Just got back from the other city of lights, Las Vegas. It has been a little while since my last visit and the city continues to change, and not always for the better. We have family there and it is always good to get away for a visit with them. Others came in from other towns and we quickly made a mini reunion of the shared few days. It was a good visit.
Before becoming a married man, I used to travel to Las Vegas pretty often throughout the year. Again, it is good to have family there for visits but it was also fun to see the city, the lights, and the people and just generally take in the energy that the place gives off.
It has been very interesting to see the growth, and imagination that surrounds a city full of possibilities. Over the years I have seen many different buildings and attractions come and go. Some for the better and some I truly miss.
In the past each casino or family of casinos had a unique take on their interpretation of the Vegas experience. It was fun to compare the different approaches by wondering around the city and seeing the way the buildings were decorated inside and out, to see the costumes that were worn and to notice the type of clientele that would frequent the establishments. The people were as varied as the four corners of the earth they came from. All walks of life were represented and all found a place wither it was the flash of Caesar’s or the clown tent atmosphere of Circus Circus. They also shared a common interest which created a kind of harmony within the segregated world that is Vegas. A person could spend hours just watching the people and never have to drop a penny to be entertained.
As I said, each casino had its own method of trying to draw in the crowds and they genuinely tried to compete for your business. There were attractions for you to come and gawk at, special room rates and unbelievable buffets at very reasonable prices. You could come to town and have a quick get away without feeling like it was a big production event or the one and only vacation you took for the year. You felt like there was value for your money and not just a feeling that you saved for a lifetime to spend it all on an overpriced vacation destination like you would find in Southern California or Mid Florida for example.
Now let me state here and now that I am not a gambler. I have tried it a few times and find that it is not for me. Very small stuff, I think a half roll of quarters was the biggest slot play I had done. I preferred playing pinball truth be told. I also understand statistics and odds and I know when the odds are stacked against the player that it is better not to play. In all the years of visiting cities that offer gambling the one thing I have noticed is that their house always got bigger while I continued to live in the same dwelling. Funny thing that.
In fact, I enjoyed going to watch the people and the promotions, the marketing and the advertising, the attractions and the attracted if you will. There is a definite psychology involved here and learning it would stand anyone well in the business world and in life. I haven’t learned all there is to learn by any means but I have learned that greed is a great motivator and selling point for those wishing to draw in customers. Like any business, there are those that can do it with integrity and there are those that sink to deception.
Las Vegas has always had its share of scammers and shillers and it doesn't take much work to distinguish between those you would be willing to do business with and those that you would never visit (or never again if they took you in once).
Because there were different casinos there was competition and they honestly tried to attract your business with effort. Lately though the city has gone through major merger and acquisition activity to the point that there are only a few very big operators. This is a shame because some of the once great names in the industry have become nothing more than corporate facades. Though they thought they could find economies of scale by combining marketing forces and increasing buying power through combined purchases of supplies, what they really did was decrease the level of choice by homogenizing the casino experience.
Sure the carpet is different and the color scheme changes as you go from one casino to the next, but is it really any different. As the mergers have made the companies interchangeable, the building architecture has done likewise to the point that you can walk from one to the next, staying indoors and sometimes not even realize that you have changed casinos. (This is not just a Vegas phenomenon as I have noticed this in Reno and a few other places as well.)
So change happens I know. That is one of the things that Vegas does best. It is in a continual state of reinventing itself. It will continue to try to come up with the next best new thing for tomorrow. Unfortunately it still needs to live with today, and that brings me to the travelers alert.
The bargains of yesterday are no more.
I know that this simple saying will bring some mockery by anyone that is or has been a regular visitor to Las Vegas and I even find myself hesitating to put it out there. I have traveled to Las Vegas less and less over the last few years for the very fact that it is not the same bargain destination that allowed me to visit so often in the past. I was the first to lament the loss of the bargain buffets and got sticker shock as the price of the special treats I used to allow myself such as the Friday night Seafood buffet at Sams Town went over $10 and then quickly went over $20. I was saddened when Hoover Dam started charging for parking and then gave more expensive abbreviated tours. I miss the factory tours at the marshmallow factory and the Ocean Spray bottling plant. I hope they never close Ethel M’s though they had just shut down for a remodel while I was there.
Most of all I miss the free admittance ticket I always received at the Imperial Palace to see the wonderful collection of cars in their auto collection. I am a car nut and this was a regular stopping place for a guy who could appreciate just such a collection. I didn’t make it this trip because the gal passing out the passes in the front of the casino only had 'buy one get one' coupons and that wouldn’t do me any good this trip. Sorry Imperial but I didn’t even enter the building when I found out what you had done. I felt betrayed.
(By the way, in front of the Imperial Palace was the only place I would take something from the people that were handing out little pieces of paper. All along that street are other people handing out pieces of paper most of which gets thrown away immediately when it is discovered that it is just some advertising smut. Some makes it to garbage cans but much of it ends up on the ground. Like the people that litter a parking lot with advertisements placed on your windshield, this practice should be stopped.)
But the last straw that is breaking this regular’s back is the introduction of tacky tack on fees. The hotel Orleans where we stayed for part of this visit has introduced a “Resort surcharge fee” on top of their normal daily rate. WARNING; this is not the only place to start charging this fee. The fee is supposed to cover free local and toll free calls from the room, in-room coffee (which I don’t drink), discount coupons, 10 minutes internet access in the business center and use of the fitness center. The price for all these ‘resort’ amenities is $5 per day. Not a great deal of addition given the room rate I got but still this is the chintziest of pricing gimmicks and irritates me no end. Orleans is part of the Boyd group and I would guess that they have added this pricing tactic to all their other hotels as well. By the way, the $5 surcharge was one of the lower add-ons as I saw as much as $25 per day to stay at the new M Resort.
First off, as I said; I hate pricing gimmicks. I can usually see through them and figure out the true price but I just hate the idea of them and will usually walk rather than deal with a business that stoops to these kinds of practices. (Are you listening out there? I dislike this practice so much that I will go elsewhere.) Second, the Orleans was at least somewhat up front about it and put notices in many places so that you would not be caught unawares. They even have signs on the counter at check-in and make you sign a form saying you acknowledge the charge at check-in. This is much better than finding out after the fact and trying to correct what you might think is an overcharge. Then again, with the number of notices placed I would bet they have got many a guest in a difficult and shocked end of trip gotcha. Third, the claimed resort surcharges provides for amenities that are generally standard (i.e. included) at any equivalent hotel. To pretend that there is enough value in these piddly offerings to charge extra for them whether they are used or not is really just sad.
To see this trend extend to so many hotels in the Vegas area is even sadder.
Local calls and toll free numbers should be free to call no matter what hotel you stay at. I am always amazed when I am staying at one of the nicer places and they want to charge you to make a call. At least the choice is yours. I am also surprised and disappointed when I stay at a more expensive hotel that wants to charge extra to use the fitness room. Just what does all that extra cost actually get me if not the nicer bed, the bigger towels, the bigger TV and some special perks that you can’t find at the budget stays? If I more than double the price of the local Motel 6 and all I get extra is a little vial of shampoo, lotion and conditioner then I will feel ripped off.
So now when I do go to Vegas and I have to play games to figure out what the room is really costing me and I feel like I am being nickeled and dimed, then perhaps it is time for me to start looking elsewhere for a new quickie getaway spot. If you have any suggestions I would love to hear them. Everyone needs a break from the daily grind, and it shouldn’t have to make you break the bank to do it. I know that everyone has different levels of what constitutes a bargain basement getaway but that is what makes it fun.
On the other hand, with as many traffic cops as there are out there (thank you homeland security) perhaps I would be safer to leave the car in the drive, catch the bus and visit the local Wal-Mart for a fun filled afternoon of people watching. I think it just might fill some of the same niche that Vegas used to do for me…and I might still find a bargain or two.
This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.
23 April 2009
28 March 2009
Three Stooges redone???
So Hollywood is at it again. Since they are so hard pressed to come up with any original ideas, they are easily sold on doing repackaging of current hits, sequels, or doing remakes of old classics. It is the remaking of old classics that I have had the most problems with. 9 times out of 10 they can't do it. The old classics are true classics that only work with actors, action and story lines that come within the context of the era. Very few actors are capable of recreating the magic of a past era let alone pulling off a credible re-creation of a past master. A poster of the Mona Lisa from the gift shop is not the same thing as the original. (I hesitate to use this example as many suspect that the Mona Lisa that so many enjoy at the Louvre is actually a reproduction. I guess that just shows that there is always a market for those that don't know any better or can't tell the difference.)
So what possible remake could they do that would cause enough of a stir to deserve a comment? It seems the Farrelly brothers, who I am guessing are big fans of the original and want to find more of the magic they once knew, are redoing the Three Stooges. All I can say is that if you are really fans of the original icons, then please do not do this. You will try to modernize it and then have it go through the Hollywood politically correctness department and before you know it you have disaster on your hands.
Case in point is the proposed cast of Jim Carrey, Benicio Del Toro and Sean Penn. Jim Carrey has enough talent that he is the only possibility (given the right team of writers, directors, other cast members, etc.) of pulling something like this off. I would prefer to see him doing something new, fresh and original that would draw on all his strengths but this is Hollywood and we shouldn't expect so much.
The other two are where we cement the disaster. Benicio is a face I recognize but I can't for the life of me associate it with anything remotely labeled as greatness especially in the comedy category. He is a fine actor and can serve up a decent supporting role but this role would be a stretch for anyone. Sean Penn on the other hand hasn't done anything worthwhile of late, and some would argue ever. This is one of the many examples of overrated personalities that somehow manage to continue to find work in show business.
I just pulled is bio on IMDB and he has been involved in a lot of things, it is an impressive resume, at least for volume. I still remember the movie 'The Pledge' as one of the absolute worst pictures at that time only to find out at the end that he was the producer and director. How sad for me (I lost 2 hours and the price of admission). His recent stuff tends to play to the Hollywood insider crowd and that was enough to win him an Oscar promoting the homo sexual agenda. Yet another example of why I do not follow the award ceremony anymore, they've lost their way and are no longer concered about the movies and the entertainment industry.
By the way, I was reading some of the comments that came with the news article, and they were not flattering concerning the casting call nor were they even remotely kind for the selection of Sean Penn. There are a lot of people that feel Sean Penn has been anti-American in many of his comments and actions of late and it shows in the feedback to this announcement of his selection. If this industry still fashions itself to be a business, I would think two and three times before adding him to the cast. The type of audience this movie should be geared towards will actively boycott the Penn selection while the type of audience that Sean Penn would normally attract do not get and well not understand or appreciate the Three Stooges. I would do a quick rethink before too much money has been invested; try to salvage what you can.
That is what makes it all the more strange to pick these three as Hollywood is all about playing it safe when it comes to making big ticket movies and by that I mean they don't take very many chances on unknown quantities. They are pretty good at rehashing (or should I say 'paying tribute too') old story lines and ideas. The vaults are full of examples and the new releases just confirm it. I watched Bolt yesterday and couldn't count how many times I thought of the T.V. show Animaniacs, ('Now that's comedy). Bolt shows that you can take a classic or at least elements of the classic and create a parallel product that can be entertaining without smashing the toes of the original. I still really wish they would have made a Mission Impossible “like” movie with Tom Cruise rather than an actual Mission Impossible movie. It was a fair movie that could have stood on its own but it is in no way related to the T.V. show that made the title famous.
So my suggestion to you Farrelly brothers, throw away the title and the names of the characters, unless you just use them as a working title. Just like there are tribute bands that play in appreciation of the bands they love and the music they enjoy, call this a tribute movie because it will not be the original and there are far too many fans that will know it. Create a movie "like" the Three Stooges would make if they were still around but use your own characters and your own story and give it a new name and title and look. And if you ‘have to’ use Sean Penn, please keep him in the background and at least try to make him funny and not just a laughing stock. My biggest question now is will they use a laugh track. Will they need one?
This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.
So what possible remake could they do that would cause enough of a stir to deserve a comment? It seems the Farrelly brothers, who I am guessing are big fans of the original and want to find more of the magic they once knew, are redoing the Three Stooges. All I can say is that if you are really fans of the original icons, then please do not do this. You will try to modernize it and then have it go through the Hollywood politically correctness department and before you know it you have disaster on your hands.
Case in point is the proposed cast of Jim Carrey, Benicio Del Toro and Sean Penn. Jim Carrey has enough talent that he is the only possibility (given the right team of writers, directors, other cast members, etc.) of pulling something like this off. I would prefer to see him doing something new, fresh and original that would draw on all his strengths but this is Hollywood and we shouldn't expect so much.
The other two are where we cement the disaster. Benicio is a face I recognize but I can't for the life of me associate it with anything remotely labeled as greatness especially in the comedy category. He is a fine actor and can serve up a decent supporting role but this role would be a stretch for anyone. Sean Penn on the other hand hasn't done anything worthwhile of late, and some would argue ever. This is one of the many examples of overrated personalities that somehow manage to continue to find work in show business.
I just pulled is bio on IMDB and he has been involved in a lot of things, it is an impressive resume, at least for volume. I still remember the movie 'The Pledge' as one of the absolute worst pictures at that time only to find out at the end that he was the producer and director. How sad for me (I lost 2 hours and the price of admission). His recent stuff tends to play to the Hollywood insider crowd and that was enough to win him an Oscar promoting the homo sexual agenda. Yet another example of why I do not follow the award ceremony anymore, they've lost their way and are no longer concered about the movies and the entertainment industry.
By the way, I was reading some of the comments that came with the news article, and they were not flattering concerning the casting call nor were they even remotely kind for the selection of Sean Penn. There are a lot of people that feel Sean Penn has been anti-American in many of his comments and actions of late and it shows in the feedback to this announcement of his selection. If this industry still fashions itself to be a business, I would think two and three times before adding him to the cast. The type of audience this movie should be geared towards will actively boycott the Penn selection while the type of audience that Sean Penn would normally attract do not get and well not understand or appreciate the Three Stooges. I would do a quick rethink before too much money has been invested; try to salvage what you can.
That is what makes it all the more strange to pick these three as Hollywood is all about playing it safe when it comes to making big ticket movies and by that I mean they don't take very many chances on unknown quantities. They are pretty good at rehashing (or should I say 'paying tribute too') old story lines and ideas. The vaults are full of examples and the new releases just confirm it. I watched Bolt yesterday and couldn't count how many times I thought of the T.V. show Animaniacs, ('Now that's comedy). Bolt shows that you can take a classic or at least elements of the classic and create a parallel product that can be entertaining without smashing the toes of the original. I still really wish they would have made a Mission Impossible “like” movie with Tom Cruise rather than an actual Mission Impossible movie. It was a fair movie that could have stood on its own but it is in no way related to the T.V. show that made the title famous.
So my suggestion to you Farrelly brothers, throw away the title and the names of the characters, unless you just use them as a working title. Just like there are tribute bands that play in appreciation of the bands they love and the music they enjoy, call this a tribute movie because it will not be the original and there are far too many fans that will know it. Create a movie "like" the Three Stooges would make if they were still around but use your own characters and your own story and give it a new name and title and look. And if you ‘have to’ use Sean Penn, please keep him in the background and at least try to make him funny and not just a laughing stock. My biggest question now is will they use a laugh track. Will they need one?
This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.
22 March 2009
Product Review: Vacuum food savers.
I am sure many of you have seen the infomercials advertising home vacuum sealers to preserve food. The idea is to buy in bulk and save money then repackage with the vacuum sealer to use the food in a more suitable manner, either through sizing or just allowing more time to use the food before it spoils. It is a great idea and I was hooked.
I am a great conservative and love to save money and with careful shopping you can find some items that are cheaper when bought in bulk (though that is not always the case, so shop smart and read the labels and calculate and compare) and if not you can always wait for a really good sale and stock up. Problem is when you stock up really big on a really good sale, will you have time to eat it all before it goes bad? When I was single I had a hard time finishing half a loaf of bread before it started growing penicillin in its natural state. Vacuum sealing food sounds like just the answer I was looking for.
Next problem, as many of you may have seen the same infomercial and have been tempted to jump on board, is the price of these popular units. Foodsaver which is the company that made the idea of vacuum sealing so popular has several different units on their web site beginning at $79.99 and running up to $299.99. The one on T.V. seems to have been priced around $129. That rates an ouch in my book and I just couldn’t justify it so I never bothered, though it was always in the back of my mind that if I could find a decent price on one I would probably go ahead and get one.
Years went by, I got married and I came across a Rival brand sealer that was on close out at the local megalamart. Since there were now two of us to share one machine’s usage and the price was around $50 I quickly talked myself into it.
The Rival machine works pretty much the same as the Foodsaver machine as near as I can tell. Looking at the two side by side they look very similar and comparing our usage method to that seen in the demonstrations given for T.V. I would say that they are comparable.
I must say that we did have fun with it…for a time. It was way fun to put food in a bag and suck the air out. We created a mini production facility and went to work sealing away blocks of cheese and family pack purchases of meat for later use. We felt like we were doing ourselves good by our efforts. The packages went into the freezer and the food stayed useable long after other buys would have been tossed. The idea worked.
Mostly..., as I mentioned, we would set up a mini production facility I meant that in a fun way but the reality is that you almost had to set up a small production run whenever you wanted to use the sealer. Because there was extra effort involved in set up and clean up, the sealer got used less and less as time went on.
Also, you had to buy rolls of material and create your own bags in the size you wanted or buy pre-made, pre-sized bags. There are also canisters that you can buy that are supposed to attach easily to the machines and provide a quick reusable platform for storing rice, sugar, pasta and such. Well, the bags were easy enough to make though we sometimes made them bigger than they needed to be thus wasting some material. We seldom did the 'cut open the bag take out what you need and reseal the bag' because it was a pain to retrieve the machine each time for what should have been a simple set up. No wonder they say that many people leave them out on their countertops, it's just easier that way. The special design canisters worked about twice and we were never able to get a seal to hold after that. They are pretty much just like any other canister now.
The sealing of the bags was a wonderful thing to do and watching as it happened…when everything went right. Sometimes it didn’t, or wouldn’t. Sometimes the machine would just whirr away and nothing would happen because we didn’t have the flap just right or there was an uneven cut along the leading edge when we tried to make our own bags. That is my guess anyway. Also if there was any chance of a liquid being involved there was also the chance of a mess being involved. It is hard to suck out air without sucking out the liquid so if you were going to save soup for a later microwave reheat at work, be very careful. That applies to juicy things like fresh fruit, and marinating steaks and chicken breasts like they show on T.V.
Well, we did use it for quite some time (but nowhere near as much as I thought we should) before one day the pump was running like crazy and nothing was happening no matter what we tried. Our machine had given up. We still liked the idea of a food sealer and thought that we would get another one at some point but we never made it a high priority or found ourselves willing to pay the going rates for a new machine. We thought about switching to the Foodsaver brand but still couldn’t justify the price even with two of us using one.
Normally the story would end there but we were walking through the store the other day and came across a hand held battery operated food sealer vacuum pump put out by Reynolds (the same people that bring you Reynolds wrap). The price was a blowout bargain by comparison to the units we had been looking at. The Handi-Vac starter kit with the pump and a couple of bags was less than $10. I think that included the batteries. I could live with that so we bought it, brought it home, broke it out and gave it a try.
I can tell you right now this is the way to go. If you have ever thought of getting a food sealer and you are not going into the business and need a commercial unit, this makes sense. The pre-made, pre-sized bags are a wonderful design. If you can operate a self-locking bag you can definitely operate this system. And its reusable.
Put the food in the bag, press out as much air as you normally would closing these bags, seal the bag with the self locking seal, then apply the hand vacuum pump to the bag at the spot indicated while on a hard flat surface and begin to remove the air with the push of a button. Air comes out, just like the big boys and its done slick as a whistle. If you want to readjust things inside, or get something out, go ahead and open it up at the self-locking seal, pull out what you need and reseal it and put the vacuum pump to it again and your done. I like this, a lot. It works.
I think a big part of the difference is that with the Foodsaver you suck the air out first and then try to seal the bag with a heat source that fuses the material together, while the self-locking stirp on the Reynolds bag is operated by running your thumb across it like we are all used to from using sandwich bags and then applying the vacuum pump after the bag is sealed and ready to go. This simple reversal of steps in the process makes all the difference.
Some things to remember are to not overfill the bag and when filling it be sure to leave the pump corner empty enough to create a flat surface to run the pump on. The bags are a special design with a pump spot that is a one way valve to allow the air to escape but seal tightly after the air has been removed. The bags also have a rough surface inside. This is to allow the air a pathway out of the bag around whatever you are storing when the vacuum pump is working.
So what is the cost of these special bags? I was just in the local store looking for some replacements and found packages of the quart size for about $0.23 each and gallon size around $0.30. Not too shabby when you consider what it gets you as well as the easy reusability feature.
There is one other entry level vacuum food sealer competitor and that is Ziploc. They have a system that is even cheaper but it uses a manual pump to create the vacuum function. From my experience, using a manual pump is a two handed operation most of the time and that would mean you would still need a third hand to work the bag. Since I am looking for simplicity and functionality I think the better pick is the battery operated unit Handi-Vac from Reynolds.
Bags from both Ziploc and Reynolds have similar design features. There are some lettering and highlighting differences but not enough to change the functionality of either bag. The Ziploc bags do have a textured inner lining that runs across the whole of one side for the air pathways where as the Reynolds bag only textures a couple inch strip across one side. Both work equally well.
The pricing on the bags seem comparable to so the only difference is in the cost of the manual pump vs. battery operated, or $3 vs. $10 in the starter kits. Since the store I went to was out of the Reynolds bags in the size I needed I decided to try the Ziploc bags and they worked just fine. Both seem to make a quality product and at a whale of a difference in price compared to the popular Foodsaver brand but then again, you don’t have to pay for all that late night T.V. advertising time.
So what did we do with it? We bought a 5 pound bag of shredded cheese at the local Costco for about $2 more than the normal 2 pound bag at the local grocer, broke it down into 5 one pound bags, vacuum packed and put them in the freezer. Then we did the same thing with a 5 pound bag of pepperoni, first wondering how much to put in each bag to cover one pizza and then remembering that it is no trouble to open it up, take out what we needed and reseal the remainder. How cool is that?
Now I know that this is no consumer reports with a comparison done over months of testing with detailed analysis of vacuum rates, seal pressures, freezer burn protection and time intervals, but this is also not a paid endorsement, (if it was I would tell you so). This is just my shared experience and opinion on a pretty good idea. I hope you find it handy.
This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.
I am a great conservative and love to save money and with careful shopping you can find some items that are cheaper when bought in bulk (though that is not always the case, so shop smart and read the labels and calculate and compare) and if not you can always wait for a really good sale and stock up. Problem is when you stock up really big on a really good sale, will you have time to eat it all before it goes bad? When I was single I had a hard time finishing half a loaf of bread before it started growing penicillin in its natural state. Vacuum sealing food sounds like just the answer I was looking for.
Next problem, as many of you may have seen the same infomercial and have been tempted to jump on board, is the price of these popular units. Foodsaver which is the company that made the idea of vacuum sealing so popular has several different units on their web site beginning at $79.99 and running up to $299.99. The one on T.V. seems to have been priced around $129. That rates an ouch in my book and I just couldn’t justify it so I never bothered, though it was always in the back of my mind that if I could find a decent price on one I would probably go ahead and get one.
Years went by, I got married and I came across a Rival brand sealer that was on close out at the local megalamart. Since there were now two of us to share one machine’s usage and the price was around $50 I quickly talked myself into it.
The Rival machine works pretty much the same as the Foodsaver machine as near as I can tell. Looking at the two side by side they look very similar and comparing our usage method to that seen in the demonstrations given for T.V. I would say that they are comparable.
I must say that we did have fun with it…for a time. It was way fun to put food in a bag and suck the air out. We created a mini production facility and went to work sealing away blocks of cheese and family pack purchases of meat for later use. We felt like we were doing ourselves good by our efforts. The packages went into the freezer and the food stayed useable long after other buys would have been tossed. The idea worked.
Mostly..., as I mentioned, we would set up a mini production facility I meant that in a fun way but the reality is that you almost had to set up a small production run whenever you wanted to use the sealer. Because there was extra effort involved in set up and clean up, the sealer got used less and less as time went on.
Also, you had to buy rolls of material and create your own bags in the size you wanted or buy pre-made, pre-sized bags. There are also canisters that you can buy that are supposed to attach easily to the machines and provide a quick reusable platform for storing rice, sugar, pasta and such. Well, the bags were easy enough to make though we sometimes made them bigger than they needed to be thus wasting some material. We seldom did the 'cut open the bag take out what you need and reseal the bag' because it was a pain to retrieve the machine each time for what should have been a simple set up. No wonder they say that many people leave them out on their countertops, it's just easier that way. The special design canisters worked about twice and we were never able to get a seal to hold after that. They are pretty much just like any other canister now.
The sealing of the bags was a wonderful thing to do and watching as it happened…when everything went right. Sometimes it didn’t, or wouldn’t. Sometimes the machine would just whirr away and nothing would happen because we didn’t have the flap just right or there was an uneven cut along the leading edge when we tried to make our own bags. That is my guess anyway. Also if there was any chance of a liquid being involved there was also the chance of a mess being involved. It is hard to suck out air without sucking out the liquid so if you were going to save soup for a later microwave reheat at work, be very careful. That applies to juicy things like fresh fruit, and marinating steaks and chicken breasts like they show on T.V.
Well, we did use it for quite some time (but nowhere near as much as I thought we should) before one day the pump was running like crazy and nothing was happening no matter what we tried. Our machine had given up. We still liked the idea of a food sealer and thought that we would get another one at some point but we never made it a high priority or found ourselves willing to pay the going rates for a new machine. We thought about switching to the Foodsaver brand but still couldn’t justify the price even with two of us using one.
Normally the story would end there but we were walking through the store the other day and came across a hand held battery operated food sealer vacuum pump put out by Reynolds (the same people that bring you Reynolds wrap). The price was a blowout bargain by comparison to the units we had been looking at. The Handi-Vac starter kit with the pump and a couple of bags was less than $10. I think that included the batteries. I could live with that so we bought it, brought it home, broke it out and gave it a try.
I can tell you right now this is the way to go. If you have ever thought of getting a food sealer and you are not going into the business and need a commercial unit, this makes sense. The pre-made, pre-sized bags are a wonderful design. If you can operate a self-locking bag you can definitely operate this system. And its reusable.
Put the food in the bag, press out as much air as you normally would closing these bags, seal the bag with the self locking seal, then apply the hand vacuum pump to the bag at the spot indicated while on a hard flat surface and begin to remove the air with the push of a button. Air comes out, just like the big boys and its done slick as a whistle. If you want to readjust things inside, or get something out, go ahead and open it up at the self-locking seal, pull out what you need and reseal it and put the vacuum pump to it again and your done. I like this, a lot. It works.
I think a big part of the difference is that with the Foodsaver you suck the air out first and then try to seal the bag with a heat source that fuses the material together, while the self-locking stirp on the Reynolds bag is operated by running your thumb across it like we are all used to from using sandwich bags and then applying the vacuum pump after the bag is sealed and ready to go. This simple reversal of steps in the process makes all the difference.
Some things to remember are to not overfill the bag and when filling it be sure to leave the pump corner empty enough to create a flat surface to run the pump on. The bags are a special design with a pump spot that is a one way valve to allow the air to escape but seal tightly after the air has been removed. The bags also have a rough surface inside. This is to allow the air a pathway out of the bag around whatever you are storing when the vacuum pump is working.
So what is the cost of these special bags? I was just in the local store looking for some replacements and found packages of the quart size for about $0.23 each and gallon size around $0.30. Not too shabby when you consider what it gets you as well as the easy reusability feature.
There is one other entry level vacuum food sealer competitor and that is Ziploc. They have a system that is even cheaper but it uses a manual pump to create the vacuum function. From my experience, using a manual pump is a two handed operation most of the time and that would mean you would still need a third hand to work the bag. Since I am looking for simplicity and functionality I think the better pick is the battery operated unit Handi-Vac from Reynolds.
Bags from both Ziploc and Reynolds have similar design features. There are some lettering and highlighting differences but not enough to change the functionality of either bag. The Ziploc bags do have a textured inner lining that runs across the whole of one side for the air pathways where as the Reynolds bag only textures a couple inch strip across one side. Both work equally well.
The pricing on the bags seem comparable to so the only difference is in the cost of the manual pump vs. battery operated, or $3 vs. $10 in the starter kits. Since the store I went to was out of the Reynolds bags in the size I needed I decided to try the Ziploc bags and they worked just fine. Both seem to make a quality product and at a whale of a difference in price compared to the popular Foodsaver brand but then again, you don’t have to pay for all that late night T.V. advertising time.
So what did we do with it? We bought a 5 pound bag of shredded cheese at the local Costco for about $2 more than the normal 2 pound bag at the local grocer, broke it down into 5 one pound bags, vacuum packed and put them in the freezer. Then we did the same thing with a 5 pound bag of pepperoni, first wondering how much to put in each bag to cover one pizza and then remembering that it is no trouble to open it up, take out what we needed and reseal the remainder. How cool is that?
Now I know that this is no consumer reports with a comparison done over months of testing with detailed analysis of vacuum rates, seal pressures, freezer burn protection and time intervals, but this is also not a paid endorsement, (if it was I would tell you so). This is just my shared experience and opinion on a pretty good idea. I hope you find it handy.
This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.
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