I’ve owned a few different stovetop espresso makers, and my favorite is the Milano 6-cup from Grosche. I especially like the handle that extends far enough from the pot to keep from getting too hot to touch. It’s $27, but they currently have a $3 discount code on the product page. — MF

Last week I recommended parchment paper for no-stick baking. Two readers emailed me with comments worth sharing. Michael Ham said he avoids rolled parchment paper because “it wants to roll up again.” He likes pre-cut half-sheet parchment paper: “King Arthur Flour sells it in rounds, in squares, and in the half-sheet size that fits a half-sheet baking pan.” But now mostly uses a silicone baking mat, because it lies flat, is easy to clean, and is reusable. Brendan Farley offered this advice: “You’ve probably noticed that parchment paper does not lay down well — it keeps its form. If you want to mold it to a pan, just rinse it in water, ring it out like a towel, and it will mold to any pan and keep that form.” Thanks for the tips, Michael and Brendan! — MF

I use parchment paper on a cookie sheet to bake cookies and bread. There’s no need to grease the cookie sheet, and the cookies and bread come right off the parchment paper with zero residue. I can reuse the parchment paper. Even at 450 F, it doesn’t burn. — MF

I’m a fan of colorful plates, cups, and bowls, so when I saw this set of six porcelain bowls last month on Amazon I bought them without first checking the size. (A rookie mistake!) Fortunately, they aren’t the size of thimbles. In fact, they’re bigger than I expected, which is a bonus, as I’m a hearty eater. — MF

It’s soup season and I got tired of having to wait for my bowl to cool down in the microwave, or worse, the inevitable disaster that happens when I try to take it out with a kitchen towel or too quickly without one. These Safe Grabs are a successfully pitched Shark Tank product and they work as a trivet or a splatter guard. They are heat resistant, so you can just store them in the microwave and use it when you need to pull out a hot bowl or plate. — CD 

In our region we have a large green bin as part of our weekly trash pickup. All compostable kitchen and yard waste goes in it. But in the kitchen, the trash liner gets messy with wet food and scraps. Recycled paper bags are soggy, and you can’t toss in plastic bags. The solution is green compostable liners, like large doggy poo bags, so we can transfer the entire bag right into the compost bin. These compostable bags made from plant starch are so convenient, we use them for all trash now, to cut down plastic waste. There are a number of brands; we use Unni Tall Kitchen Trash, 50 bags. — KK

For years, my family has been using Le Creuset cast iron pans. The large one is almost too heavy for my wife to deal with. Also, they take a long time to heat up. While we are not ready to get rid of them, I recently discovered Carote non-stick frying pans. They’re coated with some kind of natural Granite material and they have a bakelite handle that stays cool (unlike the Le Creuset handles that get extremely hot). The aluminum Carote heats up quickly, and it is the best non-stick frying pan I’ve ever had. Everything just slides right out of it and it’s very easy to clean with water and a paper towel. you can try out the 8-inch frying pan, which costs under $15 to see if you like it before buying a larger pan. — MF

We replaced our old, space-consuming dish rack for this $7 Norpro Microfiber Drying Mat. It’s extremely absorbent and dries super fast. When I’m done with it, I just fold it up and put it in a drawer. It’s also machine washable. I love it. — CD 

My second favorite activity in the kitchen (after eating good food) is to stowe leftovers in our trove of Snapware Glasslock containers with snap-on lids. Glass makes the leftovers clearly visible, and re-heatable in their container, and the snap lids with gaskets create a nearly vacuum seal, and their sturdy flat tops can be securely stacked in the refrigerator. They will never spill, and are superior to all the other systems we’ve tried in the past. Snapping them shut on all four sides makes me really happy. By now there are 10 different brands of glass with snap lids (including Amazon Basics), all with the same design, though they are not interchangeable. I have not tried other brands; we are still using the original Snapware/Glasslock ones from a decade ago and they seem to last forever. — KK

Sometimes a recipe will call for me to “drizzle” olive oil on chicken or a vegetable before putting it in the oven or grill. I’ve been drizzling for years, and got resigned to the fact that most of the olive oil would end up on the bottom of the pan and not on the food. Recently I found a silicone basting brush in a kitchen drawer, which my wife bought a couple of years ago when she made a pastry and it has turned out to be a game-changer. Now I just pour a little olive oil, or other sauce, into a small bowl and use the brush to paint it on the meat or vegetable before cooking. This brush gives me much more control, and there’s less waste. My drizzling days are over. — MF

A surprisingly workable alternative to a Teflon frying pan is a ceramic coated pan. We use a GreenPan (it’s actually white ceramic inside) that unsticks as well as old Teflon. The cheap Teflon pans we use only last about 4 years. Our GreenPan is 5 years old and shows no wear. The 10 inch GreenPan is $25. — KK

I’ve tried a lot of vegetable peelers, and the OXO Good Grips Pro Y-Peeler is now my favorite. It feels solid in my hand, and it has a long blade to speed up peeling. It’s great for peeling sweet potatoes. — MF

Finally, a definitive “How-to” on how to load the dishwasher. Consumer Reports shared an interactive graphic and a video on the best method for most machines. I was surprised to find that dishes and pots with baked on food CAN be placed faced down toward the spray arm. I was always told to not block it. — CD

I recently opened a jar of natural peanut butter in which the oil and solids had separated so much that I couldn’t mix it with a spoon. I had to use a drill and a stirrer I made from a bent metal barbecue skewer to mix the peanut butter. (I posted a photo to Twitter. It was messy and the skewer bent, so I went to Amazon to look for a better solution. I found it: the EZPB Natural Nut Butter Stirrer. It’s a zig-zag metal rod that fits most jars and requires patience, but will get the job done far better than a spoon and without splashing peanut oil. Watch the video on the Amazon product page to see how well it works. — MF

My husband bought these Rubbermaid FreshWorks Containers ($27, set of 3), which prevents produce from spoiling by keeping excess moisture away, and for the first time ever, I was able to finish a bag of spinach without it going bad. Usually I have to throw out my spinach after a week or less, but this container kept it fresh for more than two weeks. It’s amazing! — CD

My beverage of choice is sparkling water. To eliminate single-use bottles in our household, we have a Sodastream machine to make our own fizzy water. But Sodastream has stopped making the large 32 oz CO2 canister and has upped the refill price on the smaller ones, making it expensive. The solution is a hack: We now refill our own large 24 ounce canister for $5 at a sporting goods store using a paintball canister. (The squeamish can use a SodaMod food-grade canister.) All you need is a $19 brass adapter (mine is Protek) to fit the canister into the proprietary threads a Sodastream needs. — KK

Recomendo reader Wendy shared a follow-up tip to last week’s Recomendo, she says “Another tip I read once about eyeballing measurements is to take pinches of salt and place them in your other hand till you think you have a teaspoon, then measure it against a real teaspoon. Do the pinches over and over till you get a consistent amount per teaspoon. I figured mine out so that I get ¼ teaspoon per pinch. Super handy for salting stuff, but also works with herbs. But in the case of herbs, remember how much a teaspoon looked like in your palm.” — CD

All the time spent in the kitchen with my mother or grandmother I never once saw them measuring anything, and maybe it’s a Hispanic culture thing, but I learned even less about appropriate food portions. So now I’m working on getting better at eyeballing portion sizes so that I don’t over serve myself. This chart helps. — CD

The Instant Pot multicooker has become an internet sensation, with recipe books and YouTube videos devoted to it. I also was a fan of my Instant Pot until it died last month and I switched to a Zavor Lux 6-Quart Multicooker ($160). It’s superior to the Instant Pot on at least three counts. First, the top lid doesn’t get so hot that it will burn you if you touch it. Second, it heats much faster, which makes a huge time difference when pressure cooking a meal. Third, the silicone gasket on the lid is braced so it doesn’t sag like it does on the Instant Pot, which is a common issue and prevents the Instant Pot from achieving a high enough pressure. The Zavor costs a bit more than the Instant Pot, but it’s worth it. – MF

In last week’s Recomendo I recommended the Bodum Brazil French Press Coffee Maker. To heat the water, I’m using a Cosori Electric Kettle ($30). It’s made from borosilicate glass and has a stainless steel bottom. No plastic touches the water. A half liter of room-temperature water starts to simmer in a minute, and comes to a full boil in under two minutes. It shuts off automatically. — MF