The one good thing about having a blog is when some websites you buy from don’t allow you to review a piece of crap you bought from them, you can do it yourself! So if you are looking for a multi-tiered plant stand like I was and see this beautiful wood one from Improvements Catalog, beware. There’s a decent amount of assembly which is probably best with 2 people. I was hoping this folded up to store away neatly for the winter. Nope. I put a flower box on it and it bowed like there was a person on it. By mid summer the finish had well worn off in spots and it began looking pretty ragged. When we removed the plants at the end of the season, the stand was permanently bowed and isn’t even worth saving. I wouldn’t waste my money on this thing. It looks really pretty in the picture but bottom line is, its poorly made and not worth the effort to assemble unless you plan on putting knick knacks or something light on it.
If you’re like us and ordered the Twin Draft Guards when it was oh…0 degrees outside, chances are you got a rude awakening and were told it was on backorder after you ordered. I checked twice to see when it was coming in and was told they couldn’t give me an estimate. We saw them at Bed, Bath and Beyond for HALF the price of what they advertise on tv for the same ones. So we grabbed them and ran home to cancel. Oh, surprise of surprises, they just happened to ship it that day and could not cancel the order. (Something tells me this is their practice when people are tired of waiting, tell them it was sent and get it out the next day.) Hubby cut them to fit and honestly, we noticed no real difference and the one on the garage door moves constantly when you open the door and you end up shutting the door on it. Then you shove it back in its place angrily and close the door and grumble. The box we received from them directly was badly damaged so there’s no way we could’ve sent it back without packing taping it to death which I also think was on purpose since I called to cancel and they wanted to make it harder to send it back. Trust me, it left the factory in this condition, I highly doubt the shipping company did it. So we’ll be taking the ones we got a Bed, Bath and Beyond back because it’s not worth having extras around the house and given how crappy they are, I’d be embarrassed to give it as a gift.
Maybe you’ll have better luck than we did but we just did not see any kind of noticeable difference and especially not one that made it worth the almost $30 we paid by the time they screwed us on shipping too. (Because remember when you order direct you get their crappy over the door hooks to hang something on until the spot welds give out.)
So if you’re going to buy the Twin Draft Guards, go to Bed, Bath and Beyond and get it for $9.99 and no shipping costs!
I just tried one of those new Hot Pocket Pepperoni and Three Cheese Calzones. The commercials always make it look good. I don’t like their Pepperoni Pizza Hot Pocket but I thought maybe this “Italian Style Herbed Cheese Crust” might make the difference. Um…no. The sauce is still atrocious, I mean you truly can’t get more bland than that. Well, there is taste but it tastes like liquid italian salt. The pepperoni is bland as well and I tasted the crust on its own and it tasted neither cheesy nor herbed. And because I was an idiot and didn’t read the label before I ate it, it counted as 2 servings so it was like eating 2 hot pockets calorie wise…620 calories and 1700mg of sodium!!! Not a happy girl. So for anyone who may have been curious about the calzone, don’t be. Stick with any flavor Hot Pocket but “Italian.”
Nutritional Info per serving (2 servings per “pocket”):
310 calories
15g fat
6g sat fat
Cholesterol 25mg
Sodium 850mg
Total Carbs 33g
Dietary Fiber 3g
Sugars 6g
Protein 11g
Vitamin A 2%
Calcium 20%
Iron 10%
We live in a ‘burb but just far enough away from tornado sirens that it wouldn’t wake us in the middle of the night. (I can’t imagine too many people would wake unless they’re right next door to it or they’re light sleepers) Because there has been a rash of weird weather this year, we decided to invest in a weather radio. You know the one thing you always say you should get once bad weather passes and never do?
I love the one we got by First Alert. It has S.A.M.E. technology and you can program what alerts you receive. Like we don’t need to know if a typhoon is coming because we’re not in an area that gets them but we do live in an area that sees tornados so we programmed to be alerted when a tornado warning is issued. Now it does have watch and warning lights on the unit that will blink as long as they are active or until you click to read them and then they’ll go solid and turn off when the alert expires. You can choose 2 types of alerts, either a full on alarm that continues to go off or an alarm goes off for 10 seconds followed by a voice alert that reads the bulletin from the National Weather Service. Of course when you set it up you never know if it works or not until you have the particular alert you chose. Last night at 11:30pm, our tornado warning went off just as we were heading up to bed. We never would’ve known because we just turned off a movie we were watching. So down to the basement we went with it and watched the local news until it passed at 12:30am. That paid for itself in that one use because while we had no touchdowns, there were funnel clouds and some that popped up with little warning at all and we were already in the basement when they did. If you’ve been putting off buying a weather radio no matter where you live, you should invest in one. I highly recommend the one we bought and it’s not very expensive at all. (And because it’s over $25 with Amazon, shipping is free!)
I’m a fan of Italian subs and I’m always up for trying someplace new. Our friends told us Penn Station subs were really good. So we drove about 20 minutes away to the closest one to us. I stayed in the car while the manus went inside. I asked for a small Italian sub and fries and asked for ketchup. He got a chicken cordon bleu. I’m all for freshness and such but he was in there long enough for them to kill, cure, slice and cook the animals as well as grow the potatoes. Halfway to our destination to “picnic” he tells me he forgot ketchup and got me a regular sized sub. It put a twist in the underoos. It took 3 bites before I could get to the meat. Then when I did I regretted it. I don’t purposely eat salted foods, I mean I know sodium is in everything but I don’t use salt. It tasted like a salt lick. I couldn’t even eat all of it. I had a fry and they were fine but I still had said knot in underoos so I kept them in the bag. Hubby said he’s never had a more tasteless sub in his life. We both got their “fresh squeezed” lemonade and it was good and tart. (Think a tart lemon shake up from a fair) So $21 later we crossed another place off our list of places to go.
I was excited to try the new Burger King Steakhouse Burger because it looked so good on their commercials. Seen ‘em? No? Well regardless I think you should go to BK’s website so you can see what they tell you you’re going to see. Really, click the link, I’ll wait…
Looks good doesn’t it? Wanna see what it really looks like when you actually go get it?
Is it me or does that not quite look like the luscious Angus burger they’ve been promoting?? Now how does it taste? You like salsbury steak? You know, the stuff in TV dinners you might’ve eaten as a kid? Then you’ll like this burger. If not, you might want to steer clear. The pic is of hubby’s “loaded” Steakhouse burger. Loaded means they puree some kind of potato mixture and slather it on the bun and add some limp, chewy bacon to the regular burger which includes the “Thick and Hearty” A1 sauce (which is like Heinz 57), cheese and these “crunchy onions”. Now let me tell you about these onions. You know the reconstituted onions Mickey D’s uses for their cheeseburgers? It’s like BK took those and batter fried them. They’re so small you can’t even tell they’re there. You can see them if you look REAL close on the pics. On the regular burger they don’t list it but there is mayo all over it and for a non-mayo girl, this was an unwelcome surprise. I ate just over half of mine before I threw it and the pathetic tater sticks they call fries went back to the bag from wence they came. I’d write more but my stomach is now churning so I’m going to lay down.
This weekend we decided to make our food choices based around some new products that came out. I can honestly say I should get paid for this given some of the things I had to eat or at minimum reimbursed.
KFC’s Smoky Chipotle 2 pc meal. We were both really looking forward to this because it harkened us back to the days of Sisters Chicken and Biscuits Spicy Chicken from our childhood. We should’ve known KFC would screw it up. First off just the name alone is annoying because there’s a big “chipotle” craze sweeping this nation and KFC thought it would be lucrative to cash in on that craze. The texture of the chicken breading looked promising, as it was a darker red color in comparison to its Crispy and Original Recipe counterparts. It took quite a few bites before we even tasted any flavor much less a hint of smoky anything. For anyone who likes spicy food, you’ll laugh heartily at this weak attempt at adding “smoky chipotle” to expand their menu. I won’t even go into their generous 3 tablespoon portion of macaroni and cheese being congealed yet again. I’d love their schedule as to when they make fresh mac and cheese but that is obviously rare these days. Overall, stick to the tried and true chicken if you’re a KFC fan because this new addition is a definite miss.
Arby’s Texas Toast Sandwich Meal. Should I be worried when I don’t even find the item that’s been hyped on TV all week on their online menu? The answer is yes. This is a Texas Toast roast beef sandwich and I got the double cheese. First off, the cheese sauce is just gross. Tastes as artificial as it is. Second, when the words Texas Toast are in the title, I expect to get both pieces toasted not one pathetically toasted on one side and the other piece plain. If I wanted roast beef on square Wonder bread, I can make that at home thanks. I’m not a fan of the curly fries either and them being ice cold at 11:30am when your lunch rush starts doesn’t make me anymore of a fan. I took two bites of each and threw it all away. The best thing I got from them was the drink. So there’s $4 down the drain.
With everyone feeling the pinch at the grocery store and trying to make better food choices, how can you make your dollar stretch longer? Well I had been looking at the option of buying a FoodSaver to make my own stir fries and marinate/sanction out those big value packs of bonesless chicken breasts. I finally broke down and bought one along with a few rolls of the plastic bags.
A usual bag of pre-made stir fry veggies which gets me one use typically costs $3.50. I bought carrots, celery, zucchini, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, broccoli and green onions. That stuff totaled $11.00 and I got 4 nights of stir fries out of them which averaged to $2.75. Now maybe saving $3.00 doesn’t sound like a big deal but it saves me from having to pick out the freezer burnt green beans and red peppers which I don’t care for which is money in the trash can. I know they’re fresh, the volume is more and no preservatives.
We also used to use 2 chicken breasts and cut them up but as I thin cut those frozen chicken breasts, I realized by thin cutting them we could use one and have it appear like just as much as two, thereby doubling the amount of dinners I can get out of them. I also pre cut each chicken breast and put in a marinade so I would just have to open and stir fry and save my time.
Yes, it took a long time to do (about 3 hours with cutting, peeling, etc) but I watched my soaps while I did it and now all of our dinners for next week are taken care of. Instead of buying those bagged salads we’re making our own and are going to get a canister for that so it keeps longer. Those bagged salads were only good for 2-3 days after we opened them.
So just in my one use of this machine, I can already see the money and time savings for the future. If you use one, feel free to share your experience!
See this ugly piece o’ crap? It’s called the PetSafe Outdoor Ultrasonic Bark Deterrent. We got this to deter the yap happy Sheltie next door from barking at everything. (You know…birds, people passing by, clouds forming, dust settling, trees falling in forests in Brazil) We aimed it at the offenders porch (which is 15 ft away…WELL within the 50 yd radius it claims it works within) and tried it on every level of sensitivity and nothing. I was tricked the first day into thinking it was working but she must’ve been reacting to something else. Figures.
Sheltie temperment + irresponsible owner = bad neighbor relations and this was our last hope before complaining to the association. I don’t want to be one of THOSE people but we’re both not even able to relax in our own home anymore. I am keeping it in case we get another small dog and it will hopefully work in that instance during training because unlike our rude neighbor we want to be responsible. But for crazy eyed demon dogs who are starved for attention even if it’s bad, it does nothing. (But then again the dog is locked up for 10-12 hours a day during the week) Some people claim it works for them and maybe it does for some but it didn’t for us.
The dog is attacking the door as I type and the owner does nothing. I wonder, is there some kind of shock collar or corrective device I can put on the owner to make her get off her lazy ass and be a responsible dog owner?? I’ve had dreams where I’m tazing her (owner)…is that bad?
The man picked up my favorite frozen pizza at the grocery during the blizzard, Frescetta. The sauce is good and it has these nice little cut up cubes of pepperoni in the sauce in addition to the regular pepperoni. So he picked up all that was left, the new PizzAmore by Frescetta. The only difference is supposed to be that it comes in its own tray and is pre-sliced. No biggie and thanks for making it easier on us!
Then I tasted it. I don’t know what the hell they did or rather didn’t do but it was HORRIBLE. The sauce is different and the pepperoni tasted like roadkill. (Not that I’d know what roadkill tastes like but you can use your imagination as much as I can people, work with me) The supreme was a little better but only because it covered up the stank of the pepperoni. I even put on red pepper and parmesan cheese to try and make it taste a little better and nothin’ doin’. It was still horrid. So if you’re at the grocery store and you are craving Frescetta…stay away from the pre-cut grossness that is PizzAmore.
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