Went into Big Lots today to 'nose' around. Found two really great y2k items. The first is a complete food processor. It slices, mixes, grates,whips and its HAND POWERED. Not one of thse little things that you can get. Its the size of a full size food processor. Big Lots price, $9.99. The second find is 12.5 oz cans of: sliced turkey and gravy, sliced chicken and gravy, sliced pork and gravy and salisbury steak and mushroom gravy for $1.29/can. The brand name is Morton House. I bought a sampling. My mother in law had the pork and gravy for her dinner and said it was absolutely delicious. So, my intentions are to go back and get a whole bunch tomorrow. Not only a good y2k prep, but will be great for hubby's lunch. Open can and put into a micro wave dish and he is set. He is a real meat and gravy kind of guy so it will be right up his ally.

Taz...who gets awfully sick of making sandwiches for hubby's lunch.

-- Taz (Tassie@aol.com), September 10, 1999

Answers

I'm jealous of those Morton House cans!!!

-- Mara Wayne (MaraWayne@aol.com), September 11, 1999.

I found some Morton House canned beef stew last week at Pic N Save in Albuquerque for about a dollar a can. It looked like it was very similar to Dinty Moore beef stew, but a lot cheaper. I bought one and ate it that night with saltine crackers, and about an hour after eating I got very nauseous. Pepto Bismol helped, but I still felt sick for a few hours. Maybe it was just an old can, I don't know, but I won't be buying any more Morton House beef stew anytime soon.

At the same store I also bought a can of Morton House corned beef hash for 99 cents, which is pretty cheap. I guess I'm a risk-taker, because I tried a little of it this morning with my breakfast, and I felt just fine. So I don't know why one Morton House item was bad and one was good -- maybe just a difference in age.

-- waiting (waitingforthe@x2.fall), September 11, 1999.

Oh Taz, you've hit on one of my favorite subjects--Big Lots! It's much different from the old ambiance, isn't it? The small tools are greta too, lots of those things you never buy because you rarely use them and don't want to spend the money--but these are CHEAP and who cares if they break after a cou9ple of uses? You probably will never need them again anyway!

Those shortbread cookies (fgrom Scotland) they have now are very good--even I can eat two as a snack because the sugar content is not as high as, say chocolate chip cookies. The minestrone soup is a particularly good buy (Aylmer's I think), and also look for the Ceylonese tea bags (Canadian packer) in the little wooden boxes--English Breakfast, Earl Grey and fruit-flavors--99c! Sweetie usually drinks Twinings and he likes this stuff. I bought a LOT. (No pun int.) Check out the pasta sauces, canned veggies, canned seafood too. (The salmon isn't such a good buy from what I can tell.) Then there's rice and pasta. A BUNCH of good stuff! Oh, I spotted Jimmy Dean's chili, either with pork or beef, for those of you who eat dead things.

Then there are tarps (poly and blue), Brazilian steel knives with very good wooden handles (paring, $3-4), some of the plastics are excellent buys, some of the OTCs, cosmetics and drugstore type stuff too. My Big Lots also has cheap cheater reading glasses for $3-4. And there are imperfects in some types of clothing.

Great placve where you can save big bucks if you shop carefully.

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), September 11, 1999.

Taz, I saw the manual food processor in Big Lots too. Does it really work? Does it take a lot umph to turn the handle with the chopping blade? I found kid size surgical gloves there for .50 a package. They are in the toy section.

-- Carol (glear@usa.net), September 11, 1999.

Carol...I don't really know if the food processor works. LOL I just tossed it up in the store room until needed. But know the Morton stuff works. Hubby had turkey and gravy for breakfast and said it was good.

-- Taz (Tassie@aol.com), September 11, 1999.

Speaking of Big Lots and hand-operated kitchen devices, has anyone seen any kind of hand-operated meat tenderizer available? I've seen one in a hunting catalog in past years, but not recently.

Surely these things are still available out there. Too many deer camps don't have electricity to run powered kitchen appliances. And the hand-cranked tenderizer is still a lot easier and cleaner than the other hand-operated tenderizer; the meat hammer.

WW

-- Wildweasel (vtmldm@epix.net), September 11, 1999.

I was in Big Lots today. Didn't find the manually-operated food processor for $9.99. Did find an electric one for $12.99.

Could you please provide more of a description of what you found (brand name, store section, etc)

Thanx

Mikey2k

-- Mikey2k (mikey2k@he.wont.eat.it), September 12, 1999.

Wildweisel,

We have a manual meat tenderizer that I use all the time. The name is Jaccard. The only info I have on it say, Jaccard Corp. Buffalo, NY. They sell large ones and home use ones. This is the best thing I have ever used for meat. If you get carried away with it, the meat is too tender! Mine is hand held and has lots of sharp teeth that only appear when pressure is put on the handle.

-- Carol (glear@usa.net), September 12, 1999.

For Mikey2...the food processor is called KITCHEN QWIK. It was in the the big center aisle that is parallel to the front wall of store. Are all Big Lots set up the same?? Another find is a clear glass baking disk (ala Pyrex) that is 7 inches square and FOUR INCHES DEEP. I was so impressed with all its uses, that I went back and got another. Had never seen one like this. Chris, in the UK, says they have always used them and she couldn't live without one for cobbler, etc. I am really pleased ...and it cost $1.49. The processor is $9.99. Hope you find one.

Taz...who also loaded up with another 24 cans of Morton House meat and gravy.

-- Taz (Tassie@aol.com), September 13, 1999.