Ice Ball Tray

When I was a kid, ice cube trays were pretty basic, and they were pretty good for making cracked ice. No neat cubes, no uniform pieces. The ice cubes from restaurants were so much more ... interesting.

Because they had fancy machines that molded the ice.

Now, you can mold your ice cubes into all sorts of fun shapes. Like balls.

I tested an Ice Ball Tray that makes four 2-inch balls in one tray. It's fairly simple - just fill the bottom tray with water (it's suggested that you use distilled water for clearer ice cubes, but I'm not that fussy) then put the top part on and press down. When water started coming out of the overflow holes on top of the mold, I put my fingers on the holes, kept pressing down, and the overflow went out the sides. Probably not necessary, but it kept water from filling the top of the mold, which made it easier to get the ice balls out later.

Or, you could put the tray together and pour water into the holes. Either way works.

I have to say that not every ball is perfect. If there's a little too much water, it can create a nub at the overflow hole like the one at the top right in the photo. If the two halves of the mold aren't snugged up to each other, you might end up with a ring of ice around the cubes.

But neither of those things are a big deal. Those smaller, thinner bits will be the first to melt when the balls are in a drink, so people will probably never notice that the balls aren't perfect. They'll just think that you made round ice balls.

Or, if you really need to have perfect rounds, you can run some cool water over the protruding excess pieces to melt them away.

These aren't the biggest ice balls I've seen, but they're a decent size and the mold is easy to use. And you could use it for other things as well, like making round balls of Jello. Why you'd want to do that, I don't know. But you certainly could.

Next time I bake a cake, I'm going to try baking a few ball-shaped cakes as well. It's probably going to be tricky because I'll have to account for the rising cake, and I have a feeling that there will be excess cake around the perimeter of the balls - but even half-rounds or Saturn-shaped cakes could be fun.

If it works out, there will probably be a post about it on Cookistry.

Meanwhile, I'm just making plain old ice. With plain water, which makes cloudy ice. And I'm okay with that.

Who's it for: People who want to make quirky ice.

Pros: Not expensive. These are some of the most affordable on Amazon.

Cons: Makes 2-inch balls, so if you're looking for the huge ones, this isn't them. On the other hand, it's a reasonable size that will fit pretty much every glass you have.

Wishes: It would be great to get a 3-pack with different sized molds.

Source: I received this from the manufacturer for the purpose of a review.

Wine Chiller with Stopper

Wine chiller in a clear bottle.

I've been fascinated by these wine chiller things that are a metal rod that you keep in your freezer, and then you insert the rod into your wine bottle and it chills the wine.

I wondered if they worked.

I like cool or cold wine, but I don't always have a bottle in the refrigerator. That would require me to plan ahead, and sometimes I don't think about how great a glass of wine would be until I'm actually thinking about drinking it.

And then I've got a warm bottle of wine and an empty wine glass.

So, when I got a chance to review the Wine Chiller with Stopper from Kitchen Ezentials, I figured it would be fun.

I shoved the wine chiller in the freezer - the instructions say that two hours is sufficient. It's not really big, so in theory it doesn't need a lot of time to freeze. Really, though, it makes sense to toss it back into the freezer after you use it each time so it's always ready. It doesn't take a lot of space, so you can easily store it in the freezer all the time.

The idea is that you pour out just a little bit of wine to make room for the chiller, then insert it into the bottle, and your wine will be cooled really quickly. I noticed a temperature difference but afterwards I realized I should have actually measured the temperature. Oops. More wine needed.

So I tried again a few days later. The wine that I poured out was at 68 degrees, which was room temperature. I inserted the chiller and let it sit for a few minutes while I sipped my 68-degree wine.

When I poured the next little bit, it was 63 degrees. When that was consumed, the wine was down to 62 degrees - so a total drop of 6 degrees in just a few minutes.

The instructions on the box say you can drink immediately, but on Amazon it says you should wait 5 minutes, so I tried one more test. This time I started with 70-degree water in a bottle and let the frozen chiller hang around in the bottle for 5 minutes before pouring. The water was down to 64 degrees, so it was again a drop of 6 degrees from the starting point.

Side note: Do NOT use the wine chiller in a narrow-necked bottle like the one you see in the photo above. The chiller slid in just fine, but I had a heckuva time getting it out - I all but destroyed it in the process. The only thing I can figure is that there was enough shrinkage of materials that it slid in willingly, but once it warmed up a bit, it was just a hair tighter. Oops.

I have to say that the wine definitely went from warm to nicely cool and more drinkable. The instructions note that it chills a red wine or it can keep a white wine at a properly-chilled temperature for an hour, which is nice - you can set the bottle on the table at dinner and you don't need to worry about the temperature during dinner.

How cold it will ultimately get depends on what temperature the wine is when you start - and also on how cold your freezer is, but it seems like a six-degree drop was pretty consistent in my tests.

Because of the way the chiller is constructed, the wine pours slowly and it's supposed to aerate the wine at the same time, so that's an added bonus.

Who's it for: Scatterbrained wine drinkers who need a quick way to chill their wine.

Pros: It includes a pourer, and won't take much space in the freezer. You could also use this to chill other beverages.

Cons: The pouring spout is rather tall, so if you decide to put the wine in the refrigerator with the chiller in, you'll need to have a tall enough space.

Wishes: It would be nice if there was a super-chiller model that would drop the temperature even more. I'm not sure if it's possible, though.

Source: I received this from the manufacturer for the purpose of a review.

Unofficial Mad Men Cookbook #GIVEAWAY

Read more about the Mad Men Finale Party here, and grab some recipes, too.

To celebrate I'm giving away a copy of this book!

Well, technically, the publisher is giving it away. But you know what I mean.

Party info here.

Enter to win!