Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Magic Bullet




My mother-in-law gave us a Magic Bullet (MB) set a couple of Chritmases ago and recently I have found this a very useful thing to have in the kitchen. MB is sold for $99.99+s/h via home tv shopping. I would not bother going that route as this is also sold in local stores like Canadian Tire(as with most home tv shopping products) and for the same price less shipping and handling too. There's also comfort in being able to return it much easier although I doubt you would want to do that as this is quite a handy thing to have around (more on this in a bit).





The $99.99 package comes with all the bells and whistles - the base/motor, two blades, a tall and a short cup, shaker and steamer tops, resealable lids, four party mugs, a recipe book and two "bonus" items namely the blender and the juicer. There are smaller variations of this package sold in local stores for less. For example, you can get a smaller package for $39.99 that only has the motor, blades and part mugs and lids. We have one of these smaller variations and my MB comes with the base, two blades, tall/short cups, lids, four party mugs and the recipe book. If I were to buy this, I would go for the smaller variations of the package.








The tv infomercial claims this product will do practically everything short of open heart surgery for you and in 10 seconds or less! It claims to do so by cutting down your prep time and cleaning to virtually nothing. It also describes MB being able to chop, grate and puree things like onion, cheese etc. Honestly, I would say that is stretching it a lot - the infomercial is indeed quite misleading. Having said that, this is still a nice thing to have around in the kitchen (more on this further down) but I would go for the smaller variation of the package.



My observations:


  • It doesn't really cut down your prep time unless all your ingredients come pre-washed and pre-cut into small pieces that would fit in the MB cups. You would still wash your ingredients, and use a knife and cutting board at the very least.

  • It most definitely will not replace your food processor for a lot of your bigger kitchen tasks. Smaller kitchen tasks, sure, but then who busts out their food processor for those.

  • It cannot chop things for you as everything pretty much gets pureed in there as can be expected from any blender.

  • I personally would not make the Alfredo sauces that they showed on the informercial / recipe book by grating cheese and cream and then popping it in the microwave - yuck (I can only imagine how bland or awful that must taste). But I would use MB to make salsas, guacemole and even pestos - don't expect anything chunky though.

  • I don't have the juicer and the blender attachments but with that small a base, I doubt you can do much with those bigger attachments. You'd be better off saving your $60 from the full package and just get a real full-size blender. Juicers are more expensive, of course, and there's a reason for that. You're looking for power when you buy a juicer and I doubt that small base can deliver that.

  • I would use MB to make veggie or fruit shakes at home. In fact, if only for this reason, I give this product a must buy.

  • I've used this for grinding nuts and spices and it worked just fine.



My family loves to drink fruit shakes and my husband would often have one for breakfast. I use my MB to prepare individual fruit shakes and the individual prep-serve mugs make making fruitshakes a breeze. I take out 3 mugs and place frozen or fresh fruit in them. Add some water/juice and some fructose for sweetness, buzz it in the MB and it's good to go. For my husband's serving, I also put in some whey and almonds slivers for a more balanced breakfast. The resealable lids allow my husband to bring his fruitshake to work and drink it there. When done, I just pop the mugs into the dishwasher and done. Easy! For sure, a lot easier than busting out the fullsize blender, preparing the same drink for everyone, and then washing that big jug.





In summary: A good buy if you like making fruit shakes at home. Useful for making shakes, grinding nuts/spices/cheese for which it's enough to get smaller package (versus the complete $99.99 package). Will not replace your food processor, will not necessarily cut down your prep time. Buy from local stores (versus from home tv shopping).

this coffee break @ 3:30 PM
1 sugarcubes | add sugar
Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Happy Father's Day

I actually thought that Father's day was the first Sunday of June so Sophia and I already got daddy his present that week, and gave it to him too. Only when the Father's day ads on TV persisted did we realize that it was actually on the 3rd Saturday of the month. Oh well...


Jay-ar tells me that Father's day is actually just an afterthought, that it was not conceptualized 'til after a hundred years of Mother's day celebrations. I even read an article on cnn.com on that very subject and written by a father nonetheless, and to say that his article sounded more like a rant is stating the obvious. So is it only an afterthought? This holiday celebrating fathers? I haven't really decided yet. But afterthought or not, one thing is for sure, we honor, respect and love our fathers every single day (yup, just like our mothers) and this special day in June is just a nice way to remind them of all that.


So, this is a shout out to my husband, my papa and my lolo. Happy Father's Day to the most important men in my, Sophia's, and Enzo's lives. We love you! And to all the other fathers out there, Happy Father's Day to you too!

this coffee break @ 6:13 PM
1 sugarcubes | add sugar

As per request, my birthday wishlist...

... for the benefit of the clueless (aka my husband :P)


- Foot spa and massage GC
- The Sims PC game
- Upgrade my main bath's faucet and shower head to something like what we have in the master bath
- Puma or Lacoste sneakers
- Gap perfume "Close"
- New jeans
- Mini Kitchenaid/Cuisinart food processor

this coffee break @ 6:07 PM
1 sugarcubes | add sugar
Monday, March 24, 2008

Walking in a winter wonderland

With the hassles of winter-living, it's easy to take for granted the beautiful little things that one can really only enjoy in this otherwise disconsolate season.


I would oftentimes find myself smiling, filled with happiness walking along Macleod trail in downtown Calgary and the southwest suburbs. An early morning snowfall or frost magically turns these places into, as the Christmas song puts it, a winter wonderland. I would find myself wishing I had a fancy camera to capture the moment so I could re-visit it every time winter's short gray days seem to get the best of me. But I don't have a fancy camera and I don't carry my old Olypmus around anymore - it used to be somewhat of a mainstay in my purse.


Today morning I was walking by city hall, where tall trees lined the sidewalks and fresh flowers sat snuggly in huge gray urns. Little blue christmas lights were wrapped closely and tightly on the tree trunks and branches, and they illuminated the entire side-walk with their cheerful yet mellow light-blue glow. I've walked by that street several times before and I am just as happy now as I was the first time.


Today, my sidewalk adventure was even more special because of a nice morning surprise - a gentle snow fall. The wind was not blowing angrily like usual, in fact I hardly noticed if it was even there at all. The snow fell slowly, gently, vertically - like it would in your favorite Christmas fairy tale. I've always felt that cosy, cheerful feeling watching snow fall like that.


Writing this post also reminded me of that wonderful winter morning we had a few months back. There was frost everywhere and in the early morning it looked like the trees were covered with silver glitters. Later that day, it looked even more beautiful, as though the trees made of glowing, little glass pieces. Simply wonderful...


Thinking about it more, I think I would not take a picture after all - it simply won't do the experience justice. Luckily the human brain has enough synapses to store 10^15 bits - I think I'll use some of them to save those 3 beautiful snapshots of Calgary, my new home.

this coffee break @ 11:46 AM
2 sugarcubes | add sugar
Monday, March 10, 2008

End the annual seal hunt!!

The Humane Society of the United States
HSUS MySpace Page | Get web badges

Warning: Graphic images below

If you are thinking this is not much different from eating pork or beef or wearing wool... please think again. Until they start farming and breeding seals, I refuse to compare seals to livestock.

What is the annual seal hunt? When and where does it happen?
Seal hunting in general is the commercial hunting of seals for their pelts, blubbber, penis and meat. Sealing nations include Canada, Greenland, Namibia, Norway, and Russia. Canada is hands down the largest sealing nation with hundreds of thousands of seals being hunted each year. The sealing season is officially November 15 to May 15 but the majority of the hunting happens in late March off the coast of Newfoundland. In the year 2006 alone, 325,000 harp seals + 10,000 hooded seals + 10,400 grey seals were killed in addition to the 10,000 allocated for hunting by Aboriginal peoples. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) says the seal population is stable at five million and that the yearly quota of 325,000 harp seals is sustainable

Equipment and methods used to slaughter seals
The DFO also says that the current methods used to hunt seals are the most humane ways possible. Currently, tools used to kill seals are hakapiks and rifles. A hakapik is a heavy wooden club with a hammer head and metal hook on the end. The hammer is used to crush the skull while the pick is used to move the carcass.In numerous other cases, the seals had to be struck multiple times before they die. A hunter may also use a rifle but they prefer to use clubs to prevent damage on the pelt.

Products made from seals
Seal skins are used to make waterproof jackets and boats, and seal fur is even being used by some high-end fashion. Seal meat is sold to the Asian pet food market, and used as fodder for farm animals. Seal blubber is used to make seal oil, which is marketed as a fish oil supplement. The oil is also sometimes used as a raw material for red ochre paint. Seal penises are sold as aphrodisiacs in Asian markets. Also, seal hunting is being seen as a culling method to increase cod stocks for commercial fishing.

Awareness
Donatella Versace and Gucci use seal fur - find out if your haute couture is not so hot after all. Make sure your water-sports gear and equipment do not use seal pelt. Do your homework and find out if your pet food or farm fodder uses seal products. Get your Omega-3 from genuine fish oil and make sure to not use "fish oil supplements". Make sure your red ochre paint does not use seal oil and uses cod/linseed oil instead. And for the love of all that is good, do not eat penis and use the normal oyster, strawberry, chocolate and even balut to get your groove on. There are many more things you can do to help protect the seals.

You know, I read on today's paper that there are new guidelines in place to make sure that the killing of seals is "even more humane." After clubbing a seal, the hunter has to inspect the seal's eyes to make sure that the animal is dead. Otherwise, the animal has to be bled to death by cutting its main artery. This is a recommendation in response to reports that seals have regained consciousness after clubbing. I only hope they at the very least do this for every one of the 325,000 seals they will be slaughtering this year.

Images courtesy of http://www.harpseals.org/



Skinned seal carcasses (taken 2007)
and no words needed for...

this coffee break @ 6:45 AM
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