logo
This All-in-One Kitchen Appliance Is My Go-To Sidekick and Is 25% Off for Today's Amazon Prime Day Sales Event

This All-in-One Kitchen Appliance Is My Go-To Sidekick and Is 25% Off for Today's Amazon Prime Day Sales Event

CNET4 days ago
Amazon Prime Day sale: The Chefman Everything Maker is available for $45 -- equivalent to $15 off and a 25% discount -- during Amazon's July Prime Day sale event today.
As a writer for CNET's How-To team, I've tried out a lot of all-in-one devices. So when I first got my hands on the Chefman Everything Maker, I was expecting it to be something of a novelty. What I got instead was a genuinely useful, space-saving kitchen sidekick that's now become part of my daily cooking routine. It's clever, compact and capable of making just about everything, from pizza and eggs to waffles and paninis, all without taking up half the counter.
The normal list price of $59.99 on the Chefman website already feels like a steal for what this thing does. Which is, well, everything. But right now during Amazon's July Prime Day sale, you can get the Everything Maker in the concrete color for 25% off, bringing the price down to just $45. (The midnight version is also on sale for 20% off.)
Too often, all-in-one kitchen appliances end up doing a lot of things poorly instead of doing one thing well. And, because some models have a lot of components, they can be a nightmare to clean. But the Everything Maker quickly won me over. The nonstick cooking surfaces heat up quickly and clean off with minimal effort (a serious win in my book). I've made crispy hash browns, gooey grilled cheese, breakfast sandwiches and perfectly golden pancakes -- all in one compact machine.
The Chefman Everything Maker lives up to its name by offering a versatile, all-in-one cooking solution.
Macy Meyer/CNET
And it's not just a breakfast tool. I've used it for late-night quesadillas and quick lunches more times than I can count in the past few weeks.
The design is intuitive, easy to store upright (although I rarely put it away) and surprisingly durable. No extra bells and whistles here. It's just a well-made, easy-to-use appliance that works every time.
Hey, did you know? CNET Deals texts are free, easy and save you money.
How I use my Everything Maker
Macy Meyer/CNET
The Chefman Everything Maker lives up to its name by offering a versatile, all-in-one cooking solution that fits easily on a countertop. With a 12-inch nonstick cooking surface and a slim, compact design, it's well-suited for small kitchens or anyone looking to simplify meal prep. I've found it particularly convenient for cooking breakfast foods like eggs and pancakes with the lid open, then switching to grilled sandwiches or quesadillas with the lid closed.
It also heats quickly and evenly, reaching up to 428°F (220°C), which is enough for searing, sautéing or even light grilling. I made a summer flatbread (with burrata, pesto and prosciutto) over the weekend and used the Everything Maker to lightly sear some peaches to add as a topping. They came out perfectly.
Cleanup is another strong point. The nonstick surface wipes down easily after use -- no scrubbing or soaking required -- which has made it a reliable go-to for quick weekday meals.
The Everything Maker also comes with a digital cookbook featuring 16 chef-crafted recipes, which I've used as inspiration for trying new dishes beyond my usual routine. While it doesn't replace every kitchen tool, the Everything Maker handles a surprising variety of tasks in a compact footprint.
Best Prime Day Kitchen Appliance Deals
Score some of the best discounts of the year on top kitchen tech during Prime Day, and our shopping experts have rounded up the only deals worth taking seriously this year.
See Now
My buying advice
Whether you're shopping for a gift or just want to level up your own cuisine game, the Chefman Everything Maker is a surprisingly versatile little appliance. Even at full price, it offers solid value and delivers big on convenience, but for just $45, you really can't beat the value.
While the Everything Maker isn't on sale on the Chefman website currently, it's still worth checking Chefman's website from time to time. They run promotions regularly (in fact, my favorite Obliterator Blender is almost 20% off right now).
If you're looking for other useful, fun gifts for your favorite hostess or the chef in your life, here are our favorite kitchen gifts under $50. And to see more products we love that are on sale now, check out our picks for the best deals during Amazon Prime Day.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

xAI explains the Grok Nazi meltdown as Tesla puts Elon's bot in its cars
xAI explains the Grok Nazi meltdown as Tesla puts Elon's bot in its cars

The Verge

time5 minutes ago

  • The Verge

xAI explains the Grok Nazi meltdown as Tesla puts Elon's bot in its cars

Several days after temporarily shutting down the Grok AI bot that was producing antisemitic posts and praising Hitler in response to user prompts, Elon Musk's AI company tried to explain why that happened. In a series of posts on X, it said that '...we discovered the root cause was an update to a code path upstream of the @grok bot. This is independent of the underlying language model that powers @grok.' On the same day, Tesla announced a new 2025.26 update rolling out 'shortly' to its electric cars, which adds the Grok assistant to vehicles equipped with AMD-powered infotainment systems, which have been available since mid-2021. According to Tesla, 'Grok is currently in Beta & does not issue commands to your car – existing voice commands remain unchanged.' As Electrek notes, this should mean that whenever the update does reach customer-owned Teslas, it won't be much different than using the bot as an app on a connected phone. This isn't the first time the Grok bot has had these kinds of problems or similarly explained them. In February, it blamed a change made by an unnamed ex-OpenAI employee for the bot disregarding sources that accused Elon Musk or Donald Trump of spreading misinformation. Then, in May, it began inserting allegations of white genocide in South Africa into posts about almost any topic. The company again blamed an 'unauthorized modification,' and said it would start publishing Grok's system prompts publicly. xAI claims that a change on Monday, July 7th, 'triggered an unintended action' that added an older series of instructions to its system prompts telling it to be 'maximally based,' and 'not afraid to offend people who are politically correct.' The prompts are separate from the ones we noted were added to the bot a day earlier, and both sets are different from the ones the company says are currently in operation for the new Grok 4 assistant. These are the prompts specifically cited as connected to the problems: 'You tell it like it is and you are not afraid to offend people who are politically correct.' * Understand the tone, context and language of the post. Reflect that in your response.' * 'Reply to the post just like a human, keep it engaging, dont repeat the information which is already present in the original post.' The xAI explanation says those lines caused the Grok AI bot to break from other instructions that are supposed to prevent these types of responses, and instead produce 'unethical or controversial opinions to engage the user,' as well as 'reinforce any previously user-triggered leanings, including any hate speech in the same X thread,' and prioritize sticking to earlier posts from the thread.

More On The Tips And Overtime Deductions In One Big Beautiful Bill
More On The Tips And Overtime Deductions In One Big Beautiful Bill

Forbes

time31 minutes ago

  • Forbes

More On The Tips And Overtime Deductions In One Big Beautiful Bill

Earlier this week I noted a subtle difference in the limitations on the tips and overtime deductions included in the Big Beautiful Bill which can create either a marriage penalty or a marriage bonus. I was so taken by the apparent anomaly that I devoted a whole post to it. Now I am getting back to a fuller discussion. When President Trump first came out with "no tax on tips", I studied the proposals that were floating in Congress and had some concerns. Most notable was the harmful effect one of the proposals would have on Earned Income Tax Credit recipients. And then there was all sorts of commentary on how the provision might be gamed. What ultimately emerged addressed many of the issues. What we have in the final language about tips and overtime illustrates Reilly's Third Law of Tax Planning - "Any clever idea that pops into your head probably has (or will have) a corresponding rule that makes it not work". If you had an idea about how to game the "No tax on tips" of "No tax on overtime", let's see if Congress has already knocked it out even before any regulations have been issued. Deductions Subject To Limitations And Phase Outs First of all, the benefits are only about income tax, not Social Security and Medicare as the "no tax" monikers might imply. Further, the final bill puts limits and phaseouts in place. And the benefits are structured as deductions. It you want to know more about what that means, read the next paragraph, but feel free to skip it. It is worth looking at Form 1040 to understand where the deduction fits in. If you clicked on the link, you will see that your total income is on Line 9. Then on LIne 10, there are adjustments to income. There are a lot of those so they are totaled up on Part II of Schedule 1. Subtracting Line from Line 11 gives you your adjusted gross income (AGI). This is an important number because many thresholds and limitations are keyed to AGI including those of the tips and overtime deductions. Next on line 12 you get either your standard deduction or the total of certain itemized deductions from Schedule A. The tips and overtime will not be among them, so you don't need to be an itemizer. On Line 13 you will see the qualified business income deduction which will be added to the amount on line 12 to arrive at line 14 which is subtracted from AGI to arrive at taxable income. That's where the tips and overtime deductions will go along with the automobile interest deduction included in the bill. I don't know if they will add more lines to the form or give us another schedule. If it is another schedule I hope that they call it Schedule A PLUS. Do you remember all the talk about a postcard tax return in 2017? Still not happening. UNITED STATES - NOVEMBER 14: Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., holds up a postcard tax return ... More form during the press conference following the House Republican Conference meeting in the Capitol on Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2017. Ryan is flanked from left by House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., Republican Conference Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va. (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)Both the tip deduction and the overtime deduction require that married taxpayers file joint returns to claim the deduction. There are dollar limitations. The limitation is $25,000 for the tip deduction and $12,500 for the overtime deduction on a single return and $25,000 for the overtime deduction on a joint return. The phaseout is the same - $100 for every $1,000 that modified adjusted gross income exceeds $150,000 on a single return or $300,000 on a joint return. The modification to adjusted gross income is an add back of income excluded because it was earned while living abroad or in Puerto Rico on one of the U.S. possessions. I have to wonder if the $150,000 threshold is an echo of the proposal to totally eliminate income taxes on those earning less than $150,000. Qualified Tips Unlike earlier proposals, "qualified tips" are not just tips received by employees. The deduction also applies to tips received in the course of a trade or business. The thing that comes to mind there is food delivery people or Uber drivers who are considered independent contractors. I also recall that adult entertainers can be independent contractors. The deduction will be allowed only to the extent that the gross income from the business exceeds the allocable deductions. This could present some planning issue for how capital assets might be written off. The tip deduction will reduce the amount of income counted as qualified business income for that deduction. What exactly are the "tips" that are the subject of the deduction? First of all, they have to be received by an individual in an occupation which "customarily and regularly received tips on or before December 31, 2024". There is a call for a list to be created. Next the amount involved has to be paid voluntarily, without consequence in the event of nonpayment, not the subject of negotiation and determined by the payor. So that amount that large parties have to pay in a restaurant seems to not qualify. There are excluded fields of business- health, law, accounting, actuarial science, performing arts, consulting, athletics, financial services, brokerage services, or any trade or business where the principal asset of such trade or business is the reputation or skill of 1 or more of its employees. I have to wonder if the "performing arts" exclusion knocks out the adult entertainers. There is some litigation in the sales tax area that might help them. Overtime For the definition of "qualified overtime compensation" you really need to look at the bill's language and meditate for a while. Here it is "... the term 'qualified overtime compensation' means overtime compensation paid to an individual required under section 7 of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 that is in excess of the regular rate (as used in such section) at which such individual is employed". That language triggered some back and forth in the twitterverse, about whether they mean the total amount paid for overtime or just the premium. If you search for what the median hourly wage for Americans is, there are a variety of answers but they seem to be between $20 and $30 per hour, so let's use $25 for illustrative purposes. With that as the base hourly wage you get $1,000 per week for 40 hours, $52,000 per year. At time and half for overtime the $37.50 premium rate would max out the $12,500 limit at 6.5 hours a week. That is how I think of overtime and how I initially read, probably misread, the statute. The consensus seems to be that the deduction is only for the premium. Tom Gorczynski EA pointed out something from the White House website that supports that interpretation. I found that quite persuasive. Kelly Erb also writes that it is just the premium, which seals the deal for me. It still bugs me though. So if it is just the premium it takes 1,000 hours to max out the benefit if you are single in my example. Call it a 60 hours work week. If you are married and your spouse does not work overtime it would be 2,000 hours. At $50 per hour you will hit the maximum at 500 hours of overtime if you are single or 1,000 hours if you are married with a spouse that does not get overtime. Absent a lot else going on, you won't be having to deal with the phaseout. I won't comment on the equity or sense behind this particular deduction other than to remark that back when I used to work more than forty hours a week mostly without overtime pay, I found it a lot harder when I was doing that by working two jobs rather than longish hours on one job. So I am puzzled as to what makes an overtime premium worthy of special tax treatment. Gaming The Overtime Deduction I don't know much about the Fair Labor Standards Act, which is the key to the deduction. It is clear however that whether people are exempt employees not subject to the overtime premium requirement can be debatable. Employers will generally prefer to not have that requirement. I don't think this deduction will change that, but I can't resist coming up with a way to game it. Here is the idea. I have a bunch of salaried employees and I want to help them out. So what I do is cut everybody's pay to below $684 per week so that I have to pay them time and a half over forty hours. Then I guarantee them overtime hours which will include overtime hours when they are "on-call". That will bring them up to whatever their previous salary was. And a third of that amount will be deductible. This is actually a terrible idea when it comes to actually executing it, but I felt I had to come up with something if I could. I haven't thought of a way to game the tips deduction, but I am sure they will be coming.

I'm a Real Estate Expert: The Salary You Need To Afford a $1 Million Home
I'm a Real Estate Expert: The Salary You Need To Afford a $1 Million Home

Yahoo

time38 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

I'm a Real Estate Expert: The Salary You Need To Afford a $1 Million Home

Thinking about buying a $1 million home? It sounds glamorous — and maybe a little intimidating. According to Fortune, $1 million can still buy you a lot of house in most parts of the United States, as the median home sale price was $419,200. But before you start daydreaming about that perfect kitchen or backyard oasis, it's worth figuring out what kind of paycheck you actually need to afford that price tag without breaking a sweat. Explore More: Read Next: GOBankingRates spoke with Brett Iwanowicz, the founder and CEO at Brett Buys Roc Houses, to break down the numbers so you know what salary you should be aiming for to comfortably call a million-dollar house your home. 'The ability to purchase a $1 million home depends on multiple elements which include personal income levels along with debt-to-income ratio and down payment requirements and interest rates and total financial responsibilities,' said Iwanowicz. The following analysis also includes the minimum annual income needed to maintain a $1 million home purchase. Here are some key factors to consider. According to Iwanowicz, a common rule for homebuyers involves putting down 20% of the property value which amounts to $200,000 for a $1 million home. The majority of buyers need private mortgage insurance (PMI) to get approved for mortgages that require less than 20% down payment. Find Out: 'A $800,000 loan amount will result after making a $200,000 down payment,' Iwanowicz explained. The mortgage payment amount each month depends on both the interest rate and the duration of the loan (30-year fixed or 15-year fixed). Iwanowicz noted the interest rate stands at 6% per year in this example for a 30-year fixed mortgage. 'An $800,000 mortgage at 6% interest with a 30-year term results in a monthly principal and interest payment of about $4,800,' he added. This also means that the calculated amount does not include payments for property taxes together with homeowners insurance and homeowners' association (HOA) fees. 'Annual property tax rates typically range between 1% to 2% of the home's total value,' said Iwanowicz. He explained that a $1 million home would require $10,000 to $20,000 annual property taxes which equals $833 to $1,667 monthly payments. And the cost of homeowners insurance varies between $100 to $300 per month based on location and coverage. Monthly housing expenses combining mortgage payments and property taxes and insurance would fall between $5,733 and $6,767, according to Iwanowicz. As far as income needed — he said the recommended limit for housing expenses in relation to gross income stands at 28% to 30%. Using this guideline, to afford $6,000 monthly housing expenses you would require a gross monthly income exceeding $20,000. 'This translates to yearly earnings of $240,000,' Iwanowicz concluded. Here, the lender evaluates the total DTI ratio of buyers, which combines every monthly debt payment including car loans, student loans and credit card debt. Iwanowicz explained that most lenders prefer a DTI ratio below 43%. With a yearly income of $240,000 ($20,000 per month) the buyer's total monthly debt payments including mortgage should not exceed $8,600. More From GOBankingRates 7 Things You'll Be Happy You Downsized in Retirement This article originally appeared on I'm a Real Estate Expert: The Salary You Need To Afford a $1 Million Home

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store