"The Warehouse never gets filled": Naughty or nice. There is no in between.

Well... Christmas is sneaking up on us... fast.

Everything has been decorated since my last post... on Thanksgiving. People have their trees up, the lights are on (with or without people home) and there's still no snow in The Wang.

But everywhere else has snow already. For over a week.

Not fair.

Outside of the bright lights and mangers sitting pretty, the online deals are happening. Between Amazon's 12 Days of Deals (aka Last Minute Deals), various social network deals, premium purchase deals for freebie apps, brick and mortar stores are also trying to get people in to shop. I noticed so many ads on the TV the last week, about price chopping and how things we want but can't afford are being slashed in cost.

My mom desperately wants the Ninja Foodi, but even during Black Friday, it was too much money. The lowest I saw it for was $199 and that wasn't on Amazon (which currently has it at $179.32 for the 5 qt). She then talked herself out of having me buy it for her for Christmas, as she only wanted it to be able to cook meat (hamburger, steak, etc). "But for the once in a while time we'd use it, it's not worth it" she told me. I don't think she fully understood what it does, as I think she thought it was a grill... which it can do, kind of. I think it's more for air frying and pressure cooking, than it is to sear lines in a medium rare slab of cow. I'd probably want the upgraded version to make dehydrated fruit, but how often would I do that? Although I know what would be in the fruit (because I'd make it myself), it's probably just as economical to get the pre-made ones in the store.

So we didn't get it... even though it would add to the crock pot, the stove pots and everything else I've gotten her for the year end holiday since we moved to Florida.

Instead, we have a friend who had an oopsie with her Nuwave.

Our friend makes a lot of soup and rice, and one day (shortly after Thanksgiving), she was making soup for her family. Something happened and the outside of the pressure cooker bent in. It looks like someone dropped it on a rock and the rock indented itself. The contraption still cooks fine and nothing for the electrics were damaged. Not even the inside cooking bowl. The pressure just built up in such a weird way, it started imploding on itself. Therefore, what does the friend do? Tries to return it to the big box store she bought it from. She wanted to get a new one, as this seems like a defect that could happen and maybe Nuwave (or the store) would want the machine back... and sort out a replacement (by her paying something like shipping or whatever). The Nuwave company said to return it to the store she bought the cooker from. The store said they will honor the defect, but the cooker would be thrown out as there's nothing that can really be saved by them taking it. She has 2 options: she can take it back home with her and throw it out, or they will bin it for her. But...they'll send her a new cooker in the mail within the week.

As this is a major source of how she cooks, she said she'd bring it home and try to use it (although is afraid it might blow up), she'll wait til the store sends her a new one. She tried it two more times that week and by the grace of foodies everywhere, it worked. She got a brand new pot on her door step and nicely gifted us her old dinged up one. Funny enough, we have used it twice in the past few weeks, and it works. It's really just a superficial bump on the outside and doesn't affect the cooking on the inside. These things seem to be made to endure force... as they are pressure cookers... they need to be able to handle earthquake type happenings. Although, I don't know if it can withstand an earthquake... but I think the point is there. It works.

We just have to learn how to use it and we'll probably rely on this for soups as much as our friend does. It quite honestly is one stop cooking, from what we've made already. Want chicken soup with real cooked chicken pieces? You can cook the chicken first, then do all the other steaming, saute, or searing in this pot once the chicken cooks and you cut it up (to finish cooking). Add everything together and let it hang out for a bit and voila; chicken soup. My mom has already made a beef and barley stew, and for real, it took about 45 minutes, all said and done. Seared the meat first (in the pot), added the accouterments, close the lid, walk away. Close to an hour later, it was on warm for 4 hours. Beef and vegetable soup (the meat was on sale, I guess), same thing - less than an hour later, we had soup for dinner.

The whole pot is a bit cumbersome, but it's interesting none the less. I'm sure we'll make more things in it and our friend needs to suggest more stuff to make... we told her she should be a seller of this cooker as she did a good job explaining every button and every option in detail. We were just too stupid to fully pay attention. Even though she said she's been using these things for ever... she's got one in her home up north and one in her home down south (she's a snowbird). She loves this thing. And she shared the love with us. Haha..

Speaking of sharing the love... I've got some photos to post... all taken with the iPhone 11. I'm still trying to figure it out and I still like my Canon camera, but I'm learning it's a little hard to bring a bulky camera to work with me and carry it around to suit my needs. This is in no way me saying "I loves my phone!!!!!!!!"... it's just me trying out the camera options still. I love my Canon! :P