This Gadget Sucks
For Christmas this year, my parents gave me a much-desired vacuum sealer. I have to say, I am not prone to watching television infomercials, nor coveting the merchandise they tout - but I've wanted a vacuum sealer ever since I caught a FoodSaver infomercial one late-night years ago. The cheese saving! The quick marinating! The prolonged freezing! The saving of.. uhh.. sweaters? Hm. Okay, maybe not that.
The machine I received is a Rival VS150, complete with canisters and extra rolls of bags. The reviews of it state that it's a nice machine, but difficult to close. And, yes, it is. You have to apply some pressure on the lid in order to snap it shut to vacuum or seal the bags, but oh, what a useful gadget.
Alas, I haven't been grocery shopping in a while, so I don't have a lot of thing in my kitchen that I can vacuum seal for fun. I do have ongoing problems with cheese going bad before I can eat it all, so I sealed up some of that. The unit will also reseal chip bags (a good thing, both for freshness and because of my bag-theiving kitties). I generally buy meat at Costco anyway, but vacuum sealing it will make it last much longer than normal freezer bags. And I should be able to keep greens crisp twice as long in one of the vacuum canisters. Did I mention the cheese?! And no more brown avocado?!
Thanks, Mom & Dad! Now I just need to go shopping :)
Did I miss the part where you explained why "this gadget sucks"?
Posted by Amity | January 18, 2005 12:48 PMBecause it's a vacuum sealer... the gadget sucks the air out.
Posted by michelle | January 18, 2005 01:29 PMOn behalf of O&L, I'd like to very profundly apologize for the extremely poor joke.
Michelle has been reprimanded, and it won't happen again.
Posted by Andrea | January 18, 2005 01:35 PMHey! Don't make me edit your blog privledges! ;)
Posted by michelle | January 18, 2005 01:37 PMYou're going to love this machine even if you did get the Rival, which I agree is difficult to close (get a Food Saver next time. I use mine a lot in the summer to preserve summer fresh foods for use in the winter months when these foods are less readily available and much more expensive. I recently bought a huge bunch of fresh basil at the farmers market, washed and dried it (very important to dry it completely), then vac sealed it into roughly 1/4 cup portions. It froze beautifully and didn't turn black. I'm looking forward to having a nice cheap supply of fresh basil this winter when it goes for about $5 for a very small package. Try freezing blueberries on a cookie sheet and then vac sealing them. When you need them, open the sealed bag, pour out the beries that you need and re-seal. You'll have berries all winter long. I also grill extra portions of boneless skinless chicken breasts and freeze for salads/sandwiches, etc... They thaw in no time, and again, in the winter months, it's nice to have that charcoal grilled taste of summer.
~Lisa
Posted by Lisa | August 18, 2005 11:00 PMWell, I'm hoping this machine will last long enough that I don't have to worry about purchasing a new one anytime soon :)
But, yeah, I'm so loving the vacuum sealer. It hadn't even occurred to me to freeze herbs (ooh, fresh pesto all year long). I've mostly been using it for cheeses, meat and frozen fruit, and I've experiented some with quick-marinading. I really should be using it more on prepared foods (like making mega batches of pasta sauces or whatever - grilled chicken is a great idea), but I've been slacking on the cooking front lately.
Posted by michelle | August 18, 2005 11:02 PM