I'm sorry to have to do this, but I have to moderate all the comments that come through here. Lately I've been bombarded with spam comments, and I'm getting tired of coming back and having to delete them. I love the comments, and almost all are welcome, but I'm just not happy with the robo comments about seeing other websites.
In other news, I've been busy trying to get a business started, and working on a doll house for a friend's granddaughter. Maybe later I will post pics of the doll house when it's done for all to see.
TTFN everyone.
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Saturday, March 2, 2013
Revisiting Keurig and Homemade Soda
I thought I would come back and revisit what I wrote about the Keurig Coffee machine and making homemade soda. Some discoveries recently made me feel like I need to shout out to the world about what I have found out. And I think I'm going to start off with the homemade soda first.
I just recently gotten (like yesterday) a keg and a picnic tap to make 5 gallons of carbonated water so that the kids and I can make our own choice of flavors for soda. Spent most of the day setting it up and carbing the water. My son made the first soda this morning and it turned out better than when we were using the 2 liter bottles and the Carbonator Cap. We are still working on how much syrup it will take for a glass of soda, and I need to get a better pump system for the syrup so we can measure it better, but the results, so far, exceed what I had hoped for.
As for the Keurig, we are still in love with it. I know I suggested to get the My K-Cup that Keurig makes for these machines, but been having problems with it. One of my biggest issues is that we have to pretty much take the machine apart to use it. I'm going to put mine away for emergencies. Solofil works wonders, but you need to have 2-3 on hand as constant use clogged it up and it had to be soaked in bleach to clean it. In my stumbling around on the internet, I ran across this site My-Cap. If you don't want to follow the link, these are reusable caps and cups that you can get. I ordered the sample pack and couldn't be more happier. They are just like the ones you can buy in the store, only you can fill them with what you want. We keep coffee in 3 of them, and the rest have tea bags just sitting in them. Much easier to use when half-asleep than trying to fill a Solofil or one of the others. They did sell a template for folding your own filters, but after looking at the site, it looks like they don't offer that anymore. We are still working on it here, but if you buy the 4 cup sized basket filters, you can shove one in the reusable cups, trim the top off and try that. But the first one we tried, it overflowed the cup, so need to work on that one some more. It's nice to be able to reuse these over and over again and not have to worry about running to the store to get more cups for the machine.
Sorry for my rambling, but when I get excited about something, I need to shout it out to the world. At least I'm trying to do my part with these 2 products/ideas so that my family won't add too much to the plastic waste heading to the landfills.
I just recently gotten (like yesterday) a keg and a picnic tap to make 5 gallons of carbonated water so that the kids and I can make our own choice of flavors for soda. Spent most of the day setting it up and carbing the water. My son made the first soda this morning and it turned out better than when we were using the 2 liter bottles and the Carbonator Cap. We are still working on how much syrup it will take for a glass of soda, and I need to get a better pump system for the syrup so we can measure it better, but the results, so far, exceed what I had hoped for.
As for the Keurig, we are still in love with it. I know I suggested to get the My K-Cup that Keurig makes for these machines, but been having problems with it. One of my biggest issues is that we have to pretty much take the machine apart to use it. I'm going to put mine away for emergencies. Solofil works wonders, but you need to have 2-3 on hand as constant use clogged it up and it had to be soaked in bleach to clean it. In my stumbling around on the internet, I ran across this site My-Cap. If you don't want to follow the link, these are reusable caps and cups that you can get. I ordered the sample pack and couldn't be more happier. They are just like the ones you can buy in the store, only you can fill them with what you want. We keep coffee in 3 of them, and the rest have tea bags just sitting in them. Much easier to use when half-asleep than trying to fill a Solofil or one of the others. They did sell a template for folding your own filters, but after looking at the site, it looks like they don't offer that anymore. We are still working on it here, but if you buy the 4 cup sized basket filters, you can shove one in the reusable cups, trim the top off and try that. But the first one we tried, it overflowed the cup, so need to work on that one some more. It's nice to be able to reuse these over and over again and not have to worry about running to the store to get more cups for the machine.
Sorry for my rambling, but when I get excited about something, I need to shout it out to the world. At least I'm trying to do my part with these 2 products/ideas so that my family won't add too much to the plastic waste heading to the landfills.
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Keurig Coffee Machine
Well, here it is, a new year. With all that has happened in the past year with losing a sister-in-law, brother-in-law, and my oldest brother, I need something new to redirect my life. There have been some good things in my life happen this year already, but are so personal, I can't relate to them on here. Here's to hoping 2013 will be the year we can turn our family and life around.
One of the things that did happen was a small, helpful bonus of money. Since they came out, I've kept my eye on the Keurig Single Serve Coffee maker. With this bonus money, the kids and I decided to go ahead and get one. It was love at first cup!!!! My boy loves coffee, my girl loves cocoa, and I'm a confirmed tea drinker. I did used to love coffee too, but over the past few years, coffee has given me terrible heartburn. Before getting this machine, coffee was going to waste in the pot, and all day long there was impatience with waiting for the kettle to whistle saying the water was hot enough to make tea and cocoa. The link above actually shows the model we did buy. But I do want to share some hints for everyone that would be helpful if you think this is a waste of money.
First hint: get either the My K-Cup, Ekobrew, or Solofill Cup Filter. I have both the My K-Cup and Solofill and like them both. Don't know much about the Ekobrew filter, but from other sites I've read, it works the same as Solofill. With any of these three, you can fill them with your own coffee and save a bunch of money by using MJB or Folgers ground coffee. You can even get small samples of coffee and try different flavors without wasting an entire pot if you don't like the coffee. The whole reason I suggest it is that those K-cups you buy in the store that are pre-made is expensive. We bought some when we bought the machine and I was in shock that it cost $22 for 36 of those cups. I could spend that much buying a pound can of coffee and 4 boxes of teabags and still have change left over. Here's a little bit of math for you-- 36 K-cups or 600 cups of tea and coffee (round figure, since I don't know how many cups of coffee could be made from a one pound can). I think you can see where I'm going with it.
Hint #2: and this is the big one. Being a tea drinker, I was searching the web to find out if anyone was able to use tea in this machine. Several people say just run it for the hot water and drop a teabag in the cup. I actually used both the My K-Cup and the Solofill with Red Rose Tea bags, pulling the string off and stuffing them in the filters of those 2 cups. The tea comes out tasting like it's sat and brewed for 10 minutes on the counter. The beauty of it is that I didn't have to wait that time for the kettle to heat-- or the 10 minutes for the bag to sit in the cup to brew. About 90 seconds (if that, I don't time it) I have a hot cup of tea, throw some sugar in it and I'm back to doing whatever I was doing.
We also have been successful with filling a Cup of Noodles cup with this machine. So that's makes it a win-win-win for this family. Everyone is happy with being able to choose what they want to drink and when. With winter in full swing here, we need all the hot drinks we can handle right now.
One of the things that did happen was a small, helpful bonus of money. Since they came out, I've kept my eye on the Keurig Single Serve Coffee maker. With this bonus money, the kids and I decided to go ahead and get one. It was love at first cup!!!! My boy loves coffee, my girl loves cocoa, and I'm a confirmed tea drinker. I did used to love coffee too, but over the past few years, coffee has given me terrible heartburn. Before getting this machine, coffee was going to waste in the pot, and all day long there was impatience with waiting for the kettle to whistle saying the water was hot enough to make tea and cocoa. The link above actually shows the model we did buy. But I do want to share some hints for everyone that would be helpful if you think this is a waste of money.
First hint: get either the My K-Cup, Ekobrew, or Solofill Cup Filter. I have both the My K-Cup and Solofill and like them both. Don't know much about the Ekobrew filter, but from other sites I've read, it works the same as Solofill. With any of these three, you can fill them with your own coffee and save a bunch of money by using MJB or Folgers ground coffee. You can even get small samples of coffee and try different flavors without wasting an entire pot if you don't like the coffee. The whole reason I suggest it is that those K-cups you buy in the store that are pre-made is expensive. We bought some when we bought the machine and I was in shock that it cost $22 for 36 of those cups. I could spend that much buying a pound can of coffee and 4 boxes of teabags and still have change left over. Here's a little bit of math for you-- 36 K-cups or 600 cups of tea and coffee (round figure, since I don't know how many cups of coffee could be made from a one pound can). I think you can see where I'm going with it.
Hint #2: and this is the big one. Being a tea drinker, I was searching the web to find out if anyone was able to use tea in this machine. Several people say just run it for the hot water and drop a teabag in the cup. I actually used both the My K-Cup and the Solofill with Red Rose Tea bags, pulling the string off and stuffing them in the filters of those 2 cups. The tea comes out tasting like it's sat and brewed for 10 minutes on the counter. The beauty of it is that I didn't have to wait that time for the kettle to heat-- or the 10 minutes for the bag to sit in the cup to brew. About 90 seconds (if that, I don't time it) I have a hot cup of tea, throw some sugar in it and I'm back to doing whatever I was doing.
We also have been successful with filling a Cup of Noodles cup with this machine. So that's makes it a win-win-win for this family. Everyone is happy with being able to choose what they want to drink and when. With winter in full swing here, we need all the hot drinks we can handle right now.
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