Pepper grinder happiness

Our house is where pepper grinders go to die. Maybe this is a sign that we cook so often that standard kitchen implements can't keep up with our volume. Or maybe it's a sign that we need to invest in a better pepper mill. We took it as a sign of the latter, and Matt did a little investigating an dug up this gem: the Oxo pepper grinder. He found it through, you know, the Wall Street Journal's Test Kitchen feature on pepper grinders. Because this is a thing that exists. WSJ rated our little Oxo love as the best value grinder.

I love Oxo products. They're inexpensive and they last. I am even starting to appreciate Oxo Tot products now that we've entered to world of baby solid food consumption. This pepper grinder represents everything good about Oxo products and then some.

At $21.99 this pepper grinder is cheaper than any others you'll find at Williams-Sonoma and better quality than any others in a similar price range. Even better, I love this little gadget for three more reasons:

1) There are five grinding settings to allow for more finely or coarsely ground pepper.

2) The pepper comes out of the top of the grinder rather than the bottom, eliminating that annoying pile of pepper that used to be sitting on our counter underneath the pepper grinders of yore.

I'll take some pepper flakes on top of the grinder if it keeps my counters clean.

3) The grinder makes this insanely satisfying clicking sound when in use. I don't know why, but I love that, perhaps because it indicates we finally have a pepper grinder that does its job well.

You could purchase this at Bed Bath and Beyond and use a coupon, but our local store doesn't appear to carry it so we went with our other favorite retailer, Amazon.

Oxo pepper grinder, I salute you.

'Next time, buy American'

This line was quoted to me two weeks ago by a man wearing a navy blue work shirt with a name tag identifying himself as Singh. He was over at our house to diagnose the problem we've been having for the past month with our fridge. (You may recall this is the Samsung fridge that we bought a year and a half ago.) Specifically, the fridge has been making intermittent horrible noises that sound a bit like a chainsaw is dividing our home in half.

According to Singh, Samsung appliances are still relatively new in the U.S., so there are lots of electrical problems the company is still working out with the models it's selling here. Singh volunteered that in his home country of India, Samsung is one of the most trusted brands of appliances, but that reputation is yet to pan out in America. He told me to buy American appliances in the future because the problem we're having with the fridge -- a failing motor, kind of a big deal -- requires ordering a part from overseas and having it shipped here.

I got really annoyed when I heard our fridge, which was manufactured less than two years ago according to the sticker inside its door, was making awful noises. I assumed this would be an expensive repair. Then I got even more annoyed when Singh confirmed that, yes, this probably will in fact be an expensive repair.

After we got our initial diagnosis and estimate, though, we did something smart, and here's what we need to keep in mind in the future. We called Samsung.

When Matt was on the phone with Samsung it took virtually no time for the representative to pass Matt along to talk to one of his superiors. The manager agreed with Matt's assessment that a one-and-a-half-year old appliance should not need a major repair. So the manager extended our warranty on our fridge for another year. The manager asked for the name of the company we'd used to give us the initial diagnosis and estimate. We'd already paid that company $70 for the diagnosis, and because Samsung had just extended our warranty they were going to reimburse us that $70 provided the company we'd used was an authorized Samsung repair company. Turns out the initial company we used is not an authorized Samsung repair company, but the manager from Samsung went so far as to call the other company and offer for them to become authorized, which would ultimately get us our $70 back. Of course, the company declined, and we're out $70, but Samsung ordered our replacement motor from overseas right then, and it showed up a few days later.

In between ordering the part and the part actually showing up was a weekend when I was hosting a baby shower at our house. Knowing that the fridge's noise can last for about two hours once it starts up, I feared that the noise would destroy the party, but thankfully the fridge obliged and stayed quiet while hosting guests.

A week after meeting Singh, a new repair person from an authorized Samsung repair shop showed up at our house with our new motor. He got here at 12:02 and by 12:16 he was done. I couldn't believe it. And all I had to do was sign a piece of paper. I didn't have to write him a giant check.

So, while we are still out that initial $70, we have an essentially free new motor and another year of free fridge repairs should anything else occur. Though Singh succeeded in making me question our decision to purchase our Samsung fridge (despite its high rating in Consumer Reports when we bought it), at least I gained faith in Samsung customer service. Ultimately, I'm reminded of something I wish I'd remembered in the beginning: when you're having a problem with a product, call the company first and see what it can do for you.

Two unsung heroes for a new mom

Covered hot cups and covered cold cups! Save your baby and your sanity as you multitask and hydrate. (Ironically, as I typed that, I just knocked over my covered water cup but thankfully just a couple drops spilled out.)

You won't find these on baby registry lists, but these plastic objects have been central to my existence for the past three months. These might be fun, small additions to a shower gift or a postpartum baby visit gift for any new moms you know.

Kitchen line up: Repurposing place mats

When we ventured to IKEA in September to pick up the Billy bookcase for the nursery, I also bought two sets of these Klistrig place mats, figuring that at $2.99 for a pack of 4 I could find plenty of uses for them either as just simply place mats or I could repurpose them to other areas of the house.

It took me about three hours to decide that I wanted to protect the shelves of our pantry with these, but then I quickly ran out of extras, and by that point I was determined to line all the drawers and a few cabinet shelves in our kitchen with these. So, over this past weekend I picked up six more packs from IKEA and got to work lining the most offensive cabinets and drawers.

With white cabinets and two giant dogs, the insides of our drawers and cabinets reveal wear faster than they would if they were traditional wooden cabinets. So, in order to attempt to semi-win my constant battle against dog hair, I figured these are a start. They're not exactly contact paper, but they're thin enough that they are easily cut down to size and they can be easily lifted out of the cabinets for quick cleaning, too. And they're super cute.

So, after emptying out the drawers...

...and giving them a much-needed wipe down...I created a template for each drawer or cabinet and pieced the place mats together like a puzzle.

I did not buy enough place mats to line every single cabinet in our kitchen, but instead I focused on the highly trafficked parts of the kitchen, the lowest-lying drawers (which are therefore most likely to collect dog hair and catch crumbs from the counters), and cabinets containing items that are likely to make the shelves dirty, like our baking supply mini-pantry.

It took me about two hours to complete this project, and it's now amazing to not have to look at scuff marks or sticky residue at the bottoms of our cabinets and drawers.