I know, I know, this isn’t exactly about helping me cook.  But wine is often a part of my meals and as such, it’s relevant.  Sorta.

I first saw this product listed on Go Green Travel Green’s excellent write-up about Klean Kanteen stainless steel water bottles.  Before you read any further, check out their review which lists more than just the wine carafe noted here.

What caught my eye was quite simply the word "wine".  I admit, after looking into it the Klean Kanteen Karafe (they’re Krafty with names, aren’t they?) is nothing more than their standard 27oz water bottle.  Doing the math, or just reading the label, shows that 27oz=800ml for those of us in the USA.  And 800ml is just over the 750ml of a standard wine bottle!

No more worries abut broken glass on hikes!  Yes, that’s my biggest plus for this already existing, but newly exciting product.  I also figure I can use it the next morning filled with water taken from a stream and sterilized with the Steripen, so right there it’s WAY better than lugging back an empty wine bottle.  Plus you can throw on the Loop Cap to make carrying it much easier than carrying a wine bottle.

But wait!  There’s more!  It comes in either a merlot color (ostensibly for red wine) and the standard unpainted stainless steel (great for white wine).  And now the for the big kicker, the best improvement in the wine carafe industry in probably over 1000 years, or more: The bottle has a language decoder on the back listing the printed word for wine in English, Chinese, Finnish, Tahitian, Arabic, Luxemburgish (I kid you not), Japanese, Portuguese, Dutch and Italian.  Why French is not listed, I’m not sure.

Some other features:

• Dishwasher safe
• BPA and toxin free
• no inner lining
• shatterproof, durable & lightweight
• never retains or leaches flavors

The Klean Kanteen Karafe may be a bit of a gimmicky update to an already existing water bottle, but you have to give them credit on the coolness of it.  Heck, I’ll probably buy one.  Opss! Just did!

Hello and welcome to this week’s Help Peter Cook Challenge!

For the first cooking challenge I’m going to make it easy.  The ingredients you have to work with this week are:

• Halibut
• White Onion
• Shitake Mushrooms
• Broccoli

Now then, the challenge to you is to use those four ingredients, plus up to two ingredients of your own (you don’t have to add anything if you don’t want to), and post a recipe with cooking instructions.  You may use any of the spices listed on the Spices & Herbs page free of charge.

You have until 10am Pacific Time (UTC-8) to post to post a recipe.  Feel free to post the recipe on your own site and link to it here, we’d love to see what else you’ve been up to!  Or simply post the whole recipe in the comments section below.  I will then purchase any needed ingredients tomorrow after 10am, cook up the meal and video tape it.  The final result will be presented here in living color for the world to see with an official tasting!!  And if yours is the chosen recipe, you’ll be listed in our soon to be listed Hall Of Fame!

So, what kind of meal do you have in mind?

And don’t forget!  You can follow along with the cooking action on Tuesday by following me on Twitter!  It’s your chance to offer up pointers and suggestions while the cooking is happening.