Tuesday 17 January 2017

Needing motivation?

So it's January and we've just got past the "Blue Monday" which is the Monday in January that most people feel depressed.
I'm not sure why or who decided it was "Blue Monday", this is like a lot of days that are randomly created and often leave me wondering, who did that, why did they do it and give it that name, or what motivated them to create a negative day?
My usual thoughts turn to the media and in many cases this is true, the news media always appear to be looking for a reason to report on something, so this one seems a good choice, you can pick pretty much any person walking down the street and talk to them on depression, needing motivation or wanting something a little better, so hardly surprising that it's a keen topic of conversation.

This is where I start to think, what motivation are we talking about here, to be motivated is a simple set of words and when you think about it, we're always motivated. Motivated to go and do something (Perhaps not something we want to do, but we know we should or have to), motivated to apply something, motivated to eat something, motivated to go somewhere, all sorts, so lacking motivation sounds more and more like a buzzword dreamt up in a dodgy corporate board room to use.

So, my thoughts on needing motivation? Surely you already have motivation, look around you, you probably have all the motivation and drive you need to achieve something but just haven't done it yet. That's OK too, we can't do everything we want or feel motivated to do, so just keep doing what you're doing! (Oh and ignore the media trying to tell you to be depressed, unhappy or otherwise, choose your own emotion and ignore the mainstream media news outlets a little more, it really does help ignoring them for a short time!)

Monday 16 January 2017

Global Gourmet Hot Dog Maker Machine

Win an American Hot Dog Maker #5

Well, it's not every day that I get a hot dog machine. But today was special, this neat box turned up and myself and the kids decided to give it a go straight away!

Unpacking it, you have the main unit, with the rollers on the top for the hot dogs, then a door below to fit your buns in and warm them up, just like you get at the shops!

We bought the 'regular' frankfurter style hot dogs, the tiny ones in the tins are no good as they're too thin (And taste horrible too), but get those or bigger and you'll be fine. The unit is ready to take 4 hot dogs as standard (But with experimentation I added another three on top of these and they cooked fine, just rotate them a couple of times, bonus!)


Here you see it warming up the kids lunch today! You switch the main red power switch on and then set the timer. I put it on for 15 minutes and it got the hot dogs really hot and buns hot and a little crispy, just how we like them.

We put them on cold, turned on and left it to it, no need to preheat or anything and you just wait until it pings and they're ready. Simple and the kids found it easy to use too, so something they'd happily use themselves too since no pans, mess or anything. Just pay attention that the rollers (in the top) get too hot to touch and the trays inside get really hot too, so be careful!

If I had to criticise it, it would be on the size of the bread roll tray. It says it'll take four, but buying supermarket hot dog buns (Which aren't huge) we could only fit 3 in, putting a fourth would have squashed them too much. But that's a minor thing really, just swap them around during cooking and all was fine.


I'm not sure if this was our imagination, but the taste of the hot dogs was much nicer than when we normally do them. (We usually cook them in water in a pan on the hob) So perhaps it's because they're not being drowned in water, but they had a lot of flavour to them and still nice and soft on the inside. We're very happy with this, one that will be used again and again.
Cleaning too wasn't too bad, wait for it to cool down, take the drip tray and bun tray and give them a clean in warm soapy water. Then get a cloth and clean the rollers. I turned the on switch on (but not the timer switch) which made the rollers roll so I could clean them all the way round. 5 minutes quick clean was all it took. Just as well as I'm lazy when it comes to cleaning up gadgets.

So we think this was a winner, quick easy meal and does the job perfectly.
Give it a try and let me know what you think: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01MSK7C02

Note: I received this item in exchange for this unbiased and honest review.

Even better, you can also enter a giveaway to win one:

Win an American Hot Dog Maker #5