5 products home cooks won’t want to miss

PHOTO: Do it yourself is a popular theme that came out of the 2015 International Home + Housewares Show, which ended Tuesday, March 10. Here, Alyssa Henke demonstrates Progressive International’s fresh butter maker. | ASHLEE REZIN~FOR SUN-TIMES MEDIA

With so much concern about weight and the desire to move away from processed foods, cooking is back in style these days.

That trend showed up in the appliances and kitchen tools available at the 2015 International Home + Housewares Show. There are all sorts of products that make preparing your own food from scratch so much easier.

Here are 5 products I ran into at the Housewares Show, which just wrapped up Tuesday (March 10), that I think home cooks might appreciate:

There are a number of small tools out now that separate herbs from their branches. Hutzler Herb-eze takes it a step further; it allows for the de-stemming and storage. It looks like a little flowering pot. Around the top are small holes; you pull the herb through the holes and the leaves fall into the container. You can use the herbs right away or put the lid on and store them in the frig or freezer.

If you are keeping a low-carb diet like I am, sometimes you miss having pasta. And I know you can make vegetable spirals by hand, something that, knowing myself, would be a kitchen fail at my house. That’s why I liked the Spiralizer from KitchenAid. Put vegetables through the attachment for the line’s standard mixer and they come out like spiraled pasta. I tasted a batch at the show and what was especially nice was they had the mouthfeel of pasta. (Tip I was given from the demonstrator there: to achieve that, don’t overcook them.) The attachment has five blades and allows for nine different combinations of spiralizing, coring, slicing and peeling. It will roll out in June.

There’s a new attachment for KitchenAid’s standard mixer, the Spiralizer, which turns veggies into pasta.

Turkey DunRite’s not new, but it sure offers a novel way to cook your Thanksgiving bird. This metal stand from Camerons Products cooks up to a 25-pound turkey in the air, not resting in the fat. Because the breast side is facing down, the fat drips down into it and the legs, resulting in a juicier bird. Company says it cooks 13 minutes less per pound. And don’t worry about storing the metal stand. It comes apart and folds flat.

Usually you twist the top of a grinder to get results. With the Epicurean Ratchet Grinder from Kuhn Rohn you push a little lever back and forth. That makes it easy to operate, especially for those with dexterity issues. Great idea.

So many things we buy at fast food outlets or in the freezer section of the grocery store can be made from scratch at home if you have the right equipment. Hamilton Beach’s Breakfast Burrito Maker houses the egg and whatever other ingredients in the top compartment and a tortilla in one below. When they’re done, you open the trap-door bottom and the egg mixture falls easily into the tortilla. The machine can be used to make omelets, pancakes and crepes as well. This looks to me like something the kids would really enjoy. Promoting cooking with the next generation — I like it! (Sorry, no photo.)

NOTE: Updated to include manufacturer of the grinder.