Pic ‘n’ Cook ‘n’ Save

One unbending rule of cooking is that you can spend as much as you want for almost any piece of equipment. If that’s not your thing, go to Pic ‘n’ Save. Most real cooks know that’s where you’ll find the best assortment of those oven-proof ceramic dishes you seem to never have enough of. There--among the dried flowers, endless baskets and some pretty tatty tchotchkes-- is an incredible assortment of casseroles, souffle dishes, ramekins and baking pans in all sizes, shapes and colors. Best yet, you’ll rarely pay more than $10 for any of them.

Corny Colanders

Can’t find a cute colander? Admittedly, they’re pretty utilitarian--basically stainless steel bowls with holes to let the water run out. But Amco Houseworks, a company that seems dedicated to beautifying the trivial tool, has a solution. Their colanders come with hand-painted hard-plastic vegetables on the handles. They’re part of Amco’s Vegetable Patch Collection, which includes everything from canisters to measuring spoons and cups, all similarly decorated. Colanders come with either radishes or corn and are available at XXXXXXX.

Baubles and Bagels

Some things are predestined. It was inevitable that Marilyn Bagel would write a book about, well, you guessed it. In it, you’ll find recipes for bagels (would you believe a tofu bagel?) and recipes with bagels (bagel fondue). Bagel has also collected bagel testimonials from celebrities as varied as Alan Dershowitz (he likes garlic bagels), Whoopie Goldberg (“who needs a pretzel when you have a bagel?”) and Ahmad Rashad (bagels with cream cheese and grape jelly). Best news? As glitzy as she sounds, Marilyn’s not from L.A.

Lock, Stock and Soy

You’ve got your beef stock, your chicken stock, your vegetable stock, your low-sodium stock and your low-fat stock (as if a stock could be high-fat!). Now Swanson is introducing another canned stock, Oriental broth. It tastes pretty much like a light beef stock flavored with soy and maybe dehydrated green onion, but you might use it for Chinese soups and sauces. The label doesn’t disclose what kind of meat is used in it--if any is--but it does show that the top five ingredients are water, high-fructose corn syrup, salt, monosodium glutamate and dehydrated soy sauce. Oddly enough, it’s not appreciably higher in sodium than the regular chicken stock--one cup contains 1,070 milligrams. At grocery stores.