I suggest you try this out and let me know how it works for you!

Some of his work is just plain art, but the bulk of it is as practical and useful as it is beautiful. For example, this Christmas he’s promoting his Pottery Apple Bakers. They are beautiful pottery bowls that are just the right size to hold 1 apple. Each bowl has a ceramic prong that sticks up in the middle which you insert into the core of the apple. This prong makes it bake more evenly and quickly.

His website, LaneyPottery.com, has a few recipes and instructions for using this unique bakeware which is lead free, dishwasher safe, and microwave safe.

At only $9 each, I highly recommend checking them out. So, please visit LaneyPottery.com to see the Pottery Apple Bakers for yourself.

Just a few minutes ago I came across two cool & inexpensive Christmas gift ideas that I want to share with everyone.

Christmas Gift Idea #1: Kingston 4GB SDHC Class 4 Flash Card (SD4/4GB) – $7.99

It’s amazing how cheap high volume memory storage is now. 4GB for $7.99!! Just about any adult with a digital camera will appreciate this Christmas gift idea.

And, if you have a digital camera and plan to take a whole lot of pictures this holiday season, then this is too good to pass up. Buy two for yourself so that you can take hundreds of photos and still have a backup memory card on hand in case you fill the first one.

Christmas Gift Idea #2: Coby 1.5-Inch Digital Photo Keychain (White) – $12.94

This Christmas gift idea is pretty neat too (or maybe I’m just an electronics geek). It’s a tiny little digital screen that holds 60 photos and your keys too. The device is 2 inches by 3 inches which is a bit smaller than a business card. I think parents and grandparents would love to get these. You could pre-load it with 60 family photos so they can show off their loved ones to their friends without having to lug around a photo album.

The Digital Photo Keychain Christmas gift idea is available in 4 colors, white, black, red, and blue.

While you’re here, have a look a my Baked Potato Soup Recipe.

Well this summer that all changed. Now, for some inexplicable reason, they love hot dogs! So I’ve been looking for a handy gadget to allow me to mass produce hot dogs without too much hassle. Mr. Right insists that the best hot dogs are cooked on a hot dog roller griddle like you see at concession stands at the baseball park. But a hot dog roller griddle, or hotdog roller grill as it is sometimes called, is not easy to find in the stores where I live. So I had to do some research.

Here’s the hot dog roller griddle on which I’ve settled – the Emson Hot Dog Express which sells for $34.

It plugs into a standard electrical outlet and sits on the countertop, cooks 8 to 12 hotdogs, and weighs about 10 pounds. The length of cooking time on the hot dog roller griddle varies depending on the size and type of hot dog, but generally you can have a finished hot dog in about 4 minutes (7 minutes if you start with a frozen hot dog).

In addition to hotdogs, you can cook polish sausages, breakfast sausages, smokies, etc. on the hot dog roller griddle. Plus, the hot dog roller griddle part comes off so you can cook other kinds of food right on the flat griddle, like hamburgers, potatoes, carrots, onions, corn, fish, shrimp, pancakes, bacon, eggs, etc.

Finally the hotdog roller grill lid, rollers, and pan are all easy to remove and dishwasher safe. So it doesn’t turn into a big project for me to get it out and use it.

The week of Thanksgiving, thanks to the Coupon Mom, I learned the Reynolds Handi Vac was on sale at Wal-Mart and I had a coupon for $3 off. The total price was $6 and batteries were included. Since I needed bags for the FoodSaver anyway and the Handi Vac was on sale, I decided to go for it. I purchased the Handi Vac and I also purchased 2 boxes of quart size bags and 2 boxes of gallon size bags.

Here are the differences I have found in the two:

1. The Reynolds Handi Vac is small and compact. It fits easily in a drawer in my kitchen. The FoodSaver is very large and takes up quite a bit of space in storage and to use.
2. The Reynolds Handi Vac runs on batteries. Eventually, the batteries will need to be replaced. The FoodSaver runs off electricity by plugging it into the wall. I really like the convenience of the the batteries.
3. The FoodSaver is more powerful than the Handi Vac. The Handi Vac does do a good job of sucking the air out of the bags, it just takes longer to do than the FoodSaver.
4. The Handi Vac does not work well with liquids. When we make a batch of chili, spaghetti, chicken pot pie, or soup, we will still use the FoodSaver because it can handle liquids better.
5. Both units require special bags designed special for the particular unit. My FAVORITE thing about the Handi Vac, is that I can reuse the same bag over and over easily! You just unzip, pull out what you need, and re-vacuum seal. With the FoodSaver, you generally need to have scissors to open it and it is not easy to re-seal. You can do it but it will be with a smaller bag.

Overall, both have their advantages and certainly both are better to use than a regular zip top bag or tupperware type containers to freeze food. If you can only afford a small vacuum sealer, purchase the Reynolds Handi Vac. I do not think you will be disappointed. If you do lots of batch cooking, especially with liquids, you may want to go ahead an take splurge on the FoodSaver. If you already have a FoodSaver, the convenience of using the Handi Vac is certainly worth the price if you can get it on sale.