economy Archives - Page 3 of 3

Extravagance = Economy: Rowenta Steamer

Back in the dark ages of my retail career, I worked for a very lovely women's store which had an absolute LAW about how things were done: no clothing hits the floor without being steamed first. Given that the clothing was often shipped in boxes via FedEx, almost everything had at least a few major creases in it, and looked about a thousand times better after being steamed.

Fast forward to my real life, in which it seemed that we were frequently taking garments to the cleaners just because they were sort of rumpled - not necessarily because they were soiled and needed to be cleaned...

I did a bit of math (I'm a number geek; you may not have realized that), and I figured that over about 40 garments or so, we could PAY for one of ... View the Post

Extravagance = Economy: All-Clad Slow Cooker

July 14, 2011

Slow cookers aren't very glamorous. If you're like me, you might have memories from the 70's of pallid chickens in watery sauce, or grayish beef... but this baby is nothing like what you remember.

It's biggest advantage is that it takes the place of a Dutch oven, because the insert is usable on both the stove-top and in the oven. So you can brown something and then put it on to simmer for about a million years - no more flaccid, creepy beige chicken!

And they're good for lots of other things too - you can start oatmeal before you go to bed and have oatmeal for breakfast. This alone has revolutionized breakfast in our home; the difference between a bowl of cold cereal and a bowl of oatmeal is ... View the Post