The Problem with Reviews

fuelair said:
Interestingly, Had he been able to have fit the turkey into a toaster oven a bit would have burned badly and the rest would be raw. I think that WOULD HAVE BEEN WORSE......
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I know they are called toaster ovens and it's theoretically possible to cook a roast in one, but I've always used it as a Heater Upper*. I've also never made toast in a toaster oven. I make toast in a toaster sans oven.

*When it's something small so I don't want to turn on the real oven and I don't want to use the microwave because that will ruin whatever I'm heating up.
 
Spindrift said:
*When it's something small so I don't want to turn on the real oven and I don't want to use the microwave because that will ruin whatever I'm heating up.
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We found that to be so rare as to let the toaster oven go some time ago. Haven't missed it.
 
Dr. Keith said:
We found that to be so rare as to let the toaster oven go some time ago. Haven't missed it.
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I could live without it but for us it has its uses.

A small batch of french fries/chicken nuggets/other frozen foods. The toaster oven heats up faster than the main oven.

I like cheese, melted cheese. The toaster oven is the best for that. The microwave cooks (overcooks) whatever you are trying to melt the cheese on. And if it's bread the micromave makes the bread gummy.
 
Spindrift said:
I could live without it but for us it has its uses.

A small batch of french fries/chicken nuggets/other frozen foods. The toaster oven heats up faster than the main oven.

I like cheese, melted cheese. The toaster oven is the best for that. The microwave cooks (overcooks) whatever you are trying to melt the cheese on. And if it's bread the micromave makes the bread gummy.
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I can see all of those, especially the last. Maybe once the kids are gone we can think of cooking food in small batches.
 
Dr. Keith said:
We found that to be so rare as to let the toaster oven go some time ago. Haven't missed it.
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Basically, toaster ovens are on of those inventions that sound great but do not work that well for either of the functions.
 
fuelair said:
Basically, toaster ovens are on of those inventions that sound great but do not work that well for either of the functions.
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Toaster ovens are for reheating pizza until they get so disgusting they catch fire, whereupon the cycle repeats. Also for very lonely people who need to bake one potato. Ever since toaster makers finally got wise enough to make the slots big enough for a bagel, toaster ovens have lost most of their toasting function.

fuelair said:
I am going to guess you keep running the dry cycle only.
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I imagine so, but I am going to keep it a guess.
 
Practically anything will make good coffee if you buy good coffee to put in it.
I use an Aerobie Aeropress. Basically a fat plastic syringe that sits atop a mug and has a filter disc in the bottom. No batteries, easy cleaned and cheap.
 
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Soapy Sam said:
I used one of those for years. The Aeropress was a gift which I really took to.
Very easy to clean. But yes, the cup-cone does a good brew too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AeroPress


...and hey! A review!

http://www.slinkystudio.info/reviews/2012/7/2/aerobie-aeropress-coffee-maker-review.html
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I like the Aeropress. If you want a quick espresso it can't be beat, and even regular strength coffee can be made with appropriate bean and adding water to the finished product.

I have a Melita I've had for decades. It's gotten most of its use on camping trips. Light and easy to clean. Make a little, make a lot.

We also have a set of little single serve drip baskets for making Vietnamese iced coffee. A great dinner dessert if you want to stay up for the late movie.

My B&D drip is the real workhorse in the coffeemaker collection. Sitting on a hotplate isn't a problem, because Mrs. qg and I both enjoy cold coffee, so I just refrigerate whatever we don't use right away. There's always a couple half gallon bottles of regular and decaf in the fridge.

I'm not really all that particular about my coffee, though. Strong, black, and decent flavor. Don't really care for heavy roast much. Something like a medium dark breakfast blend. I find Eight O'Clock Colombian to be perfectly satisfactory, and inexpensive at less than $7.00/lb (at WallyWorld) for whole bean. There's a seller on Amazon that offers a decent Colombian decaf at ~$40.00 for 5lb. The beans are so fresh they are still oily when we get them.

I do insist on grinding the beans fresh for every batch. That's my main concession to coffee snobbery.

My son is the real coffee connoisseur in the family (he's the one who gave me the Aeropress). He started roasted his own beans a while back and does it all the time now.
 
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bruto said:
Toaster ovens are for reheating pizza until they get so disgusting they catch fire, whereupon the cycle repeats. Also for very lonely people who need to bake one potato. Ever since toaster makers finally got wise enough to make the slots big enough for a bagel, toaster ovens have lost most of their toasting function.

I imagine so, but I am going to keep it a guess.
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I use my Big, Green Egg and have marvelous turkey and great Turkey noodle veggie soup for a week or so later. I'll reserve my dishwasher for it's intended use only also!!!
 
There is something of an art to reading reviews. I don't really ignore any reviews off-hand, even 5-star reviews. You've just got to know how to separate the wheat from the chaff. As many have noted, relevant content is important - complaints about shipping and so forth are ignorable. Likewise complaints about a product being DOA, unless there are a great large number of them, aren't that important as there will always be a few duds and the people who have a bad experience with a product are generally more likely to go back to the website and post a review anyway than those with a fair to positive impression.

For larger and more expensive items, I like looking for review-websites' opinions. YouTube videos are also interesting, but I don't pay too much attention to "unboxing" videos that do nothing but point out a product's advertised features or downgrade products for missing features that might be nice for them to have..
 
I hire DVDs on line. They get delivered by post. The organisation has reviews by people who are almost certain to have at least watched the movie. So these are worth reading. Though sometimes they can range from saying this movie is not worth much to a really great movie. And they are talking about the same movie. Then there is rotten tomatoes. No that is not something to eat.
 
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