I got a Metrinch set for about $20. It’s a good, reliable set of tools that I use all the time. That was a great deal.
My “one week in” review is that I love the damn thing. My mom has made salmon fillets, and chicken (on and off the bone) and hamburgers and has been happy with all of that. She says meat is juicier than when cooked other ways, but nothing is greasy.
As a vegetarian, I’m not doing meals with it, but I’ve had roasted sweet potatoes that were delightful, and a very nice zucchini gratin. But I’ve decided to bake with the thing. So far a zucchini bread, some cookies, some refrigerator biscuits (not a fair test, but still) and a pan of brownies for a friend. Also: pizza. All turned out really well except that I think if a pizza isn’t fairly thin crust, it doesn’t get as crispy on the bottom as you might like before the toppings are overdone. I wouldn’t try a pan pizza or French bread pizza in it, but that’s just my preference.
It’s faster than the oven (uses less energy and doesn’t heat up the kitchen, too) doesn’t require constant tending like the stovetop, and you can cook things in it that you’d never dream of microwaving (or simply can’t microwave) so to me, it’s money well spent so long as we keep using it. (We’d probably enjoy it even more if we had a dishwasher to pop the components into instead of having to wash it all by hand.)
“Japanese” “Titanium” knives when I was watching late night TV after having spent the evening in the pub.
They were Chinese blunt steel knives with shitty plastic handles. They looked more like like a G.I. Joe dagger. I spent a long time getting my money back.
To this day, however, I regret not buying a Rap’Tou. Its ad was a favourite of early '90s stoners.
My ex used to watch the infomercial with the two guys and the swords all the time, so I ordered the set for Christmas for him one year. They were cool looking, but cheap.
I voted “once” but then I remembered the K-Tel record I bought off TV when I was eleven. I was disappointed with it; it was recorded by the “Happytime Singers” or something instead of the original artists, which I hadn’t realized at the time.
OK, I’m convinced. I bought one.
I bought that neck exerciser thing to firm up my jowels. I saw it like a week later at Target in the Snuggie endcap for half the price. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you it doesn’t work.
Does it count if it was on TV but I bought it in an actual store? Like buying a bumpit at Duane Reade (done that) or Oxi Clean at some other store? (My parents bought some Oxi Clean and gave me a bag.)
No, it doesn’t count:
When young, early 90’s, the only product we bought off the TV was the sandwich maker, the waffle iron looking thing that would make hot sandwich pockets by squishing and toasting the bread on the diagonal. As kids we were home alone after school, the rule was the microwave, and the sandwich maker with an automatic shutoff timer were the only hot thing we could use without supervision. We all loved the sandwich maker, we could make pizza pockets, chilli pockets, and my favorite hot PB&J’s. I think there are better models out there but I would recommend it to anyone with kids who are trying to get through that early unsupervised cooking stage.
Uh huh, it does to. 
It tightened everything up nicely, but if I skip a few days it comes back with a vengance.
I’ve ordered just about every exercise / workout gadget under $30.
Yup - ginsu knives, foreman grill way back when it was new, magic bullet blender, a sweater for my mom with a rudolph the red nosed reindeer with a light up nose [she adored it, she like kitschy christmas sweaters] some time-life dvds for my dad, those plastic containers on the carousel, and some national geographic dvds for assorted other people.
Damn, this makes it sound like I sit on my ass all day watching infomercials :smack:
Realistically, this is covering about 25 years of TV watching …
I always wanted to know who actually bought those Christmas sweaters! 
When I was a kid, I talked my dad into buying a Shiwala Car Mop. It worked well on the hood, trunk and roof, but it was damn-near useless on the sides of the car, since it wouldn’t stick to the car itself. I also seem to recall that it had a little plastic bump in the very middle of the pad that would push through and scratch the paint if you pressed too hard. :eek:
This looks like a great idea except that it cooks each brownie as an edge one. I HATE the chewy edge pieces and will only eat middle pieces from a pan of brownies.
Oh, that would be heaven for me. I LOVE edge pieces. I wish they could all be edge pieces. Love the little crunchiness on the ends.
Another vote for the delicious gooey center pieces. You heathens can have the burnt brownie crusts.
You can remove that center piece and cook without it, if you don’t like edged brownies. I take it out whenever I do meatloaf, since most of my family doesn’t like the edges on it.
Me too, which is why I bought the pan. Edgy goodness from every piece.
I bought a CD from a television ad once.
I also made a big mistake once. I bought one of those discounted “Girls Gone Wild” DVD’s they advertise on TV. I figured what the heck, it’s only ten bucks so check it out. I had no problem with the DVD itself - it was pretty much as described, a bunch of drunk college girls flashing their boobs and making out with each other. But what’s in the fine print is that when you buy one of these DVD’s you’re actually joining a club that will send you more DVD’s every couple of weeks and charge them to the credit card you ordered the first one with. And what’s an outright crime is that they will not let you cancel or get your money back. I finally had to close out the credit card to stop them from emptying out my account.
My son really really really wanted that damn pillow pet. Eventually, he saved enough money for us to order one. Then, of course, a couple months later they started showing up in stores. He actually really likes it, but I’ve gotten so tired of hearing about advertised products that saying, “I want that” now leads to turning off the TV immediately.
I said once. We ordered these handles with giant suction cups which you were supposed to put on your bathtub wall. I know, it’s a really stupid idea, but we thought they might work.
We’re lucky nobody was injured.