Another pretty cool item we saw in UK and Asia a lot were the cordless hot pots, where the base is plugged in, but is not attached to the pot. They work FAST, and are great for tea drinkers (which I’m not). I used a lot for instant coffee:
Both my kids have an electric kettle at college but a different one. Automatic shut-off is a big plus as well.
http://www.amazon.com/Hamilton-Beach-Ensemble-Pouring-Kettle/dp/B005NIXS9O/ref=sr_1_3?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1446230313&sr=1-3
I have this cute electric kettle from Target. I use mine almost every day for tea.
Agree with the electric kettle for college! DD has her brothers old one for tea and hot chocolate (doesn’t drink coffee) now that he’s out in an apartment. However, apparently he used to use it to boil water for rice (must have been instant?) and was looking for it back. So I’ve been following the rice cooker ideas. Maybe I’ll have to buy a rice cooker for him. I’ve always just used the microwave to cook rice. But there are boil overs sometimes.
I got an electric kettle for my youngest when he was starting his Junior year. I think someone on CC had mentioned how handy they were. He didn’t really use it much first semester but they had one in the apartment he had while doing a study abroad in Dublin and got very used to it there. I bought one for myself and use it all the time. Really handy. I don’t buy any small appliances any more that don’t have an automatic shut off.
DH was absolutely obsessed with those hotpots, they’re pretty popular in parts of Europe. I think it was the one tool he nagged me to get. And they boil very quickly.
My D1 loves her electric kettle. She let me borrow it too when I was killing weeds outside. I could plug the base into an outdoor plug, and when the water was ready it was easy to lift and walk to whatever weedy patch needed killing and just let the boiling water pour on down!
I haven’t had the best luck with the e-cloths. My windshield is still a bit streaky.
Love the egg cooker still!
.As proper tea drinking ex Canadians, my mother and have used electric tea kettles in our homes for decades!
I’ll never be without one.
Greenwitch, I had great luck with Rain-X.
For the inside of the windshield? That’s where I have all the streaks.
Do not put classic Rain-X on the inside of your windshield! Mr. B learned that lesson the hard way. 
What happened?
Ok, I just did a quick search and some folks recommend Invisible Glass. Sorry for the wrong turn.
The windshield became covered with sticky film and would get foggy no matter how much air you directed towards it. Washing the Rain-X off was a major PIA. That stuff binds to the glass making it sort of greasier, so water runs off of it in beads.
Mr. says some modern windshields have some sort of protective film on the inside surface, so the owner would be wise to follow the manufacturer’s cleaning directions.
Thank you!
Just bought the Vidalia Onion Chop Wizard mentioned above! Got it at BBB with coupon. So hovered about 15-16 bucks.
Totally in love! Everyone gets one for Christmas! I was looking for extra stuff to dice up! What a time saver! I was like “where have you been my entire life?”
Easy clean up too–it looks hard but the cleaning tool makes it quick and everything goes in the dishwasher.
Used it on carrots (small baby ones), squash, onions, tomatoes. Eggs. I did roasted chicken too (for caesar salad). All good! I cut things in slices to thickness I’d want and went from there.
Note: I had looked it up on-line and it looked like it chopped things WAY too big for my liking but that wasn’t the case at all. The dice is standard and the extra blade is fairly small.
Oh no! I just donated mine to Goodwill. It was not good with chopping smaller amounts, and blade cleanup was a chore. But mine was an older model, so maybe that was the issue.
Another vote for the Zojirushi fuzzy logic rice cooker. We’re on our second. DH uses it for white rice; I use the setting for brown rice and to cook my steel cut oats. I may also buy purple mixed rice for a change since there’s also a setting for that. Having a timer and a keep warm setting is nice, especially for the brown rice which takes so long. It is pricey, but for us on a cost per use basis it is well worth it.
The price of the Zojirushi at Costco is not bad–our kids gave it to us for Christmas (from Costco), so the price for us was even better! I also bought a larger one from Macy’s, but it was much more expensive. They are workhorses and last a LONG time.
Spouse tried to make a pair of softboiled eggs this morning in the you-know-what. Tried twice. I wasn’t home. Apparently forgot the part about leaving them in the microwave for 2 minutes after the 5.25 minutes of cooking time (1300 watt microwave).
Eggs that tend to crack in the you know what thingy are older eggs. The new batches I get from Costco all cook nicely. I have yet to have an explosion - just cracked shells.
So I’ve discovered a product I just love. It’s not a gadget though. Like my mother, grandmother, and probably GREAT-grandmother, I have a very thin hair area at the crown of my head. It’s not bald, but you can sure see my scalp. So although it seemed impossible to actually work, I ordered some hair fibers that you shake on, like talcum powder that supposedly thickens your hair and covers spots like I have. After poking around on Amazon, I found a brand purported to be as good as the expensive brand name stuff…and it IS! Even close up, my D and H CANNOT see where the balding area is.
It’s called “Finally Hair” and I got the dark brown, which matches my dark brown exactly. It comes in something like 20 colors and some people mix and match. I got the 25 gram size for something like $6.50 on Amazon. It comes in several sizes .I’ve used it for a week now, but haven’t seen a dent in the amount in the bag. I just use a spice shaker to shake it on. It doesn’t come off on my pillow or even when I run my finger through my hair. I “set” it on with a spritz of hairspray.
You have no idea how happy this stuff makes me. I was pricing wigs-even good haircuts were no longer hiding “the spot” all that well. But these fibers really hide it completely,