Inventions

need to give this some thought!

A way to lose three stone without moving, of course!

A way to lose three stone without moving, of course!

I'll second that! Especially if we can add not having to live on rabbit food exclusively.

An invention I would dearly love (it's actually already been invented but only by, and for, one person - never to have been repeated) and that is a water-powered potato peeler. My friend's Dad invented it for his wife as she hated peeling potatoes and other root vegetables.

To look at, it was like two large mixing bowls that separated in the middle but the top one had a large hole in it to drop the potatoes or veg through. The inside was lined with something like sandpaper. Water was fed into the 'thing' by a small pipe fixed to the kitchen tap. The water made the inside of the 'drum' rotate very fast so that the sandpaper type stuff took the skin off everything and all peeling done in seconds!

Any GNs who can reproduce this - you have one customer here already!

There are electric potato peelers available, Holly. Sound like a good idea, but would probably end up pushed to the back of a cupboard like a lot of kitchen machinery.
electric potato peeler

Holly I remember seeing one of those years ago. I can't remember if it had a handle to rotate it or it was electric, but it was lined with sandpaper type stuff and it peeled potatoes.

I had one of these years ago but it was such a pain to clean afterwards it was easier to peel the spuds in the first place!

Don't chippies have potato peeling machines? I thought that Lakeland would be sure to have one but strangely enough they don't.

Holly don't waste your money on an automated potato peeler. My DH bought me one in the 70s. Shysal is right mine was pushed to the back of the cupboard after a few goes.

Fortunately nowadays most supermarkets sell veg ready prepared if you are happy to pay a bit extra and I am.

I remember those too. The father of one of my school friends way back in the fifties. He did not have an electric peeler - he had two teenaged daughters instead, whose chore it was to peel enough potatoes for that night's frying when they came home from school. It was not a popular job, but they would not have dared skive off.

That did not make sense. I missed out that he had a chippie.

Why peel potatoes?

Because mash isn't very nice with bits of skin in it!

It's fine! And better for you. (That's if you can bother with mashing spuds. What's wrong with microwave jackets?)

Roasted with the peel on is good. And chips. And leave the peel on when putting them in a stew. Same with carrots. So long as they are happy carrots organic ones.

A kind of non calorie rich Cheddar style cheese, with a texture that is slightly crumbly, no rubbery cheese thank you, and has the tangy taste of a good strong cheese.
Pipe dreams I know.

Microwave "mashable" potatoes in their jackets, allow to cool and peel the skins off in big chunks. Mash to potatoes as usual, but lightly fry or roast the skins, season them and put them on top the mash as a lovely garnish. Not boiling the potatoes improves the flavour.

Frozen mash. Auntie Betty, Tesco's buttery, Safeway, Waitrose, they are all excellent and no peeling at all The ingredients say - potatoes, butter. That is it.

I've had 'crushed' potatoes in a few restaurants. They seem to be cooked with their jackets still on and then semi-mashed. Neither one thing nor the other imho.

I had crushed new potatos in a pub the other day. Just that really. Crushed a bit. With a lovely dressing. Delicious.

I would love a body dryer, like a hairdryer but you could step into it. Sometimes after a session on the treadmill I feel almost too whacked to dry myself after my shower! And if it could spay on moisturiser, too, and massage it in, that would be a bonus. Hang on, I have one of those already - it's my man! (before vivid pictures come into your mind, this doesn't happen in real life!).

A weed zapper, the weed would die right down to the root without damaging anything else around it. Then lifts it out of the ground and into the recycling bag.

Nail shields that help nails to grow underneath.

I remember my friend's Mum had a potato peeler a long time ago (must be a long time ago as I was about 9 or 10). It was two large bowls one on top of the other and had a handle, it must have worked on the same principle.

dahlia, I'm sure that a swimming pool I once went to - and can't remember where - did have a 'person-dryer', though I don't think it sprayed on moisturiser. Surely I didn't dream it?

Dahlia we went to Centre Parcs last year at Longleat and the changing rooms for the pool there had body dryers. There was space in each one for two of us plus the two little ones. Children loved it

A device which would allow me to watch a TV programme without the 'music' which makes the speech inaudible and which is so intrusive.