Quirky, the folks that bring us “inventions” at the retail level, sent two items recently. The first is called “Stem,” and is simply a spray nozzle with little perforation ridges that make it easy to slide it right into a citrus fruit such as a lemon, lime or orange. This thing is amazing! I stuck one in a lemon and had instant lemon spritz, perfect for a natural blast of juice for a salad or in a beverage or on grilled chicken or fish. I haven’t tried it with limes or oranges yet, but wow. This one is a keeper. I haven’t tried it on a slab of bacon yet, but maybe that’s for another day.

Quirky also sent me “Sliders,” which are skewers–but not just any skewers. They are dual prongs so that your meat and veggies stay on there easily. They also have a function where you can push the items off the kebab once you are done grilling. That’s always a pain as you have to use a fork and try not to burn or stick yourself. But here’s the problem….the part where you push, which also has a handle, is suppose to be heat-resistant plastic. But mine started to melt from my grill’s heat. Oops. But still a cool product idea!

Finally, we were sent this awesome 10-in-1 gadget from The Grill Daddy, their Heat Shield Series. This thing comes with interchangeable fork, spatula and tongs. It also has a heat shield and swivel action that protects your hand from the grill’s heat the whole time you are using it. They also have a basting brush, which they did not send, but I got the idea of how it all works. But here is my favorite part–there is a built-in meat thermometer at the tip of the handle. So while you are using the Grill Daddy Heat Shield you can whip out the thermometer and make sure your chicken won’t give you any diseases. Because that would suck. But the gadget does not suck!