Sunday 17 May 2009

Kitchen Utensils


My in-laws just purchased these (not knowing that I ordered them from Amazon) at WM. They left the receipt. I was shocked to find that I paid 5.68 on Amazon and they paid only 1.72 at WM. The same product (number is the same). I'm not sure how good the product is but I must say that I look to Amazon for a fair price and this definitely wasn't. Rubbermaid Servin´ Saver Deluxe Ice Cube Tray

H A P P Y....U P D A T E: I have just discovered that these ice-cube trays are one of only four or five types of ice-cube trays sold on Amazon which are B.P.S.-FREE. This means that if you put anything HOT IN THEM, THAT THE PLASTIC WILL N O T LEECH INTO THE LIQUID! (One of the few other B.P.S.-Free ice-cube trays is actually the old, traditional ice-cube tray, made this time not of aluminum, but of stainless steel...which, of course, will never leach plastic into anything! It's just harder to get the ice-cubes OUT of it.) This B.P.S.-Freedom in plastics is important with ALL plastic utensils, I think (the new Vitamix 5200 boasts BPS-free misxing containers, whereas all previous VitaMix models did not have them, etc.) If you're like me, you like to boil your water first before putting it in the ice-cube trays. (It's more like bottled water this way). I'd still recommend letting the water cool off a bit if you can -- ALL ice-cube trays tend to bend convexly, (like an UPSIDE-DOWN "U"), if you put them into the freezer with very hot water in them. Wouldn't you know it, though -- these RUBBERMAID 2867-RD-WHT ice-cube trays, here being reviewed, actually come with a slightly CONCAVE shape, when new, to prevent pssible disasters, (which eventually can break the tray in two). The designers of this wonderful new, B.P.S.-Free Rubbermaid ice-cube tray, sure seem to have thought of EVERYTHING! : )



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O R I G I N A L.....R E V I E W.......:



I have developed an absolute PASSION for ice-cube trays! Maybe it's the sense of INDEPENDENCE one gets as you make ice cubes from your very OWN liquid source. My souce of choice is HME DISTILLED WATER, which I doubt can be used with any automatic ice-cube maker. Then again, I have never bought a refill for the "newfangled" automatic ice-cube maker that came with my new condo's refrigerator.



At any rate, I cherish the one, light green plastic ice-cube tray that came with a "new" refrigerator, (new then, anyway), bought in the early 1960s by my parents. I have two, white, sem-transparent ice-cube trays, which came with the second refrigerator we bought, sometime in the 1970s, or 1980s. Both types make great ice-cubes...IF you're willing to wait for 5 minutes, for the ice inside to melt enough to come out easily. (If you're really in a hurry, one trick I found works well is to run very HOT water in a light stream, over the BOTTOM of this kind of ice-cube tray.) Of course, old-fashioned aluminum ice-cube trays work fine too...and give almost instantaneous ice -- BUT I, at least, often wondered if one should really need the strength of a gally slave, to pull back the lever in the middle of the three rows of cubes, in order to set them, er..."free". (And aluminum ice-cube trays rarely produce uniformly sized ice-cubes....)



After a DISASTROUS experience via "silicone" ice-cube trays, (for which I have also written a review for Amazon -- mine were offered by [...]...but the review stands for ANY ice-cube trays made of

"treacherous" silicone), I happened to spy these other, RUBBERMAID 2867-RD-white" ice-cube trays on Amazon. They seemed expensive -- and were sold singly, and not in pairs. However...THEY WERE NOT MADE OF SILICONE...(Hooray!)...and WERE made by Rubbermaid...which had also made my light-green, and semi-transparent white trays, which came with my parents' old refrigerators They were expensive for ice-cube trays, at $2.49 each...but not, in the course of things, an overly-expensive item.

So, I bought two......



Ever critical of new things, I at first did NOT like the new ice-cube trays when I got them. The solid white of the plastic was obviously not transparent like my old trays....and seemed to be made of slightly thinner plastic, as well. But......when I put water in the trays, something very strange happend,,, Instead of just lying in the trays, as water is wont to do, the water in the new ice-cube trays seemed to form a very slight, but quite noticable, CONVEX top! It was almost as if these ice-cubes-to-be suddenly wanted to become transparent little muffins or something! Hmmm... Before putting the trays in the freezer, I happened to glance at the bottom of the trays. Each cube well was slightly ROUNDED, unlike the squarish-shaped wells of all my former plastic ice-cube trays. Hmmm....(again1) Pots and pans with rounded bottoms are always easier to clean than those with squarish bottoms! I detected a bit of serious thought and careful engineering, from the unknown creators of these new ice-cube trays. Carefully and excitedly, I put the trays in my freezer. And waited....



In about an hour, I went to the freezer again. I gave the ice-cube tray a very slight twist. IMMEDIATELY, the ice cubes came out -- happily, I like to think. I know I was happy! No more waiting for 5 minutes for the ice to thaw enough for it to come out! No more running hot water on the bottom of the tray, (hoping this would not --if done repeatedly-- ruin it). No! These trays produced cubes that came out with the slightet of twists...and, if one waits 30 seconds, with NO twisting at all!



So, these ice-cube trays have made a small dream of mine come true. It's comforting to realize that those who create ice-cube trays have also had the same problems with them that I have had....and also were able to put their expertise and experience, (which, of course, I don't have), to help solve these problems!



Better ice-cube trays are a small, but definite step forward. I greatly thank the unknown engineer(s) who worked so successfully on them. It's amazing to think that in the 1890s, they wanted to CLOSE the patent office, because they thought everything that could be invented, had been invented! Thank goodness THAT didn't happen!



Go to the moon? Yes, we've done that! Women voting? Yes indeed! And we now, (at this date, 30th August, 2008), have had 2 women as vice presidential candidates for major political parties. A woman president cannot be far behind.....



Other dreams? Time-machines? Bringing the dead back to life? Having those presently living live on and on...for 700 years or more? Why not?

Already, we have cured dyptheria, polio and leprosy -- among other ills!

If the spirit of problem-facing, and problem-solving, lives on those talented individuals who have the same wants and desires as everyone else....but who also have the incomparable gifts of intellect and will, to solve them...who knows what wonders may happen in the coming decades, (that is, if we don't blow ourselves up, or pollute the environment to a non-habitable point). As a "realistic optimist", I know good OR bad things can happen in the future. And every time I use these new ice-cube trays, it will reinforce my belief that the good will prevail!



As they say in New York......EXCELSIOR!'


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