5 suggestions for the Makers-of-Things:

[capri0mni]

1) My guilty pleasure snack is munching on Ramen noodles in their crunchy state. But I can't stand the flavor packet powders most come with -- way too salty, and I can never manage to mix them evenly when I do occasionally soak them in boiling water.

So: please sell ramen noodles singly -- as something snackable. Maybe in bite sizes, even.

2) Most of my evening meals are the frozen entree variety, because Reasons. So I notice that several frozen dinner options still include a dessert -- mostly fruit of some sort in a sugar syrup. While a nice idea in theory, this is always a disaster in reality. I like cinnamon apples, but not spattered as an accidental sauce on my broccoli.

So: please put a frozen dessert with your meals. Make the little plastic cup it's in detachable from the main tray, so it can be set aside to soften while the main course is duly zapped. That way, I could have a little lemon sorbet (or whatever) after my lasagna (or whatever). And if I don't feel like having dessert today, I could put the cup of it back in the freezer to save up for another time.

3) Speaking of freezers: as a wheelchair user, I need a side-by-side fridge-freezer unit (can't reach a freezer either Up Above or Down Below). Also, being in a wheelchair, I have to pull up alongside the freezer, and lean sideways over my armrest to get anything (if I pulled up facing the freezer, my knees and feet would get in the way, preventing me from getting close enough). Side freezers are deep and narrow. And things that slide all the way back to the shelves are nearly impossible to reach.

So: please make a side by side freezer with pull-out drawers, like you have on the fridge side. That way I could get to things in the back without risking knocking all the things in front onto the floor... I imagine ambulatory folks would also find this convenient.

Leaving the kitchen:

4) Windows 8 has a pack of X-Box versions of their Solitaire card games, complete with Achievements to be unlocked. But one achievement that would make me really proud is one they don't even recognize.

So: please make a "Won a game without using the Undo Button" medal...

5) There are two ways, in the Windows Paint app, to come up with colors that are outside the predetermined ones in the Windows pallette. The first is through "edit colors," which pulls up a dialog box that lets you determine the color you want in 3 ways: 1) a pair of click and drag sliders to adjust the hue, saturation, and luminosity, 2) an option to type number values (from 0 to 240) for Hue, Saturation, and Luminosity, or 3) an option to adjust the balance of Red, Green, and Blue (by typing numbers from 0 to 255). The second way to get "custom" colors is to use the eye-dropper tool, which lets you pick any color in any picture (even a photo) by clicking on it.

I like the first option because when I play around and a color I really like, I can note its numerical values so I can recreate it later. I like the second option because I can get truly naturalistic colors by picking them from a photo of the real thing.

But: I can't then edit a color I grab with the eye-dropper (for example: if I'd like to see what that autumn tree red looks like if it were just a bit more muted)

So: please make a Paint Eye-dropper tool that can tell me at least one numerical set for the color I want to grab (either Hue, Saturation, Luminosity, or Red/Green/Blue balance). These numbers could appear in the bottom info line, beside the cursor location, whenever the eye dropper is hovering over a color).

Comments

[sqbr]

I buy ramen in big bulk packs with no flavouring, could you do that then take them out individually to snack on?

[capri0mni]

I can now... Now that I know such a thing exists (The only type available in my local groceries are the with flavors type -- I just ignore the packets.)

[sqbr]

Good luck! I'd rec Fantastic Noodles but they seem to just be an Australian brand.

[capri0mni]

Thanks! knowledge and the Internet go a long way together, perhaps I will find what suits me... :-)

[spiralsheep]

2) I know I've said this before but I've never seen an all-in-one ready-meal and am still boggling at the idea of not having main course and afters separately, heh. :-)

3) You're probably ahead of me here but I know other people read here so.... My immediate instinct was to suggest using one as-large-as-suitable cheap plastic storage box on each shelf but I know that non-fitted storage tends to end up on the floor at some point. I've also used the same one as-large-as-suitable cheap storage box to block off the backs of storage spaces so things are less likely to end up in difficult to retrieve places, e.g. too deep, L-shaped, with a black hole at the back, &c.

[capri0mni]

2) When I was a kid, frozen dinners* were utterly horrid... think bad quality airplane food with no spices** and they almost always had dessert [usually something with chocolate sauce, which would get mixed with the beef gravy]. Now, at least, the quality of the meals themselves have gotten better, and most skip the dessert.

3) I've thought about adapting a suitably sized plastic tray of some sort, but then I usually come to the conclusion that fiddling with it to make it not drop on the floor/not get stuck, etc. would end up being more frustrating than not. I'd also like to see an option for folks like me, who use the freezer more than the refrigerator (me and the stereotypical male bachelors), to have the width of the two sides reversed.


*usually called "TV dinners," back then -- because the food trays were compact enough to serve on folding tables, while folks sat on the sofa and watched TV [/fact reinforcing American Stereotype]

**of course, it could be my personal spice-calibration meter is wacky; my favorite sandwich, as a preschooler, was brown mustard and freshly cracked pepper on toast -- with nothing else...

[gordon_r_d]

My preferred ramen right now are Mr4 Noodles Kin-Chi noodle bowls in both regular and chicken flavours. Cardboard/foamish bowl with powder soup flavouring and dried veg. Until recently I thought I was odd for drinking the leftover liquid in the bowl when the noodles were finished but then I was watching some Japanese comedy stuff and it showed that's what you're meant to do, so i was vindicated.

I'll be at a loss if the local shop chain stops getting them.

Otherwise I'm a fan of egg noodles, on their own with a wee bit of soya sauce or mixed with other things. I think it's been a couple of monthe since I've bought any packets with the powder flavouring in them.

[capri0mni]

Egg noodles are wonderful... the strainer I used to use for boiling pasta went to Utensil Heaven many moons ago, which is now why all the pastas in my pantry are the microwavable type....

And yay for noodle vindication!

I like to crumble the ramen and sprinkle it over things, like tuna with microwaved frozen mixed veggies and cheese -- like "regular" tuna casserole, but slightly crunchy (though the ramen absorbs the moisture, and becomes softer by the time I get to the end...).

[barbarafett]

Some Kid Cuisine frozen dinners do come with a removable plastic cup of frozen peaches. (Yes, I tend to eat a lot of frozen dinners, too.)

[capri0mni]

Cool!

If a meal comes with a frozen dessert, I generally pop it out of its container manually before putting the dinner tray in the microwave, and adjust the cook time accordingly.