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Food storage methods have evolved a great deal in recent years. The advances in technology have created a variety of refrigerator options, so refrigeration is now not just about keeping perishables fresh. With the hundreds of features to choose from, buying a new fridge can cause a great deal of consumer confusion. So, here we’ll explore some important features you should look out for when you’re shopping for a new refrigerator. The Right Door Style Fridge opening options have significantly changed over the years, making it easier to choose the right door style to suit your kitchen. Side by side models allow you to get access to certain foods without opening the whole refrigerator. French doors offer similar benefits and make organizing easier. If you want quick access to your frozen foods, you may prefer a traditional top or bottom freezer door. Door Alarms If you have toddlers or young children in your household, safety should be a consideration for your purchase. Some models have door locks and alarm systems that will alert you if the door has been left open or if a child may be playing with the refrigerator. This type of alarm can save energy, as the internal temperature is reduced if the door is left open. Additionally, you may wish to choose a refrigerator with a door lock, so you don’t need to worry about little ones spilling drinks or getting into the treats without permission. Adjustable, Sliding Shelves There are a lot of considerations when

Whether you simply take pride in creating meals to wow your friends and family or have some serious culinary chops, there are some tips to consider when designing and renovating a kitchen. While a basic kitchen may be all that’s needed if you could burn a boiled egg, if you want a chef worthy kitchen, there are some elements you’ll need to include to impress any guests at your dinner parties. The Work Triangle When you plan your kitchen layout, you’re likely to be aware of the work triangle. This involves having your sink, refrigerator and cooking surface at the three points of a triangle. While it may be challenging to create this geometric shape in some kitchens, to maximize functionality and aid movement, you should try to incorporate the work triangle into your new kitchen. Double Sinks Even if you have a fantastic dishwasher, two sinks can be extremely beneficial in a chef worthy kitchen. Sinks are a crucial element of any kitchen and having a separate sink to stack used pots, leaving one free to clean fruit and vegetables or drain pasta can make preparing any meal easier. Keeping a dedicated sink for meal prep and one for clean up will aid the flow in your kitchen. Your sink should have high faucets and a deep bowl, so you can avoid water splashing as you’re doing your meal prep. Lots of Counter Space As a keen home chef, you’re likely to be doing a variety of food preparation

When refrigerators first began to appear in homes, they were equipped with a single door, and there wasn’t even an option of a freezer. Once the freezer started to become in demand, there was the standard option of a French door style with the fridge on one side and the freezer on the other or the freezer on top. Today, the bottom freezer has become an increasingly popular design. This provides a single wide door or two french doors for refrigeration with the freezer in one or two drawers underneath. So, here we’ll explore the advantages of this type of design and why it may be the right choice for your kitchen. Putting Your Favorite Foods in Easy Reach In most households, frozen food is used less frequently, while the refrigerator door seems to be continually opened and closed. So, putting the freezer at the bottom leaves you lots of room for all your fresh and chilled food at eye level, preventing the need to kneel down to get access to your vegetable drawer. This can be invaluable when you are trying to prepare dinner with fresh produce and avoid items being forgotten below eye level to spoil. Double Width Design A side by side freezer and refrigerator can be limited in terms of the cooling and frozen capacity, as each side occupies only a portion of the total appliance width. So another advantage to this type of design is that it offers a double width fridge portion. This makes

Many homeowners are concerned with having a greener home, and when it comes to saving energy, the kitchen is one of the most important areas to concentrate your efforts. Your kitchen is likely to be in use throughout the day, with appliances to make our lives easier. So, here are five great ways to save energy without compromising your kitchen functionality. Upgrade Your Cooktop to Induction Induction technology magnets to conduct heat through your cooking vessel directly. This differs from conventional cooktops that use thermal conduction to focus the heat on the cooktop burner.In simple terms, magnetic induction features a coil mounted under the cooking surface of each burner. This generates a magnetic field that is turned on when you turn on the stove. As you place a ferromagnetic pot or pan on the burner, heat is delivered directly to the cookware. This provides a more concentrated heat, where there is no heat loss from escape as you would find with a traditional burner. According to Department of Energy statistics, induction cooktops can save a great deal of energy as they are 12% more efficient compared to a smooth top electric range or cooktop at heating food. While they tend to be more costly initially and you cannot use Teflon pans, induction cooktops offer considerable energy savings in the long term. Update and Stock Your Refrigerator Refrigerators are at the top of the list of most energy-using appliances in the typical home. This is because your refrigerator is continuously running

Under beautiful sunny skies, punctuated by billowy cotton candy white clouds, a crowd of well over 2,000 feasted at the USA TODAY Martha Stewart Wine & Food Experience sponsored by Thermador and Universal Appliance and Kitchen Center this past Saturday. Guest stood in line to snap a selfie with Martha, explored Thermador’s new collections PRO and MASTERPIECE and munched on delicacies prepared by many of LA’s finest eateries. The Wine & Food Experience was a true a gastronomic celebration for LA foodies. Thousands sampled wines, spirits, food in a festive and party-like atmosphere from Fig & Olive, Makani, CAVA, Border Grill, Preux & Proper, Gwen, OTIUM, AIR FOOD, URBAN PRESS, The Bazaar, Parks BBQ, 71 Above Sotto, Terranea and many more.. The turn out exceeded all expectations, bolstered by the good weather and perfect fall temperatures. The Universal Appliance and Kitchen Center | Thermador Culinary Stage Universal Appliance and Kitchen Center and Thermador sponsored the Culinary Stage which featured Martha Stewart and other chefs sharing their recipes while doing food demonstrations on Thermador’s newest appliance offerings. Attendees also got an up close and personal sneak peek at Thermador’s new collections PRO and MASTERPIECE, which launched 300 new products in October, the largest new introduction in the company’s century plus history. Universal Appliance and Kitchen Center Thermador Sale and YEAR-END SPECIAL PROMOTION Attendees with a valid event ticket are being offered special incentives on Thermador appliances (see showroom for details). Universal Appliance and Kitchen Center Studio City Showroom, serving the Los

The USA TODAY Martha Stewart Wine & Food Experience, featuring Martha Stewart is a superb way to enjoy gourmet food, wine and craft brews available throughout Los Angeles County. This event is part of a 12 venue tour celebrating the best of wine and food and a way for foodies to meet the best chefs including Lifestyle Expert and Author Martha Stewart. Savor. Indulge. Enjoy with Martha Stewart As an entrepreneur and Emmy Award-winning TV host, Martha Stewart is considered the most trusted lifestyle expert in America, reaching approximately 100 million consumers each month across various media and merchandising platforms with myriad products for our everyday lives. Celebrating with Martha At USA TODAY’s Wine & Food Experience at LA CENTER STUDIOS in Los Angeles, December 1st, guests can snap a selfie with Martha in the backdrop, check out the Martha’s Celebrations product line, and explore Thermador’s new collections PRO and MASTERPIECE. According to Martha, In LA, food must always look as great as it tastes, but many people don’t realize the fantastic variety of cultures around food in this amazing city. USA TODAY’s Wine & Food Experience allows attendees to explore and sample the truly bountiful tastes and flavors of Southern California, with a variety of professional chefs, superb restaurants and gourmet leaders. Martha Stewart Master Class In addition to exploring the products in the Martha Stewart Experience, there is the opportunity for a limited Martha Stewart master class. This special ticketed event is strictly limited in numbers, and at

These days a dishwasher is considered an essential home appliance. Most homes are equipped with a dishwasher, but this doesn’t mean that everyone is enjoying sparkling clean dishes. Although there are a lot of factors that can affect dishwasher’s performance, one of the most important is the detergent. Using too little detergent will leave your dishes dirty, but too much can also create problems. So here we’ll delve a little deeper into how much detergent you should be using to get those sparkling clean results. How Old is Your Appliance? The first consideration for determining the correct amount of dishwasher detergent is the age of your appliance. If you’ve recently upgraded from an old machine, you’re likely to have experienced some issues if you’ve not adjusted your detergent levels. Modern dishwashers are designed to be as energy and water efficient as possible, so they use far less water than older models. This reduced water use means that you also need far less soap to complete the task. In the late 1970s when dishwashers had started to become very popular, the average model used approximately 15 gallons of water per cycle. This decreased to between six and 10 gallons per average cycle in the 2000s, but has dropped again with today’s dishwashers that can use as little as 2 gallons. This makes it easy to see how using the same amount of detergent that you’ve gotten used to using in your 1980s model is sure to create a problem in a

For over a hundred years, Thermador has been producing exceptional, luxury appliances. The brand introduced the Cooktop to America and rolled out convection and steam ovens. Thermador appliances are designed to empower cooks to create an unforgettable experience in the kitchen, and so many home “chefs” will be particularly excited at the prospect of Universal Appliance and Kitchen Center in Calabasas and Thermador being a major part of this year’s Wine & Food Experience at the Camarillo Hangar in Camarillo CA November 10th, 2018. The Event The Wine & Food Experience is a celebration of all things culinary, allowing visitors to sample wines, food, restaurant offerings and much more. There are bands, dancing, pubs and boutique shopping that will let attendees enjoy a variety of craft brews, ciders, wine paraphernalia, accessories, and clothing as well as a silent auction with some enticing items being offered up. The Universal Appliance and Kitchen Center | Thermador Culinary Stage At the November 10th Ventura County event in Camarillo, guests will not only be able to sample some fantastic food and wine, but also a number of cooking demonstrations. Universal Appliance and Kitchen Center and Thermador are sponsoring the Culinary Stage, which is a prime kitchen demonstration outdoor venue. Attendees will be able to get a sneak peek, up close and personal, at Thermador’s new collections PRO and MASTERPIECE, which boast 300 new products, the largest new introduction in the company’s century plus history. Other Demonstrations Not only will attendees be treated to an

If you want to keep your produce fresher for longer, you need to make the best use of your refrigerator crisper drawers. When you open your refrigerator door, the drawers may look like nothing particularly special. In fact, some may even use the drawers to throw things that don’t properly fit on the shelves such as apples or even beer. Before you dismiss your crisper drawers, you need to understand that these drawers are not merely drawers, but when used properly can protect all your produce from spoiling. The Two Types of Crisper Having drawers can be a good storage option, but controlling them makes them an even greater feature. If your refrigerator is equipped with humidity settings, that are usually a small vent or simple toggle to change between high and low humidity, you can tailor the conditions in your crisper drawer to create the optimum conditions for different types of produce. If your refrigerator doesn’t have humidity controls, you will have a high humidity crisper by default. Food preservation experts appreciate that a great deal of the humidity inside crisper drawers is derived from the produce itself. The humidity settings refer to the space left in the drawers that is open to airflow. Low humidity drawers introduce airflow into the drawer, while high humidity settings close off the airflow completely. Both of these provide an advantage; it just depends on what produce you want to store. Putting Everything in its Place There is a general rule of thumb

Refrigerator and freezer temperatures can be tricky. Often the first sign that your appliance is malfunctioning is that it doesn’t seem to be cool enough. With many homeowners now focused on saving energy and having a greener home, is it really necessary to set your freezer to 0º? The FDA Stance According to the FDA, refrigerators should be set at or below 40º, while freezers should remain at 0º. Even energy conservation groups and sites adhere to this, with many advocating that while a refrigerator set 10º colder than necessary could be using 25 percent more energy, the appliance should be kept at 35 to 38º. So, with so many legitimate sources promoting the 0º stance, is there still reason to consider otherwise? There have been articles in the media that suggest that it is okay to adjust the temperature of both the refrigerator and freezer while keeping your food safe. In fact, when you look back at studies conducted in the 1940’s, 50’s and 60’s, these temperatures were brought in to maintain food safety in the appliances of those eras. The temperature of 40º was chosen for refrigerators to minimize the potential for bacterial growth. This number continues to be important in the food industry today, even with the flash freezing and newer technologies today. Freezing temperatures are a little more complicated. There is a science behind obtaining the best temperature to slow or stop enzymes while preserving nutrients. Enzymes are responsible for the ripening and eventual rotting of