Sort of inspired by the ‘stuff that costs surprisingly little’ thread."
Last night I was sort of fashing around for something to have for dinner. We had a chunk of left over ham, and plenty of veggies and such, but I couldn’t think of a starch I wanted to do. Rice doesn’t go well with sliced cold ham, imho. I didn’t feel like noodles. We just had potatoes with the first part of that ham… And then my eye fell on the little blue box of Jiffy Mix corn muffins. Perfect!
And really, they are. Dump the box into a bowl, add an egg and a little milk, stir for maybe 20 seconds… and 15 minutes later you have a half dozen perfectly peaked golden brown muffins that taste perfectly fine.
EVERY single time.
And they’re pretty damn cheap on top of that.
What little, or not little, things do you use that have always worked well for you? That you can count on to do whatever their purpose is well, easily, reliably?
Note: I’m deliberately not putting this into Cafe Society even though my example is food, because I don’t want to restrict it to that. Maybe you have a tool, or a piece of clothing, or even your pet dog that has always, always, always ‘been there’ for you.
I am a big fan of scarves for making an outfit or a coat go from random to pulled together. I have a pleated, multi-colored one that goes with a ton of stuff, a silky one that looks like spring flowers, a couple of warm pashminas that double as shawls, and a knitted navy infinity scarf.
Scarves almost always make me look better.
Our Maytag washer & dryer. I bought them used in the late 1990s. Been used continuously for a family of five. Have never had even the slightest problem with the washer. Had a minor problem with the dryer a few years ago, but it was easy to fix.
Big scissors- I call them that because they’re scissors, and they are big. Instead of thin sheet of metal inserted into plastic handles, they are all thick solid steel. They are my friend of many adventures. I’ve used them to cut a sheet of what I think is tin. I’ve used them for so many things. I just haven’t been able to find them for the past few months.
I’ve got an alarm clock that has been in constant operation since about 1978. No burned out segments, always gets me up when needed, survived many, many moves.
Soldiers on…
Honorable mention to the Jeep Cherokee. It’s not ALWAYS worked, but for a Jeep, it has a pretty good record. It starts up nearly every day for about 6-7 years (it was hammered when I bought it, and I’ve hammered it harder since then). It quits now and then, but its usually the crank position senser. Unplug it for a few minutes, hook it back up and off you go! Compared to the other Jeeps I’ve owned, this one is not bad.
Eggs - scrambled, omelet [one of my favorite fast meals and a great way to use up cooked ham, veggies or potatoes] as ‘breakfast rice’ [nuke leftover rice, add mirin and soy, sake or two of “kitchen pepper” make sure it is well mixed and cracking hot, and dump a raw egg in and stir it up.] hard boiled [as is, or as deviled eggs, or my favorite chopped up in egg salad flavored as if it were deviled eggs when I am too lazy to pipe in the yolk mixture] poached on torn up buttered toast.
[kitchen pepper is equal parts of pepper, garlic powder, ginger powder, lemon powder and a tiny amount of powdered thyme - recipe mod-bashed from the poudres-fourte of the middle ages]
I also use tofu as a protein, tons of ways to use it as well.
My Kubota loader. Bucket on the front, box scrapper on the back 4x4. Damn, it’s versatile. When the snow gets plowed into piles and I’m running out of room to plow, I use the tractor to move it. The box scrapper is great for grading my driveway/spreading gravel. My driveway is in MUCH better shape than the county road.
Need to move something heavy? It’s there. I have a dog that likes to dig under our fence. Take the Kubota down the ‘road’ (it’s barely a road) and pick up rocks out of the ditch to fill in the holes under the fence.
It always starts, even in the dead of winter, and it’s a diesel. I use it for all kinds of stuff.
I do this all the time. I don’t always have celery available, so I’ll add finely chopped onion or apple. And I usually use Ritz (or the local store brand version) instead of saltines.
The Jiffy Mix is pretty hard to beat for reliability, in that sort of food item.
I have a folding lock-blade box/utility knife. They don’t make this style anymore, I can’t even find a pic to link to. I’ve had it for about twenty years. It never fails me. I’ve tried others, similar and quite different, none lasted or were as handy to carry in my pocket
My insanely cheap plastic stick blender. I kid you not, purchased over 20 years ago for like eight bucks and we still use it at least weekly.
These days it gets used less, in that we have a large blender for a lot of options, but if we’re doing hot food or small batches, it is still king. IT JUST WORKS.
After over 20 years of moderate to heavy use and going through the dishwasher for cleaning every time as well.
It works for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, or a late-night after the bar; always tastes great, and if there are fries on the side, even better. Pretty much any roadside diner can make one easily, even if it’s not on the menu; and certainly Denny’s and its like can do the same.
I’d say the same for a grilled cheese sandwich and a bowl of tomato soup. Both are good, and filling, comfort foods.
BLTs and grilled cheese & tomato soup are my go-to sandwiches on regular rotation. Add liverwurst & onion to the list and that is my sandwich trifecta. If you too like liver and onion sandwiches, you must be my doppelganger.
I have a different example sort of in between your example and the OP’s example. I got a black overcoat that I can wear instead of a parka-style winter jacket just because it looks better, (and it feels slightly better too in most situations, being more roomy.) And when I put it on, it covers everything else so it doesn’t have to match anything (plus, it is so roomy that if it is really cold I can put a winter jacket on under it.)
But what always works about it? The sewed buttons. Zippers on winter jackets always snag on me. If I have both my overcoat and my winter jacket in close proximity to each other and we are not going hiking or other outdoor places that are dirty, then I will choose the overcoat because I will not risk that 1/4 to 1/5 of the time when I have to hassle with my zipper.
We have a 19 inch TV/VCR in our bedroom that has literally been on 24 hours a day since 1998. During that time it’s only been off for like 3 days when we moved it from our old house a few years ago.
It functions perfectly and has a great picture. We hardly even watch it. It’s more of a night light. I think if it wasn’t on we wouldn’t be able to sleep.
My mother has a refrigerator behind the bar in her basement of the house I grew up in. It is a Whirlpool. Her and my Dad installed it in 1967 when I was not yet 7 years old. It has never been unplugged or serviced and it still works flawlessly!
There is a German company, Ortlieb, that specializes in waterproof outdoor equipment and I have had a pair of rear panniers, for cycling, since 1996 or 7. They’re bloody bombproof, in reality absolutely waterproof, and they have a great quick release system.
Prior to them I had gone through two sets of cheaper panniers in two or three years in which I had to pack stuff in plastic bags and were so un-rigid that they could sway into the rear spokes.
I have had a pair since early 2000s (I also tried a crappy set before spending the money on the real deal) and I would say almost always. I use these panniers almost every freaking day. I use them every work day for my bike commute, then I use them on the weekends for groceries and longer bike rides, and also use them on biking vacations. The almost is one of the springs on the top hooks broke and I also broke one of the buckles (that should be attributed to a chewing puppy though). However, a quick email with Ortlieb and replacement parts were in the mail. I also have a large pair for my dual-sport motorcycle which also always work, but they get far less use than my bike pair. My wife also has a bike set, but again, way less usage.
Do yourself a favor and buy Ortlieb from the outset. They do go on sale from some of the big resellers. Well worth it if you ever want a buy once, cry once experience (they aren’t that much more expensive though).
