I love my Smart Chopper. This, if you’ve never seen the adverts, is a small, hand-cranked food processor. My dad gave me one yonks ago. I managed to break the handle, but I repaired it with some epoxy. I picked one up at a liquidation place in Orange County for $5, too. (Just in case I break the original beyond repair.)
So I cooked a whole chicken last night. I don’t remember the last time I did that. Sometime in the mid-90s, I guess. I made a couple of mistakes. I cooked it too long, and I had it in the dish upside-down. Being seasoned with only salt, pepper, and a little rosemary, it didn’t come out spectacularly well. But it wasn’t bad, and I ate almost half of it last night.
Since the meat was falling apart, I decided to just take the meat off and put it in the fridge. I had a wing for breakfast, but didn’t really feel like re-heated chicken for the next few meals. What to do?
Smart Chopper to the rescue! I put the meat into the container, nearly filling it. I turned the crank with some difficulty, since it was rather full, and chopped hte meat to bits. Add mayo and some dill pickle relish, and presto! Chicken salad for sandwiches!
People laugh at ‘As Seen On TV’ products, but I’ve used this thing for chopping veg, making tuna or chicken salad, making salsa, etc. It really works.
I have exactly two things that I’ve purchased after late night hypnotism in front of the TV.
I bought some Bare Minerals cosmetics from QVC (which I rarely watch) one time, and I have to say that I love this stuff. It’s everything they said it was, and for someone who doesn’t wear much makeup, it’s pretty damn easy to work.
And I bought Cowboy one of those Ronco Rotissiere ovens a few years ago, and I love that thing to pieces too. We use it two or three times a week, and it’s incredibly easy. It makes the best roast ever too - I’ve done whole chickens, leg of lamb, prime rib roasts, and lots of steaks and chops in it.
I do feel a little silly for owning it, but only until dinner time!
Sometime in the '70s or '80s, dad bought a set of Picam Amazing Knives – one long one, as shown in this commercial and (But wait! There’s more!) two shorter ones with 5-inch blades. We almost never use the shorter ones, but the long one sees use whenever we want to slice bread or bagels. Next time I make standing rib roast or turkey, I’ll have to use it on that.
I have yet to use it to cut the toe off of a women’s shoe.
George Foreman grills kick ass. I had a Pocket Fisherman for fishing during my lunch break. It casted surprisingly well but the nut that holds the reel handle on fell off and I couldn’t find it. I might get another one but I am mad about that design flaw.
A current commercial is for Robo Twist – an automatic jar opener. Mrs. L.A. says she doesn’t need one, because she has me. If I can’t get it open, I have my 16" Craftsman arc-joint pliers.
I love my Vidalia Chop Wizard. Of course, I can chop things up without it but they won’t be perfectly uniform little cubes!
My husband doesn’t like it because of the *wham! *when I slam it down, and the kids don’t like it because it’s too hard to clean. “No it’s not. Here, let me show you…”
One of the things that didn’t work so well was a particular chopper. It’s similar to this one. There’s a glass jar, a plastic lid, and a spring-loaded plunger with radial blades on the bottom. It didn’t work as well as the commercial showed, and it’s not particularly easy to hand-wash. (Dad eschewed his built-in dishwasher, preferring to hand-wash his dishes.)
What’s the foot miracle cream? I’ve had surgery on both feet, I have arthritis. They are so much better since my surgeries but still get very sore. I’d love to know about it.
I’m still using my green bags that keep veggies fresh, years later! And they really do exactly as advertised. My veggies stay perfect fresh so much longer. Brilliant for Chinese veggies/leafy greens.
Remember the Pocket Fisherman? My FIL got one back in the 1970’s and still keeps it in the trunk of his car. We were at the lake with him last summer when my son expressed a (somewhat capricious) desire to go fishing…viola, out came the Pocket Fisherman. Thanks Ron Popeil!
Seconding praise of the Vidalia Chop Wizard. We’ve had ours for a few months and it gets used connnnnstantly, especially for onions. Absolutely love it. I don’t “wham!” it down most of the time, more like lowering it to the top of veggie, then applying serious force to finish it off. It does make a satisfying sound but I think of it as more of a loud CLACK! My only complaint, which isn’t really a complaint but a matter of knowing which blades to use for what, is that the blade thing with the little tiny cubes doesn’t work very well for most things I’ve tried. They just get smushed onto the blade but not chopped. I’d imagine it works well for something like, I dunno, maybe boiled egg, but I haven’t tried it for that yet. I’ve told so many friends about this thing and gave some as gifts at Xmas, knowing some people would roll their eyes or make a joke – but only until they tried it! I was right.
2 big purchases…the Bissell CrossWave which is a vacuum, and scrubbing mop. You know when they claim, “you think it’s clean?”…well I’ve vacuumed and mopped and swiftered and I thought it was clean…ran the Bissell…holy cow! This thing works! It’s expensive, but with five dogs and two cats, I use it every day. Second purchase was this powered scrubbers, which I had been searching for since my mom’s Black and Decker died years ago…it’s rechargeable, comes with different heads and makes short work of my entire tiled bathroom and the grout lines on my ceramic tile…love it. I tried to make my own with a drill and scrub brush and failed, but this has not failed yet
Years ago, my husband’s mother gave us a rotisserie and I was less than thrilled. I don’t know if she ordered it based on TV or if she found it in a store, but it is the Ronco brand. It was huge and hard to store - it ended up in the laundry room. We brought it with us, still in the box, when we moved here in '04 (when this thread was born!) and again, I couldn’t find a place to put it. I told spousal unit I was going to send it to Goodwill, and he suggested I at least try it one time. So I broke out the cookbook MIL gave us with the oven, mixed up a rub recipe, rubbed it on a chicken, and popped it into the rotisserie.
OMG!!!
It was amazing!! The rotisserie immediately had its own corner on the counter and I’ve used it to make chicken, turkey, pork roast, beef roast, ribs, and I even tried chicken wings once (the only failure.) It’s a pain in the patoot to clean properly, but apart from that, it’s my favorite appliance! And to think of those years it sat untouched in the box because it was too big. Judge me by my size, will you???
