SkyMall Monday: Baggy Rack

Living alone has its perks. You get to be as messy as you’d like, you always get to decide what to watch on television and pants pretty much become optional at all times. There are, however, downsides. It can get lonely. There’s no one around to help you when you realize just a little too late that there’s no more toilet paper. And cooking for one is a real pain in the buttocks. Thankfully, here at SkyMall Monday headquarters, I live with my girlfriend and two dog butlers. We can cook proper meals, go into the bathroom with confidence and always have someone with whom to play UNO. What should the lonely among us do when they need an extra set of hands? Mail order brides are expensive, Craiglist roommates usually end up being psychos who clip their toenails in your bed and training your dogs to be butlers takes ages (believe me, I know). Thankfully, SkyMall knows that solo dwellers could use some help. They know that there’s nothing wrong with living alone. They don’t judge. They know that you live alone by choice. They understand that it’s not because no one could possibly love you. They think it’s totally cool that you have six cats who vote for their feline president every fours years. Heck, they even appreciate all that President Jinglebottoms H. Furrykins IV has done in his first term in office. But they want to help, as well. That’s why they carry the Baggy Rack.There’s nothing worse than bagging up leftovers (except for genocide, child molestation, dropping your ice cream cone and several trillion other things). The bags don’t stay open, you get sauce all over your hands and inevitably, you just give up and throw the food against the wall in a fit of anger. Several hours later, after writing about the incident in your diary, you return to the kitchen to tackle quite a mess. Who has time for that? That’s why you need to have a device that will hold those bags open for you.

Think that it’s easy to hold those tiny bags open all by yourself? Never have leftovers because you can down an entire DiGiorno‘s by yourself? Well, maybe you should pop a Gas-X and read the product description:

Every kitchen should have this practical rack that keeps plastic bags upright so they’re easy to fill. No more spilling food all over the counter! Great for sauce, soup, cereal, berries, leftovers...Doubles as a bag dryer.

Sauce is a food product. Soup is a food product. Cereal and berries are food products (that, coincidentally, go great together). Leftovers is a generic category that could encompass anything. From steak to jelly bean gravy, anything can be a leftover. That means that the Baggy Rack is great for everything. Including being a bag dryer. Because we all should be rinsing and reusing our bags once we’re done with all that jelly bean gravy.

Living alone doesn’t have to be difficult. All you need are some dolls, some peanut butter and the Baggy Rack. You’ll never feel lonely again.

Check out all of the previous SkyMall Monday posts HERE.

Daily Pampering: Fall cooking vacation in Provence

If you’ve ever wondered why French women don’t get fat, this trip is for you.

The Hotel Crillon le Brave in Provence is hosting all-inclusive package of a five-day (six-night) cooking program this October, meant to give even the most discerning palates a mouth-watering vacation.

Spend a week in the French countryside at a hotel lead by head chef Philippe Monti. You’ll learn to cook authentic Provençal fare during daily classes, enjoy excursions through the local area, and dine at the hotel’s restaurant on chef Monti’s own savory regional dishes, such as filet de rougets (fresh wild sea bass) and confit de canard (duck). If you want to remove your chef’s hat for the day, you can enjoy a treatment at the hotel’s open-air spa, tour the historic village on complimentary bikes or play on the nearby tennis and boules courts.

Where: Hotel Crillon le Brave, Provence, France

When: October 10 – 16 | October 17 – 23

What:

  • Six nights of accommodation
  • All meals included, as well as wine and cocktails upon arrival
  • Five intensive half-day cooking classes, with recipes for five complete menus to take home
  • Afternoon excursions to meet with local purveyors, including truffle hunters, winemakers, cheese makers, bakers and more
  • Tour of Carpentras Market, which has been in existence since 1155. Situated at the foothills of Mount Ventoux, this weekly market is known as being one of the best in France
  • Fine wine tastings
  • Transportation and entry fees for all excursions included

Price: €2900 per person (roughly US$632 per person per night) based on double occupancy; €400 single supplement fee. For “non-cooking” companion, the cost is €1400 if sharing a room with a “cooker”. “Non-cookers” may participate in all events and meals outside of the cooking classes.

Want more? Get your daily dose of pampering right here.

Daily Pampering: Learn to cook “wegetarian” in Switzerland


You don’t have to be a vegetarian to like vegetarian food. Many of us are vegetarians one day and want a cheeseburger the next. That’s okay.

Hiltl, pronounced HILL-tuhl, is a 112-year-old institution of a vegetarian restaurant and club in Zürich. They call such eaters “flexetarians” (and they call vegetarians “wegetarians,” which is delightful). It’s nice to see a little flexibility from the vegetarian community; often, we omnivores feel we aren’t allowed to be part of their club. Hiltl welcomes the both the veg-curious and those who simply appreciate the health benefits or the fresh taste of vegetarian cuisine, as well as die-hard vegans, those with hard-to-accommodate allergies and your garden-variety vegetarians.

The restaurant has a legendary daily vegetarian buffet which one pays for by weight. Though your plate price will vary due to what you select — fried rice and Thai curry are the most popular — they assured me that pretty much everyone gets out for well under 30 CH ($25.74), and that includes a glass of wine or a freshly squeezed juice.

Beyond being a popular restaurant as well as a nightclub (Thursday – Saturday after 11 PM), Hiltl is also a teaching institution. If you’re interested in eating more vegetarian food but don’t know what to make, or you’re just looking for something to do, you can arrange a cooking class for a group at prices starting at 150 CH ($128.71) per person.

I happened to take one such class and learned to cook with agar agar, Quorn and I even made the above beluga lentil terrine (with no belugas, of course). You can do this, too, just visit Hiltl’s website and click on English and Cooking Studio to find out how. The Earth, and perhaps your arteries, will thank you.
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Want more? Get your daily dose of pampering right here.

My trip to Zürich was sponsored by Zürich Tourism and Switzerland Tourism, but the ideas and opinions expressed in this article are 100 percent my own.

Shenandoah National Park announces activities for 2010

Shenandoah National Park has announced that it will play host to a wide variety of activities for the 2010 season, which is set to begin soon. Those activities include events for the whole family, ranging from fun filled games for the kids, as well as culinary events and special festivals for the big kids too. All the events will be held at Big Meadows Wayside, Skyland Resort or Big Meadows Lodge, which open for the season on March 19, April 1 and May 20 respectively.

Things get underway with an Easter Egg Hunt scheduled to take place on April 4 at Skyland Resort. Children ages three to ten years of age are invited to explore the historic lower-level of Skyland Resort, where dozens of colorfully painted Easter Eggs will be waiting to be discovered. Hunting Easter eggs is just the start for the kids however, as the park will have plenty of other activities to keep them occupied throughout the year, including games, crafts, storytelling, and ice cream socials.

Those Easter egg hunting skills will come in handy later in the year as well. Starting on May 3rd at Skyland Resort and on May 24th at Big Meadows Lodge, visitors to Shenandoah can compete in scavenger hunts from 9 AM to 11 AM on every Monday and Wednesday. The hunts will take place along one of the many trails in the park, and visitors will search for hidden natural and historic treasures to earn certificates of achievement.

Those looking to experience fine dining while visiting Shenandoah National Park should consider the Vintner Dinners, which feature gourmet four-course meals paired with fine wine from one of the wonderful Virginia wineries. Or better yet, consider joining the park’s Executive Chef, or one of the visiting guest chefs, as they lead culinary workshops exploring the tastes of fine foods and wines as well. Both options cost $295, and include overnight stays, as well as the fine dining experience. For a much less expensive culinary option, the Rainy Day Cooking Demos are a mere $10, and offer diversion when the weather turns sour, and the trails are too wet to hike.

These are just a taste of the many activities and events that Shenandoah will host this year, but there are many more to discover as well. For instance, on May 15, Skyland Resort will welcome the arrival of spring flowers with music and food, as part of their Wildflower Spring Celebration.For even more events, check out the complete list of activities and book reservations at VisitShenandoah.com.

Anthony Bourdain creates animated web series

I’m a huge fan of Anthony Bourdain and I love No Reservations. A show that combines travel to places both exotic and familiar, pure rockstar gluttony and classic Bourdain snark – how could it go wrong? So when I heard that Bourdain was creating an animated web series for the Travel Channel (relax, it will NOT be taking the place of No Reservations) I figured it couldn’t be anything less than awesome.

Based on the sneak peak, the show looks like its going to have plenty of Bourdain’s signature sense of humor. In the first episode, “Robo Chef,” Bourdain laments how much effort it takes to create the perfect celebrity chef – all that work and then they go off and get their own talk show! – so he decides to make one himself. But when he accidentally puts in Rachel Ray’s brain instead of Alton Brown’s, things go awry.

According to Bourdain himself, future episodes won’t be all about his issues with Food Network chefs. They’re designed to be alternative versions of No Reservations – “representing things we never could have done on the actual show – or representing the way things should have gone on the show – or animated acknowledgments of what already went terribly wrong on the show.”

One of the six webisodes will be posted on the Travel Channel website each month. The first will debut November 2nd.