concept is somewhat sound. I worry about four potential issues. Firstly, there is the tedium that comes with managing the fridge's inventory yourself. Secondly, the fridge may not be equipped with sensors to detect when food is going bad or facilities to tell when products are past their use-by dates. Thirdly, will the fridge be able to account for necessary ingredients in the pantry? Fifthly, does this mean people will start randomly buying groceries without fore-thought? Does anyone else meal-plan?

Still, I would love to be part of the quality assurance team, helping to refine the fridge's software. Here is what I think the test plans would produce at first:

Test 1: Can of opened ancho chiles, ketchup, mustard, and beer
Fridge Response: "Are you serious!?!? Condiments are not a food group. Go shopping frat boy!"

Test 2: baby spinach, 2 lb bag of carrots, 4 clementines, bunch of parsley, bunch of celery, a carton of a dozen eggs
Fridge Response: "Well, you've the makings of a classic mandarin orange baby spinach salad. Swap out the orange for vinegar, add a poached egg, and you've a light dinner, but you'd better get yourself back to the grocery store. Go pick up some milk before your spouse gets home."

Test 3: pre-sliced salami, 4 rib steaks, beef tenderloin roast, family-sized pack of center-cut pork chops, 4 pepperettes
Fridge Response: "Um, you may want to consider a little veg unless you plan on feeding a saber tooth tiger.

Test 4: Brick
Fridge Response: "Ew ew ew...What the heck is that? So going to pretend you never bought that.

Test 5: Take-out Chinese Food
Fridge Response: " Take-out again?!?! Don't you love me? You and I gotta have a serious sit-down. Least you could do is check out your local food blogs for some decent Chinese food."

Test 6: Empty
Fridge Response: "Alright, I'm calling the local pizza place. There's a 2-for-1 deal at a local pizzeria. Would you like anchovies?"

Test 7: Filled to the brim with random groceries from celery root to ring pops.
Fridge Response: "I think you broke the touch screen entering all this stuff in. Some of it doesn't need refrigeration. Why are you refrigerating bread? Anyways, I have no clue what to make. Gimme a sec! I'm dropping Martha Stewart a tweet."

Tag(s):

Ever wonder how foodies carry their keys? No, we don't walk around with keys attached to worn out spatulas or balloon whisks. While I have been very tempted to bring a rolling pin into the office for meetings, it does not have my keys attached to it. My key chain is actually just a key ring attached to my USB key.

That is, however, not to say there aren't food-oriented key chains.

Jenn found these lovelies at a local Mrs. Tiggywinkle's

Breakfast Key Chains
The left one is supposed to be a cinnamon bun. The right, a happy piece of toast.

I am thinking about having a draw for a couple of these at the next Elite Brunch Club meet-up.

This one is a multitasker. It's a key chain accessory that doubles as a comb.

Wrapper'ed

Un-Wrapped

Un-Wrapped with Wrapper
I love the candy bar wrapper. When Jenn gave me it, I thought it a sampler Hersey's. Gratefully, I looked before I took a bite...

I'm not even going to get started on food-oriented cell phone charms...

But, if you would like to see an interesting wine accessory, click here to visit Eric Rochon's Ottawa Bites blog. He came across a lady's wine handbag!

Well, I'm not about to advocate communicating with dinner forks (or pitch forks for that matter), but a link to a Utah university student's Etsy shop, "ForkedUpArt", has been going around the blogoshpere. Attached to the link is a picture of cutlery that has been welded together to form an Iphone holder.

ForkedUpArt Iphone Holder
Source: Etsy shop

According to "Jennings Metal", the handle of the artist who operates "ForkedUpArt", the holder recently caught the attentions of TUAW: The Unofficial Apple Weblog, Macenstein, and even CNet, sparking a flurry of activity. In fact, the shop now sports an announcement about bulk purchases. Jennings Metal will even fashion custom holders.

After visiting the Etsy site, I discovered there are two models, one with a "fork head" and one with a "spoon head." The cost: $30.00 USD ($19.99 USD shipping to Canada).

Me, I like the one with a spoon head, given the feet are likewise spoons. It is a bit of symmetry that goes well with me.

But, since I haven't an Iphone to put in the holder, I'm going to pass.

Kudos to Jennings Metal on your creative product!

In November, Leela of the SheShimmers food blog, celebrated its one year anniversary with a satay-style grilled chicken recipe (featuring her mother's peanut sauce), a look at her blog's original banner (it's cute!), and a contest to win an All-Clad MC2 8-inch stainless steel skillet.

To enter, participants left comments on the blog post, explaining why they are "thankful for their father, mother, grandparent, or other guardian for being a positive influence on their lives." Since SheSimmers is a food blog, many comments involved food memories.

Here is mine:

As for the contest, my parents weren't the best cooks. They were however adventurous and tried new things.

I follow in that tradition, but their most important food lesson to me is eating as locally as possible.

When I was a child, decades before the 100 mile diet came to popularity, my parents grew a tremendous vegetable garden every summer, harvesting quite the bounty in the fall. From it, I learned what produce, grown for flavour and freshness tasted like. Be it organic or otherwise, most mega-mart (supermarket) produce is grown for shelf-life and shipping. There is a marked difference.

Growing up knowing that such vegetables as tomatoes don't have to taste like water is something I am incredibly thankful for. It is why I support local farmers today.

A week later, Random.org chose my entry to win. Several days after that, this arrived at the local post office, my being at work when it was delivered.

One well-wrapped express posted box

Inside, another box

Inside that box, warranty information, and paper...

...and, a hefty 8" pan...

...made by MetalCrafter LLC

With work normally being hectic and my trying to keep on top of the seasonal blog entries for foodiePrints, I only opened the package yesterday evening, it sitting with my stack of "to try" recipes for weeks. So, I decided to take pictures of its unboxing.

Setting the camera down in another room while I took a box cutter to the package, I originally decided to take the pan to the camera. This had me wandering room-to-room with a never-been-used-before stainless steel pan. Slightly, confused my better half asked "...and why are you wandering the house with a skillet?" Without thinking too much about it, I responded, "I'm looking for the camera!" I guess such is good confirmation that I am a food blogger...

Many thanks to fellow food blogger, Leela (with some help from Random.org), for adding a new cooking implement to foodiePrints' kitchen arsenal. It will likely see use in coming weeks, especially in preparing Christmas dinner.

Anyone want to know what a young food blogger looks like? The following is yours truly on a family friend's farm, discovering where apples come from.

Me, age 3

Several weeks ago, the LA Times published a piece on the subject of food producers and manufacturers actively pursuing endorsements from mommy bloggers. Some mommies-turned-bloggers have even been flown to events, hosted by celebrities, all expenses paid. Accordingly, mommy bloggers have become an explosively popular segment of the blogosphere. Indeed, I follow a half dozen mommy bloggers myself. Some belong to Erica Ehm's Yummy Mummy network. Many share my interests in great food and entertaining.

In a similar vein, appliance manufacturer Bosch hired a marketing firm, OgilvyOne Worldwide, and embarked on an innovative campaign, targeting social networks. Bosch had revamped its cartridge-based (called t-discs) coffee system, the Tassimo. OgilvyOne was tasked with giving away hundreds of coffee machines to anyone with significant influence, lots of connections. Together, they happened on several mommy bloggers on Twitter. What happened next is the stuff of social media dreams. The twitterverse was inundated with recommendations for who should receive a free Tassimo Coffee System next. Only those with 1000 or more followers were eligible. With mommy bloggers heavily organized and inter-networked, Tassimo Coffee Systems quickly became a convenient home appliance that brought specialty coffees home. With modern mothers often balancing having a career or running a business, being active in the community, keeping themselves fit, and raising young children, OgilvyOne found quite the niche. One mommy blogger, local Kelli Daisy (@kellidaisy), generously recommended me as a recipient for a machine.

Given that food bloggers are notorious for being critical of restaurants, food, and drink, I honestly expected OgilvyOne to "misplace" mine. Though very late arriving, I still received a red coloured machine almost a month before the Tassimo line hit stores. Incredulous, I left it in the corner of my apartment, still boxed, continuing a monogamous relationship with my single serving Black and Decker coffee machine and my beloved fair trade ground coffee from Ottawa's Bridgehead. Then, several mommy bloggers mentioned that the Tassimo coffee system was intuitive enough their young children could use it. Several, making their own hot chocolate drinks with supervision, of course.

Skeptical, I opened my package. Here is what I was couriered:

A very large box, containing another box and a lot of sealed packages

A very pleasant form letter

Many varieties of coffee and tea

Smaller box, containing the Tassimo

When unpacking the Tassimo, here is what I found:

Manuals

One handsome looking machine

A friend who witnessed the unboxing, mentioned that she recognized the machine. There is a commercial grade one in the cafeteria of the hospital she works at. She told me it makes great cups of coffee.

Finding no fair trade cartridges, I didn't think my determination would be objective if I tested it, so I went looking for a connoisseur.

Bosch, if you are reading this blog entry, please know that I want to write a fair review, so I loaned the Tassimo and gave all of the coffee to a friend who runs a hair salon, called Celebrity Hair Design. He and his staff will be comparing it and the coffee it makes to their Hamilton Beach coffee machine. It too is single serving.

Do check back for their observations in a couple weeks.

For reference, here is what a Tassimo coffee system and cartridges cost during a promotion at Staples Business Depot effective November 19, 2009. These prices were copied from an in-store display.

• Bosch Tassimo Coffee Brewer: $139.82
• Tassimo Nabob Cappuccino: $6.83
• Tassimo Nabob Colombian: $5.96
• Tassimo Nabob Latte: $6.83
• Tassimo Starbucks House Blend: $10.94
• Tassimo Suchard Hot Chocolate: $5.96
• Tassimo Twinings Green Tea: $3.26