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| Author |
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| 25 new of 205 responses total. |
popcorn
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response 16 of 205:
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Dec 3 16:14 UTC 1995 |
Last weekend, my sister bought me a salad spinner as an early gift for
Chanukah. She showed me the important salad spinner feature to look for:
a hole in the top where water from the faucet can go into the salad spinner
and reach the stuff inside. Now I'm all excited about making lots of salad.
This should make it easier to feed clean green stuff to my guinea pigs, too.
I'd been under the impression that salad spinners were expensive electronic
gadgets. This one isn't: it cost less than $10, and you crank it manually,
no electronics involved. Cool!
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popcorn
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response 17 of 205:
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Dec 24 15:25 UTC 1995 |
I'm steadily less and less impressed by my new Air Bake cookie sheets.
1) They don't have good edges, so it's hard to get a grip on them with a
pot holder. Also, cookies could easily drip off the edges.
2) They're not non-stick. In fact, they behave like they have a "stick"
coating: the opposite of non-stick.
3) I worry about putting sticky aluminum right next to foods, because
aluminum may be associated with Alzheimer's.
4) They're non-standard sized, so they don't fit my oven very well.
5) Tried-and-true recipes are failing. This might be part of the process
of me adapting to a new oven, I'm not sure. But stuff is needing to bake at
a higher temperature for a much longer time than the recipe calls for, and
even then it's coming out underbaked.
Does anybody out there have an oven thermometer I could borrow to check my
oven with?
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mdw
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response 18 of 205:
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Dec 24 20:50 UTC 1995 |
I thought aluminum had been absolved?
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eeyore
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response 19 of 205:
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Dec 25 00:29 UTC 1995 |
the air-bake pans are good for things that would normally burn....shortbread,
lebkuechen, and the like...for the rest, they are no good....(at least that
what i've noticed...:)
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popcorn
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response 20 of 205:
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Dec 25 13:07 UTC 1995 |
Re 18: I think the aluminum question is still under debate. Nobody knows what
causes Alzheimers. Patients with Alzheimer's also tend to have a lot of
aluminum in their brains. Evidence says that the aluminum in their brains
isn't the *cause* of Alzheimer's. So presumably something else is both
causing Alzheimer's and also leaving aluminum in their brains. But, 'til
someone figures out *what* causes Alzheimer's, I'm just as happy to stay away
from eating aluminum.
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ajax
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response 21 of 205:
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Dec 28 07:54 UTC 1995 |
I got an Air Bake sheet not too long ago. Haven't burned anything on it,
but it is a bit sticky. For butter-laden cookies, no prob, but it definitely
needs lubricants for drier foods...I had to chisel a pizza off it! Anybody
have recommendations for more general-purpose baking sheets?
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mcpoz
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response 22 of 205:
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Dec 28 14:42 UTC 1995 |
Mrs. McPoz does pizza on a flat stone sheet about 1/2" thick. Great crusts.
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scott
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response 23 of 205:
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Dec 29 05:28 UTC 1995 |
You can borrow my oven thermometer, Valerie. Every apartment has had a
different oven temperature problem...
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jiffer
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response 24 of 205:
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Jun 15 20:57 UTC 1997 |
I guess i am going to try and revitalize this item.
My favorite is the crock pot (pop in your meat right before worka nd then
dinner is ready when you get home!), the Kitchen Aide (sob) - how i yearn for
my own!!!!
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e4808mc
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response 25 of 205:
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Jun 16 00:54 UTC 1997 |
Heh, one year I began a list of *useless* electric appliances. I was
wondering how many perfectly good had appliances had been converted to
electricity. Lets see, there was the electric vegetable peeler, the electric
can opener, the electric carving knife, the electric french fry cutter, the
electric mixer (the kind you use in a glass to mix up diet powders), the
electric frying pan, the electric toaster (yes kiddies, toast can be made
range-top with this cute little pyramid deally), the electric wok, the
electric deep fryer (3 sizes), the electric toaster-oven, the electric coffee
maker, the electric tea-kettle, the electric ice-tea maker, the electric
ice-cream maker, the electric juicer......
What got me was the sheer number of single-use gadgets that took space on your
counter, as opposed to the manual versions that fit nicely into a drawer.
I think it was the vegetable peeler that set me off. Anybody else spotted
new and unusually conversions to electricity?
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void
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response 26 of 205:
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Jun 16 05:51 UTC 1997 |
heck, you can make toast over a burner or a fire with a toasting
fork (my mother gathered a somewhat impressive collection of them when
we lived in england). electric coffee grinders strike me as being
somewhat silly, even though coffee grinders themeselves are single-use
gadgets which don't exactly fit in drawers.
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valerie
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response 27 of 205:
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Jun 16 12:51 UTC 1997 |
I've actually seen those electric mixers that you dip into a glass to mix up
diet powders, used to a useful purpose. A busy mom whose kids I used to
babysit for, used to take a piece of food from the family's dinner, drop it
into a plastic glass, dip a hand-held blender into it, and voila -- instant
home cooked baby food. This worked especially well with things like yams.
Ya, it could all be done by hand, but it did actually help make things easier
when dealing with a baby and a toddler underfoot.
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davel
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response 28 of 205:
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Jun 16 20:32 UTC 1997 |
For that matter, there are plenty of occasions when many of those electric
appliances are pretty reasonable. I hate electric can openers, myself,
but people with arthritis can have trouble with hand-operated ones, just
as an example.
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mary
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response 29 of 205:
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Jun 16 22:11 UTC 1997 |
I use my immersion blender far more often than I use my Cuisinart. If my
food processor broke tomorrow I wouldn't replace it.
I would replace my bread machine, my Braun immersion blender, the coffee
maker, the toaster, the waffle maker, the microwave, and the crockpot.
Kitchen Aid mixers *never* die so what's to discuss.
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i
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response 30 of 205:
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Jun 16 23:58 UTC 1997 |
My sister's pride & joy is a battery-powered pepper grinder - just press
the button, and...
I think it's the depth of decadence.
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valerie
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response 31 of 205:
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Jun 17 02:11 UTC 1997 |
Re 29: I wanna have a kid, just so I have an excuse to go out and buy an
immersion blender. Those are sooooo cool!
My mom once bought her parents one of those gizmos that scrambles an egg while
it's still inside its shell. The idea was that you could then make hard
boiled scrambled eggs. But it never worked very well: The egg would come
oozing out the hole where the scrambler had gone in, long before it solidified
enough to stay where it belonged.
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mary
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response 32 of 205:
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Jun 17 13:28 UTC 1997 |
Immersion blenders are inexpensive (my Braun was just under
$20) and worth it for soup preparation alone. I'm also
fond of fruit-whipped summer drinks. Anyhow, then you'll
already have it when any babies arrive and you'll be free
to buy other things like strollers and car seats and diapers
and toys and babysitters and Seuss books and so on. ;-)
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glenda
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response 33 of 205:
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Jun 17 23:13 UTC 1997 |
Re #30: we have a battery-powered pepper mill, a black one holding black
peppercorns. They plan is to get a second (white one) for white peppercorns.
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i
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response 34 of 205:
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Jun 18 03:39 UTC 1997 |
(Anyone have a couple-month-old baby that valerie could take care of for a
week? It sounds like it would be a *VERY* educational experience for her...)
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omni
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response 35 of 205:
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Jun 18 08:02 UTC 1997 |
I have no doubts that Valerie would be an excellent mother. I think she
>would handle it well, like she does everything else.
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i
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response 36 of 205:
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Jun 19 00:47 UTC 1997 |
Yea, but cool household gadgets would drop down her priority list like
bricks off the Royal Gorge Bridge.
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valerie
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response 37 of 205:
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Jun 19 03:34 UTC 1997 |
(Valerie did vast amounts of babysitting back when she was a teenager, so she
does actually have some idea about what parenthood would be like.)
(Jim, you're a sweet person!)
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jaklumen
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response 38 of 205:
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Apr 30 11:08 UTC 2002 |
I see that since this item was alive, valerie became a parent twice
over.
resp:31 Another Ron Popeil invention, which leads me to ask, re:
resp:1 -- what the hell is wrong with Ron Popeil inventions? I've
seen the infomercial for the pasta/sausage maker, and I think it's
pretty good.
For meat lovers, I think his Showtime Rotisserie looks pretty good. I
had a chance to look it over at Target, and I think it seems pretty
handy for cooking small meats. It's very small and compact, it
doesn't use much energy, and you can steam veggies on top. Seems like
it would be a great addition to an apartment.
resp:24 For some reason, I never did get hooked on a crock pot, maybe
because I don't like to add ingredients and come back later. I like
to cook fast and be done, so--
My pressure cooker (item:191) and my veggie/rice steamer are two *big*
appliances I just cannot do without. Pressure cooking is just the
bomb, since it's so efficient. I can cook small meats easily, such as
a small whole chicken, a beef roast, or some cuts of pork. Small
whole chickens can go as low as 59 cents a pound on sale here, and
it's easy for me to cook them down this way. I can do chicken curry
easy with the pressure cooker and the veggie/rice steamer.
I love juice, so I'd have to keep my Juiceman Jr. juicer, and my
steamer juicer. I use the latter when Concord grapes are in season,
and then I go harvest them at my in-laws and my folks.
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keesan
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response 39 of 205:
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Apr 30 15:12 UTC 2002 |
To pressure cook brown rice, add 1.3 cups water per cup rice, bring to 15
pounds, and turn off. Wait about 20 minutes. I have seen the steamer
juicers in use. We use a squeezo or victoria gadget for raw juice. Lucky
you to have family with grapes!
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slynne
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response 40 of 205:
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Apr 30 16:04 UTC 2002 |
I have about 20 concord grape vines in my backyard which you are
welcome to come raid in the late summer when the grapes come in. But
you have to get here in a gas guzzling SUV. HAHAHA. Just kidding. I
have way more grapes than I can pick so if anyone wants some, just let
me know.
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