Nice people thread part 4 - sugar and spice and all things

vivatifosi

zagubov wrote: »

The thing that puzzles me is why our kind of kettles powered through a mains lead are so rare in the US. Is their gas supply cheaper than their leccy?

I wonder if its because Americans are more coffee than tea drinkers. Pretty much every house I've been to over there has a plug in coffee maker instead. Many don't have kettles, but they all have one of those. Also, those Americans I know who do drink tea heat their water, they don't necessarily boil it (which seems very odd to me).

Spirit_2

We have a mix of high end and low end white goods and kitchen electricals.

Cheap kettle which is 2 months old and replaced a cheap kettle we had had for about 4 years, both bought from the village hardware store....which is why we have them because we do try to buy locally.

Our fridge looked a bit scruffy, Westinghouse American 17 years old and the internal door rails had snapped and the replacements were £150 each...so after a year of stuff falling off the door shelves we have just bought another. We found it really hard just to buy a large fridge without fussy bits. Fischer Peykell who we had never heated of before met our requirements.

Old fridge scrubbed up well and is now in the garage with drink in it. Last week the chest freezer from garage was emptied of unidentified frozen objects, scrubbed and went on free cycle. It took less than 2 hours from advert to collection.

zagubov

vivatifosi wrote: »

I wonder if its because Americans are more coffee than tea drinkers. Pretty much every house I've been to over there has a plug in coffee maker instead. Many don't have kettles, but they all have one of those. Also, those Americans I know who do drink tea heat their water, they don't necessarily boil it (which seems very odd to me).

That's true and now you've mentioned it I remember they drink a lot of their tea with ice and lemon instead of a hot drink.

I expect over in America there's a similar thread where someone's posting "how come the brits never have toaster ovens?"

lostinrates

zagubov wrote: »

You're right about that; the cheap items you can buy in many high street stores are great value for money but never seem to last- they're so shoddily built they seem to fall to bits in your hands eventually.

I'm always dismayed how the manufacturers are keen to keep us buying new stuff needlessly. If they could kid us on we need to buy a new car as soon as the ashtrays in the old one are full, they'd be happy to do it!

I'm always ranting on on other threads about how unnecessary (and wasteful) planned obsolescence is. :mad: I seriously need to learn enjoy shopping more.

My handmixer I have had for....um...since college....£4. I did not use it for at least three of those years becuase wasn't able to/wasn't in UK. toaster...also since uni, and then in a freinds flat. Horride toasted sandwich makers never die...we have two...dh's nd mine...I HTE toasted sandwiches....but will they die??? no.

lostinrates

zagubov wrote: »

It's the things with moving parts doors, turntables, springs etc like toasters and microwaves that seem to break the fastest.

The thing that puzzles me is why our kind of kettles powered through a mains lead are so rare in the US. Is their gas supply cheaper than their leccy?

Same in Italy...I used a milk pan for tea water with a plate on top

edit: no vaccums either....no carpets really! Made me realise how much else I use a vacuum for...

lostinrates

misskool wrote: »

oh, for those that watch dexter, I was peeling beetroot earlier while watching dexter. quite funny.

any tips on how to peel roasted beetroot? I stopped as I got bored and I'm guessing it's not that difficult???

fingers.....an a really thick apron...()take your rings off!!! (did you get a chain?) oh, and I have a REALLY good very sall sharp knife, thats ace for that sort of thing, but fingers are necessary IMO.

michaels

Sharp knife or good potato peeler? I still have one from my time as a 'chalet girl' 20 years ago - I'm sure it was a real cheapy but I have never found a better one, the blade is now loose and often falls out of the handle but we still use it rather than the replacement because it is quicker and easier.

We always use the kettle to boil water for boiling or steaming veg, cooking and rinsing rice etc, so much quicker than boiling it in a pan.

I always think Americans have such big ovens (to fit a 50pound thanksgiving turkey?) that for most cooking it is not worth turning them on so they then have to have a small toasting oven for ordinary cooking.

Spirit_2

michaels wrote: »

Sharp knife or good potato peeler? I still have one from my time as a 'chalet girl' 20 years ago - I'm sure it was a real cheapy but I have never found a better one, the blade is now loose and often falls out of the handle but we still use it rather than the replacement because it is quicker and easier.
.

Silly question to some but a current Spirit family concern....Miss Spirit is in her early twenties and has coordination problems (not just what to wear with what) her gait is a little awkward, cannot dance, poor spatial awareness all of which she deals with.....however this week I noticed another drawback....peeling vegetables is a slow and her technique is to push the knife away from her taking very small amounts of skin off at a time, she cannot pull the 'tool' her Brain does not seem to accept that message.

She cannot easily peel potatoes, she was responsible for making Supper
on Thursday evening...sausage and mash. Left to her own devices she
would still have been peeling the potatoes now. I did offer to help when I noticed she had peeled one potato in almost 20 minutes.

I know she will not starve ( she likes rice....just as well really) but how does she learn to do this more easily?

PasturesNew

michaels wrote: »

I've seen your picture PN on the not-to-be-repeated avatar night.

I don't remember that! I must have Alzheimers.... can I get DLA for that? Oh ... don't answer, I'll forget I asked by the time a reply comes

PasturesNew

michaels wrote: »

I tend to expect cheap toasters, kettles etc to last just over 12 months and washing machines to last their price divided by 100 years - eg £150 machine will last about 1.5 years. I always expect fridges/freezers to go on for ever I guess just based on personal experience, cosmetic things like plastic bits breaking and door seals failing and general mankiness tending to be the reason for discarding them.

My cheap (cheapest I could get) washing machine that I bought in about 1990, was discarded by me in my move in 2007 .... and it still looked perfect and it still worked perfectly - even though, since I bought it, it had been: delivered, moved into storage, moved out of storage 1.5 years later, moved into storage a year later, moved out of storage 2 years later ....

And all my appliances are cheap and mostly last very very well. I am not hamfisted with stuff though