Home and Kitchen Reviews

I got this "mandoline" recently and so far i have used it to slice vegie. I can't say it doesn't do the job, but then again I could probably have done it faster and better using a kitchen knife. The blade started having some rust right after the first use, although I wiped it clean after washing it. The finger protector is a joke; it does not hold the food in place and snaps off very easily. After using it a few times I decided I would rather do the job with a kitchen knife than risk injuring myself. Don't waste your money on this. Instead, invest it in a more professional mandoline.

This slicer is not even worth the $10 I paid for it. It ended up costing me $50 in a co-pay to the emergency room to get stiches when the guard fell off the vegetable I was trying to slice...but it put a nice slice in my finger!!! Don't buy this item it is very dangerous!

I bought this one for simply slicing some potatoes for a dish where I needed all the sliced to be the same. When I used it I was disappointed! The blade is not very sharp and when I use the other blades to make fries it ends up mincing instead of slicing. So it best for slicing and that is it!

I'm not saying there isn't a place for bagless cleaners, but I got tired of the mess. So I ordered this upright with bags and I love it! The bags are much easier to change now - a snap -, it's light, cleans great. Best of all- I can store it in my clothes closet because it is so clean (the dirt is IN the bag, not on the cleaner). The bags and hepa filter are cheap. When I figured it would cost me about $18 to get a new belt for my old vac - I thought I might as well buy a new one. So glad I did. A great bonus is the POWER PAW...what a maniac that attachment is - the brush roller is great for pet hair and stairs.
PS- After using this vac a while love it even better. It performs so well and doesn't scatter the dog hair so that you have to chase it like some vacs. It just sucks it right up. I knew Eureka was great because I have an old Bravo upstairs that's still going strong. I had a little problem with an attachment and they sent me another one (even better one) right away. Yesterday I was in Walmart and they had a similar one for twice the money.
Thanks Amazon and Eureka.

The Bistro set is exactly what we wanted, well depicted on the site and delivered perfectly on time within days of purchase. It is a gift for my granddaughter's first home, a small space, so the 30" diameter table is perfect. It can fit into so many different styles. Thanks for the good service!

The excellent comprehensive review preceding mine covers all but one area: The kind of knives you will use on the board matter! If you have high quality forged knives, bamboo boards will last much longer than if you have stamped knives with tiny serrations--those will tear up bamboo boards fast. If those are what you have, and you like the look of bamboo, consider getting inexpensive poly boards for cutting and save the bamboo for presentation.

I absolutely love this cutting board. It works well with most knives (don't use the serrated knives with tiny teeth). The board is very forgiving with repeated cutting. They are very heavy and very attractive. The only complaint I have is the paper packaging stuck to the board. I've bought 3 of these and I couldn't get all of the "glue" off any of the boards. I eventually just put the oil on the boards to protect them and that somehow helped get most of the sticky residue off. MIU France really needs to use something that will not permanently stick to the boards. I'd give it a 5 star if the sticky residue and paper came off easily.

Bamboo cutting boards seem to be a bit of a craze and a lot of places are really pushing it as the perfect material and perfect cutting board. Although I would agree that Bamboo is a very good material, I would hardly say that it is the "perfect" one. All materials have it's pros and cons. If I were to rank them, I'd say - Maple Wood (not all woods are created equal!), Plastic/Poly, Bamboo, Glass/Granite. Why?

Wood.
You want one at least 1" thick, preferrably at least 1.5" thick. This gives it enough thickness to prevent warping, cracking and breaking. It also will give you good "shock absorption factor" - making cutting and pounding on it a lot less jarring and tiring for you. Wood has natural anti-bacterial properties. It's natural, traditional, beautiful, and the best material for your good knives to be cutting on. The cons is that you need to know how to care for wood, you need to oil it, it's not dishwasher safe, it can be heavy.

Plastic/Poly.
The pros are that they are usually dish-washer safe, they are easy to disinfect when in like-new condition. They come in different colors, so you can color coordinate different foods to different boards to prevent cross-contamination. They are thin, lighter, easy to clean and store. The cons are they must be replaced when badly knife scarred because those knife scars will house millions of bacteria. Scrubbing the board will not get to those bacteria for the same reasons why brushing your teeth does not get the stuff between your teeth. Soaking it in bleach will not get to the bacteria because of the vacuum effect - the same concept illustrated when you stick a straw into blue colored water, plug up the top to create a vacuum, then move the straw into another container filled with red colored water. Just as long as you maintain that vacuum, the liquid in the red water will never mix with the blue in the straw unless if there was some way for you to force that red water into the straw as well.

Bamboo.
First off, bamboo is not wood, it's a grass - so no, it does not share the same properties as wood. Bamboo is 16% harder than Maple. The Amazon Description says "The hard surface means fewer nicks and slices that harbor bacteria." Harder is not better. Oak is harder than Maple, but it's not as good because it has bigger pores. Glass and Granite is harder than Maple, but it's the worst thing for your knife to be cutting against. Harder may sound good at first, but on second thought, it dulls your knives and has no shock absorption. I would treat Bamboo the same as Plastic/Poly when it comes to bacteria - replace it after it's badly knife scarred. Bamboo is more abundant than Maple trees though - all the claims of it being more environmentally friendly are valid. It's also available in attractive packages. Bamboo has less of a tendency to warp because it doesn't expand/contract from heat as much as wood does. But it has more tendency to crack, splinter, and for the glues to fail - this is because of how it's made. It's many, many pieces of a grass product all glued together - not like wood which is several "chunks" glued together. Bamboo is cheaper than wood though, so if you are on a budget and are looking for a lighter weight, wood-like cutting board, you'd want to look at these bamboo boards. Bamboo is not dishwasher safe, unless if it's extremely sealed, it's still a natural product and therefore should be hand-washed and could benefit with oilings to prevent it from drying out.

Glass/Granite.
I would not recommend anyone cutting on boards made of these materials. The have no shock absorption, making them jarring and tiring to cut on and they'll dull your knives. Save these material for serving trays or the like.

Now this particular bamboo cutting board is a good average size. Measuring in at 11-1/4 by 11-1/4 by 1-1/3". I would say it's a good "Medium" sized board. It's probably a good average size board for prepping meals for 1 person and my be on the small size if cooking a lot for 2 people. If you cook a lot though and are looking for a Main board, you might want to get something larger. This board is square shaped - which is fine but not great, I think that the best shape is rectangular. The rectangular shape is ideal if you like to chop and move the finished product off to the side to chop some more. I do this all the time, and that's a reason I like a larger board because otherwise, I'd have to dirty up a bunch of little prep bowls to hold all my ingredients in while I'm chopping. It's a very attractive board and at over 1" thick, this thickness should be able to prevent any warping or cracking issues when proper care is taken.

I've owned one of these before and liked how it performed, but the current version of this product is poor. First, it doesn't have the capability to take the knee wrinkles out like prior versions, probably because it is made with cheap, fragile plastic where it counts most, the upper strectch lever and the "fancy" new way to catch the bottom of slacks doesn't work most of the time. I am looking for a better unit. Too bad good companies cheapen there product to the point that they become just another commodity provider of junk.

The 550 Original Trouser Presser does the job. The rotary dial timer is convenient and is better than the 15 minute or 30 minute switch trouser presser variety. I travel to England quite a bit and have been using all kinds of trouser pressers there. The 550 is the real McCoy. Don't expect miracles, but this does indeed put those creases back in.

The Corby 5500 is a must have for anyone concerned about daily clothes maintenance. This presser works better than I originally anticipated. It even puts a new crisp crease in cotton slacks (although to get the best effect you should do both sides). On wools it works even better. You won't be disappointed.

My husband bought the OXO salad spinner (the only one available in most of the local stores) when my previous salad spinner, a Zyliss, was lost in a move.

I was disappointed from the beginning. The OXO spinner's action is inferior to the Zyliss, which spins in two directions and gets the greens much drier in less time. Also, the construction of the lid allows water to collect between two "layers" where it is impossible to wash properly or to dry, allowing mildew to grow.

After two years of almost daily use, the push-down mechanism in the lid became completely inoperable and I had to discard the lid as useless. (I'm keeping the inner basket to plant summer bulbs in to make them easier to lift and store in the fall.)

I have just purchased another
Zyliss Salad Spinner from Amazon and was astounded to see that it is only half the price of the OXO. It arrived this week and I couldn't be happier with it. Don't spend twice the money for an inferior product!

Sora Colvin

This is a great unit for washing salad. If you don't like soppy wet leaves resisting the coating of dressing, then you can wave your washed lettuce in a French collapsing basket dramatically on your deck (habit of a very nice friend of mine from France) or you can use this salad spinner.

This spinner is attractive, the knob is easy to manipulate and the bowl works as storage. It is a lot better than others I've used and really essential to our salad-o-mania at home. Dinner is frequently grilled something or tuna-from-the-can and salad, so we put this through its paces. I recommend it to anyone who likes romaine lettuce or Boston lettuce, or red-leaf. These need washing like mad, and the spinner dries them afterwards easily. Great item, and pretty as well.

I LOVE IT! I absolutely love this Salad Spinner! We grow our own lettuce and let me tell you how dirty it is when I cut it and have to wash it off! It was a pain to try and dry the lettuce before now. This is so easy and works great! I would recommend this to anyone!!! This is a must for anyone who loves to cook! Enjoy!

As with all cast iron once you have the iron well-seasoned(initial seasoning+ seasoning from usage) ,you will have a perfect heat conductor and a better than teflon stick -resistant peice of cookware. It just takes patience and some TLC but once you get the hang of it, nothing beats cast iron. I started buying cast iron after a couple of years of buying the EXPENSIVE high end cookware which started warping one day after the other. I threw the majority of those away. I wanted cookware that would grow with me that I could keep for more than 5 years!!!! So I finally made the decision of cast iron. It took me a while to get it but there is so much lit. out there for you to educate yourself.
The pan is nice for eggs, little sides or whatever you want to put in it really. Just no soap and no cold water while the iron is hot...and the seasoning..well I'll let you do your research like I did mine...so many methods whatever works for you will be your personal experience.
If you are tired of constantly replacing those teflon pans that ARE triple or more the cost of this lil guy... Cast iron is for you.

The last time I saw the Lalanne's on TV they were well into their 80's and both still in very good health. They say it has to do with the juice machine, because you get so much more nutrition due to drinking whole fruits and vegetables. I love this machine, I have used it daily since I received it. I have always eaten fruits and vegetables, not in the quantity that I can drink them in when I make juice with them. My husband has never been one for eating many vegetables, so I had him try a meatloaf that I had added the pulp of vegetable juice to, he said it was great, very moist and flavorful. You could also add vegetable pulp to vegetable lasagne. I recommend cutting vegetables like beets into quarters before juicing them, and holding the pusher in one hand close to the shute so you can insert it right after dropping in the vegetable. It does take a little time to clean, but if you use the brush that came with it when you clean the screen, it works well, and clean it over the garbage disposal. I highly recommend this to anyone who wants to be healthier and get their daily intake of fruits and vegetables. My favorite juice so far is 2 golden delicious apples and 2 carrots, fantastic!! Makes one 12-16 oz. glass.