Oh, I forgot to add, I don’t use a standard colander. I use a strainer. You know, those bowl shaped things that look like they have window screen material on them. (not the nylon stuff but the aluminum ones.)
The less water on your pasta, the more likely your sauce will stick.
But that’s just me.
My sister’s getting one for her birthday. That, and a quesidilla maker from Target.
Yeah. Cheap thrills…
[sub] I just want to add that this in my 1000th post…I will gladly accept a pasta pot as a means of congratulations…[/sub]
Opal, I hate to interject a note of reality, but about a month back, here in this forum, you were describing some pretty dire financial straits that you were in.
With all due respect, I’m seeing a disconnect here. 
RT: You’ll note that I specifically said I’m not buying one. I just want one. I didn’t realize that being poor meant you couldn’t want stuff.
I have SHORT HAIR and yet I’m convinced that I need the electric spinning brush. Heh. As for the robotic vacuum… [insert the Homer drooling sound here]
Opal, looking back I still don’t see the part where you said you weren’t thinking of buying, just ogling.
But if in fact that’s all you are doing, then there’s certainly nothing wrong with that.
Ok, well what I said was “(I haven’t bought one, I just want it… so that may redeem me)” but I also have no intention of buying one any time soon.
I mean, I’ve been wanting one of those rolling cutter things for a few years and I haven’t bought one of those yet either.
My MIL is big on getting gadgets and giving them to me as gifts. I have a salad shooter. Honestly, it’s easier and quicker for me to chop up my veggies than to assemble this beast, cram the veggies in, disassemble it to get out the veggie chunks that aren’t cut, reassemble and try again, disassemble to clean, then put away. Plus everything comes out cut on an arc - it’s a pain making scalloped potatoes when they don’t lie flat.
She gave us a hand blender. I think my daughter made a milkshake once. I think my husband has the blender on the boat now.
She gave us a rotisserie this year - a Popeil model, no less. It’s huge - it doesn’t fit in any of my cabinets. I had to put it on a shelf in the laundry room. I don’t know if I’ll ever use it - it’s got so many pieces that’ll need to be cleaned, I’m afraid to try it out.
I think it’s time for a back-to-basics cooking movement.
I haven’t used one, but I gotta think that these pasta pots increase your risk of getting burned, rather than decreasing it.
When making pasta with a normal pot, you position the collander in the sink and can dump the water/pasta into it in one quick motion. This allows you to get away from the sink before the steam comes up and starts scalding your hands. With one of these pots, however, it looks like you have stand over a steaming sink for a pretty long time as the boiling water slowly filters through all the cooked pasta. And unless you stand there for a minute of two holding up a heavy pot of pasta, not all the water is going to drain off and you’ll end up having runny sauce (icky-pooo). Plus, it doesn’t look like the lid has any way of closing off the drain holes, so its going to take a longer time to get the water to boil, since you’re effectively not using a lid.
I dislike the commercial for the same reason I can’t stand the ‘perfect pancake maker’ commercial: they make it seem like you need a doctorate degree coupled with superhuman agility to simply flip a freakin’ flapjack or drain a pot of pasta.
I’ve been finding myself interested in a mandolin - not a musical instrument, but one of those things where you have a blade mounted in a slanted rack, and you slide your vegetables down against the blade to slice them. The problem is that I’ve only been seeing the types that look like they’re very cheaply constructed - I need to find a happy medium in terms of price and quality.
Ferret- If you find one, let me know! It seems like you’re forced to choose either the $8 POS or the $450 commercial quality ones. I can’t justify handing out more than a c-note just for waffle-cut fries…
that ad (those ads-there are differing pots) are annoying!!!
I thought they’d be off after Christmas but No!:mad:
MIL bought one of these. Now we already have a long, teflon griddle that covers two burners. With that piece of junk, you can only do one pancake at a time, as opposed to 4-5 on the griddle. If that wasn’t bad enough, they flip onto a COLD surface (the handles get in the way of keeping it open straddling two burners). HOWEVER, while previously I never really had a need for one, I do like the ‘pancake-shooter’ gadget (cheaply made though - won’t replace it when it breaks).
Yes, friggae, that is what I was referring to. Although the one peri linked to looks of a much higher quality.
On a realted note, I also want the Miracle Blades. Whether or not they can cut a copper pipe I could care less, but $40 for a knife set that supposodly has a lifetime warrenty ain’t bad.
Joey Tribbiani, for one – “These milk cartons are so flingin’-flangin’ hard to open!!” 
OpalCat (and others tempted by these): Don’t bother. I bought one years ago, and it worked reasonably well the first couple of times I used it. Then the blades started to get dull, so I had to press harder to cut anything. About the 10th time I used it, it literally fell apart! Very cheap construction!
And I agree with everyone who finds the actors on these commercials annoying. I’ve read the posts by folks who have actually scalded themselves draining pasta, and I understand how this can happen, but these commercials make it look like this kind of stuff happens to most folks every single time they try to drain pasta, flip a pancake, whatever.
I think there should be an infomercial for a videotape series that teaches you to do this stuff properly, so you don’t need the crap sold on infomercials!
Or how about " ‘ave you ever tried to flip an omlette? It’s flippin’ impossible!"
I have no problems with the invention of these gadgets (I withhold judgement on the actual implementation and construction of said items). I also fully support the desire to own them, and (if financial and storage limitations allow) the actual purchase of any of them that might fit your needs. Really, a pot with a perforated lid sounds like a fine idea, as does a folding skillet (dunno about microwaving eggs, though), a hand-held mixer, and a nifty shirt folder.
My issue is with their attempt at inventing a market by making mundane tasks seem completely unachievable without their gadget. What the hell is wrong with saying “our product will save cabinet space and prep time”.
Yeah, yeah. I know. They sell more this way. That in itself convinces me that maybe some people really aren’t smart enough to use a collander.
This just makes me think of “Two men enter, one man leaves!”
Regarding roller cutters:
In the commercials, they show that thing making salsa, fresh cut potatoes fro fries, diced onions, carrots and so forth. The thing they don’t seem to show is the prep work involved “pre-roller.” All those veggies and roots were cut into thin strips so the roller would fit “over” them. Sure, that thing would make nice uniform cuts if you sliced potatoes and carrots LENGTHWISE…which is a great idea for someone inexperienced enough to think that the roller will make them a chef.
Oh and them cutting fresh pasta is a riot. The sheets of pasta that come out of rollers. Most rollers come with the fettucine or spagetti finish rollers anyway.
Man, I didn’t think I’d get that worked up about this…perhaps it is that fact that I really do want that pasta pot…
Another thing about the pasta pot… it would be handy for things that you want to cover but don’t want to boil over. Usually I have to stick a spoon in there and balance the lid against it to keep it from closing all the way… with this, you’d have a vent!