If your tablet has become your sous chef, here’s the perfect way to keep it clean, off the counter and in perfect view: Upper Desk’s Portable Cabinet Mount. 

There are a lot of products out there that will hold your smart device while you work in the kitchen. The problem is that most of them take up valuable kitchen counter real estate.

This cabinet mount securely installs to a cabinet or shelf in seconds and can be used with tablets and other smart devices (like your phone). It’s got an easy latch system that requires no tools or permanent hardware, so it won’t leave marks or holes. Very portable.

But the best part is that the mount has a 180° rotating arm that you can swivel and position to see it best. It also has angled settings to reduce glare. Here’s a demo:

Upper Desk’s Portable Cabinet Mount works in either landscape or portrait mode and is compatible with protective cases. And, it’s not just for kitchens… you can use it anywhere you want to view your smart device hands-free. Great for step-by-step tutorials!

I met Roderick Phillips, the mount’s inventor, at the recent International Home and Housewares Show in Chicago and he asked me to give his product a try. Mr. Phillips came up with the device while tinkering in his garage. It’s such a great product, it was selected as a finalist in the Home Organization + Storage category at the 3rd International Housewares Association (IHA) Innovation Awards. Way to go Mr. Phillips!

I love it when people have dreams and work to make them real. It’s sweet.

George Jetson’s “smart” kitchen is finally here.

You remember George, don’t you? The Saturday morning cartoon character whose housekeeper, Rosie, would put a block into an oven and, seconds later, a fully cooked meal would pop out?

copyright Hanna-Barbera

It’s not quite that easy yet, but we’re well on our way to a Jetson’s-like smart kitchen.

We’ve been able to connect the care and maintenance of our homes through the Internet for a few years now… thermostats, lights, sprinklers, security systems, televisions, etc. But now, even our small, everyday kitchen appliances can be programed and operated from our phones or tablets.

Here’s what I found at the recent International Home and Housewares Show:

Before you start cooking, you’ll need the Orange Chef Company’s Prep Pad, the smart kitchen food scale that connects over Bluetooth to your iPad. It uses an app to show you the nutrition in the food based on weight, not labels. Here’s a demo:

The app-enabled iDevices Kitchen Thermometerlets you program the cooking time and temperature on your smart device and then monitors the temperature of whatever you’re preparing. The thermometer sends that info via Bluetooth to your smartphone or tablet as it cooks and when it’s ready. iDevices has a whole range of thermometers… I’ll tell you about those in the coming months.

The Crock-Pot is probably one of the first programmable kitchen appliances. Now, no matter where you are, you can turn on the Crock-Pot and adjust the programmable cook time and temperature from your smart phone or tablet.

Finished cooking… but forgot to sweep the kitchen floor? Send a message to Ecovacs Robotics’ Deebot D9 and it will clean your kitchen floors… or all of the floors in your house for that matter. It even returns to the charging dock and empties its own bin when it’s through cleaning!

But by far, the best “smart” device I saw at the show was the Famibot… which really reminded me of Rosie (the Jetson’s housekeeper).

Ecovac’s Famibot is an air purifier, entertainment center, security guard and home network connector. This little guy can even roam around your house and take photos and videos inside and send it to your phone or tablet.

Having a smart home seems like it would be really cool… but with all the bad guys out there, what if they find a way to reprogram my pot roast?

This is game changer… well, at least when it comes to using your iPad for cooking.

 Gilt Groupe, the luxe-obsessed bargain shopping website, is offering a new motion-activated recipe app that turns your iPad into a completely hands-free device. Another bonus: it doesn’t black out in the middle of a recipe.

The free iPad-only app, called Gilt Taste (like the company’s e-commerce food site), uses the iPad’s built-in camera to follow your hand movements: Wave your hand from right to left in front of the screen, like you’re turning a page, and the recipe moves from one step to the next (left to right to go back).

And, you won’t lose track of where you are in the recipe because the ingredient list can stay on the screen.

The one downside is that the app has a limited number of recipes for now. But since former Gourmet Magazine editor Ruth Reichl has curated them, they are creative, thougha bit aspirational for a novice cook (which is not a bad thing!). A few of the ingredients may be hard to find in your supermarket, but some of them you can buy on the website (at mind-blowing prices, natch…).

Even though you don’t have to touch your iPad with this app, I’d still recommend using a Chef Sleeve  and/or Belkin Cabinet/Fridge Mount to keep the device flour-free olive-oil proof.