Oneida Actually Means The Whole "Guarantee" Thing

 

 

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Oneida Actually Means The Whole "Guarantee" Thing

via The Consumerist by Laura Northrup on 2/25/10

Thomas bought a set of Oneida flatware about a dozen years ago. He writes that he assumed that he just needed to buy new knives when his came apart at the handles, but someone advised him to contact the company. He did, and was amazed at Oneida's response to his request.

About twelve years ago, when we were first setting up house, we decided on Fiestaware for our china and picked a simple, utilitarian looking pattern for our everyday silverware. We went with Oneida, as it was on deep discount at our local home store, and we liked the look of the pieces.

Over time, the knives we had in our set began to separate at the seam
where the handle meets the blade. I shared this with someone and they
recommended that I contact them (Oneida) and see what they could do.
So, several years ago, a broken knife was sent back and a replacement
was dispatched to us post haste.

I noticed that several of our knives were separating again, so I took
a chance, almost a decade later, and called them to see what they
could do for us at this late date. It appears that there is no such
thing as a late date with Oneida as their flatware has a lifetime
guarantee. I stumbled with the customer service rep on the phone and
admitted that after almost twelve years, I no longer had the receipt
for purchase. She laughed and pointed me in the direction of their
website so I could find info on how to return ALL of the knives so
that they could be replaced with a newly designed, single piece knife.

Really? Are you kidding me? I was stunned, but packed them all up and
sent them off with insurance to their replacement center. About a
month later (my only complaint with the whole process is the time it
took) a box full of shiny, brand new, single cast design knives showed
up on my doorstep.

My faith in humanity and commerce has been restored
by this company standing behind their product, even if it is a decade
later.

Not bad for a company that was started in a free love cult's commune. In all seriousness, this is particularly impressive considering that the company entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2006. Some companies would cite that as a (perfectly valid) reason not to replace decade-old flatware for free. Oneida is evidently not one of those companies.

 

 

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Repurpose Your Rice Cooker to Make Tasty One-Pot Meals [Clever Uses]

 

 

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Repurpose Your Rice Cooker to Make Tasty One-Pot Meals [Clever Uses]

via LH -mac -news -roundup -sponsors on 2/3/10

If you've got a rice cooker stashed in a cabinet somewhere, you seriously need to haul it out and put it to work. It can make you some amazing one-pot meals in no time flat.

Photo by Corsica_JP.

Despite their name, rice cookers are essentially giant steamers, so anything that benefits from moist cooking does great in the contraption. Fish, chicken, dumplings, vegetables—all kinds of good stuff. In fact, ethnic food like Caribbean or Middle Eastern cuisine make some of the tastiest dishes around. The New York Times explains:

Domingo Guillen uses his to make vast batches of Puerto Rican arroz con gandules, rice and peas, before a weekly domino game at his apartment in the Inwood section of Manhattan. Fairuza Akhtar, a restaurant owner in Jackson Heights, Queens, who was born in Pakistan, has developed a quick method for making fragrant, creamy biriyani with whole spices and bites of chicken, at home in her rice cooker. 'My mother would fall down in a faint,' she said, referring to the traditionally reverent attitude toward biriyanis in Northern India and Pakistan. 'But rice cookers are the way of the modern world.'

If you want to experiment with your rice cooker but don't want to get too exotic right out of the gate, then start small by whipping up a batch of oatmeal or hot cereal. If your cooker has a time delay, you can even load it up the night before and wake up to a stick-to-your-ribs breakfast on a cold morning.

Real Simple has a few other ideas on using a rice cooker to put together steamed veggie side dishes and cool desserts like poached fruit. According to them, soups and hearty stews are also a great bet.

Give your rice cooker enough liquid and time and it will create long-simmered dishes without scorching or boiling over (the way slow cookers sometimes can). Try split-pea soup with ham, or put beef (that's been browned on the stove) and vegetables in the cooker with tomatoes, wine, and herbs for a hearty dinner.

I make all kinds of cool (and sometimes weird) stuff in my rice cooker. Bean dishes are a snap and perfect for softening pintos for refried beans. Salmon wrapped in a foil pouch is awesome, and you can cook long-grained wild rice right underneath it so everything's done at once. Or, snap a pound of pasta noodles in half, cover with water, and let your cooker take over. I've even made a cake with my trusty cooker—just mix all the ingredients right in the rice pan and turn it on.

I know Lifehacker readers are a clever bunch, so let's hear your ideas for meals and sides in the comments. Now, go forth and cook.

The Steamy Way to Dinner [NYT]
5 New Cooking Uses for Your Rice Cooker [Real Simple]

 

 

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Keep Brown Sugar Soft with Marshmallows [Clever Uses]

 

 

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Keep Brown Sugar Soft with Marshmallows [Clever Uses]

via LH -mac -news -roundup -sponsors on 2/3/10

We've previously explored the brown-sugar-loosening powers of a slice of bread, but if you want to keep your dark brown stuff from clumping, skip buying a ceramic bear and reach over a few inches to grab a couple of marshmallows.

My own household has cabinets that tend to dry the heck out of anything, and would-be bakers spend a good amount of time cursing our brown sugar. The "brown sugar bear," purchased in the junk aisle at the grocery store, hasn't done anything so far to help. This little food saver seems to make sense, though, given marshmallows' ability to hold moisture in nearly any conditions. And it will save us from having to sacrifice bread to make cookies, which always seemed like a strange Faustian bargain.

Brown sugar fix [Chicago Tribune]

 

 

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Least It’ll Be Great For Sledding?

 

 

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Least It’ll Be Great For Sledding?

via There, I Fixed It by lorenichc on 2/13/10

Submitted by: Taylor D via Submit a Kludge!

 

 

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Artisan Bread in Five

 

 

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Artisan Bread in Five

via Cool Tools on 2/2/10

As a practical guide to incorporating No-Knead Bread baking into daily life, regardless of your schedule, I highly recommend Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day and the follow-up Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day. I've been baking from the instructions in these books for some time now, and I hardly ever buy commercial bread. My young ones love the bread, especially warm from the oven, and there's something special about bringing your own fresh baked bread to a get-together.

Why Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day? Literally five minutes of effort. Throw the ingredients together, mix, pop the dough into a bucket and then into the fridge. After a couple hours of rising, I have enough for three big loaves. The dough keeps very well in the refrigerator for a couple weeks (and tastes noticeably better the longer it's been sitting, though mine rarely makes it that long). When I want fresh bread I pull out a bit of dough, get the oven heated up and bake away. There are plenty of no-knead recipes about, but Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois perfected a process that works for me.

The main advantage I've gotten out of Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day is feeding the kids a bit more whole grain and some protein as well. I find the flavor richer, too (beer helps that a bunch, but also subtracts a few healthy points). I do prefer the texture of the white loaf, and for guests or as a host gift, I'd likely choose the original recipe. Of late, our everyday breadbox loaf comes from the Healthy book. Slices, toasted a bit, make a heavenly sandwich.

-- [Thanks to readers Drew Mills and Bob Mintiero for also recommending Artisan Bread -es]

Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day
by Jeff Hertzberg, Zoe Francois
2007, 242 pages
$15
Available from Amazon

Helathy Bread in Five Minutes a Day
Jeff Hertzberg,Zoe Francois
2009, 336 pages
$15
Available from Amazon

Sample Excerpts:

From Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day:

Whole grain flour is better for you than white flour. Because whole grains include the germ and the bran, in addition to the starch-rich but fiber- and vitamin-poor endosprem....whole grain flours bring a boatload of healthy substances into your diet, including phytochemicals....,vitamins, and fiber. Those are pretty much absent from white flour. Iron, niacin, folic acid, riboflavin, and thiamine are added back in enriched commercial white flour, but no other nutrients—so whole wheat delivers more complete nutrition than white flour even when it's been enriched. But there's more—because bran and germ in whole grains dilute the effect of pure starch in the endosprem, the absorption and conversion of starches into simple sugars is slowed, so blood glucose...rises more slowly after consumption of whole grains than it does after eating refined white flour products.

*

Our first book concentrated on ingredients from the traditional European baker's cupboard. We've updated our discussion to include whole grains, vital wheat gluten, and even ingredients for gluten-free breads. Perhaps the most crucial ingredient to get familiar with is vital wheat gluten. It's essential for achieving a light loaf when using lots of whole grains, never kneading, and still storing the dough in the refrigerator.

*

Yeast Love to Keep Cool
Jefferson University yeast biochemist Hannah Silver, Ph.D., loves great bread, and bakes her own with our method. We asked her where the great flavor comes from, especially with dough that has aged a few days: "Yeast extracts are sometimes used as a flavor enhancer in commercial food, and they introduce a savory, complex flavor, sometimes called umami, the so-called fifth basic taste recognized by the human tongue (in addition to sweet, salty, bitter, and sour). The flavor you get with stored dough comes from chemicals produced by yeast as they use sugars and starches to make carbon dioxide gas (which forms bubbles to leaven the bread) and alcohol (which boils off in baking).

 

 

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Amazon 40% off Kitchens of India Foods: 6-Packs 3.5oz Curry Paste $7+, 6-pks...

any interest there?

 

 

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Amazon 40% off Kitchens of India Foods: 6-Packs 3.5oz Curry Paste $7+, 6-pks 8.8oz Rice Pilaf $10, 6-pks 10oz Ready To Eat Meals $10, 6-pks 8.8oz Pudding $11

via SlickDeals.net on 2/1/10

 

 

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