If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my newsletter and/or blog feed. See the boxes to the right. Thanks for visiting!

If you are a regular in your kitchen, then chances are you know exactly how frustrating opening a can can be. While sometimes you are able to get the can open without any incident, other times the can opener either stalls, forcing you to open the rest of the can yourself through brute force or it simply doesn’t work on the can. It is difficult to see which one would be worse, since while not being able to get the can open at all can be very frustrating, getting it open partway and cutting yourself while prying it ope the rest of the way could be even worse, not to mention potentially dangerous to your health. Conventional can openers are just frustrating things and that is ultimately why the market response to the one touch can opener has been so great.

For only $19.95, you can get your hands on this cool kitchen gadget, allowing you to kiss the days of frustrating can opening goodbye! The can opener itself is shaped like a large remote control and this large surface area allows it to interact directly with the can on a number of different fronts; something you would never be able to do with the old can openers that most people still own today. The can opener’s large surface area gives it the versatility to use the one touch system to open any can of any size. Previously the biggest knock on automatic can openers was that they did not accommodate size very well, but this is a thing of the past as far as the one touch can opener is concerned.

There are drawbacks, however. Read more »

I guess I have bananas on the brain. I was just thinking how much I love to add bananas to my cereal in the morning. Ooooh, and they are so tasty in a peanut butter sandwich for lunch. And don’t forget this berry nestled inside an ice cream sundae after supper!

But think of it: all that slicing can become rather tiring and the slices are never perfect. Some are too thick while others are too thin. So what is a banana lover to do? Invest in the new handy banana slicer, which is reputed to be able to handle an entire banana at one time and produce perfect slices for all your banana slicing needs.

The most wonderful thing about the banana slicer is the simplicity of its design. A single piece of molded plastic in the delightful shape of a banana makes this product not only functional but also fun to look at. One quick chop is all you need to quickly slice an entire fresh banana for your cereal or a quick snack. The banana slicer is 10 inches long, so it suits most bananas on the market today. The gadget is also dishwasher safe so there is no messy banana mess to clean up afterwards. Read more »

Banquet Dessert Bakes is a line of simple, make it yourself with a few extra ingredients dessert mixes. I recently tried their Coconut Creme Pie. Here are my observations:

Prep Time
It took very little time to prepare the dessert. I probably completed the whole process, including cleaning up in about 15 to 20 minutes.

Crust
All you had to do to create the crust was add water. However, what resulted was a chewy crust that stuck to the pie tin and made it very difficult to serve decent looking pie slices. It tasted fine, but I would recommed either experimenting with adding less water than the box suggests or just using a ready-made crust.

Filling
Now, to be upfront, I love coconut. I want my coconut-flavored foods to be rich in coconut flavor, which is why I ended up using coconut powder in the coconut cream pie I developed. To my surprise, Banquet’s coconut creme filling did not disappoint. It had a rich, creamy and very coconutty flavor, with little bits of coconut mixed in.

The box recommends that you refrigerate 30 minutes before serving. I would recommend that you give it closer to an hour to allow the filling to fully set.

Overall
I’ve give this dessert 4 out of 5 stars. It tasted great, but the crust needs work.