I'll admit it. No, not for myself, but I'll admit it for my husband, who doesn't see that he has a problem.
He LOVES infomercials.
When he gets off work, he dearly loves to unwind by watching television, and frequently, he falls asleep on the sofa. When he wakes in the small hours, the tv is most often displaying hour long commercials designed to sell products. And he works in the sales industry, and he is a rock star of a salesperson, able to sell an icemaker to an Eskimo, but for whatever reason, he gets sucked in. I wake to hear the stories of the greatest exercise dvds ever (TurboJam - and they actually were pretty good!) - George Foreman Grill, Magic Bullet, GrillDaddy, yadda yadda.
At Christmas, I asked him what he might want for a gift. He suggested a couple of things - a new belt, a tie - but said that he really wanted the COOLEST new product that he's recently seen on TV - the NUWAVE OVEN. I poked fun at him, but he was serious - it cooks with infared light, in just a fraction of the time, and makes cooking fun - no longer a tiresome chore! It broils, roast, grills, bakes, toasts, barbeques, steams...
Sorry, I got carried away there for just a minute.
I ordered the NuWave oven for him and presented it for Christmas. He professed to be delighted, and it sat on the dining table until this weekend. I happened to catch a commercial for the stupid thing and skeptic that I am, even I was swayed by watching. So I went to the store, bought a frozen turkey breast and put it in the fridge to thaw. Yes, I know that the oven is supposed to be able to cook a frozen turkey breast, but I was unsure and wanted to try with a thawed one first.
So Sunday afternoon I unpacked the oven, read the directions and got busy. I'll admit it - I was intrigued.
Would it brown? Would it cook? Would it be edible? Why should I use this incredibly EXPENSIVE countertop oven when I have a perfectly wonderful oven in my kitchen? Would it be juicy, flavorful and delicious?
You'd never know I gave up all caffeine except for my morning coffee, now, would you?
Well, the pictures tell their own story, and I'll let you decide for yourself.
The Cast of Characters:
The one problem that we saw right away was that the stoopid turkey breast would NOT balance breast up, but we were forced to cook it upside down - but Emma was enthralled nonetheless.
Only, time wasn't really up. I'd computed the weight of 8 pounds x 12 minutes per pound on the cooking guide for a thawed turkey breast and came up with 99 minutes. At the bell, though, the internal temperature was a chilly 140, and so I then took the weight of 8 pounds, multiplied it by the FROZEN cooking time of 15 minutes per pound, and subtracted 99 from that number. I then halved the number, for I knew it wasn't frozen, and popped it back in.
I will say that the turkey smelled really good, and it was easy to just stick it back in and turn it on. At the end of THAT cooking rotation, the internal temperature was 158, so in went the turkey for an additional 12 minutes. That brought the temp up to the correct level, and out it came.
Much to my stunning surprise, the dumb thing worked. That stupid, enormous countertop dinosaur of a machine actually cooked the turkey, and it was yummy and brown, juicy and the worst part of the whole thing - THE CLEAN UP WAS EASY.
I may never live it down - I can only imagine how many infomercial products I've just opened myself up to receive.
So, I got the SlapChop for Christmas, as a gag gift from my hubby - he knows how totally creeped out I am by Vince, the pitchman. I am so glad he picked it up from the Wal*Marts for the low, low price of 14 bucks, cause that sucker does not work. We played with it for an hour, trying to get it to chop some onion. There may have been some wine involved, ahem. I could have chopped a whole bag of onions in the time we played with it. Oh well, we had lots of laughs, and we don't buy anything else from the infomercials - although at 3:00 in the morning, they sure do make a lot of sense!!!
Posted by: Cheryl | January 12, 2010 at 11:43 PM
PS - that turkey looks yummy!!!
Posted by: Cheryl | January 12, 2010 at 11:44 PM
My 7 yr old son LOVES informercials. He is the same one that says "Can I ask you a question?" and loves Elvis & Charlie Chaplin. Given a messy purse he will quote dialog from Buxton Purse Organizer, messy hair Bump-it, pimple ProActive.He doesn't really watch that much tv , these things just intrique him.
Posted by: amie | January 13, 2010 at 12:20 AM
see I don't have TV reception at all so you just infomercialled blog style
Posted by: kyooty | January 13, 2010 at 07:02 AM
my aunt has this oven and has used it once. she had the ronco rotisserie cooker too. lol. she is 78. LOL.
my husband wanted freeze 24/7 eye cream last year in a BIG way b/c it works! he saw it on tv! when I gave it to him at cmas a month later he didnt even know what it was. He used it about 5 times. In 2 years.
He is a salesmans dream. You would your salesman hubby would be the opposite!
Posted by: mary | January 13, 2010 at 09:11 AM
TW is a huge "As seen on TV" fan. I feel your pain. ;-)
Posted by: Denise | January 13, 2010 at 10:14 AM
This post made me laugh. Q is dying for one of these.
Today's 'the day,' isn't it? I hope all goes well for you.
Posted by: Azul | January 13, 2010 at 12:17 PM
Well I'm not sure if I will report this to my son-in-law. He wanted us to get one for him but I had already spent close to what we spend on the kids, only had $75. more to spend on him. Then I read some links about it and just didn't think it would be a good investment. I guess I was wrong, that looks good enough to eat!
Posted by: Debby Pucci | January 13, 2010 at 02:15 PM
my kids have been begging for the touch and brush...if I thought it would REALLY keep the paste off my counter I might go for it..but I bet there would just be alot more paste to wipe up every day!!
Posted by: Patti | January 13, 2010 at 04:02 PM
Please, DO NOT let my husband or child see that infomercial! That's the last thing I need to see sitting on my countertop...
Posted by: Karen | January 13, 2010 at 04:14 PM
To Patti,
My kids want the touch & brush too! Everytime the commercial comes on I cringe & try to hide & then nod enthusiastically that yes it does look amazing.
Posted by: amie | January 13, 2010 at 04:57 PM
@Patti-the Touch and Brush works! I recently gave in and bought it. No spills yet. Carmen I haven't heard of this oven, but will Google it now. My son is able to recite whole scrips from commercials too.He believes all of them, and why shouldn't he? They seem pretty believable. That's b/c really talented ppl write them.
Posted by: Heather Bensel | January 13, 2010 at 09:00 PM
my mom has one of those as well as a Jet Stream Oven. and let me tell you- the Jet Stream is 100x better. I've been using one since I was in 3rd grade and wouldn't go without one. it's smaller and more compact for easier storage. works on the same principle (minus the infrared light- which doesn't do anything anyways)... healthy cooking and you don't have to wait for the oven to heat up and wait forever for those crispy tator tots (just an example!)
http://www.nesco.com/category_592cfc1ce975/subcategory_2b4eb3fd8f55/product_c86e3451a772/session_3474b095557d/
Posted by: Amy | January 14, 2010 at 12:33 AM
omg my girls want the touch and brush! we are NEVER getting one!! they would just break it and is it that hard to squeeze toothpaste???? but EVERY commercial!!
Posted by: mary | January 14, 2010 at 09:50 AM
LOL I WON a touch and brush in a blog contest over Christmas. Don't have it yet - cant' wait ha ha! I wanted a shamwow for xmas - begged everyone. After all, they gave me an unsolicited Snuggie for my birthday, so I needed the shamwow to go with, no? This Tuesday my daughter turned 9. She got lots of cool stuff. But the first thing I had her open was... drum roll... a shamwow. She handed it right to me and we all laughed. The sucker doesn't really work. Dang.
Posted by: Katherine | January 14, 2010 at 03:39 PM