My Review of the Cuisinart Griddler

The Cuisinart GR-4N 5-in-1 Griddler is a great kitchen addition. Click the image above to see more reviews and product details.

The Cuisinart Griddler has become a featured appliance on my kitchen countertop this year.  I came across it when I started searching for panini presses last year.  My kids fell in love with these sandwiches after a local restaurant started featuring them, and I figured I could make them at home for far less than the restaurant was charging.  The fact that the Cuisinart Griddler GR-4N acts as a griddle & panini press, just turned out to be a nifty bonus.

For years, Cuisinart has been known for making quality kitchen products.  They make outstanding cookware, and for that reason Cuisinart has become a name that is trusted and looked to when people want to purchase outstanding products for their own kitchen.  My first Cuisinart product was a food processor, and it lasted for years.  After seeing the quality provided by that handy kitchen product, Cuisinart became one of the first brand names I looked for when the time came to buy a blender, a stand mixer, and even a coffee maker.  I haven't been disappointed yet.  The Cuisinart Griddler continues the tradition of top quality products.

The Cuisinart Griddler as a Grill

My favorite way of cooking, personally, is on the grill.  There’s just something special about it, and I really enjoyed the whole experience.

Unfortunately, the weather where I live does not allow me to go out and cook on the grill for a good portion of the year.  I have found the Cuisinart Griddler to be a good tool for getting me through my days without access to the grill.  As you might guess, I like using the Cuisinart Griddler most as an indoor grill top.  That is only one of its many functions however.  This stainless steel countertop unit can also be used as a griddle (full or half) and as a very handy sandwich press.  It has helped to introduced me to the world of creating Panini sandwiches at home, and I may never eat a sandwich on the plain bread again.  This unit is very versatile, but it is not very big.  It measures only 11.5 x 13.5 x 7.1 inches.  For some people this might not be much of a consideration, but I have limited counter space, so I appreciate the fact that I do not have to clear everything out of the way to use this unit.  The fact that the Cuisinart Griddler has earned a regular spot on my rather small counter should speak for itself.  It gets put to use around here.

This may or may not matter to you, but this is a pretty nice looking addition to the countertop.  It has a hinged top and a very nifty Panini style handle.  Because of the way the machine is designed, the top will adjust to fit the thickness of whatever you are pressing.  If you like to see grill marks on your sandwich, you can use the grill plates included with the Cuisinart Griddler.  If you prefer not to see these marks, simply use the griddle plates instead.  Indicator lights at the bottom of the unit allow the user to know that the heat is at an appropriate level.  The unit also features two gauges that show temperature and a function selector.

Previously, I owned a Foreman grill.  I eventually stopped using it because I disliked cleaning it so much.  It worked well enough, but the hassle of cleaning that thing was enough to earn it a trip to the garage sale box after I used it less than ten times.  I'm happy to report that the Cuisinart Griddler poses no such cleaning issues.  The nonstick cleaning services can be removed and then washed.  This may or may not be a deal breaker for you, but I really like the convenience of this feature.  To make things even more convenient, the drip tray and plates can even be safely placed in the dishwasher.

Actually, because the Cuisinart Griddler GR-4N is so easy to use and easy to clean, I have felt motivated to experiment with cooking a variety of foods on it.  So far, in my experience, the only thing I don't think it would do well with, is cooking soup!  I used to cook in a restaurant back in the day, and the Griddler has motivated me to cook things that I have not felt like making in ages.  I have used it to make everything from steak to eggs.  It has really made cooking fun again for me.

I tend to cook by “feel”, but if you like more guidance, the adjustable temperature and easy to follow indicator lights will keep you on track.  The griddle tops out at the temperature of 400° F but it can be scaled down all the way to 200° F.  Health conscious cooks will probably be happy to see how much fat runs off of the food and collects in the drip tray when they use the Cuisinart Griddler.  This of course, is fat that will not be getting into your diet.  Note that some users have complained about the drip tray, so your mileage may vary.

So, to recap this little Cuisinart Griddler product review, I do like this unit.   It has easy to work with controls, it looks good, fits on my countertop and it will adjust itself to the thickness of whatever I am cooking.  There have been a couple of times that I wished that the temperature would go higher, but that is something that I can live with.

Overall, I would say that the Cuisinart GR-4N is a product well worth adding to your kitchen.  When I checked on Amazon, these were listed far below their suggested retail.  I would highly recommend checking the Amazon price even if you are thinking of buying it locally.  You can also read more customer reviews there.  If you have been looking for either a panini press or a griddle,  the Cuisinart Griddler can meet your needs and give you even more versatility than you expected!

Edit:  Looking for a deal? Click here to find the Breville BJE200XL at a very nice discount!

How healthy do you think you are? Chances are, if you are like me, there is always some room for improvement.  Although I had been trying to make sure that I was drinking plenty of water every day, I was pretty sure that there had to be a healthier alternative to my regular morning coffee(s).  I didn't give up coffee, but when a friend of mine got a Breville juicer and started mixing up drinks for me after we finished our walks, the idea of making my own juice drinks started to look pretty good to me.  Besides, I love kitchen gadgets.

The machine my friend purchased was the Breville BJE200XL juicer. Considering what we spend money on sometimes, dropping $100 on something like this that will get used a lot doesn't seem all that bad. You can find a huge number of juicer reviews online for this product as well as many others. As an entry level appliance this one makes a good choice because of its reasonable price, excellent features and ease of use.  Some day you may want to go with something with more "oomph", but for most people, this one has plenty.

The Breville BJE200XL is the cheapest model in the Breville range of centrifugal juicers. In fact, apart from their citrus press, all of their juicing appliances are of the centrifugal variety. This type of machine has a central filter basket that spins at high speeds. At the bottom of this basket are small sharp teeth that tear and mince the fresh fruit and vegetables that you put into the machine. The pulp that is created is then thrown against the side of the filter basket where the juice is extracted. Then the pulp is ejected to the pulp collect area. This is basically how this juicing appliance works.

The good thing about this style of machine is that they are very easy to use, even if you have never made your own fresh and healthy drinks before. In fact, one of the features that is really nice is that the entry chute where you put your produce into is very large. Therefore you can save a lot of time by not having to pre-chop up your produce. Making the juice itself is really just a matter of seconds. Speed of operation is a big plus too.

Then once you have created your delicious health giving drink it does not take long at all to clean the Breville BJE200XL ready for its next use. If you are going to spend the money to have a home juicer, why not make the investment in something that is built to last?  Find it at a discount price by CLICKING HERE!

Breville BJE200XL Compact Juice Fountain 1.5-qt.

Breville BJE510XL Ikon 900-Watt Variable-Speed Juice Extractor

There may be no more cost-effective way to enhance the value of your home than by the relatively simple expedient of refinishing kitchen cabinets. Consider that quality kitchen cabinets have always been a substantial investment. As time has gone on, manufacturers have sought ways and means to produce acceptable looking cabinets at lower and lower cost. Thus, they have increasingly abandoned the use of quality woods in favor of particle board assemblies with finishes of varying qualities.


Particularly if you own an older home, you may find that those worn-looking kitchen cabinets are actually a treasure in the rough if they are made of solid wood, and we will be talking here about refinishing wood kitchen cabinets rather than vintage metal kitchen cabinets.

Looking for an inexpensive, comprehensive guide? Click the image above.

Another factor in favor of refinishing kitchen cabinets is that there really isn't a tremendous range of facings employed in their manufacture. They may be flat or finished with some type of molding and a recessed panel, but old cabinets and new tend to share the basic designs. A sixty year old cabinet with a fresh finish will not be readily distinguishable from an expensive new cabinet by reason of an unacceptably dated profile.

However, refinishing kitchen cabinets is not necessarily the walk in the park that some writers would lead one to believe. It will take a serious commitment of time and energy to get the sort of results that most people would find acceptable. After all, there are professional cabinet refinishers making a good living at selling their expertise and experience. If it were such a simple matter as one might be led to suppose, they would not be investing their lives in the work.

The simplest finish to apply to old cabinets is paint. Given that it covers completely and will hide whatever may be underneath, it takes less preparation than refinishing with a stain or clear finish. When choosing paint for a kitchen cabinet refinishing project, oil-based paints are much to be preferred over latex, at least as far as the finished product is concerned. It will dry to a harder and longer lasting finish than latex paint, but it involves more work to apply, particularly with regard to cleaning up and maintaining your tools. Latex washes up with water; oil-based paint requires a chemical solvent.

You should start by determining what sort of finish is currently on your cabinets. If you have painted kitchen cabinets, it's best to apply a coat of oil-based primer. Before doing so, however, you should go over the cabinets with a degreasing cleaner and perhaps give them a light sanding.

If you want to go with latex paint, make sure that you are not applying it over an oil-based non-primer paint by testing the existing paint. Rub an inconspicuous area lightly with denatured alcohol on a rag. If the paint softens, it's latex; if not, it's oil.

Latex paint applied over an oil-based non-primer paint will tend not to grip properly. However, latex may be applied safely over an oil-based primer. Thus, an oil-based primer is appropriate for use under oil or water based paint.

If your kitchen cabinets are stained, you can use a stripping agent to lift the finish according to its directions, but be prepared to do some sanding. If you intend to paint over the stained finish, you can apply a shellac based primer rather than bother to remove the old finish. This will work under an oil or latex based color coat.


If you want to re-stain your cabinets, it will be necessary to remove as completely as possible all traces of the original stain. This is likely to be the most challenging of refinishing projects, and is not to be lightly undertaken. Once the old stain finish is removed, you can apply any sort of modern stain you prefer to the raw wood according to the instructions provided.

There are many who believe that all matters of style are cyclical, and that which is popular at a given time will pass out of style and ultimately come around again. However true that may be as a general proposition, it is certainly true of metal kitchen cabinets.

Very popular items, particularly in the era of the 1940's and 1950's, these vintage metal kitchen cabinets fell out of favor in later decades. Now, however, there is a resurgence of interest in them.

Their original appeal was due to their low cost and easy maintenance, plus the fact that they were then new and exciting. Well, after their decline, they remain easy to maintain, and to many, are again new and exciting.

In addition, they remain in place and in service in many older homes, and such used kitchen cabinets can be found at quite affordable prices. Those interested may find success looking for such cabinets online. While they may be found on E-Bay, the market for such items is generally local. Accordingly, a search of Craigslist is more likely to be fruitful.

Looped Logic Metal Cabinet from Amazon

Prices, as with most things, will vary widely. Some people just want to have them removed and will practically (or actually!) give them away in return for having them dismounted and hauled. Some people, however, especially if their cabinets are in superior condition, may seek up to several thousand dollars for a substantial set.

Also, be aware that the condition of cabinets even among an installed set may vary widely, and it's not uncommon to have to acquire several sets and 'cut and paste' them to accommodate variances in condition. Finally, going this route is a far cry from ordering custom cabinets. The cabinets are the size that they are, and are not easily or practically trimmed. Making them fit into an inflexible space may prove to be a great chore.

Of course, the renewal of interest in metal kitchen cabinets has not gone unnoticed by modern cabinet manufacturers. There are newly designed metal cabinets on the marketplace, and they reflect the advancements in technology that have occurred over time. Today, finishes are less likely to be permanently damaged by scratches and impacts, and corrosion resistance is much better. They are available in more colors and can include features such as custom hardware and even glass inserts.

Whether old and recycled or new, metal kitchen cabinets are easy to keep clean and maintain. They may be just the thing for those weary of seeing cabinets in more or less well rendered wood (real or faux) or Formica finishes.

Sometimes I have to think about topics to write about.  Other times, they jump out at me, literally.  Right now, kitchen organization comes to mind.  This past Saturday my family had one of those rare days when no one was scheduled to be anywhere all day.  I woke up early and had my first pot of coffee gone by 7:30.  When the kids starting rolling out of bed around 8:00, I was already in afternoon mode.


Since it was looking like it might be a lazy morning, I asked if anyone wanted anything special for breakfast and they settled on pancakes.  I knew that we had a griddle somewhere in the kitchen.  That is when the adventure began.  I immediately narrowed my search to the scary cabinet underneath the stove top.  Kitchen cabinet organization isn't exactly my strong suit either.  I knew it was bad, but we have conveniently managed to have our most used items toward the front, so it usually isn't SO bad finding what you need.

photo credit: Jim LinwoodThere was no griddle in the front, so that meant venturing into the darker corners of that little netherworld.  Kneeling in front of the stove, I began removing items one at a time as my quest for pancake making supplies began.  Piece by piece I started to pull out pots, pans and to my amazement, about forty pieces of old storage containers that somehow accumulated in the dark space.  I figured that I should match up any loose lids with their matching pieces as I went.  That is when my easy going weekend morning took a turn for the worse.  I was ten or fifteen pieces into the adventure before I found even one match!  In the end, I think we ended up with about ten "complete" containers and a huge pile of containers without matching lids.  Where did all of the lids go?  I can only guess that they are on a tropical beach somewhere sipping pina coladas with hoardes of un-matched socks that went AWOL from the drier.  To my credit, I didn't just throw all of the containers back in to the hole.  They are in a bag, sitting in the garage awaiting their orders.  In other words, I haven't quite made myself toss them yet.   All in all, it probably took me fifteen minutes just to clear the clutter and finally find the missing griddle.  Thank goodness I had at least guessed right about where to look.

I don't think that we are the only family with kitchen storage issues.  Even though our kitchen layout is pretty simple, we have managed, at times, to cover almost every flat surface with something or other.  There is probably someone out there who is a professional kitchen organizer, and they probably do pretty well for themselves.  I'm not ready to pay anyone yet, so my current mission is to slowly purchase and integrate some kitchen organizer tools in to our home.

When I run in to a situation like this one, I sometimes hit the point of not being able to take it anymore.  It is like a little twig snapping in my mind and I'm off on a mission.  I am probably guilty of starting more projects at one time than I reasonably should, but here are some of the things I'm doing to get our kitchen more organized:

1. Get rid of the clutter.  It was probably just a case of several different people (including myself) being unable to immediately find a matching lid that led to the mess under the stove over time.  When I started looking, I noticed that there were all kinds of small, seldom used items cluttering our kitchen space.  Step one was simply throwing away all of the tiny junk that was adding up to an enormous amount of clutter spread throughout the kitchen.
2. Kitchen drawer organization.  Another great example of entropy.  Total disorder here.  The good news is that just matching up things that actually fit in the proper drawer and using some nifty utensil holders and drawer dividers we found at Target solved this problem pretty easily.
3. Kitchen cabinet organization.  Well, this one is a bit more challenging, but is definitely part of the bigger picture of taking care of overall kitchen organization.  Depending on how deep your kitchen cabinets are, this can get a little bit scary.  Our cupboards are pretty darn deep.  I can stick my entire arm in and just barely reach the back of the corner one.  There were more than a few out of date items hiding back there just taking up space.  I also found that somehow, over time we had stockpiled enough cans of baking powder to last several generations.  I guess that happened because we weren't sure if we had enough or not and just picked up a new can (over and over again) while we were at the store.  This had to be cleared up.  My list of items to purchase now includes a lazy Susan for the super deep cabinet that I am committed to using.  I have to keep repeating my mantra, "I will not shove to the back.  I will not shove to the back."
4. Pantry Organization.  Here again we have a situation that is very similar to the cabinets.  We actually have an old china closet in our downstairs laundry room that acts as a pantry.  I don't remember how we ended up with that, but it works and it is out of sight, so I can deal with it.  This is where we try to keep our bulkier and seldom used items now instead of the cabinets.  We just have to keep up on it when we bring home new stuff from the store.  Taking five extra minutes to keep things organized from the beginning can save a ton of time later.  People with a more formal "pantry" may want to take advantage of specialized kitchen storage devices and pantry shelving to help keep things more separated and organized.  We are still making due with the old china closet for the time being because of space considerations.

In general, you want to use some common sense when you are organizing your kitchen.  Keep the things that you use every day like glasses and dishes where you can get to them without having to resort to climbing.  Put bulky items that you don't use very much like crock pots, blenders, dehydrators, and the like somewhere out of the way and not taking up valuable counter top space. 
Take a few extra seconds to put things in the right place as you go along, and kitchen organization won't have to be a major deal anymore.  At least that's what I'm going for now.

photo credit: NancyHugoCKD.com