Archive for the 'Life' Category

I have long wanted a really good toaster oven. One that had decent capacity, was versatile, and insulated such that it doesn’t lose a ton of heat when sticking food into it. As well, I can’t deal with poorly designed products and will often choose dead simple over a full featured item simply because simple is harder to screw up.

After 8 months of research and comparisons, I finally settled on the Breville BOV800XL Smart Oven. It isn’t simple and it certainly isn’t cheap, but the Breville is really quite an excellent piece of technology.

The Breville’s controls are straightforward. You select the mode first, then there are two additional dials that configure, effectively, temperature and time. For toasting, the two additional buttons select slices and darkness; seemingly silly, but it actually works quite well!

As well, the toaster oven has a convection setting and a “frozen” setting that automatically adjusts the cooking times to account for cooking frozen foods. The “frozen” button is the one feature that borders on frivolous gadgetry. Then again, cooking random frozen foods really isn’t a part of our diet. If it was, the adjustment it makes actually does make sense.

The interior capacity is large enough to bake a 13″ pizza or roast a whole chicken (though you might have to cut it into two halves). Combining decent insulation with high wattage, the Breville both heats relatively quickly, holds heat well, and the outside does get warm, but not terribly hot.

When the internal rack is in toasting position, opening the door magnetically slides the rack out a few inches. Very convenient.

All in all, the Breville is a well engineered kitchen tool. It can easily replace your toaster and can often fill in for your full sized oven while both pre-heating more quickly and using less electricity overall. And, of course, the Breville can act as a secondary oven for those times when you need two ovens.

Since the addition of the Breville to our cooking toolset, it sees daily use.

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Many months ago, I went from a half inch or greater beard to clean shaven. After a few weeks of dealing with cartridge blades, my lovely wife Christine gave me a very nice double-edged safety razor set. A bit of research revealed that the choice of blade was critical to the experience.

Being who I am, the only logical conclusion was to buy a sampler pack covering the most popular blade and try a new blade each week to find one that I liked (and to actually determine whether or not the brand of blade even matters)!

Now that I’m done, I have encountered a few surprises and amassed a handful of questions along the way. So, in a summary:

Why bother?

If you are going to keep a clean shaven face, a double-edged safety razor strikes a nice balance of price optimization and performance.

First and foremost, the quality of shaved produced by a double-edged safety razor is way beyond that provided by a cartridge razor. Notably, my face stays clean shaven for far far longer. With a cartridge razor, an 8 a.m. shave would lead to a rough face by 4 p.m. With a decent double-edged blade, I still have a smooth face 11 p.m. Beyond that, my skin is a hell of a lot less irritated.

Conveniently, it is also comparatively cheap. Cartridge blades are stupid expensive — dollars — whereas a decent quality double-edged safety blade is all of about 6 cents per blade in bulk.

To achieve a decent shave with a DE safety razor requires paying a bit of attention and taking things a bit slow. After a few weeks, it becomes a bit of morning ritual… a bit of calm amongst the storm that is my life.

Which razor am I using and what cream?

The one at the left. It is a relatively plain Merkur straight safety razor. It is of medium weight and not that aggressive (i.e. the space between guide and blade isn’t that wide). Feels good in the hand and is easy to clean.

Before the shave, I use a bit of oil rubbed into my face. As for cream, I’m using the house brand from the art of shaving applied with a badger hair brush. Works well enough, but I’ll probably try some others as this runs out.

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I shouldn’t be surprised that the last blade from the sampler that was new to me would yield some unexpected results (I still have the Merkur to review, but that was the blade my razor came with and, thus, I’m saving it to the last. That and I’m likely going to be reviewing a different kind of Israeli Personna and updating that particular review, too).

The Sharp (stainless) come in just about the most unassuming packaging of any blade; a simple cardboard box. Yet, that simple cardboard box has a bit of hologram embedded in it! Most likely, this “seal of authenticity” is an attempt to stymy counterfeiters, which — apparently — are quite a problem for some manufacturers!

The blades, themselves, are wrapped in not one, but two, pieces of wax paper. One with the logo and one transparent. Held together without glue, even!

So, that unassuming package actually had one of the most competently wrapped blades of all I have tried.

The blade, itself, proved to be quite sharp. Not Feather sharp, but still quite a bit sharper than most other blades I tried.

The resulting shave is decent, but far from superb. It provides a perfectly competent shave without too many cuts or too much burning of the skin. Yet, still, there was some irritation and it did draw a bit of blood whereas a week old Dorco had not.

And after nearly a week of using the blade, it has held the edge competently, too.

The only real ding against the blade is that the little box doesn’t provide a means of disposing of the blades as do some other brands.

That word… competent… has come up often in describing this blade. Apt, too, as it really is a competent blade. Given the impression offered by the packaging, my surprise was the result of discovering a perfectly serviceable blade inside. The two other blades — Personnas and 7a.m. — in similar packaging were awful!

If Sharp Stainless were all I could find, I would have no complaints!

Can’t say I was expecting much from this particular blade. The name, the lettering, and — mostly — the packaging all scream “cheap blade” to me.

However, opening the little cardboard box revealed blades that were wrapped in two pieces of paper; the logo paper and an inner translucent wax paper. The fold is one of the tightest I have seen on a blade and, quite nicely, there was no glue on the blade!

Like the Dorco, I hadn’t shaved the day before trying the blade.

While the resulting shave is actually quite good in that it is quite smooth and the blade didn’t nick me at all, it pulled from the first stroke. The blade clearly isn’t dull — if it was, the quality of the shave would be sub-par — but it is as if the blade were catching and yanking on each hair before the cut.

Not surprisingly, this has left me skin with a bit of razor burn, especially under my chin.

Given the feel of this first shave, I doubt this blade is going to last the week.

For Christmas Eve, our tradition is to serve the Feast of the Seven Fishes.

This year, my parents and one of my sisters are in town. We were joined by our neighbor Ron.

As the name implies, the meal is composed of at least seven seafood dishes. Thus, a great excuse to pull out the full china settings and go for fancy table supreme!

Since my father is allergic to soft shelled seafood, this year’s feast included oysters, squid salad, clams, mussels, scallops, sole, and freshwater bass.


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One of the problems with the Chemex coffee maker is that it is utterly useless for making more coffee than you plan on consuming in one sitting simply because it does nothing to keep the coffee warm! We have guests coming in over the holiday break and I want to be able to make a pot of chemex, pour it into a thermos, pour some more hot water over the grounds (if you use enough grounds, this works great!!) and then our that into the thermos, too.

On the recommendation of one with a clear caffeine addiction, I picked up the Thermos Nissan 51 Ounce Stainless Steel Carafe pictured at left.

It does a brilliant job! I made coffee at about 10AM this morning and it was still hot — not burning hot, but hot enough — after 5pm in the afternoon! Better yet, the coffee maintained its flavor just about as well as one could expect! The caffeine addict that recommended the carafe indicated that pretty much all of Thermos’s Nissan line are top notch, too.

I tried putting the Chemex on a Bunn Warmer — was enticed by the name, obviously — but the combination of a hot bottom plus sides that shed heat rapidly meant that the coffee quickly turned ultra-nasty flavored. Yuck. The Bunn will prove useful; it turns out it heats water to pretty much the perfect temperature for brewing certain kinds of green tea that don’t tolerate boiling water without yielding bitter flavors!

After the last few blades, I have come to expect some stupid flaw with any new blade I try.

Much to my surprise, the Dorco Platinum ST-301 have none of the stupid and are quickly becoming one of my favorite blades!

The 301s come in little plastic boxes with 10 blades per box, double the # of blades per box as most of the other blades that I have tried. The plastic boxes have a slot on the back for used blades. So, combination of more blades per box & the disposal problem solved all in one.

Beyond that, the blades are individually wrapped in a much thinner than normal waxed paper (while remaining sealed). Better yet, there is no glue. Even the Wilkinson Sword, an otherwise excellent blade, had glue spots on the blade!

Of course… the shave… how is the shave?

When I switched to this blade, I inadvertently set it up for failure. First, I was coming off a week of the Bic blade, which had left my skin quite thoroughly irritated. I hadn’t shaved in slightly longer than normal and we were having one of those extremely rushed mornings. Worse, I had run out of prep oil and, thus, neither oiled my face or used a hot towel. I followed this with a turbo-shave; a super-fast two pass shave with only a little bit of time ensuring that the difficult bits were clean shaven.

A recipe for an epically bad shave.

However, the Dorco not only performed well, the blade provided one of the best shaves I’ve had! Beyond yielding an amazingly smooth result, there were no nicks and no skin irritation whatsoever!

The Dorco seems to somehow have all the sharpness of the Feather, but is a very forgiving blade. After a few days, it is still delivering a very high quality shave and I have yet to nick myself — something every other blade has done after a few days. This isn’t just an experience issue; somehow, the Dorco doesn’t draw blood on the handful of perpetual problem spots on my face that every other blade has tripped over.

Between the high quality shave and the excellent and efficient packaging, the Dorcos are quickly becoming my favorite blade. Better yet, they appear to be pretty damned cheap — 100 blades for about $9!

I had no idea that BIC — the cheap pen company — made double-edge razors. In particular, the BIC chrome platinum razor blade.

I really didn’t expect much from this particular blade. Like their pens, I fully expected the blade to be serviceable yet unremarkable.

Certainly, the packaging indicated total mediocrity. Contained in a hard to open cardboard box, each blade is individually wrapped in yellow waxed paper that is glued to the blade (sigh) with post-it like adhesive. Worse, the damned adhesive is o the cutting edge.

Not a good first impression.

However, the blade delivered a fantastically smooth first shave!! Better yet, it did so with relatively little effort!

Though the quality of the shave is awesome, the blade definitely irritated my skin more than most blades. My skin has just a slight razor burn feel to it (but no redness).

Surprising, to say the least.

As much as I had no confidence in the blade from first impression, I have equally as little confidence in blade durability.

Maybe the blade will surprise me on that front, too.

After a few days of shaving with this blade, it has surprised me. Namely, the blade continues to deliver a decent quality shave, but the blade is definitely showing signs of wear in that it has started to cut my face more frequently and more deeply.

This would be a good juncture to mention that a styptic pencil is a fine addition for any shaving kit “just in case”. Typical product shown at right — avoid the ridiculous shipping charge by picking one up at your local drug store.

Cadbury, get me my wilkinsons. I have an engagement at the club with Ms. Shroomshryer and need to be at my smoothest. Chop chop!

With a name like Wilkinson Sword Classic and such overwrought packaging (not shown) containing many words about the lineage and awesomeness of the triple coated edge, I expect this blade to give me a high society quality close shave. Whatever that means. All I know is that I can’t read Wilkinson Sword in anything but the stereotypical high-brow Richie Rich inflect.

Hopefully, the Wilkinson Sword (amazon search) blades will live up to their name.

Outside of the waste that is the card pack upon which the blade pack was attached (seen here), the Wilkinsons come in a plastic box with each blade wrapped in was paper. The box has a slot for used blades on the back.

I’m a little concerned by the glue splotches on the blade, though they are nowhere near as bad as the Astras nor are the splotches on the cutting edge itself.

Wow! I had inadvertently set up this blade for a bit of a first shave challenge, not having shaved the day prior (the Astras were just that meh).

Yet, the Wilkinson blade produced an excellent shave. Not only is it one of the smoothest shaves I have had, but the blade caused basically zero skin irritation at all (the Derby and Feather blades both produced a similar shave, but with just a tad of skin irritation).

Hopefully, the blade will prove to be durable, too.

As much as I would love to stick with the Derby’s, I shall persevere in my quest for the perfect blade.

This weeks blade is the Astra Superior Platinum.

In terms of shaving quality, the blade does OK. The result is a good clean shave without a lot of drama.

The blade does, however, pull a bit more than either the Derby or the Feather. It doesn’t necessarily feel that dull, it just pulls a bit and leaves the skin of my face ever so slightly irked at the whole experience.

Disturbingly, the blade is pulling significantly more after an only a few days of shaving than I would expect. At this point, the longevity of the Astra looks pretty short.

Even if the blade provided an excellent quality shave, I would still be looking for a different blade with as good or better results.

Why?

Because the Astra’s packaging just flat out sucks.

The blades come in 5 packs tucked away in little boxes. Not that big of a deal, but not nearly as convenient as the plastic boxes that typically have a used blade slot on the backside.

The real failure of the packaging is in how the blades are wrapped. DE razor blades are typically (always?) wrapped in wax paper or some other water resistant substance to prevent corrosion of the blade.

The Astras are wrapped in not one, but two, layers of waxy paper. Wasteful and annoying. Worse still, the inner wrapper is actually glued to the damned blade!

If you look closely at the scan of the blade to the left, you can see the four glue splotches on the blade (and that was after I had actually scraped the glue off a little bit)!

The glue is a sort of rubber cement — feels kinda like the glue on post-it notes — and, yes, it does collect gunk while shaving.

By the end of the week, the shave from this blade was nothing short of unpleasant. I had flipped the blade to glue side down to get a fresh edge that the quality of the shave was even worse than the other side. Looking at the image, the glue splotches are actually covering parts of the sharp edge and I have to wonder if that degrades the shave significantly.

In any case, this blade was better than the Personna, but that isn’t saying much.