Housewares Reviews

I purchased this grinder to use with my Kenwood Major mixer. It was the first attachment that I purhased for this mixer as I tend to prefer dedicated tools that do the job well vs. jack of all trade types of tools. This time however, I couldn't see taking up storage real estate for a meat grinder and took the leap of faith and purchased this grinder attachment. This weekend I ground top round using the medium die plate. Excellent sums it all up. I cut the meat in one inch cubes and the grinder made quick easy work of all 5# of meat. I later ground pork butts using the coarse die for two different types of sausage. Again excellent work. I have to admit I did not use the sausage stuffing parts as I Have that this technigue ends up putting a lot of air into the casing unless you can really keep the flow of meat going which would require another person. I purchased a Grizzly sausage stuffer off of ebay and it worked flawlessly.

I give the grinder four stars only becuase the tray used to hold the meat before grinding could not hold 6-7# of meat.

After hauling several boxes of books around the country during my post-college nomadic phase, I finally decided to unpack them. I had some space for a bookcase, but not the money for anything fancy. I found this unit at my local SuperTarget and decided to give it a try. I give it 5 stars for the following reasons:

- It looks nice. It's not fancy or beautiful, but it has a clean, quiet look. I chose not to attach the backing material (flimsy, as expected with this type of unit). Up against a white wall, it blends in nicely.

- It was quite easy to assemble. I did it myself with a power screwdriver. The whole project took about 35 minutes. The parts in my kit were not labeled, but it's not hard to figure out what goes where.

- I love that the shelves are divided into "cubes." The dividers provide lots of support for my heavy old textbooks. Lesser shelves or those without support would certainly sag.

- The units are compatible with others in the Cubicals line. They can be stacked/arranged to form whatever kind of system you want. I'm considering getting another piece to stack on top. The assembly materials include extra dowels for this purpose. Also, you can get drawer/baskets to slide into the cubes, or doors to turn them into cabinets.

- In addition to the extra dowels for stacking more units on top, the hardware packet includes a wall anchor, to keep the unit from tipping/falling on top of kids who climb up the front like a ladder.

All in all, a very functional solution to my book problem.

I put a couple of these zappers between my house and some treed wetlands. They kill so many Mosquitoes and other insects that I have to clean the Stingers out every week or two. Fortunately, an electric yard blower cleans them out pretty easily. I don't even have to unplug them. One precaution: don't use this near a picnic bench or your pets water or feed bowl. Exploding insects can't be very healthy to consume for man or beast. I would have rated this item five stars except that the replacement bulbs cost about $20 each and need to be replaced in pairs every 4 to 6 months.