OK. I confess. I have become an Infomercial Slut.
I now own several things that were sold via infomercials, some of them directly from viewing the infomercial.
First was the Ronco Food Dehydrator - 30 plus years ago. The dehydrator still works, and I still use it to dry winter-grown herbs, tomatoes, fruits, and other things. I've never made jerky in it because I tend to do that over a smoky fire, the same way I season buckskin. I keep thinking I ought to upgrade to the newer version, then talking myself out of it because this one still works so well. I don't know if the newer versions are as good or better than this one, and I probably won't find out. This Ronco Food Dehydrator will last longer than me!
Then I bought the Ginsu knife set. Yes, yes I did. That iconic Ginsu knife set whose commercial has been spoofed so many times. That was more than 30 years ago. I still own most of those knives (if I hadn't had children, I'd still have them all, but they managed to lose a few of the steak knives), and still use them frequently. Just like the infomercial said back then, they have never needed sharpening and they still cut to my standards. Those who know me know how exacting I am with my knives. They must be sharp and they must slice like a dream. I haven't the hand strength or grip to handle dull, unwieldy knives.
They've gotten kind of expensive. When I bought my set, it was 16 pieces for $19.00. But if you can find any of the original cheap Ginsu knives, they should still be pretty good.
My next Infomercial tool was the Food Saver. I really, really like it. The first one had some flaws, and each incarnation of it gets better. The flaw in the first one was the heating element. It burned out after a year of use. The second one I bought has lasted 3 years before the heating element died on me. I'm willing to believe it was my fault. I did tend to leave it plugged in for long periods of time. That probably burned out the heating element.
OK, on second thought, that's probably a design flaw. One should be able to turn the heating element on and off, and leave the tool plugged in. Although I can also understand the need to have the heating element automatically on when it's plugged in. So, on third thought, maybe it is my fault after all.
Anyway, after I bought the second one, I unplugged it when I wasn't using it, and the heating element held up three times as longl. It lasted about 3 years before the heating element gave out. That seems to be a persistent problem for me.
I love being able to break food down into individual portions and bagging them up and freezing them. I absolutely adore the ability to vacuum seal wide-mouthed canning jars, for coffee beans, herbs, marshmallows, cookies, and such. I like being able to vacuum seal their special containers for nuts, grains, pastas, and other things that I seal and re-seal constantly. I love being able to vacuum seal emergency items to tuck into the car and backpack for hiking.
So I bought a third one. I am hoping this one lasts better. I also bought a professional grade heat sealerwith a replaceable heat seal band all on its own because I'm thinking perhaps the 300 hot dogs I individually seal in plastic bags for SoonerCon use is what burns out the heating element. I don't need the hot dogs vacuum sealed, just sealed in plastic so they don't get soggy soaking in hot water to maintain their temperature.
Using the Ronco Food Dehydrator and the vacuum sealer together allows me to store more food in less space for longer periods of time. I can pack up left-overs in individual portions and freeze them to re-heat later - better than TV Dinners!
Then, I bought the Egg-Stractor. I admit I bought this primarily to use when preparing for MedFaire because I make a lot of Scottish Eggs for the Faire. Peeling that many boiled eggs is always a chore, and I thought the Egg-Stractor would help.
This thing is awkward to use, it doesn't peel the eggs even when you follow the directions and go along with the Infomercial. OK, it didn't work for me, probably because the kitchen counters in my house are made for a giant and I had to work the Egg-Stractor from too high a vantage. I couldn't get sufficient leverage. I could sometimes get it to work if I stood on a tall step stool or placed the Egg-Stractor on the floor - I didn't like either option.
If you are tall and have gorilla-strong arms, and need to peel lots of eggs, the Egg-Stractor will probably work for you.
I was disappointed in it and have passed it along to someone else.
The next thing I bought was the Magic Bullet.
This is very much a small, personal blender tool. I like it for making small portions where hauling out the larger food processor is a chore. And in my house, with such limited counter space, it is a chore to find it at the back of the bottom cabinet and clear counter space and set it up. Then I have to pack it away practically immediately because I need the counter space for something else.
For small needs, that's a lot of work, and I've often done the chopping and pureeing by hand rather than do all that. With the Magic Bullet, I can chop and puree small amounts with no problem. It doesn't take up any more space than my salt shaker (I have a very large salt shaker), and stores easily among the glasses so I can pull it out and put it away quickly. It also chops herbs, and grinds nuts, hard spices, and coffee beans to perfection. I have a separate grinding blade and canister for the coffee and that's all I use that one for.
If you don't have a Magic Bullet, I recommend getting this set because the little steamer is perfect not just for babies but for single people and for cooking at work. I do that a lot. Most of my infomercial kitchen tools I bring to work and use here to make and cook meals.
I used to be stoked about the Baby Bullet, but I got a chance to look at it up close at several stores, and really, the only thing I wanted from it is the little storage container set, which I can buy from Target
Then, I bought the GTExpress 101 and liked it so well that when they came out with the Ready Set Go version, I bought that. As I type this, I am munching on garlic bread and a serving of huevos rancheros, started when I began this entry. I like it much, much better than the little sandwich makers you can buy in practically any store that carries kitchen appliances. The wells are deeper, and the options for making single meals is much greater. For lunch, I am going to have steak and asparagus bundles, with herbed rice, and end it with a raspberry filled white cake - all made in the Ready Set Go. For a single person or for a couple, this is a great tool for making hot sandwiches, omelets, wraps, sandwich bundles, meat bundles (chicken cordon bleu for two!), dolmades (and let me tell you how cool it is to be able to make just a few dolmades rather than the hordes of them I usually end up making!), monte cristo style sandwiches, hand pies, individual cakes, and yes, even Scottish Eggs! I usually make Scottish Eggs by the gross, before MedFaire. Now, I can make just a few in between MedFaires just because I want to, and I don't have to fire up the oven and find the special baking sheets and mix up pounds of forcemeat and boil dozens of eggs, and spend an hour or more baking them. With this , I can boil 2 eggs, peel and wrap them in a bit of cheese and sausage, roll them in a bit of seasoned bread crumbs, and make just 2 Scottish Eggs in a matter of minutes. Plus, I like the variety of insertable and interchangeable plates that come with it, especially the hearts pan, quarters pan, flat bundt pan, waffle pan, round pan, puffs pan, and pannini pan.
Yes, I like this device a lot.
I also bought the Sonic Blade. Not because I wanted an electric knife, particularly, but because it has an attachment that allows it to become a bread, meat, and cheese deli-style slicer. I covet that attachment. The knife doesn't work as well as I'd hoped, but the deli slice attachment is all I wanted it to be. It slices my dense breads almost paper thin, it slices cheese, and with a change of blades, it slices roasts and turkey breasts and hams and bricks of lunch meats wafer thin if I want. It doesn't seem to come with the deli slicer attachment anymore, and really, that's the only reason to get it.
I never bought the cute Q-Grill, although I really wanted to. It never got into my price range and they never had a 2-for-1 deal on it, so I didn't get it. Now, although I still like the concept of it, I am glad I didn't. They've stopped manufacturing it - from what I can discover (and it's been a slow hard search) they stopped because of a design flaw. I'm just as willing to believe they stopped because it wasn't profitable. It was never affordable for the type of people who would have loved it most, and it probably didn't make the sales they wanted. I think homeless people would have adored it - a portable grill with cheap fuel they could carry in a backpack. Imagine, hot meals when they wanted them. It would also have provided a heat source for cold nights. If it had reached affordability, I know I would have bought several to give to some homeless families I know - they would have benefited from it greatly and it might even have sped up the time they spent on the streets - it's still cheaper to cook your own than to eat in fast food places - and healthier. It's a challenge, being homeless and having life-threatening food allergies. The Q-grill could have gone a long way to ensuring their safety, health, and eventual return to a homed status. - And it looks like it will be returning. I certainly hope so because I really liked the concept and want to give it a try.
The Pasta Express has not been worth the price. I never bought one, but I did use one a friend bought. It doesn't perform as advertised. It's OK as a measure and strainer for cooking pasta, but way over-priced for that function. The pasta cooked in it is too under cooked to be palatable - and I like my pasta al dente. It never cooked the other foods the infomercial promised, either.
The Badge-A-Minit button maker was another infomercial purchase, but they don't do infomercials for it now. Totally worth it! I bought the 2 1/4 button maker forms, the small hand bench press, and a set of pin-back buttons and covers. I didn't buy the circle cutter from them because it was very expensive. I bought a $12.00 scrapbooking adjustable circle cutter that works wonderfully.
For the NaNoWriMo Meet-ups, we made a bunch of buttons. I am now the proud wearer of: "The PLOT demands it!", "Plot Bunnies" with a picture of many bunnies underneath the words, and "Don't make me use UPPERCASE!". Other people had buttons that said things like, "Invoking Inner Editor", "Author - a machine for converting caffeine into stories", "I function as a channel for stories from the chaos of the alphabet", and "I haven't lost the plot; I never had one".
I bought the Worx electric lawn tool and have been very pleased with it. I have just under 1/4 acre of land (which includes the house, so actually less that needs edging and trimming), and it does an excellent job of edging along the fenceline and between the gardens and up against the house and edging along the street and drive. My sister bought one and was very disappointed in it - it kept jamming on her and used up the cord really fast. It's been 4 years and I've only changed to a new reel of cord once. I guess the story here is that the tool may not be consistent, and I'm lucky I got one of the good ones.
A friend convinced me to try the Eggies, and I've been very happy with them - it solved my problem with peeling boiled eggs for Scottish Eggs much, much better than the Egg-Stractor. Plus, you can undercook the eggs just enough that when you bake the Scottish Egg, the yolk is still tender and mushy instead of hard and turning blue. It also makes deviled eggs a snap.
When my son's dogs tore up my nice wooden screen door to the back yard, I replaced it with this Mesh Curtain, and I've left it up even after Dogmatyx died of old age because Itzl and Xoco can walk through it just fine and it blocks the bugs from coming in just as well as the wooden screen door did. It's better than a doggie door for me.
This Snap 2-O has been very useful in hooking up to the waterlines at MedFair when we ran the Water Paws booth. I have double spigot attachments outside, so I can run multiple hoses to water things, and having this to connect and disconnect the hoses quickly, without having to screw and unscrew the hoses, is very, very convenient. You do have to watch out for dirt build-up in the connectors, but an old toothbrush works fine for cleaning out the grooves. It will leak if you turn the water pressure up too high, and you have to check the washers once in a while, but other than that, I really like this.
When my daughter bought her house, I bought the Forearm Forklift and it truly did help in moving things like mattresses, her sofa, the refrigerator, her dresser, and other large bulky items that don't have convenient handles. It's a simple item, but there's no way I could have made this for as cheaply as I bought it. It does require two people to use easily, but I've moved mattresses with it all by myself - it gives you a grip where there is none. It is well worth the $20 it cost.
I do a lot of volunteer work and am very soft-spoken. Although I didn't buy this megaphone, I have used it many times and been told that it makes a tremendous difference when I am speaking to large crowds outdoors. In fact, last weekend, when I was helping do clean-up after the tornadoes in Mustang, Norman, and Oklahoma City, it came in very handy. It's small enough to let dangle from a cord around my neck (just above Itzl's head) and so it's always right there when I need to use it.
I have not been paid by any of these people to tout their wares. I paid my own hard-earned cash for these things and have used them. Some of them for decades. All but 2 of them have made my life easier at home and at work. If you want to try them, this is my experience with them.