Old El Paso

The story of the family pack Enchilada Kit. We do Mexican once or twice a month and the kits are expensive but worth the hassle of buying all the ingredients, especially the spice blend. The last two packs I bought only had 2 packs of cooking sauce in the box. The first time I just thought it was an oversight, no, the second time was the same.

I decided to have a closer look at the box and now the fun begins. Firstly, on the front of the box are 3 chillis, one red and the other two have no fill. Are there 3 chillis in the box? If so Susan will never eat it, much too hot, she has always had a delicate mouth and does not do hot spices.

It was the instructions that made me doubt my own wisdom with regard to cooking. They say, you only need chicken, onion (small, medium or large is unknown), a courgette (small, medium or large is unknown) and cheese. Seems straightforward but the instructions call for 3 cooking sauce pouches, there were only 2 in the box. They also say ‘add zucchini and half the prepared cooking sauce’. Then in bold, they say ‘Add the courgette and half the cooking sauce’. Someone did not proof these instructions before they went to the printers.

On closer inspection I find that the contents of the box have the following; 12 Soft corn and wheat tortillas, 1 Cooking sauce and 1 Seasoning mix. We have now three different amounts of cooking sauce. To recap, Add 3 cooking sauce pouches to the pan, only 2 in the box and only 1 in the ingredients.

It was all quite a challenge but with the odd emails to customer services and a follow-up call, it is going to be corrected and they sent me a £ 28.00 voucher as a token of their goodwill.

Now it's just those 3 chillies that are bothering me, I will email them in the morning.

On another topic. The life of your battery, well the one in your laptop. I have for many years been a keen advocate of running your battery down and then charging it again. Seems this is not the case anymore. I did some research and the battery manufacturers gave me this answer.

Is it okay if my laptop is always plugged in so that my battery is charged 100%?

Most laptops are either lithium ion or lithium polymer batteries. And they have a finite number of charge-discharge cycles. A general misconception is that charging your battery all the time while you work will harm it

No. It will not. Once a battery is at 100%, the charger port will route the incoming power directly to the power supply of the laptop, bypassing the battery.

Must I allow it to drain periodically by unplugging it to increase battery life?

Do not drain your battery. It does more harm. Another important point is that your battery life is reduced drastically if it overheats, that is the major culprit.

That does seem a little strange, it is a laptop, so by having it on your lap, you actually do harm with the heat from your body, increasing the operating temperature of the laptop.

Not sure I am convinced I have been given the correct information!