Cooking at home doesn’t have to be a chore, especially if you are using the right tools. Before I had the right equipment, I was often switching between various brands in hopes of finding the perfect one. With this comprehensive list, you can rest assured you are investing in products that will last you for years.
About a month ago, I got the urge to try something new for dinner--so during one shopping trip to Target, I bought a bottle of spicy teriyaki sauce I found on sale. I remembered the sauce earlier today and decided to give a teriyaki chicken recipe a try. I've...
When the manager of our department announced he'd be leaving, it was decided that we'd have a special potluck luncheon to send him off. With 22 people to serve, I thought long and hard about what the best dish would be to bring. I decided on meatballs because they're...
Crab cakes are a favorite in my house. And that's great--because they are a super-healthy source of protein that contains virtually no fat. On the downside, they're super-expensive if you order them from a restaurant. The answer, of course, is to make them at home....
A few months ago, my son and I were on one of our regular shopping trips to Target when we found a new cookie that looked promising: Target's Market Pantry Creme Sandwich cookies. They looked a bit like Oreo Cookies, except that they had a different design and they...
We've always loved Girl Scout cookies at my house. But the trouble is that Girl Scout cookies are only available for a very short time each year. This means that I end up buying a crazy amount of Girl Scout cookies when they come out--usually a dozen boxes or so--then...
Let's face it: once in a while, the stuff we order from Amazon.com might not cut the mustard. Sometimes, we realize we should have bought a different item; other times, the item we ordered is damaged during shipping. In the cases where we purchased the wrong thing,...
There are so many things to love about eating chili--not the least of which is the comforting way the spiciness helps ward off the cold as the weather grows chilly. In addition, Chili can be extremely healthy because of the high iron content in the ground beef and...
A few months ago, my son and I were on one of our regular shopping trips to Target when we found a new cookie that looked promising: Target's Market Pantry Creme Sandwich cookies. They looked a bit like Oreo Cookies, except that they had a different design and they...
We've always loved Girl Scout cookies at my house. But the trouble is that Girl Scout cookies are only available for a very short time each year. This means that I end up buying a crazy amount of Girl Scout cookies when they come out--usually a dozen boxes or so--then...
Let's face it: once in a while, the stuff we order from Amazon.com might not cut the mustard. Sometimes, we realize we should have bought a different item; other times, the item we ordered is damaged during shipping. In the cases where we purchased the wrong thing,...
At my house, we love celebrating the holidays. So of course, when we see all the brightly colored holiday treats in the grocery store, they're ever so tempting: from fluorescent frosted cupcakes, cookies decorated with a rainbow of sprinkles, lollipops with...
On September 18, I ordered a 24-pack of strawberry SoyJoy bars. Amazon shipped the package on September 19. The package arrived on-schedule on September 23. M y order arrived at about 3 p.m., delivered via standard USPS with tracking; the outer carton showed no damage...
Soy is widely considered to be one of the world's healthiest foods. Soy comes from soybeans--a crop indigenous to East Asia--and is the key ingredient in soy sauce and tofu. The people of Japan consume more soy than anyone else in the world; in fact, the the...
About a month ago, I got the urge to try something new for dinner--so during one shopping trip to Target, I bought a bottle of spicy teriyaki sauce I found on sale. I remembered the sauce earlier today and decided to give a teriyaki chicken recipe a try. I've...
In 2006, I bought a 2.2 cubic foot Panasonic microwave oven: model NN-T995SF from Best Buy. The microwave cost me $299, which I thought seemed kind of expensive at the time. However, I bought it anyway--for three main reasons: at 1250 watts, it was one of the...
Since my family started running some high-end graphics programs at home, we've noticed the computer's been having a bit of trouble keeping up. It's operating on the 32-bit Windows 7 operating system, which requires a minimum of 512K memory to begin with--so it's...
We've just finished the second official week of school, and the schools have already had to close for 2 days due to bad weather. No, we've not been hit with a snowstorm in September: it's good-ole' rain--lots of it. It's been raining so much that some local roads are...
Last weekend, a hurricane hit our town--literally. So my son and I were stuck inside the house pretty much all weekend. I had been thinking about giving Netflix a try for a while--and since the weather made it less than pleasant to leave the house, I decided this...