I purchase a lot of merchandise online. I've never liked to shop, and quit doing so many, many years ago. I learned early on if you want to keep your budget under control, one of the best ways to do so was to stay the heck out of stores and always shop with a list.
I only purchase on Amazon after doing a local search for the same item which, in many cases, is less expensive than Amazon.
Here are some of my best Amazon buys:
I don't think any of you are surprised by this first one - the Instant Pot Electric Pressure Cooker. It's used almost every day around here. I hate throwing food away and using up celery has always been a problem. I know it's not a super expensive item, but it just makes me sad if it hits the compost pile.
Not anymore. Now I chop it up, throw it in the Instant Pot with whatever else is handy like leftover meat, carrots, other veggies and voila - soup in 10 minutes.
Hard cooked eggs? Pile the eggs on a trivet, pressure for 4 minutes, 2 minutes natural pressure release, manually release the rest of the pressure, and your hard cooked eggs are just perfect. And the shells just about fall off.
I just made potato salad in mere minutes. Red potatoes steamed and pressured to perfection in 7 minutes, cold water bath, add the celery, onions and dressing - done. Way better than boiling all the nutrition and taste out of potatoes on the stove. If you like eggs in your salad (we do), just pile some eggs on top of the potatoes and cook them together.
The Amazon reviews are almost at 15K - just about 100% positive.
I'm expecting a Monday delivery on my third bottle of Omegease 100% Pure Omega 3, 6 & 9 Fish Oil for Dogs and Cat. We were giving our little doggie fish oil by cutting open a people capsule and squirting it in his food. Trust me on this - dragging his ears through his bowl left him smelling pretty dang bad. After doing my due diligence, I settled on the Omegease and now both he and the kitteh use it. The CEO of Finest for Pets, the company that makes Omegease, is amazingly responsive to the customers and the people commenting on Amazon. 87% of the Amazon reviews forOmegeaseare 5 and 4 stars. The 16 oz bottle is on sale for $19.95 and lasts a long time as only a small amount is needed. Finest for Pets also makes other great pet products with equally good reviews.
Have a Cuisinart or Keurig 2.0 Coffee Machine that uses charcoal filters?
The first time I bought replacement filters for my Cuisinart from a kitchen shop they cost $9.95 for two. Are you kidding me? These filters are supposed to be changed every month or every 30 pots of coffee. That comes to $60.00 a year. Ah, in a word - NO.
So I bumbled around Amazon and found a pack of 12 filters for $7.25. Do the math. These filters also work in the Keurig 2.0. And stores wonder why they're going out of business? The same number of replacement filters at KMart costs $30.36. I get it - they have staff to pay, a building to maintain, et al, but I'm not willing to help foot the bill.
Hibiscus Tea is excellent for reducing high blood pressure. We have a cup every afternoon. This is the best hibiscus tea I've found for the price. Most grocery stores don't even carry hibiscus tea.
We have Grunt from The Blog of Monte Cristo to thank for the graphic. When I mentioned the Instant Pot in a previous post this is the first thing that popped into his head, which speaks volumes about who he is.
I've waited to review this wonderfully handy appliance until I had it for awhile. I use to have a regular stove top pressure cooker and used it quite often. The last time I used it many years ago, I stored it with the lid engaged. Think we could open it? Nope. We finally broke off the handle trying to get it open.
A number of weeks ago, I decided to get a new pressure cooker. My pressure canner doubles as a pressure cooker, but it's 23 qts - a bit big for a family of two (ya think?). While at Walmart I thought I'd cruise by and see what they had and spied an electric pressure cooker. My first thought was that the dumbest idea I've ever heard of (I can be scornful that way).
When I returned home, I logged on the Amazon and searched pressure cooker. The first one to come up was the Instant Pot. At that time it had over 11K reviews, the majority 5 star, and 800 or so answered questions. It's now over 12K reviews and over 1K questions. Hmmmmmmm, maybe I'd gotten this wrong (Noooooo!). After doing my due diligence, I decided to purchase one. It's become one of my all time best moves ever.
So far I've made roasts, both beef and pork, chicken, chili, beans, soup, rice, and steamed veggies in a fraction of the time of my old methods. A 4 lb roast takes about 45 minutes, not including coming to pressure and cooling off time which adds about 15 minutes. Rice? About 3 minutes at pressure and it comes out perfect.
There's no monitoring it like a stove top cooker. Just push a button and walk away. It automatically does it's job and shifts into keep warm mode.
If you've never used a pressure cooker before, there will be a small learning curve involved. If you've used a stove top pressure cooker, you'll catch on pretty quickly.
My mantra throughout life has always been, "There's got to be a better way", which applied to most of the recipes I found online for the Instant Pot.
For instance, most will have you cook a roast and when it's done bring the pressure down with rapid release, take off the lid and quickly add the veggies and reset the timer. I made this much simpler by first browning the roast on the saute setting, adding broth, bringing to pressure, which usually takes about 5 minutes, and cook the roast. When it is done, I let it count down 10 minutes in warming mode, release the pressure, and remove the roast to a serving platter to rest. I add the veggies to the meat juices and set it for about 5 minutes pressure time. That way I'm not having to scrape up veggies from the top of the roast and it actually takes less time.
Veggies waiting to be steamed
Last night I used the steam function for veggies for the first time. I used a regular steaming rack and it took about 2 minutes for a load of broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, and carrots.
Imagine having a pot roast dinner and veggies ready to serve in not much over one hour. Compare that to 4 or more hours in a conventional oven which is sucking up electricity.
If you're like me and don't get something out of the freezer in time for dinner, you can kiss that problem goodbye. If it's a large item, I defrost it in the microwave and cook it in the Instant Pot. Smaller items can be cooked from frozen. The Instant Pot can also be used as a slow cooker, but I wonder why anyone would want to do that, but that's just me.
The inner cooking pot is high grade stainless steel and a snap to wash.
The Instant Pot even makes yogurt, which is not on my list of things I want to do before I die, but if you like making yogurt, go for it.
If you grew up like I did with your mom screeching at you to not go near the pressure cooker because it could blow up, rest assured the Instant Pot cannot blow up. It does, however, lack the drama of a stove top model. No little rocking pressure thingy, no hissing, and no monitoring. The first time I cooked with it felt really weird. Push a button and walk away. Who ever heard of such a thing?
I also just discovered you can make soft or hard cooked eggs using the steamer insert. Whoa! And there's an Instant Pot Community on Facebook with over 159K members offering insights and recipes galore. Cheesecake in the Instant Pot? I'm all for that!
My Instant Pot was delivered in record time and was super well packaged. The shipping was free, but a word of caution: Be sure and check the free shipping option at checkout. The Amazon default setting is for $11.00 and some odd change for shipping.
Makes a great gift
Christmas is coming up and this would make a wonderful gift for the peeps in your life.
Disclaimer:If you purchase an Instant Pot, and I hope you do, through my links, Amazon pays me a small commission, which does not cost you one little penny.
7-in-1 Multi-Functional Cooker--Pressure Cooker, Slow Cooker,
Rice Cooker, Saute/Browning, Yogurt Maker, Steamer & Warmer. Please
refer the user manual before use.
Large, easy to use control panel with 14 Micro-Processor
controlled programs, Dual pressure, Automatic keep-warm and 3
temperatures for saute and slow cook
UL and ULC certified with 10 proven safety mechanisms; Highly energy efficient and kitchen friendly
Includes 3-ply bottom stainless steel cooking pot, stainless
steel steam rack with handle & manual and recipes in English,
Spanish, Chinese and French
Note: New Anti-Block Shield is used and the actual component may
not match images shown in manuals. For pressure cooking programs, do not
fill the inner pot over 2/3 full. For non-pressure cooking programs, do
not fill the inner pot over the MAX line.
Dual pressure settings for fast and flexible cooking. Cooking
with the high pressure reduces cooking time by up to 70% and the low
pressure avoids overcooking delicate food.
3-ply bottom Food Grade 304 (18/8) stainless steel cooking pot for durability
My favorite do-it-yourself home improvement man around the house, Gary Sullivan, strikes again.
I've used several of the products he has as sponsors on his radio show and he has never led me astray. I used the Spread Stone™ Mineral Select™ Countertop Refinishing Kit in my kitchen. I was so overwhelmed with the results, I did the top of my dining room table and buffet.
Over the past few months my ears have wiggled when I heard him advertising JAWS window cleaner. As far as I got was thinking, "What the hell kind of name is that for a product that cleans glass and mirrors?"
Then I listened when he extolled the virtues of the streak free cleaning. All righty, then. Let me go look up this fabulous stuff.
JAWS
is an eco-friendly system of highly effective cleaners which gives
everyone the chance to take great care of their home and our precious
planet at the same time! Our innovative, easy-to-use system helps reduce
plastic in landfills and saves you money as you can reuse the spray
bottles up to 26 times with JAWS refill pods. Try our non-toxic Glass
Cleaner, Kitchen Cleaner-Degreaser, Hardwood Cleaner and Daily Shower
Cleaner for a streak-free shine throughout your home!
I was pretty happy with my current window cleaner, but I decided to give it a try. I ordered two full sets. Each set includes a bottle and two refill pods. In the future, I'll only order the refill pods which only cost $3.99 for two.
Why will I reorder?
Because this stuff is everything they say it is plus more. I have never, ever had glass look so clean so quickly with absolutely no streaking.
Colonel Winthrop desk
The biggest test came when I cleaned the glass fronts on my Colonel Winthrop secretary desk. The last time I cleaned the glass it took approximately two hours and they still looked crappy. I used three different glass cleaners and tried drying with cloth, newspaper, paper towel, and coffee filters. I finally tried straight vinegar. They were still streaked and had a film.
Enter JAWS. Instead of two hours, it took about two minutes and they were absolutely spotless and clearer than I've ever seen them.
That's it. I'm sold. Anything that gives those kinds of results in that little time is my new number one product.
Now I have another reason to love it - my plastic patio furniture.
I tried everything, including WD-40, on the outdoor furniture and it still looked pretty bad. Yesterday I washed the chairs and wiped them down with Milsek. Whoa! They look like new and have no oily residue at all.
These pictures are not the best due to the blazing (very hot) sun, but be informed that these chairs are over 15 years old.
We need something to lighten the load after the Trump/Kelly snooze fest we endured yesterday. Seriously. Kelly was trying to do her best Barbara Walters imitation. It didn't work. She made it all about her, her, and her.
DIY has never been bigger, and Gary Sullivan is radio's DIY man. With
over thirty years of home improvement know how, and over a decade of
broadcast experience, Gary will help your listeners build it up, tear it
down, fix it, or replace it.
We are the manufacturers and
distributors of the complete line of Milsek products lead by its star –
‘The Original’, Milsek Furniture Polish & Cleaner with Lemon Oil.
The Milsek Formula was created in 1914 when the first stone was placed
on The Lincoln Memorial, Wrigley Field was built and World War I began.
A Hungarian Immigrant by the name of Zolton Csiky, who was a master
cabinet maker, created this formula to keep his hand crafted creations
healthy and conditioned. His wife Julia was inspired. She collected
catsup bottles from friends and family, washed them out, filled them
with Milsek, and sold them door to door during The Great Depression. An
early entrepreneur!
Much of my furniture is painted, but I do have some wood furniture. It was when he mentioned putting the furniture polish in water to clean wood floors that I headed directly to the Milsek website to read up on the product. Then, as is my way, I headed to Amazon to read reviews, which were all good. Still not convinced, but having found an Amazon supplier who charged $8.46 plus free shipping, I ordered a bottle.
We have wood parquet floors in our entire house. I was presently using Pine-Sol to mop them periodically. The floors are about 20 years old and I really wanted them to look shiner without having to refinish them.
My polish arrived quickly and I grabbed a rag, headed to something wood. Following the simple directions (put it on and let it dry), I smeared it on a small table I had refinished years ago.
Oh my!
In the past I've used regular lemon oil, Pledge (not for years), other furniture polishes, even Armour All (I know!) but I've never used anything that made that table look so good.
Next up, I spied a little wooden box that had belonged to my mother. That little box is way over 70 years old and over the years had gotten to look pretty bad. It was dry and stained. My last attempt to make it look better was to use wood cleaner and paste wax. It still looked pretty bad. Not any more.
I went completely cuckoo at this point and ran around the house looking for anything that was wood. I discovered I had more wood furniture than I thought I had. Two antique desks, a small china cabinet, and a drop leaf antique table in the bedroom all got the Milsek treatment. They all look wonderful.
The final test was the floors. I vacuumed, added a 1/4 cup of Milsek to a gallon of water and pulled out my mop. Hallelujah! While the floors did not look bad before, they certainly looked waaaaaaaay better and had the shine I wanted. The coffee table also had the Milsek treatment and looks like new.
I've waited for awhile to make sure I like this product before doing a review. The first thing I noticed is that the dust factor was rendered almost zero. We live on a prairie and our road is gravel. Dust is a problem. Usually within a day or two of cleaning the table tops look dusty. A week after using Milsek, the furniture didn't look dusty. Perhaps it has a dust eating ingredient? I don't know, and don't care. My furniture and floors look great.
Milsek also makes a stainless steel cleaner, a leather cleaner/conditioner, a gun stock and barrel cleaner, antiques and restoration product, and musical instrument cleaner. I only have two stainless steel items in my kitchen and I used the furniture polish on them and they look great and resist fingerprints. The plastic door on my micro-wave had some scratches. Milsek made them invisible.
I've already purchased two more bottles and plan on getting the leather cleaner conditioner for our car.
Gary Sullivan mentioned something on his show about using it on plastic or resin outdoor furniture. I haven't tried that yet, but I will in the future.
It's also recommended for wood paneling, wood kitchen cabinets, and granite counter tops.
Here's some tips for using Milsek Furniture polish:
Wear gloves because it leaves oil on your skin and you'll be washing your hands often drying them out.
If you put too much on and it drys spotty, just run a dry cloth over the surface. All fixed.
Use a microfiber rag. I found some microfiber wash cloths at the Grocery Outlet that are the perfect size and very inexpensive. When the application cloth gets too dirty, it can simply be thrown away.
Daich Coatings advertises on the "At Home with Gary Sullivan" show. Our Formica counter-tops in the kitchen are really awful. At least they used to be.
I explored many ways to fix it with out spending tons of money. I finally ordered the Spread Stone™ Mineral Select™ Countertop Refinishing Kit, and for the past few days have been applying the product.
The process:
Scruff up the old Formica
Apply two coats of base coat
Apply two coats of the stone coating
Sand
Apply two coats sealer
There really was nothing hard about any of this. It does take time. If timed perfectly, you could probably be done in a few days. However, I let the first coat of the stone coating dry overnight so I wouldn't be applying the second coat at 8:00pm when the light wasn't good.
Yesterday I sanded and sealed.
Some things I learned:
Use a palm sander for the scruffing and the final sanding. It made the job super easy. They mention using a circular sander, but I wouldn't recommend that as it could easily gouge the surface. I emailed them, and they agreed the palm sander was a better choice.
I didn't bother taping off anything (I hate taping), and didn't have a bit of problem. The product is very easy to control. There is a bit of slop along the back side, but there is a row of tiles there that need to be re-caulked, so no biggie.
I did put some cheap plastic tarp over the cabinets which you absolutely need for the sanding part. Dust everywhere - even with a palm sander with a dust collector.
Make sure you have plenty of microwaveable dinners. Trust me, you won't be cooking. The Marie Callender's dinners are actually pretty good, low in calories and carbs, and not too expensive.
I didn't take before pics, but here is the result (click on pic to embiggen):
What you can't see in the pics are the little sparkly bits - sort of like mica.
Is it going to look exactly like granite? No. I think granite is highly over-rated and proof positive that people are sheeple and will go along with anything that advertisers tell them they "must have." Besides, I hear that granite is falling out of favor.
Does it look great? Yes. Without a doubt.
I'm so pleased that I'm ordering more to do the top of my dining room table and buffet. The hardest part of this project was picking the color.
Daich has a whole line of products for sidewalks, decks, garage floors, and wall tiles. I'm considering the deck refinishing kit.
The other item I've been searching for is something to put under my coffee maker. There was some permanent staining on the Formica under where the coffee pot sat. After spending hours looking for the perfect heat resistant mat, I found exactly what I was looking for just around the corner from us at Sally Beauty Supply. Their Silicone Hot Iron Matwas the perfect size and is heat resistant up to 480°. No Sally's? No problem. You can order it online.
Disclaimer: I received nothing from Daich, Gary Sullivan, Marie Callender's, or Sally's for this review. However, in the interest of honesty, I am sending a link to Daich, and maybe, just maybe, they would gift me another kit. I can hope.
We love our soft boiled eggs around here. I'm used to whacking them on the side with a knife and scooping out the insides. That approach hasn't been going too well the past few months. Often I'm left with an egg that has multiple cracks and I'm unable to pull the two halves apart. That leaves me with a soft boiled egg that I have to try and peel. Doable, but not fun. We buy Wilcox eggs at Costco, and I suspect, due to a superior chicken diet, the shells are thicker and harder to crack.
Years ago, I had a egg scissor cutter like the one in the picture on the right. It was so long ago that I don't even remember if it worked very well.
Off to Amazon in search of a solution. The scissor slicer is still available, but the reviews weren't too good.
The next on the list was the Rosle Egg Cracker/Topper pictured at left. You pull the handle up and release, the spring mechanism causes vibration, wherein the sharp edge in the dome perfectly cuts the shell.
It had fairly good reviews, but seemed a bit pricey at $15.00 + shipping.
The search continued, because the good Lord knows we can't do anything anymore without hours of research on the internet. Maybe I should just stick with my knife approach and hit the egg harder.
It works like a little French guillotine. Stick the egg up the hole and cut it's top off. Does it work? Pictured below is my first egg to be sacrificed in the interest of scientific research.
Why you would need it for hard boiled eggs has escaped me. One reviewer said she loves it for when she makes deviled eggs. WTHell? You just cut the end off your hard boiled egg. How are you going to make a deviled egg out of a decapitated egg?
I'd say it worked pretty well for soft boiled eggs, and if I ever want to play French Revolution with a Barbie doll, I'm set to go.
Movies
Woman in Gold
If you haven't seen this movie, I urge you to view it as soon as possible.
From the Producers:
Woman In Gold is the remarkable true
story of one woman’s journey to reclaim her heritage and seek justice
for what happened to her family. Sixty years after she fled Vienna
during World War II, an elderly Jewish woman, Maria Altmann (Helen
Mirren), starts her journey to retrieve family possessions seized by the
Nazis, among them Klimt’s famous painting Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer
I. Together with her inexperienced but plucky young lawyer Randy
Schoenberg (Ryan Reynolds), she embarks upon a major battle which takes
them all the way to the heart of the Austrian establishment and the U.S.
Supreme Court, and forces her to confront difficult truths about the
past along the way.
Helen Mirren is brilliant (as usual), and the rest of the cast is also exceptional.
What I want you to pay special attention to is the Nazi's arrival in Austria and how quickly the people were turned against the Jews. Take heed, and when you hear people say, "It cannot happen again," know that it can.
It's a magnificent painting:
Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer aka The Woman in Gold by Gustav Klimt
Books
I've never been a fan of Swedish writers. Probably the most famous is Stieg Larsson, who wrote The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. After reading some of the one star reviews on Amazon that referred to "graphic violent sexual abuse and animal abuse", I had to pass.
One reviewer said:
Hard to imagine that mutilating,
burning, sexually humiliating and stoning women and torturing animals to
death can be a good read.
I had to agree that didn't sound very good. I do not read books with graphic sexual episodes. If the author sneaks one in, I'm done. I'm an adult and I know how people have sex. I don't need to read about it.
Imagine my surprise when I dragged home The Hidden Child: A Novel by Camilla Läckberg, who grew up in Fjällbacka and now lives in Stockholm.
It's the newest in a series of crime novels she has written. I don't do book reviews. It reminds me too much of high school, where we were to read a book and do a book report. I was not good at that. Not at all.
I will say, after reading the Hidden Child, I borrowed all the previous books in the series and have enjoyed them all.
The novels are based in Fjällbacka, and as a result I was able to investigate the area online, learn some Swedish pronunciation, and discovered that Swedes drink an abundance of coffee. I also learned the keyboard command for an umlauted character, which is the two little dots over a vowel. It's a win-win.
I borrowed the book from the library and promptly purchased the book from Amazon. Since I'm such a cheap thrifty soul, that speaks volumes.
From Amazon:
Japanese cleaning consultant Marie Kondo takes tidying to a whole new
level, promising that if you properly simplify and organize your home
once, you’ll never have to do it again. Most methods advocate a
room-by-room or little-by-little approach, which doom you to pick away
at your piles of stuff forever. The KonMari Method, with its
revolutionary category-by-category system, leads to lasting results. In
fact, none of Kondo’s clients have lapsed (and she still has a
three-month waiting list).
First of all, I love the words "tidying up", rather than "decluttering." To call your possessions "clutter" is demeaning and negative.
Two things really spoke to me: Decide what you want to keep, not necessarily what you want to throw away, and keep what sparks joy.
You may think that your mop doesn't spark joy, but if you look at it through the eyes of it's function and the work it performs for you, it should.
I've been through the phase of buying multiple containers to house my "stuff", then the phase of organizing drawer by drawer, or cupboard by cupboard, and can verify what she's saying. It doesn't work!
I thought my closet was pretty well organized and my clothes pared down. Umm - no. When I heaped every article of clothing I owned on the bed, and went through them item by item, I managed to fill two trash bags, as well as a large box for the thrift store. Talk about sparking joy. Every time I open a drawer or walk into my closet, I'm overwhelmed with joy.
Next up were my books. Every book we owned was heaped on the dining room table. End result? Another eight boxes to the thrift store. My book shelves look wonderful, and every book I kept sparks joy.
Isn't she just the cutest?
Here is the only place I quibble with Ms Kondo (I understand it's now Mrs. Kawahara - Congrats!) - she has an aversion to stocking up, which I attribute to her being Japanese where most people have limited space, her age (30), and her belief that you will always be able to head down to the corner store for toilet paper. People in Venezuela would probably tell her something different.
I've always admired the Japanese approach to life, the sort of zen of it all, and Marie brings that to life.
Smoke, Prayers, and Pope Francis
North Idaho has been shrouded in heavy smoke from the forest fires raging in Washington and Idaho. Three firefighters have died fighting the multiple fires. Resources, including firefighters, are running very low. A call went out for volunteers, and three thousand people responded. Good on them! We have friends in Chelan, WA, who, along with their older children, had to defend their own property against fire, while forest service people rode around in pickups and did nothing to help. Ironically, our friend works for the forest service. Please take a moment and say a prayer for all the people who have lost their homes, the firefighters, and the people who are volunteering. The fires are due to the decades long mismanagement of forests by the Federal government.
Read
that sentence again, and let it sink in. The forests, thanks to the Federal
government, are stacked shoulder high with dead timber and diseased trees.
Now they want to confiscate even more of this forest land and keep us
from even accessing it.
Coming in September is Agenda 2030 from the UN. It has been described as Agenda 21 on steroids.
Forget about the stock market taking a nose dive - Agenda 2030 is the real danger.
Pope Francis will travel to the U.S. next month and speak to the U.N. about Agenda 2030. I am a cradle Catholic, and it saddens me to say this Pope is dangerous and a disaster. The Church will survive, but how many souls will be lost as a result? Babies are being torn limb-from-limb, with their little parts sold to the highest bidder, while this Pope spews his dangerous Marxist nonsense, which, I may remind you, is his opinion, and has nothing to do with Church teachings. Please, pray also for this Pope, and the many Catholics who are being led astray.
If your pastor, priest, or deacon preaches on "sustainable development", "global warming", or any of the other buzz words in use today, leave that church as quickly as you can. Thank you.
Not anymore. Now I chop it up, throw it in the Instant Pot with whatever else is handy like leftover meat, carrots, other veggies and voila - soup in 10 minutes. 
The Paderno World Cuisine Tri-Blade Vegetable Spiral Slicer doesn't get used everyday, but it's used often enough to make it worth the nominal cost. Tomorrow I will make noodles from some zucchini, top it with homemade tomato sauce, and homemade meatballs for a wonderful low carb meal. 
I'm expecting a Monday delivery on my third bottle of Omegease 100% Pure Omega 3, 6 & 9 Fish Oil for Dogs and Cat. We were giving our little doggie fish oil by cutting open a people capsule and squirting it in his food. Trust me on this - dragging his ears through his bowl left him smelling pretty dang bad. After doing my due diligence, I settled on the Omegease and now both he and the kitteh use it. 
Hibiscus Tea is excellent for reducing high blood pressure. We have a cup every afternoon. This is the best hibiscus tea I've found for the price. Most grocery stores don't even carry hibiscus tea. 
