Today's Kool Idea: Done Right Multiple Cook Time Kitchen Timer

Fall is a busy time for The Daily Kool family. This is the time of year that we celebrate the season with large dinner parties. Oh, and we invite everyone! Ah, yes...food is definitely the catalyst that brings us all together. Always has been. It's nothing for us to expect 30-40 guests in our admittedly small home for an elaborate dinner. Over the past ten years of our marriage (yikes!), our household has truly become the destination for meals galore. We only have one rule...no one brings food. Bottles of wine? Sure. Soda? Absolutely. The food though, is our domain, and we always look forward to testing out new and exciting dishes on our more than willing company. Have we mentioned how much we love to cook?

We live for the moment when our guests marvel at the sheer genius of our culinary skills...not that it happens often. Okay, we admit it...we always mess a couple of things up with every dinner. We have so many dishes in various stages of preparation, cooking and plating, at least a few of them always fall through the cracks. Over-boiled soup, scorched veggies, mushy risotto and dry (we sometimes forget to baste) turkey are just a few examples of the disasters we've encountered over the years. It's not easy staying on top of everything all at once.

Thank goodness for our cousin. Last time she came over, she gave us this absolutely adorable Done Right multiple cook time kitchen timer as a hostess gift. Check it out...there are five (count them) separately functioning timers in one oven-shaped package. Each of the five timers gives off a sound flashes with a light when ready. This little guy is just what we need to stay on track! We love how we can correspond the stove top timers with each of our burners, while the front timer reminds us when to check the oven. We were actually amazed how easy the Done Right timer was to program, even for us technically inept folks. Just press the 1 or 5 minute increment button until the desired time is reached and press start...it's that simple. Seriously, how great is this little gadget? And, why didn't we think of it first, darn it?

There are a couple of things that we've noticed with our own Done Right multiple cook time kitchen timer that we wanted to pass along. First off, the alarm itself is fairly low, which is why they've added the flashing light component, we suppose. It would have been nice to have a volume adjustment option. Honestly though, it's not much (if at all) lower than our regular oven timer. Plus, one of us is always in the kitchen, so it's not particularly a problem for us. Also, we always use the company's suggestions for prolonging battery life. When we aren't cooking up a storm, we remove one of the four AA batteries, and usually make sure to stop the flashing light before its one-minute automatic shut off. You can find this kitchen timer at several websites, including Amazon, Target and Walmart. Our research though, shows that QVC seems to currently have the best price at just under $20 (plus shipping)...this the the main link we've provided throughout the post.

We love our Done Right multiple cook time kitchen timer so much, we leave it out on our stove top, even when we're not using it. Sure, it's a little larger than your standard kitchen timer, but talk about a fabulous conversation piece. What a wonderful novelty gift for anyone who spends oodles of time in the kitchen...particularly those of us who need a little help with the orchestration and execution of our larger dinner parties. Form and function are definitely the right combination with this super "kool" idea. Of course, we've just eliminated our best (and most plausible) excuse for a not-so-perfect meal. Aargh...the pressure!

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