So You Really Don't Have To

Summer. The very idea screams ice cold beverages. I'm trying to wean myself from copious amounts of soda. It's no secret that the stuff rots your innards, but there really is nothing like an ice cold Dr Pepper after a day spent on my feet. But what's this?

Of course it jumps out at you because the label is not the familiar red. I didn't know anything about this. Granted I don't watch TV where it might be advertised, but with all the product placement on the internet, surely I would have become aware this product existed.

What attracted me was the "sweetened with cane sugar" line. For you 'young-uns', that's how soda used to be sweetened. The sugar may have been from sugar beets but it wasn't the high fructose corn syrup we hate. It was sugar. Soda tasted a bit different. It was hot and I was tired, so I bought a bottle of Dr Pepper and this and headed home.

Traffic getting home was horrible. There was an accident on the Eisenhower expressway which closed the 2 left lanes AFTER I got onto the roadway. We sat for 45 minutes while it was investigated and cleared up. I was in one of the affected lanes and could only watch as traffic inched by me on the right. But, I was headed home so it was simply a matter, for me, of waiting until I could move. Besides, I have jazz on the radio and cold soda in the car.

This stuff is awful.

Oh heavens is it bad. It's not just sweetened with cane sugar. After I bought it, I noticed the "Stevia" on the label. Maybe it was worse because I had Dr Pepper before this. No, no. This is just bad. There is no familiar "Coke" taste here. It was all chemically and there was a horrid metallic aftertaste. The smell of the product wasn't the familiar "Coke" smell, either. Is that a product of the stevia? I can't remember that I've had anything with stevia in it; that I've been aware there's stevia in it, I should say. I just know this was terrible. I had a half-full bottle of water on the floor of the Jeep. It was over by the passenger door. The aftertaste was so awful I struggled, while parked, to reach it, to wash the taste of this out of my mouth. I didn't finish the Coke. Three-fourths of the bottle left was poured on the weeds in the back yard. 

Bottom line is, don't, just don't, spend any pennies on this. Maybe that's why I hadn't heard of it. It's terrible, terribad, horrible, horribad, whatever appellation of awful you care to use. 

Beverage:  Irish Breakfast tea

Deb

It's Not Real!?

I wanted a Cherry Coke. While Dr Pepper is my soda of choice, there are days when I want ginger ale or 7Up or Coke. You know the craving.

On Saturday, I sat looking through the grocery ad, deciding what I really needed. Cereal. Bread. Oooh eggs were a buck for a dozen large. I can use those. Grapes. Bananas for my cereal. Coke, in these little bottles, was on sale really cheap. Two years ago, a tax was added to soda that removed the discount usually seen on it. I can't find the details now, but the days of 79 cent 2-liters is, effectively, gone. You can still find 99 cent 2-liters, but usually in conjunction with the purchase of something else. A "good" buy is a 2-liter for $1.19.

This means my consumption of soda has dropped, which it should. Nothing is less nutritional than soda. I drink a lot of seltzer water now. I get the carbonation that I like with none of the sugar. Yet, there are days when only a soda will do. The weekend was one of those days.

Now, I didn't want just soda. I wanted a Cherry Coke. The stuff that is passed off as Cherry Coke is NOT a REAL Cherry Coke. A REAL Cherry Coke is made with Grenadine. I use a double shot of Grenadine and add it to the amount of Coke contained in this smaller bottle. I think that's 8 ounces, as opposed to the 12 ounces in a 6 pack. These were 8 to a pack. The taste conjures up memories of going to the drug store in town, sitting at the counter and ordering a cherry coke. Two pumps of Grenadine, 8 ounces of Coke, mix and serve. A chocolate Coke was whipped to a froth so the chocolate syrup would mix with the cold Coke. I think they had vanilla and lime Cokes, too, but those aren't flavors I like mixed with my Coke.

I sometimes think that a place that served up the old soda fountain ambiance along with ice cold real Cherry Cokes would be successful in today's homogenized food world. After all, recipes for items served at soda fountains abound on the internet. You're serving not just snack items, but a large helping of 1950's era nostalgia. There's a huge market for that.

There was also a certain cache to being a soda jerk. It wasn't until the end of the era with the fountain that girls were allowed to be soda jerks. It was always a boy, a clean-cut high school boy who winked at your junior high self when he set your beverage in front of you. You really wanted to sit at the counter to watch those guys make their creations,too. They were wizards with sundaes and aerosol whipped cream. There have to be places where this is still lovingly preserved and you can sidle up to the stainless steel and Formica counter and order a Cherry Coke.

Ironically, I actually thought to look at the ingredients in the Grenadine I brought home. "High fructose corn syrup" was the first ingredient. Well, how about that. I don't know any other Grenadine than Rose's. I remember it being on the shelf with the alcohol for my parents' New Year's Eve parties. There weren't any signs of fruit juice in this bottle. "Artifical flavors". Hmmmm, so much for feeling like I was authentic here.

Research on grenadine has taken me to looking for a middle eastern grocery. "Real" Grenadine is the juice from a pomegranate and is generally sold in those stores. Sometimes blackcurrant or cherry juice is added. Perhaps my quest this summer should be to try a "cherry" Coke with something more closely resembling a cherry flavor. Sorry Rose's. After many decades in my fridge, you're no longer welcome.

Beverage:  Yorkshire Gold tea

Deb

No Coke

This morning, there was ample frost on the windshield. I stood looking at this realizing I'd have to scrape. This wasn't something I could give the wipers a once over and it would be fine.

I have no Coca-Cola in the house. I'm trying to cut back my soda consumption. A bunch of us are contemplating an online weight loss support group because we all need to lose a bunch of poundage. Soda is one of the worst things you can have in your house. You shouldn't drink it, period, not even the diet versions. It's just not good on so many levels.

Hence, I have no Coke in the house to test the idea that Coke removes frost from windshields. I thought, "Well, you could go get one bottle and just keep it in the house for the next time." Right. I'd need to hide it and, well, that would defeat the purpose of having it in the house to use for this test because, the next time I have to scrape, I wouldn't remember where I'd stashed it.

I'm best just waiting to see if Jack Frost and the pocketbook align and on a day when I have Coke in the house, he paints the windshield with ice. This actually looks worse than it was. It was a quick pass with the scraper and off to work I went.

I have selzter in the house. Wonder if it's the Coke or the fizz that does the trick? Hmmmmm. Experiments in the name of science!

Beverage:  Rooibos tea

Deb

Cleaning

There is a tradition to thoroughly clean one's domicile twice a year; spring and fall. This spring, I cleaned thoroughly because Carole and David were coming for Memorial Day and Niles' wedding. I had not done the fall cleaning, however.

It's been a rough fall for joint pain. My knees have been giving me a great deal of problems and pain. I don't have the pain in my hands, shoulders or feet and ankles, but the hips hurt getting out of bed in the morning and the knees hurt period. Cleaning, the thorough kind I really wanted to do, just wore me out because I can't stand for long periods of time. I have to break the cleaning sessions into smaller chunks and it sometimes doesn't feel like I'm getting anything accomplished.

I also have to be careful about the amount of cleaning products I'm exposed to. My allergies seem to be in high gear this fall. I've been waiting for the hard freeze to kill the pollens outside, but interior allergens can be as bad or worse than anything you find outside. I have to watch how much stuff I use and how long I'm exposed to it.

In Target, on Wednesday, I was thrilled to see that J.R. Watkins had put their cleaning products for sale in the store. Watkins is a Minnesota brand and Target is headquartered in Minneapolis. It was probably a perfect fit for growing the Watkins brand. It's usually sold via door-to-door salesmen. We had a "little old man", I don't remember his name, who handled our Watkins products. He was stooped with what we now know is osteoporosis, and drove this battered gray station wagon in which most of his products were stored. I have raved about their vanilla and spices before. I have their degreaser for heavy jobs. It's wonderful. I've used some of their other cleaning products and they are mild but very effective and without the chemicals I seem to have problems with.

But, as good as they are, they still have to resort to chemicals in some ways to clean some things. Many natural cleaning aids, vinegar comes to mind, do work but aren't as effective in some situations. My goal this weekend is to thoroughly clean AND get the window insulator plastic up on the windows. I'm going to be washing windows and trim around the windows. I have Windex, but I just don't want to breathe that stuff in for an afternoon.

Almost as if it knows, the Internet coughed up an article about using this as a cleaning aid.

Plain old Coca-Cola. The mystic formula of real Coke has a grease cutting ability that is supposed to be exceptional. I've known of stories that say you can use a can of Coke to clean your toilet bowl. (It looks really gross and no, I didn't photograph it.) I decided this was as good of a time as any to conduct experiments.

A case at Target was $5.99. That's kind of pricey. If you watch sales, I know you can get it for less. That's still 50¢ a can for a cleaning agent. The last bottle of toilet bowl cleaner I purchased was on sale for $2.49 for 24 ounces or 10¢ an ounce. A can of Coke is 4¢ an ounce.

I'm not completely sold on Coke as a toilet bowl cleaner. Unless you shake the can, you'll not get it under the rim, which should be cleaned every time you clean the bowl. I felt I had to use twice as much water because of rinsing out the toilet brush. My bowl looks clean, but is that a product of the Coke or would I get the same result if I just scrubbed the bowl with the toilet brush. I clean the bowl once a week. In terms of value, a case of coke is good for 12 weeks of cleaning as you're supposed to use a full can. I buy a bottle of toilet bowl cleaner about once every 4 months because I'm not using 12 ounces of the product. The chemical stuff is, by far, the better value for this cleaning.

Where Coke has really impressed me is in washing windows. Part of sealing the windows for the winter is washing them and the trim. I'm just using plain water to wash off the trim. I take a couple of paper towels, tip the can of Coke and pour a "handful" onto the towels. That's used to wash the window.

"But the sugar in the soda will leave a residue, won't it?" Well, if I just leave the Coke on the window, yes. There is a wind today and the outside air temperature is 32 degrees colder than yesterday. I started in the bedroom and washed the top half of the window first. I followed the Coke windows with a sponge immersed in water and then dried off each pane. I didn't notice a difference between the Coke washed and the just regular washed with water window.

Then I went to the cats' room. This used to be Carole's bedroom. We repainted the walls and windows, leaving paint residue on the windows. We always meant to scrape that off, but it never happened. She also had stickers on the windows as kids will do. Over the years, those have dried and fallen off, but the imprint has remained. Windex hasn't been able to get that off the glass.

Since I'm not in this room much, except to change litter, I haven't spent time cleaning the windows. They were quite dirty. Imagine my surprise and delight when the Coke infused paper towels removed over half of the dried paint; dissolved it right before my eyes; the sticker residue, insect parts and all the dirt and grime. For a control, I washed one pane in just plain water. It did get most of the grime but not all of it, some of the insect parts and none of the paint. I followed up with Coke. Each pane is rinsed with plain water and then dried with a paper towel. I wound up spending some time on this window simply because the Coke was dissolving the old paint every time I wiped across the panes. Technically, I don't really "care" about these back windows, but, wow. They sure sparkle now.

I've got a bunch more windows to wash and I will, for sure, use the Coke followed by water method. There are absolutely no fumes. Yes, it takes a bit more time to wash the window but not breathing in Windex fumes is, I think, worth it. I have no idea what Windex is selling for at this time. I bought some months ago when it was on sale, a big bottle so I have quite a bit to use up. I can't tell if this is a bargain but, after 2 windows, I've used about a third of a can. Perhaps I would use more if I was doing the outside of the windows. I am impressed, to say the least.

The last thing I'm going to try is defrosting the windshield with Coke. The article said pouring part of a can of Coke onto a frosted over window removes the frost. Follow with your washer fluid. I think there will be frozen Coke residue on your car that you probably will want to wash off but, for someone like me being able to easily make the windshield clear will be a godsend. I've had to scrape three times already and it does hurt the hands a bit in the morning. I'll let you know how that goes.

There is one thing I do wonder. Who decided to use Coke to clean their windows? Were they sitting around after pizza one night and someone looked at their can and said, "I wonder if we could use this to clean the windows?" And why Coke and not Pepsi or Dr Pepper? It's probably a good thing that I've not seen that you can use Dr Pepper to clean windows. I don't think I could use it for that.

Beverage:  Um...the rest of the can of Coke

Deb