Unwanted Christmas Presents.

[Nightjar]

According to the radio today, the Christmas presents that most often appear on eBay in January are DIY tools.

Colin Bignell

[Huge]

On 2010-12-20, Nightjar

[John Rumm]

Along with the foot spa?

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Certainly not here. DIY is a hobby to me. Doubt cleaning is for most wives.

[Phil Jessop]

And of course the Breville toaster!

[John Rumm]

I would much rather have the Breville... ;-)

[Owain]

I can imagine the foot spa being converted into a parts washer, but what would you use the Breville for?

Owain

[The Medway Handyman]

[Dave]

What ever happened to thin white bread? It toasted so well in a breville. Medium is not the same.

Dave

[John Rumm]

Cheese toasties, until the cheese gums them up that is ;-)

[The Medway Handyman]

A small nuclear reactor - judging by how hot the cheese filling was!

[Owain]

You want to try golden syrup ...

Owain

[ARWadsworth]

Cheese toasties with jalapenos and tabasco sauce. Mmmmmmmmm

[A.Clews]

Thus spake Owain ( [e-mail]) unto the assembled multitudes:

Torturing unwelcome visitors.

[Pete Verdon]

Even if it was a Performance Poo one with blades made out of cheese, bought by a well-meaning but clueless relative?

I suspect that's the cause of at least part of the ebay flood.

Pete

[Andrew Gabriel]

I have one of those in the back of the cupboard, dating back to my student days. I dug it out a year ago, and sad to say it hadn't been cleaned before being put away 30 years earlier (well, I was a student then;-). Anyway, I took the thing completely to pieces and cleaned it all out, and made myself a toasted cheese sandwich. Brought back memories, including the napalm effect of the cheese filling and the inability to taste anything for the next several days.

A week or so later, these were mentioned on R4's The News Quiz. Andy Hamilton summed them up perfectly with a comment that "After the first bite, it's impossible to tell what's the cheese filling, and what used to be the inside of your mouth".

[Mark A]

I did that with a deep fat fryer. Opened the lid after about three years of non-use to find a solid jellified mess of cooking oil. Needed a steam cleaner to even get it apart. After about ten run throughs in the dishwasher it was just about usable. Cooked a load of chips, which were very nice, and then didn't use it again for another couple of years. I rather fear it's in the same state again. This time I think I'll just buy one of those fryers that only use a cupful of oil and bin the solid one.

Regards

Mark

[Chris J Dixon]

Although they are not quite the same, simply coating chip-shaped pieces of potato with olive oil and cooking them in the oven on a baking tray gives a very similar result with far less mess and equipment.

Chris

[Dave Plowman (News)]

If you use a frier quite a bit, there's not much to be cleaned up, etc. Certainly easier than cleaning an oven.

Of course not worth it for once in a blue moon.

[Tony Bryer]

One of our big supermarkets is running a deep discount promo on a George Foreman Turbo Oven, effective a Pyrex bowl with a big fan heater above it. It's only $49 (£32) and every time I walk by I feel tempted to buy one, then remind myself that I have catered for myself for 30+ years without ever needing one. A month ago I was feeling the same about the Sunbeam electric frypan, then on promo at half the regular price but the recent cholesterol count confirms I do not need a frypan!

I will say that my GF-clone grill has had a lot of use since I bought it.