I toast a bagel most mornings and my wife makes toast most mornings as well. Ideally something that could handle really thick bagels that I sometimes get from a bakery though most of the time I’m using standard store bought.
We have some sunbeam piece of junk now that we’ve had about 6 months. It’s starting to toast unevenly and when using higher settings it doesn’t reliably pop up anymore. It seems like we go through a toaster a year because they’re all trash and break down quickly. I’d love a model that will last if such a thing exists.
It’s hard to do everything with only a grill or a smoker.
I have a Weber genesis for standard grilling needs, and a Green Mountain Grill for smoking. It turns out great food and is reasonably easy to use. Smoking food has really upper my food game.
They say you can grill on these smokers but they get pretty greasy and putting 400 degrees in a greasy box leads to fires.
I actually have a tiny kitchen as I live in an 1150 sq ft townhouse! We decided to make room for a toaster oven because it can do so many useful things.
I’d recommend the Sony a6000 mirrorless camera. It’s small and lightweight and takes great photos (most of the photos I’ve posted on here were taken with an a6000) it has a manual mode if you ever want to learn more technical aspects of photography, but the automatic functions are great. I think I got mine new with the kit lens for $800. I haven’t checked but I’d imagine you could find a good used one for in the $500 range on adorama.
I’ve had a toaster oven everywhere I’ve lived because my mom swore by them(Ok maybe not my studio in DC that had a tiny kitchenette with no counter space). They’re not that much bigger than a regular toaster but so much more useful. Honestly think any brand they sell at Target or Bed Bath Beyond is fine. We have a DeLonghi and it’s perfectly adequate, I think we’ve been using to for four years, possibly longer, without issue. I’ve heard people recommend ones that have convection but I’m not sure if they’re bigger. To be fair I do currently have quite a large and beautiful kitchen which will be the one thing I will be sad to give up if we have to leave the country, but you can see how little space the toaster oven occupies.
dog cover for the backseat of my car. I have a 80 lb. hound mix, the cover I have now just covers the seat and back, and it kinda sucks because she constantly moves around and moves the cover and I’m constantly having to re-adjust it.
I’m looking at these hammock-style ones, since they attach to the back of the front seat it seems like they might stay in place better?
a … big mousepad? something I can set both my keyboard and trackpad on. But a lot of these are like … 900mm wide, which is too big. My keyboard drawer is only 27" wide. The pad needs to be at least 19 inches (keyboard is just a hair over 12" wide and the trackpad is like 6.5") and at least like 8 or 9 inches deep? This is pretty dang close to what I want except it’s “PU leather” (which means fake bullshit). https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07LF9RYPL/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?smid=AMXZMXC6P9ZM4&psc=1
I would pay more for something in real leather or cork or whatever.
They’re intended for scraping your cast iron skillet but they work on basically anything, obviously, and the shaping of the corners is amazing. You can get into the corners of literally any pot, pan, or whatever.
does it not get all bunched up?? Because that basically looks like what I have now and it all ends up in a big bunch. The yoga mat keeps it in place I guess? That sounds like a pretty good idea.
Re keeping it in place - there are two plastic bits that function as anchors, keeping the mat in position correctly. You kinda have to shove them in the opening in your backseats where the butt cushion meets the back cushion.
The yoga mat definitely helps with keeping a snug fit, too.
yeah mine has those. that doesn’t keep the… butt-cushion part of the cover in place at all. as the dog moves around, the cover just bunches up around the crack between the butt-cushion and the back cushion.
They protect the surface beneath the mouse pad. Less disgusting gunk builds up on the feet of your mouse. I’ve found they improve performance on a white or glass table.
I don’t use a mouse, I use a trackpad, but the purpose is mostly just to keep keyboard and mouse from moving around too much. Also, I use a keyboard tray and there’s a gap between the tray itself and the front “panel” that flips down (hard to explain, but there’s essentially a 1/8" gap in the surface, and the trackpad feet sometimes get stuck in it, which makes clicking inconsistent)
I think you talked me out of the combination machine. If I’m primarily using a propane grill, it seems silly to buy a combo item that couples a sub-par propane machine with a pellet grill that I might not end up using/liking.
So I think what I’m going to do is get one of those Weber propane grills that Wirecutter recommends, and then probably a separate device for smoking.
My laser mouse works just a little bit less well on my desk than on a mouse pad. Plus, the mousepad has a nice wrist support that benefits me in a way that I’m sure is entirely psychological. I’ve got this one: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B018GFBCGG/
but I try not to use emoticons.