christine-murphy dot net

I’m telling you…for someone who doesn’t have cable at home, I sure do enough shopping on QVC.  Usually I watch the shows online for the Bare Escentuals Today’s Special Values.  There were such shows on a couple of weeks ago, I ordered a few items, and I went to the Q site to check the order status.

And that’s when I saw this really cool casserole getup.  It was the TSV sometime last week.   I immediately wanted it because it’s a multi-tasker.  I’d seen vertical roaster getups that did only that, no removable insert, only good if you’re making beer can chicken or otherwise roasting a bird vertically.  But this one is great because  it does have a removable insert, so you can use the pan as a regular casserole.  Since I’ve been in need of a nice stoneware lidded casserole, and the price was right, I went ahead and ordered it…in red, just like you see here.

It arrived the other day, but I have yet to use it.  I’ll post a full review and a recipe once I have tried it.  But it’s a good-sized, good quality cooking vessel.  The insert is non-stick is that means it would be easy to clean.  Unlike other stoneware, this can be used on the stovetop, in the oven, and even on the grill…some of the recipes that come with this call for putting this on the grill for stuff like beer-can chicken.  But it also gives oven instructions for those who do not have an outdoor grill.  The vessel is also fridge, freezer, and dishwasher safe, although I would not take it directly from the fridge or freezer and putting it on any hot surface, not until it reached room temperature.  To do so may cause the stoneware to crack.

Anyhoo, I need to stay off the Q website for a while.  Next thing you know, I might see some good deals on something like plasma mounts, and order, when I don’t even have a plasma TV! I will try to be good!

I bought this vacuum cleaner from Buy.com a couple of months ago, where it was on sale for under $40.00.  I needed to buy SOMETHING, otherwise Mike would have cleaned out our life savings by buying an expensive Dyson for me for our 10th wedding anniversary.  And that would have been our LAST anniversary.  I hate vacuuming and it would break my heart to have thrown away hundreds of dollars on a vacuum, no matter how good it proclaims to be.  But our old Hoover Wind Tunnel was dying, and we had to get SOMETHING.  So when I saw this, I ordered it, just to keep Mike from spending our baseball and beer money on a boring vacuum cleaner.

Honestly, I don’t like this thing much.  First of all, it was a royal pain in the butt to put together.  usually I am good at assembling stuff, but I threw up my hands and gave up.  I made Mike put it together, somehow, he got it figured out.  Although it can be used as a regular vacuum, a hand-vac, and a portable canister vac, taking it apart and putting it back together is such a pain, that I decided that I’d just leave it as a regular vac.

And as such, I don’t like it.  The floor nozzle flops around too much and doesn’t stay flat on the floor, therefore, it it hard to use, hard to get it to suck up the dirt.  In regular vac mode, it is more likely to suck any door hangers off the doorknobs than suck up anything on the floor! The dust cup is easy enough to empty, and the suction is good, I just found it harder than I expected to steer this thing around.

It works much better in hand-vac mode, with the smaller pet hair nozzle thingy that comes with it.  So it wasn’t a total waste of money.  I decided to keep it as a hand vac, as it does do a good job of cleaning cat hair off furniture.

The Shark products do get good reviews consistently, so after I saw an infomercial for the Shark Navigator, a larger vacuum that doesn’t look so friggin’ weird, I did a little research to see what others thought of it.  It got consistently good reviews, as I said, and I decided to buy one today from QVC.  They’re having a special, today only, where everything they sell is on Easy-Pay, so I went with that.

So we’ll see how that works out!

I’ve talked here before about Mr. Food.  Long before Rachael Ray was doing her 30 Minute Meals (warning – link has auto-play sound and video) thing, there was Art Ginsburg, better known as Mr. Food.  His syndicated cooking segment has been broadcast nationwide, mostly during local TV news programs, for over 30 years now.

I first got into Mr. Food in the early 90′s, when I saw him on QVC.  Money was very tight back then, and his books were the ones I most often reached for.  The recipes are very easy to make, tasty, and consist only of ingredients that are very easy to find in most supermarkets.  No having to go to fancy gourmet shops, and none of his ingredients are very expensive.

Mr. Food Cooks Like Mama is one of his older books, and is sadly out of print.  However, if you click the link, you will be taken to the Amazon page for the book, where many sellers are offering it, both new and used.  This and his other older books are well worth seeking out.  His newer books that are still in print are available at Amazon, as well as at MrFood.com.  He also still appears on QVC.

Here is a recipe that I made for tonight’s dinner from this book.  Just seven ingredients, most of which you probably already have in your kitchen.  If you don’t have the “seasoned salt” called for, just use regular salt instead.  If your pork chops are larger (what I had weighed twice as much as what the recipe calls for), double the sauce ingredients and maybe cook the chops for a few minutes longer.  But whatever you do, use a large enough pan.  Don’t crowd the pan, or else the chops will steam, and not brown. I also like to turn the chops halfway through the simmering process.

Dijon-Honey Pork Chops

1¼ – 1½ pounds pork loin chops, about ¾-inch thick
Seasoned salt for sprinkling
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/3 cup orange juice
1½ tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon honey
2 teaspoons cornstarch

Sprinkle both sides of chops liberally with seasoned salt. In a large skillet, heat oil; brown chops for about 2 minutes per side. In a bowl, combine remaining ingredients, pour mixture over chops. Cover skillet, reduce heat to low, and simmer for 8-10 minutes or until done.

I served this with rice pilaf and lima beans, spooning the tasty sauce over the pork and the rice.  YUMMIE.

How many times have you been out eating someplace, only to spill food on your clothing?  You know that if you do not do something to remove the stain right away, it will set in, and then you may never be able to get the stain out.  If the garment is an expensive one, this can be almost as annoying and frustrating as a case of eczema.

As someone who goes to a lot of baseball games, this happens to me a lot.  I’m eating a hot dog or a slice of pizza, and maybe someone bumps into me as they are trying to get past me to get out of the row.  Or maybe a great play happens, and it causes me to get all excited and maybe drop my hot dog, or squeeze it too tight and cause ketchup or mustard to leak.

Well, ever since I’ve been carrying a Tide To Go Instant Stain Remover pen in my bag, no more permanently stained and ruined clothes!

According to the manufacturer, this works best on fresh food stains, not so much on blood, grass, or other non-food stains.  It’s simple to use.  Here are the instructions for use, from the Tide website:

* 1. Remove excess residue from the stain.
* 2. Press the tip onto the stain several times to release some stain remover solution onto the stain.
* 3. Rub tip gently across the stain to remove it. When necessary, add more liquid and continue rubbing gently.
* 4. Important: If treated area will be exposed to direct sunlight, wipe with a damp cloth or napkin to remove excess solution left on fabric.
* For tough stains, place a paper towel under the stain while treating or wipe excess liquid or residue away with a damp paper towel, or reapply as necessary.

This stuff WORKS! I’ve saved many a beloved baseball T-shirt from the rag pile because of this. More importantly, I’ve saved both of my authentic jerseys, the ones just like the players wear. These jerseys are EXPENSIVE, and to ruin one with stains that will never come out would break my heart.

A single Tide To Go pen retails for  about three bucks…a very small price to pay to save beloved and/or expensive clothes from ruin.  They are also available in multi-packs of various sizes for less per pen, so everyone in the family can have their own, and you could also keep one in your desk at work.

Tide is offering a $1.00 off coupon for this product.  Go to this page to request one.  They’ll mail it to you, which is good, because some stores will not accept internet coupons.

Give it a try…IT WORKS!

LOLMart Shirts is an offshoot of the very popular website, I Can Has Cheezburger, as well as other sites in the Cheezburger Network.  The idea is simple – every two days or so, they post a new T-shirt for sale.  The T-shirt is always a cartoony version of a LOLcat or other image on one of the Cheezburger sites.  Example:  I HAS A FLAVOR.

They call it the Shirt of the Day, but in reality, they are available for 48 hours, a little longer over the weekend.  If you want the Shirt of the Day, you must purchase it before the time is up.  Once the time is up, the orders are counted, and the shirts are custom-printed in the correct sizes for each order, and shipped out.  It usually takes about two weeks for your shirt to arrive, but if there is a delay in production, they will email you to let you know.

The shirts are are of nice quality and reasonably priced…just $15, with free shipping in the United States.  These shirts do run a bit small, so order up if you like them to be more loose-fitting.  Not good for heavily pregnant women, even the largest size, men’s 2XL, might not fit.  If you see a shirt you like, order it now, but you’ll have to wait until you aren’t needing the prenatal vitamins before it’ll fit you.

Yes, I repeat…if you see a shirt you like, order it before the time is up, because it will be gone and may never be available again.  Every so often, they do a “Best Of…” week, where shirts that get the most votes to be brought back are, well, brought back.  For example, so many people clamored for the return of this Dr. Tinycat shirt, that they did bring it back.  I’m glad, because I did miss it the first time around, but now I have one.  You can go to the page of any discontinued shirt, and vote to have it brought back.  Look at the Dr. Tinycat page to see what I mean.

LOLMart Shirts accepts PayPal and all major credit cards.  If you are a fan of the Cheezburger sites, go and take a look!