Monthly Archives: March 2013

Favorite Small Appliances

I was previously married and my ex-husband loved to buy gadgets.  He loved to cook so most of them related to the kitchen which is good.

My best buy ever is my Salad Master pots and pans.  I bought them in 1980 after some persuasion from my ex-husband.  The thought of spending $800 for them was one reason I was fighting his desire to have them.  But they have been great.  I got all sizes of pots and pans as well as an electric skillet and grater with a lot of attachments.

My mom use to buy a new set of pots and pans every couple years spending around $100 each time.  I know she spent way more than 800 dollars during the same 30 years.

So, one of my favorite small appliances is my electric skillet.  I love to put the meat in the skillet on low and let it cook for hours and make it so tender.   My Salad Master electric skillet is great because it is actually submersible so it is easy to wash.

I think my second favorite small appliance is my griddle.  Great for cooking big meals especially.  You can cook a bunch of bacon or sausage and then wipe it off with a paper towel and cook your pancakes or french toast.  It is really great for cooking a bunch of pork chops or you can cook your steaks on it.  I have a gas stove and I put my steaks in there but I have used the griddle.  I don’t use my griddle every day but I thoroughly enjoy it whenever I do use it.

I love my Hamilton Brew Station coffee machine, too.  The coffee doesn’t seem to get as strong when sitting.  You don’t have a coffee pot that you remove and pour.   You just put your cup under the ledge and push and fill your cup.  The pot turns itself off after two hours, too.   I believe you can get these coffee pots for about $30 bucks though there are some more expensive ones, too.

My microwave is also a much needed part of my kitchen though I don’t really cook with it.  I use it as a bread keeper most of the time.  I make popcorn, heat items and melt butter in it on a fairly regular basis.  Warming up meat in a microwave tends to make it tough.

Some people are afraid of gas stoves but I LOVE mine.   If the electricity goes out, you can always light the top burners with a match and still be able to cook.  I also like that I can tell if it is on low, medium or high easily and you can switch from one to the other faster than electric.  When you turn the gas off, it is off quickly.

I have never gotten into using a crock pot though I have had a couple of them during my homemaking years.  I don’t like the smell of meat cooking in it.  Silly, I know.  But I have been told cooking beans in a crock pot is great.  I recently starting cooking beans for my husband and actually learned that I like them, too.  Well, some of them anyway.  When you take all that time cooking beans and then forget about them and burn them, it really sucks.  I have only done that once and don’t intend to let it happen again.  I heard a crock pot will keep that from happening.

Well, these are my favorites that have been with me over my past 45 years of homemaking.  I have tried many others but they are either stored away or given away or sold at yard sales.  These small appliances have proven to be the most valuable for my everyday life.

Dividing Buns To Freeze

I love a bargain better than anyone I know.

At Winn Dixie, they had buy one get one free buns.  So I bought one hamburger and one hot dog bun.  Well, with only two of us I realized they would go bad before we used all of them so I decided to freeze half of them.  I took one layer of hot dogs (4) and replaced it  with one layer of hamburger buns (4).   Then I froze one pack and put the other in my bread box (microwave, lol).

I freeze my loaves of bread, too, especially if they are on sale.  The bread is so fresh when you take it out of the freezer and let it thaw.

I keep saying I am going to start making homemade bread.  I have all the ingredients but still no food thermometer.  I don’t trust myself to tell temperature for the water for the yeast without a themometer.  Plus, I don’t need to gain any more weight and I know how great bread tastes fresh from the oven.  Yum!!!!

Now, if I could just get that upright freezer I have been looking to buy.  I will need it if I am fortunate enough for my garden to flourish this summer.   Canning is in the future, too.  I hope.

Older cars and renting cars

Since my husband has retired and we have been traveling more, we have considered buying a new car to ensure we won’t have a break down a long way from home.  We have been ripped off in the past when our car broke down…transmission….and we were five hours from home.  Staying in a hotel, eating out,  renting a car to get home, renting a car to get back to pick up our car and then later finding out the work was not done correctly and having to put it in our local repair shop and paying the entire amount of repair work over again.  That sucked.  Plus, we were there during a hurricane which made matters even worse.

So, in deciding about buying a car, we discussed the financial costs as well as our personal safety.  Going in debt for a new car would increase our debt for 3 to 5 years by at least 350 dollars more than likely.  That is certainly a drain on  a person’s income.   We are perfectly happy with car which is a 98 Blazer that is in great condition as far as appearances.  We have to put some money into her which always sucks but even if we have to put $2000 a year, that is still better than a $4200 yearly bill of car payments.  New cars can break down on you and they still need routine maintenance just liek our older model car, too.

So, we opted for renting a car when we are going on trips that far exceed our AAA towing distance of 200 miles.   We rented a car to go to Humble, Tx for 17 days and it cost right at $400.   If the car broke down, we knew we just had to call the dealer and they would bring us another car.  It was a worry free trip for me.   If we take 3 trips a year…which most would not be for 17 days….more like 5 probably, we still feel the advantage is there.  We are not obligating our income for years.  If we feel we can’t afford to rent a car, we stay home.

Plus, you aren’t  putting all those miles on your car which depreciate the value of your car.  If your car is newer, this could make a lot of difference for those trade-in values.

When we rented the car for the 17 days, we knew we had to be at our daughter’s house at an appointed time for them to catch a plane.  We were house sitting and dog sitting for five days and they then returned home and we spent time together.  They were depending on us.  Our car breaking down could have endangered their Christmas plans so it was nice to know, we could call the dealer if we have a problem with the car and they would bring us another one.

Our SUV car is perfect for around town and it gets 20 miles to the gallon so it is not too bad.  When we rented a car, we got 39 miles to the gallon with the Nissan Versa so that really saved us money on gas.   Plus, it is nice to drive different kinds of cars just to see how you like them for a future purchase perhaps.  We are really wanting a Versa now because the car was roomy enough for us and our luggage and the seats were comfortable which is important on long trips.

Cold water to remove blood stains

I don’t think I knew this when I was young.  Thinking everything comes cleaner with warm soapy water, being young and dumb, I made this mistake with blood stains.  So, for you young women, especially with kids with boo-boos, use cold water to remove blood stains.

I remember a day in high school when I wore a white skirt.  Math class ended and a nice young man told me I had blood on the back of my skirt.  I wanted to die.  I am sure my mom washed this stain out for me and other than the embarrassment, never gave it another thought.  We take a lot of things for granted when we are growing up and have a terrific mom at home taking care of us.

As my children grew up and left for college, I realized I hadn’t showed them many of the things that I did every day for them.  They called me often at first and occasionally now to ask how to cook something or some other tidbit they couldn’t remember how to do.

My daughter, Bonnie has just bought her first home and is going to plant a garden and is interested in canning and chickens and all sorts of things I actually have knowledge about.  So they do still need me!  Yea

Army of Syrups

You know I love a bargain, especially on food.  A few years ago, Winn Dixie had Miss Butterworth syrup on sale, plus I had coupons (which is rare for me) so I ended up getting each one for 75 cents and they normally sold for almost $3 each.  I think I bought 8 of them.

My daughter, Bonnie came for a visit and when opening the cabinet noticed my battalion of Butterworths.   She teased me about it for years.  Recently she sent a picture of two bottles of NyQuil and commented that she was starting her army.

Flat Bacon

During a phone conversation with my sister today, I was also cooking breakfast.  I love to share my tips with her because she always makes me feel so good about the things I share with her.  We are a lot alike….energetic and happy the majority of the time.

So my bacon kept curling up and I don’t own a bacon press so I use to cut the edges that were curling up to relax the bacon and it would lay flat.  Problem with that is you can damage your pan with the knife.  So what I do now is take a pair of SCISSORS and cut through the curled edge that is already up in the air.  Then I press it down with my spatula and the bacon is then lying flat and cooks evenly.  I hate over cooking my bacon just to get the white fatty part cooked.

This works great guys.  I also love having an electric griddle to cook my bacon and pancakes.  They only cost around 20 dollars.