7QuickTakes + 5Favorites

1.  My sweet and thoughtful friend, Texas Rose, gave me a gift subscription to Birchbox for my birthday!

Birchbox is like a "cosmetic sample of the month" club.  Once a month, I get a lovely little package with trial size beauty products chosen just for me.  I had to fill out a preference page, so the folks at Birchbox have an idea of what I like.

I liked everything that came in this first box.  Some of the items I loved, so I went back to the Birchbox website to order some full-size versions.

If you order something that was in your monthly Birchbox, you don't pay any shipping.

Birchbox makes a lovely birthday or shower gift.  If you'd like to order one for yourself or a friend, use this link, and I get points toward my next potion purchases.

2.  This is my full size order that came today.

I received the Whish Shave Cream in blueberry in my sample box.  The product was wonderful, but the blueberry fragrance was not my favorite flavor.  Undeterred, I ordered the full-size version in pomegranate.

3.  I also ordered the Color Club four pack of pastel neon nail polishes.  The green color, "London Calling" had come in my box.  Lucy loves it, as do I.  Susan is absolutely addicted to neon nail polishes lately, so I cannot wait to share these with her when she comes home on Wednesday.  *Happy Dance*

The operative word is "share."

Cut me some slack.  It's very hard to paint one's own right hand.

This orange color is called "The Reign in Spain."

You may have noticed I also ordered Miss Jessie's Jelly Soft Curls.  Well, that wasn't in my box, but I'm desperate for some kind of frizz control.  If this doesn't work, I may have to take Anne's advice and get the Keratin Treatment.

4.  Why are razor blades the single most expensive toiletry item for men?  Why do they break the bank at $50 a multi-pack at Costco?

The girls and I are perfectly content with Bic Soleil, which are about $2 each, but the Chef likes his Gillette 3000 or other comparably posh brand.

Enter Dollar Shave Club.

Like Birchbox for men (Birchbox does have a box for men feature, by the way), the Dollar Shave Club sends razors and refills to your door on a monthly basis.

Patrick got his first delivery this week.

For $6 a month, he gets one razor and four blades.  I don't think he goes through blades that quickly, so once we amass a stockpile, I'll probably cancel the subscription for awhile.

You can choose between $1 a month (plus shipping with this option only), the $6 plan, or the deluxe $9 version.

I don't know what Patrick thinks about the product, but I haven't heard any complaints.  I am especially pleased with the price.

Also, the commercial for Dollar Shave Club is hilarious.

If you subscribe to Dollar Shave Club though this link, I get $5 credit towards Patrick's beardbusters.

5.

The Cadillac of charcoal grills

We eat grilled food at least once a week all year round.  Yes, even in the dead of winter, you can find Patrick grilling rink-side.

During the summer months, we probably grill five to seven times a week.  Four of my five children know how to light the coals.  We use a propane starter, but it's still a good 30-45 minutes before the coals are ready.

Lately, I've been wondering if there isn't a way to make the process speedier and more cost effective.

I've been thinking about going over to the dark side, the gas grill side, even though my husband, aka Archbishop LeGrille wrote an encyclical called Grillitatis Splendor, in which using a gas grill is the cooking equivalent of using artificial contraception.

Then someone I know and trust linked to this article on charcoal grilling on Wired.com.

Guaiacol is an aroma compound produced when you use heat to break down lignin, the resin responsible for holding strands of cellulose together to form wood. “It has a smoky, spicy, baconyaroma,” says Sacks. “In fact, the flavor that most people associate with bacon is largely degraded lignin.”
Translation: Cooking over charcoal makes your food taste like bacon. Let me repeat that: blah blah charcoal blah blah BACON.

Did you read that?  blah blah charcoal blah blah BACON.

I can't argue with that.

6.  Until I read this article, also from Wired.com.

 Fourth of July is hobby grilling.  But what about the 22nd of June, or the 12th of August — when temps are in the 80s and all you want is to be in your backyard with a beer and a hunk of meat to cook? Instead, it’s 6 p.m., you’re at the office, the kids need to eat by 7, and you still have to go to the store.
This, my friend, is why a gas grill rules.

This quote clinches it for me:

I can walk in my door with a bag of groceries at 6:30, and have grilled chicken on the table at 7, a happy family praising a delicious dinner. The most precious commodity in the world, the one resource that none of us has enough of, that’s constantly dwindling until we die, is time.A gas grill claws back time for you every time you use it. Grill three times a week over the course of a summer, and you’ll have saved yourself a full day. A day! Think of what you can do with an extra day, provided to you by your gas grill.

So basically, if you want your food to taste like bacon (which I do, believe me, I do) you should fire up the Weber Kettle.  But if you need a time machine, the microwave of grills, if you will, you need a propane grill.

What about cost?

I know that gas grills cost a lot more up front, but I'm hauling home 20lb. sacks of coals to the tune of $15-$20 a week.  Googled it.  Yup.  Just as I suspected.  I'm bleeding money.

Gas grills typically cost more than charcoal grills, but they cost less to use. Assuming that it costs $15USD to fill a 20 pound propane bottle that gives you 25 cookouts and that 20 pounds of charcoal runs around $10USD and gives you three cookouts you will spend about $.60USD per every time you fire up the gas grill and around $3.50 on the charcoal grill. If you grilled every week you would spend $31.20USD in propane or $182USD on charcoal. Of course there is more to the Gas versus Charcoal debate than cost, but if you grill a lot gas is far more economical.

Wait a minute.  This line, from the very same page, can't be true.

Fuel Efficiency
You can greatly reduce your fuel expense for your grill by avoiding excessive preheating. Most gas grills are ready to cook in 5 to 10 minutes, and most charcoal is ready in about 15 minutes. If you are ready to cook the second your grill is, and you turn your grill off as soon as you are done you can reduce your fuel consumption greatly. When using charcoal, only use as much as you absolutely need. Most grills will cook great on about 5 pounds of charcoal. It also helps if you have a charcoal grill that can be shut down (see the next item). Conserve fuel and grill more.

Most charcoal is ready in about 15 minutes?  What am I doing wrong?

According to Mr. K. C. Masterpiece,

How to Tell When Coals Are Ready

• Good quality charcoal briquets – like new Kingsford® Sure Fire Charcoal – should be ready in about 15 minutes. They should be at least 70 percent covered with ash and have a slight red glow.
• To estimate the temperature of the coals, hold your hand, palm side down, about six inches above the coals. Count "one thousand one, one thousand two, etc.," until the heat is uncomfortable and you have to pull your hand away. If you can keep your hand in place for:
• 2 seconds – it's hot, about 375 degrees or more
• 3 seconds – it's medium-hot, about 350 to 375 degrees
• 4 seconds – it's medium, about 300 to 350 degrees
• 5 seconds – it's low, about 200 to 300 degrees

I'll have to check this out.  We usually wait until the coals are completely white/grey with ash.  As I said, that can take 45 minutes.  

But FIFTEEN!  minutes?  I highly doubt it.  

Mr. K. C. Masterpiece is probably drinking buddies with Mr. Christopher Kimball over at the America's Test Kitchen conglomerate.  

Mr. Kimball frequently tells me things like, "simmer until reduced by half, about 5-7 minutes."  

My food tastes damn good, but the times are always off.

Mr. Kimball is a pathological liar.

I cook on a bares bones Frigidaire gas stovetop that sags a wee bit in the middle (because some child stood on it to access verboten treats).  What takes Mr. Kimball an easy 5 to 7, takes me 30 to 40 ev.er.y.time.  I'm pretty sure the fancy-pants-blowtorch-with-burners that he's using has a lot more firepower than my home stove.

For example, Mr. Kimball's magazine states that the Alabama Chicken (June/July 2006) will be ready to eat after 45 minutes on the grill.  I don't know what went wrong on Independence Day this year, but those bird parts took at least twice that long, more like four times that long.  

We are picky about chicken though.  We like it well-done but still juicy.  No pink.  Hopefully, that's the way Chris likes it too.

Call me a skeptic, but I sincerely doubt my coals will be covered with 70% ash after 15 minutes. Maybe if I lit like 10 coals.  The man I married likes his fires BIG and indirect.  Always indirect.  That's a technical term for banked up against the side of your Weber Kettle.

Methinks I need a gas grill.

7.

I'm a teacher, but I'm still totally boss.

If you didn't see this NPR piece on a teacher who wore the same outfit to Picture Day every year for forty years, here you go.  This man puts hipsters to shame.

Linking up with Hallie for Five Favorites and Jen for 7 Quick Takes Friday.