Why do things never go as planned, EVER!!!!!!

I’ve been wanting to make that salad in a jar all week, but I didn’t have lids, couldn’t find my wide mouth jars, didn’t have enough lettuce, you know the story.  So yesterday, this little squirrel gathered up all her nuts, found some jars, bought some lids, got the salad ingredients and I was good to go this morning.  WRONG!!!!!

I got out all the ingredients, lettuce, peppers, radishes, celery, red onion, carrots, and I’m slicing and dicing like a madman, thinking that I’m really liking this and I should dust off the trusty old salad shooter the next time to shred the veggies.  I got everything in the jars, it looked great, it was so much easier to prepare salads this way,  I was beyond excited! Yeah, I know I need a life, but anyway, I get out the FoodSaver, attach the vacuum hose, fire it up, and nothing!  El zippo, nada, no can do, the blasted thing wouldn’t vacuum.  Hubby to the rescue, and even he, who can fix anything, couldn’t make it work.  I was frustrated beyond words!

So I go online to Foodsaver.com, get the customer service number, talk to this nice lady named Ruth who gives me all the info on FoodSavers, the latest and the greatest, and of course she has a deal for me.  I say “thank you very much, but I’m not ready to order” after she is pressuring me to buy one, but I’ll check around because you can always find things cheaper elsewhere than the original manufacturer.

Sooooo, the one I liked was Model V3840, $299.00, which was crazy expensive, but I liked it because it was stainless and I can leave it set out, so I go to eBay, find the same one, Buy It Now, no shipping charges, no tax, for $76.49.  It’s a retail store returned item, the seller is a power seller with great feedback and 100% return policy, so I felt comfortable buying it.  Yeah, I know, it sounds to good to be true, but in the past I’ve had good luck with this type of thing, let’s just hope it holds out for me this time.

And of course I read the reviews, and it’s the same as it is for all FoodSavers, some people love them, some hate them.  I think it’s because people can’t figure out how to seal the bags, it’s really tricky getting that bag in that little channel, but  once you get past the learning curve, it’s a walk in the park.  We’ve had ours for several years, and it’s the type that you seal by pushing down on the unit with both hands, this one is hands free, you just push a button, a big improvement, since it gets constant use.  We buy whole pork loins, have the butcher cut them into 3/4” chops and freeze them.  They’re so good, and so inexpensive when you do it this way.  We’ve had great luck freezing all kind of meat, no freezer burn, ever, with a FoodSaver.

So, with a little luck, in a few days, I’ll be showing you pictures of my Ball jars filled with salad.  Oh, about the salad, I put them in the fridge anyway, because I already had them in the jars, I pulled out a quart jar at lunch, it’s the perfect amount of salad for two people, or a chef salad for one – this is gonna be awesome once I get it working. I’m also going to vacuum seal nuts, coconut, chocolate chips, raisins, my pantry is going to be lined with Ball jars, which will make me smile, because these are the jars of my childhood.

So, let’s hope I’m not gonna be on here in a few day p*ssing and moaning about how the thing doesn’t work and I have to send it back. 

I’m usually pretty positive about this type of thing, but it’s been a really bad month, so Little Miss Merry Sunshine is just a bit skeptical.  But we shall see…