I recently had a hell of a time finding clear plastic squeeze bottles, the kind used by chefs to squirt out fancy sauces, often decorating the edges of plates with intricate sauce patterns. I went to all three of my local supermarkets (Publix, Albertson’s, and Winn-Dixie), Target, and Big Lots, and nobody had any. I finally found a 2-pack of tiny squeeze bottles (a 4-ounce and a 2-ounce) at Linens ‘n’ Things in their kitchen gadgets section, so I imagine Bed, Bath, and Beyond might carry them too. I made my first-ever balsamic vinegar reduction, and was getting really annoyed that I couldn’t squeeze it over my plate of hot salt and pepper potato chips with melted bleu cheese, Bobby Flay-style!
Did you really want the small bottles? I’m sure I’ve seen larger ones (8 oz?) at a local restaurant supply store.
I bought them for a recipe I was making that night, and it turned into more of a stubborn quest after checking six different places. I would have preferred an 8-ounce bottle, though. There may be a restaurant supply store in town – it would actually be cool to check it out, if we do have one. Thank you!
Fitted sheets that actually fit my mattress. They’re all too big now (too long, too wide, too deep) and get all wrinkly the moment I lay down. Plus, I really prefer muslin over percale or sateen, but apparently consumers like the high thread count stuff…
Garbage disposal cleaners that actually work. There was one grocery store in Joplin that carried a brand that worked great, but I didn’t bother to note the brand name when I moved and now I can only find deodorizer pellets or one sort of cleaner from Home Depot that works for crap.
The stuff came in a paper packet that you put in the disposal with a small stream of hot water and ran the disposal fro about a minute. Blue foam came up both sides of the sink, and it was great for about a month afterwards.
I recently found a bag of old dish towels the fella had been given by an old aunt when she had to move into a nursing home. I thought they might be useful for a sewing project someday if I could just soften them up - old auntie, bless her, had starched them within an inch of their lives - and much to my surprise, they turned out to be linen! Don’t know if linen dish towels are completely discontinued, but they sure are harder to find than cotton. Cotton is cheaper, I know, but linen is more absorbant and just feels wonderful.
About eight or ten years ago I remember a gadget-freak friend complaining that Betamax videotapes had essentially disappeared, and had been very difficult to find for years before that. Of course, this is because only about a dozen gadget freaks in the whole entire world hadn’t converted to VHS by that point! (He had several VHS video recorders, too, but he wasn’t going to give up Betamax without a fight.) I imagine it’s pretty tough if not impossible to find film for 110 and 126 cameras, too, and those big flashcubes that sat on top. So even if I should find my old Instamatic someday, it won’t do me much good…