We bought a President’s Choice slow cooker, however you can buy just about any brand of slow cooker and get the same results. We have cooked chili, soup, ribs, stew and a number of other meals that were just so delicious. The meat is incredibly tender and tasty. Just throw everything into the slow cooker, turn it on and come back 8 hours later to a great meal . Another big advantage, especially when you are cooking vegetables, you retain all of the vitamins and minerals. Traditional cooking in hot water leaches many of the vitamins out of the vegetables into the water, which you then drain out before serving the vegetables for your meal.

With a slow cooker they are retained in the broth and add to the overall flavor of your meal. Hot , delicious, and nutrient rich, these are some of the best meals you can prepare for your family.

Presidents Choice Slow Cooker Features

There are more sophisticated slow cookers than the particular Presidents Choice Slow Cooker that we purchased, however this one more than meets our needs.

There are four heat settings, warm, one, two and three.  You can select the setting you wish based on how long you want to take to cook your meal. If you are in a hurray set the heat setting to three which is high. If you have all day, then leave the setting at one, which will slow cook your food all day long. There is also a warm setting which will keep your food warm until you arrive home.

The timer is integrated with the heat settings. You select the desired temperature, then you select the number of hours you wish the slow cooker to operate. For example, setting the temperature to one ( low temperature ) and the time to 8 hours, the slow cooker will continue cooking for 8 hours at low temperature. The digital timer will count down and show you how much time is left for cooking .

Warm Mode

Once the cooking time is completed, the Presidents Choice Slow Cooker will continue to keep you food warm for a further six hours , so even if your a bit late getting home from work, you will still have a hot meal waiting for you when you get home.

Tips and Tricks for Using your Presidents Choice Slow Cooker

The lid will be very hot so always use an oven mitt when you remove the lid.

Removing the lid often to check on the food or stirring it will release a lot of heat and lengthen the cooking time.  Try not to remove the lid too often while the slow cooker is preparing your meal. You can add as much as thirty minutes to the cooking time each time you remove the  lid.

Your meal can be served directly from the removable crock, however take care not to expose the crock to cold water while it is still hot to avoid cracking it.

Cooking time on high of 2 hours is roughly equal to 2.5 hours on low.

Follow your recipe and manage portion sizes to obtain the desired amount of food that you prefer.  Many recipes can be reduced by cutting the amount of liquid and increasing the cooking time in the slow cooker.

You cannot overcook most foods in the slow cooker. Just place the food in the cooker, set the temperature and the time based on the directions in the recipe and let the slow cooker do it’s thing.

Little or no stirring is required since it is virtually impossible to burn any of the food in the slow cooker.

All meat should be thawed before cooking, trimmed of fat and browned or broiled to eliminate as much fat as possible before placing it in the slow cooker.

Leave an inch of space between the food and the top of the slow cooker to allow room for the food to simmer and cook better. Soups for example will cook better if the liquid is brought to a simmer with an inch or two of space between the top of the soup and the lid. Some soups will come to a boil if it is left on high, so you may want to set it on medium or low temperature and let it cook for a longer period.

Vegetables can be prepared the night before and covered to be left in the fridge. In the morning before you head off to work, place all of the ingredients in the slow cooker , set the temperature and the timer, press start and away you go.

Cooking Time Comparison

Most manuals that come with the slow cooker, the Presidents Choice Slow Cooker included, recommend cooking times. As a comparison if the traditional time is 60 minutes, then you should plan on cooking  for 6 to eight hours in the slow cooker. Note removing the slow cooker lid to check on the food can add as much as 30 minutes to the cooking time due to the heat loss.

Cleaning and Maintenance

There is virtually no maintenance required with the Presidents Choice Slow Cooker. Always wait until the crock is cool before cleaning the pot. Not only is it easier to handle, the crock pot could crack if you place a hot slow cooker crock pot in cold water. Wait until it is cool then clean it thoroughly using soap and water and a cloth. do not use abrasive materials to clean the slow cooker crock pot.

This particular appliance has a number of unique features that we particularly like that fits well with our coffee drinking habits. Specifically the carafe is an insulated carafe that keeps your coffee hot for hours without the coffee becoming stale or becoming acidic which no one likes.

Many coffee shops will brew a pot of coffee and leave it on the hot plate until it is gone.  Coffee will only stay fresh for approximately 15 minutes before it starts to become acidic and not very nice to drink. Coffee that has been sitting for more than an hour becomes very stale and truly unpleasant to drink. The good coffee shops will pour out their coffee after 15 or 20 minutes and make a new pot of coffee for their customers. Tim Horton’s donuts and coffee shop is famous for their fresh coffee and this is exactly what they do.

We like to enjoy our coffee over several hours so finding a coffee machine that would keep our coffee fresh over that length of time was crucial. Coffee gets stale when it is continually reheated on a hot plate. On the other hand if you insulate the coffee and seal it inside a carafe  without reheating it, the coffee will stay fresh for a long time. Most standard coffee appliances have a hot plate that the carafe sits on which keeps the carafe hot and the coffee hot. After 20 minutes the coffee is no longer fresh and you really should throw it out.

Krups Coffee Drip Maker with Insulated Carafe

This Krups Coffee Drip Maker with Insulated Carafe is the answer for fresh coffee all the time. The plate that the carafe sits on does not get hot. Instead the coffee drips into the insulated carafe and the carafe will keep the coffee hot for quite a while . If your coffee is not quite hot enough after two hours, pop your cup of coffee into the microwave for 30 seconds and you have a piping hot fresh cup of coffee.

Another big advantage of the Krups Coffee Drip Maker with Insulated Carafe is that you can take the carafe and set it on the table so that guests can easily help themselves to a cup of coffee. The outside of the Krups carafe is not hot, so it can be safely set on any surface including your kitchen table without the need for a pad to protect your table. This is one of the best coffee makers we have ever had.

Additional Features of the Krups Coffee Drip Maker with Insulated Carafe

There are other features of this coffee appliance that we really like in addition to the insulated coffee carafe.  We will list a few of them in the following comments.

Heating plate for a non glass model like ours never gets hot so you can touch it and clean it without having to worry about being burned.

The coffee machine brews the coffee into the insulated carafe and then shuts off. There is no need for it to stay on since the insulated carafe is keeping the coffee hot and not the coffee maker. There is no need to worry about leaving the house and forgetting to turn off the coffee machine before you leave and no need to worry about a glass carafe boiling dry and cracking or starting a fire!

The filter door swings open for easy access and the support for the filter can be removed and popped in the dishwasher for cleaning.

There is a water filter which you can replace as often as you prefer, but should be replaced at a minimum of every five months.

Programmable Timers

Our Krups Coffee Drip Maker with Insulated Carafe comes with a programmable timer to allow you to prepare the coffee in the evening before you head off to bed so that hot fresh coffee is waiting for you when you get up in the morning. This is an excellent feature if you are always in a rush in the mornings and just want to be able to pour your coffee into a travel mug and head out the door.

Personally I like to enjoy my coffee and have a little something to eat before heading out, so we really do not use the timer. For those folks who are just looking for a coffee in the morning before they rush out to work the timer function is an excellent feature to use.

Cleaning and Descaling the Krupps Coffee Maker

Before you clean your Krups Coffee Drip Maker with Insulated Carafe always unplug the unit so there is no chance of electrical shock from water getting into the wrong places. Use a damp cloth with a mild detergent to clean the outside of the appliance. Note that even stainless steel can be marred if you use the wrong cleaning agents, so follow the instructions outlined in the manual. If you are washing a glass carafe for some reason, always wait until it is cool before immersing it into cold water to avoid cracking the carafe.

Descaling may be required if you live in an area were the water is overly hard. Hard water contains lots of minerals which will build up on the inside of the heating element over time which will slow down the brew rate of your appliance. Some areas use soft water and you will not have this scaling problem.

If you do , remove the water filter then mix 8 ounces of water with 8 ounces of white vinegar and run this through the coffee maker several times. You can use a coffee filter to catch any minerals that are released by the mixture of vinegar and water. Repeat this several times and you should find that brewing time is much improved.

The Krups toaster that we selected is a four slot model with a variety of features that we will describe a little bit later in this post. We chose the  four slot toaster simply for when our kids are home and we are all having breakfast together. Now we can have lots of toast or bagels quickly while they are still hot. Each side can be adjusted to the browning level that is desired and you can toast bread, and bagels or use it to warm up things instead of for toasting.  This Krups toaster is easy to clean with a slide out tray at the bottom. This tray catches all of the crumbs that fall down and just slides out when you need to clean it.

Basic Toasting

Toasting bread or bagels is pretty straight forward with the Krups toaster we purchased. The slots are wide enough that you can place cut bagels in them or even home made bread that has been sliced thick. Just set the desired browning level, drop your toast in and turn the lever clockwise to engage the toaster. There is a little button at the bottom just below the lever that you can depress if you want to stop the toasting of your bread early.

Hi-lift Function

One feature we really like on our Krups toaster is the hi-lift feature. Once the toasting is complete and if you cannot quite reach your toast, turn the lever counter clockwise and it will raise your toasted item up so that you can easily get at it. There are two additional positions besides the standard raised position, each one raising the toast a little bit higher. Sometimes you will have half a piece of toast or a very small piece of bread that you cannot get at with the standard level. This way you can easily get it out once toasting is completed.

Defrost Function

If you keep your bagels or bread in the freezer you will really like this defrost function on the Krups toaster. Depress the defrost button and drop your frozen piece of bread into the toaster as you would normally . Engage the toaster.  With the defrost button engaged the toaster will first defrost the item and then will toast it as it would normally. Defrosting will take a little more time since the toaster must first defrost your bread before actually toasting it.

Bagel Function

Most standard toasters cannot handle bagels. Even when they are sliced in half, the bagels are still too wide for most toasters. The Krups toaster has extra wide slots that will accommodate even the thickest bagel that you can buy. Once you have placed the bagels in the respective slots of the Krups toaster, there is a bagel button that should be depressed. Depress this button, select the desired browning level and engage the toaster by turning the lever clockwise.  Once browned to the desired level the bagel will pop up automatically. Note when you place the bagels into the toaster the crust side should always be facing outward for best results.

Reheating Function

The Krups toaster also comes with a reheating function. If you need to reheat an item that has already been toasted, depress the reheat button and place the toast into the toaster in the standard manner. The toaster will only come on for a short period  to reheat your toast and then it will pop up with your reheated toast.

Warming Plate

On top of the Krups toaster there is a grill like structure and this is were the warming plate is. All you need to do is set items such as muffins or croissants on top of the warming plate and turn on the toaster. Depending on what it is you are warming up you can set the dial to the desired level.

If you are warming thick items you may have to complete a second cycle and / or you may need to turn them over so that both sides are warmed to the desired level. Once you are ready , just turn the lever again clockwise to engage the toaster and warm up your items. The Krups toaster will stop after the cycle is completed.

One word of caution about warming up anything with an icing on it, anything that is sugar coated or greasy. These items could drip while being warmed up and the fluid dripping down on the hot elements of the toaster can cause a fire. Avoid warming anything that has sugar or icing on it or anything that could drip grease.

Maintenance

Maintenance of the Krups toaster is pretty easy. Always unplug the toaster before you do any cleaning or maintenance on the toaster to avoid any possibility of electrical shock. Wait until it cools as well to avoid being burned. You can clean the outside of the Krups toaster with a mild cloth and mild dish detergent. Dot not use any abrasive cleaning agent as you could damage the finish on the Krups toaster.

There is a tray at the bottom that catches all of the crumbs. Be careful as you slide this tray out to avoid spilling crumbs all over the place. Empty these in the waste basket and then give the tray a thorough cleaning before replacing it inside the Krups toaster. Other than that there is no additional maintenance needed for the toaster.

There are a few things you should know before using the Bissell carpet machine plus, however it is really quite easy to use and much more economical than renting a carpet cleaner from a store. We used to rent a carpet cleaner once per year from a local grocery store and clean our carpets. It cost about $40 per day and did a good job, however when you had a small job such as a spot that needed to be removed, it really was not worth renting the carpet cleaner. I am not even sure you can rent these machines any more, unless you go to an equipment rental agency.

There are still companies that come around and clean your carpets. We tried that once. We were not really happy with the work they did. They did all of the carpets, but they go so fast that I am not really confident that they actually did a good job. That was about the time we purchased a Bissell carpet machine plus and now we clean our carpets ourselves. We take our time and do a much better job. Of course we are like many people these days who are switching to hardwood floors, but we still have a few rooms with carpet that need cleaning.

Cleaning Carpets

Cleaning carpets is easy with the Bissell carpet machine plus, however there are a few steps that consumers need to be aware of. First of all, clear all of the room of any furniture so that you can clean the entire rug. If there is some furniture that is too big to move, try to lift it up and support it off the floor so that you can get under the furniture. Next vacuum the rug thoroughly to remove any loose particles that may be there.

Set up the Bissell carpet machine plus with the siphon in the soap dispenser and the water hose attached and begin cleaning the rug. Spray a section of the rug with the soapy solution using the floor nozzles assembly, let it soak for a few minutes and then vacuum it up. You may want to repeat this process several times to get all of the dirt out and thoroughly clean the rug.

Heavily soiled areas can be soaked and left for awhile so that the water and soap solution has time to work its way into the grime.  Back and forth scrubbing will help to loosen the dirt as you are vacuuming.

Once you are finished, you will need to allow the carpet to dry for perhaps 24 hours. Don’t place any furniture on the carpet until it is thoroughly dry to avoid any marks that may be left as a result. Follow the detailed instructions  in the manual of the Bissell carpet machine plus and you will always have clean carpets.

Cleaning Upholstery

You have to be a little more careful when it comes to cleaning upholstery. Some furniture will specify that it must be dry cleaned only which means you cannot use a wet method to clean it and you cannot use the Bissell carpet machine plus. If you try to clean something that is to be dry cleaned only, you risk doing some permanent damage to the furniture.

Next you need to determine if the colors of the fabric or of the stuffing will bleed through and stain your fabric when it is wet. Colored fabric tends to do this and you may not be able to steam clean or wet clean this fabric either.

Before cleaning the entire piece, even if you have confirmed that you think it is ok, test clean a small area in an inconspicuous place. The underside of a cushion works well for this test. If the colors do not run and there is no other damage, then you can go ahead and clean that piece of furniture.

Use the upholstery tool to do the cleaning and clean one piece of furniture at a time thoroughly following the detailed instructions that comes with the manual.

Cleaning up Spills and Spots

Cleaning up spills and small spots with the Bissell carpet machine plus is easy. Just spray some water and a little soap solution on the spot, let it sit for awhile and then use the Bissell carpet machine plus to vacuum it up. You may want to repeat the process several times if it is a particularly tough spot to get out. I sometimes will spray water on the spot using the Bissell sprayer on the hose and then vacuum it up just to get it extra clean.

Closing the Pool

Every year in the fall we need to close our pool for the winter. Aside from dropping the water down, we need to blow all of the water out of the lines from the pool to the pump and back to the pool again. The Bissell carpet machine plus is excellent for this task. We switch the hose from the intake inlet to the outlet so that air is blowing out through the hose. We then attach the hose to one of the pipes leading to the pump and turn it on. There is sufficient air flow that it will blow all of the water out of the pipes with significant force. We have two return lines so we plug one and blow the water out and then repeat the process by switching to the other.

Maintenance

Maintenance of the Bissell carpet machine plus is pretty straight forward. Empty out all of the dirty water and then flush the tank with a hose and also the vacuum hose. also remove the siphon from the soap container and operate the trigger to flush the system of any remaining soap solution. Let it dry and you can store it until the next time you need carpet cleaning.

Almost every time we cooked eggs this way, one or more of the eggs would crack and there would be white egg material all over the pot floating on top of the water. It was almost gross to look at. Basically what would happen is that the eggs would be moving around in the water bumping into each other and if the water was boiling too hard, they would crack and create a mess.

We like our eggs with the white part fully cooked and the yoke cooked, but still soft. Lop off the top add a little butter, salt and pepper and you have a great soft boiled egg. Well it is very hard to get the eggs just right and the egg would often be over cooked which you can handle, but sometimes the egg is undercooked leaving a messy loose white material floating around. No soft boiled egg for us!

Enter the Egg Genie

This little appliance costs about $25.00 cooks up to 7 eggs to perfection in a matter of minutes. It is so simple to use and it always gets the eggs just right. We cannot say enough good things about it.

This is a really simple device. It consists of a circular concave hot plate to which you poor some water into, then you add the egg tray which holds the eggs while they are cooking. There is a measuring cup which you use to measure the water that you then add. It is very important to get this step right. Basically you add the right amount of water to cook the number of eggs that you are cooking to the desired level.

The water is poured into the concave base and the egg tray is placed on top of the base. Next each egg must be pierced using a piercing pin that is included as part of the egg tray. All you need to do is pierce the top of the egg at the small end and place the egg in the tray with the hole pointing upwards. Once you have all of the eggs pierced, which only takes a few seconds, place the clear plastic lid on top and plug electric chord of the Egg Genie into the electric wall socket.

That’s it, nothing more to do except wait until the eggs are done. The water heats up , cooks the eggs, the steam goes out of a vent on top of the clear lid and when all of the water is gone the Egg Genie starts to vibrate and you unplug it. Wait a few minutes for the lid and the eggs to cool a bit and your eggs are ready to eat!

Soft, Medium or Hard Cooked Eggs

The Egg Genie is easily programmed to cook soft, medium or hard cooked eggs simply by controlling the amount of water you add to the base. The measuring cup that comes with the Egg Genie is very specific. You add water using the measuring cup to match the number of eggs you are cooking and the hardness of the eggs.  Just a little bit of water is required, perhaps ac couple of ounces, no more than that.

Don’t forget to pierce each egg with the steel pin that is in the egg tray. This steel pin is very sharp and you need to be careful that you do not accidentally hurt yourself on it. By piercing the top of the egg, the steam that is generated inside the egg is allowed to release through the hole that you pierced. If you forget to pierce the egg, chances are that it will crack and spill the contents of the egg all over the inside of the Egg Genie.

Poached Eggs

There is also an open plastic tray that holds up to four eggs for cooking poached eggs. Cooking poached eggs is also extremely easy with the Egg Genie.

Place water in the base up to the medium line for one to four eggs. Crack open each egg and place the contents in the open plastic tray, one egg  for each compartment. Place the poaching tray on top of the egg tray on top of the base and then cover the eggs with the clear plastic tray.

Plug in the Egg Genie and wait until the Egg Genie begins to buzz which means that all of the water is gone and the eggs are cooked. While the eggs are cooking, keep your hands away from the vent at the top of the clear plastic lid to avoid being burned by the hot steam coming out of the clear plastic lid.

Once it starts to buzz unplug the Egg Genie, and allow it to cool for a few minutes before removing the eggs from the Egg Genie.  The eggs can be removed from the egg tray using a spatula.

Other Helpful Tips

Only use fresh eggs when cooking with the Egg Genie. You can tell if an egg is fresh or not, by allowing the eggs to float in a bowl of water. Fresh eggs sink while older eggs will float.

Hard boiled eggs can be stored for up to one week in the fridge. Cooked eggs should not be left at room temperature for more than two hours to prevent bacteria from forming.

Peeling hard boiled eggs can be a bit of a trick. Gently roll a hard boiled egg on a flat surface placing just enough pressure to crack the shell. Dip it in a bowl of cold water and then gently peel the shell from the egg.

We will discover data on Helix Wind Turbines and other Residential Turbines. This is written the day that Barack Obama took the Oath of Office. As it is well know that Obama will be promoting alternative energy such as solar, wind, and geothermal.

Residential Wind Generators are an exciting new method for by we can help reduce our load on the electrical grid.

 Coffee Grinders

My wife and I have been looking for a cheap coffee grinder that works, and it’s been a real challenge. We’ve tried many different types of cheap coffee grinders that one would buy at your average department store.  We’ve tried cheap coffee grinders from Wal-Mart, JCPenney, Zellers, Kmart, Sears, etc.

These cheap coffee grinders never last long, or they just don’t work at all.  Often you have to stand over the coffee grinder depressing a button, and it’s painfully slow.  But even worse is the coffee grinders that are built into coffee makers. 

Now you have a real problem, because the steam and the moisture inherent to the coffee maker causes the coffee grinder to gum up, and you end up taking apart the coffee grinder portion of the coffee maker and cleaning it thoroughly before you can use it again.  Not only must you clean it after every use, it seems, before you reassemble the coffee grinder you must make sure every little part is perfectly dry.  In short, a serious pain in the butt.

Now the good news.  While shopping in the United States again, my wife tried yet another cheap coffee grinder, which she purchased at JCPenney.  She had discovered that the only way to use a cheap coffee grinder is to make sure that it is a standalone unit (what ever you do don’t buy a cheap coffee grinder/maker due to the reasons described above).

This little coffee grinder is cheap, and believe it or not, it works.  It’s never failed in the last four months of use.  It has a timer built in so you can just leave the coffee grinder running until it’s made enough coffee for your chosen pot size. You can set the coffee grinder to make enough coffee for anywhere between 2 to 12 cups.  You can just walk away and come back to see all of your coffee beans ground and ready.

We were pretty cynical by now and fully expected this grinder to last perhaps a week at the most.  We were pleasantly surprised to see that it not only worked well, it kept on working. We just didn’t want to spend allot of money on a high quality coffee grinder like a KitchenAid Pro Line Burr model for instance.

So….we certainly recommend checking out the Cooks coffee grinders at your local JCPenney.  We’re not sure if this particular model, which you can see in the inset photo (click to a enlarge), is even available anymore, but if they can sell a cheap coffee maker that works, they can certainly make another.  Maybe the new ones will be even better.