February 5th, 2010 jeniii
Love is in the air! The strongest emotion on Earth is love. Even though I believe Valentine’s Day was invented for retailers to take full advantage of consumers unconscious spending, I absolutely LOVE seeing cupid shooting his arrow and red and pink hearts everywhere! Expressing your love can be difficult. So here are a few helpful gift ideas:
1.The best way to my heart is definitely through my stomach. Even better if it’s for breakfast. Make your sweetie pie breakfast in bed! Heart shaped eggs and heart shaped pancakes. Breakfast doesn’t get any better than that.
2.So you took this fabulous picture on your fabulous vacation, what better way to display it then in your very own personalized fabulous picture frame!
3.Every year I received some sort of bead kit to make necklaces or bracelets. It’s a great gift for kids to use their creative side and make something straight from the heart.
4.Get a good nights rest with this cute pair of pillowcases.
5.Hello Kitty jewelry. Enough said.
6. Nothing says I love you more than chocolates and flowers. For the traditional gift-giver, check out these fabulous duos.
7.Apple’s “Love at First Touch” says it all. Buy any of their iPod’s and get FREE engraving! Need some inspiration? They also have a gallery of engravings that you can choose from.
8.Customize a pair of Nike Dunk Low Premium iD Shoe. You decide what colors, where they go and you even get to add an id in 8 characters or less.
9.For the ultimate beer enthusiast, give the gift of beer for one whole year from The Beer of the Month Club. The recipient will receive award-winning microbrews from around the country every month.
10.At Build-A-Bear Workshop you can make your own Be Mine Dalmation (while supplies last) complete with its own heart shaped collar. These are great for your loved ones of all ages.
Posted in Do it yourself - DIY - Home made, Uncategorized, amazon, bags / purses / backpacks, family, fun, funny, gifts, jewelry, kids, kitchen appliances and gadgets, t-shirts/clothing, women | No Comments »
December 3rd, 2009 admin
Oh the weather outside is frightful. (Really.) So lets make cookies that are delightful…
During this time of year of yuletide greetings and all that holiday, snowflaky kind of stuff, I love to make cookies and give them away. After all, it’s the time of year when we eat lots of candy, cakes, chocolates and goodies in general so to add to the festivities, cookies are on my agenda. One of my favorite cookies to prepare are the buttery sandwich cookies with jam inside, called Linzer Cookies. They are so absolutely yummy with a steamy cup of tea or coffee, or with a large icy cold glass of milk. They look like snowflakes…sort of! Anyway, use this cookie cutter set to make your delectable Christmas cookies to bring to work or to give away to family and friends.
G e t t h e L i n z e r c o o k i e c u t t e r s e t h e r e
The set includes linzer cutter and 6 interchangeable center cutter designs. Boxed with recipe and instructions, metal.
Need a recipe for Linzer cookies? Here’s one from Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa.
Ingredients
* 3/4 pound unsalted butter at room temperature
* 1 cup granulated sugar
* 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
* 3 1/2 cups flour
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 3/4 cup good raspberry preserves
* Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix together the butter and sugar until they are just combined. Add the vanilla. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour and salt, then add them to the butter-and-sugar mixture. Mix on low speed until the dough starts to come together. Dump onto a surface dusted with flour and shape into a flat disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for 30 minutes.
Roll the dough 1/4-inch thick and cut 2 3/4-inch rounds with a plain or fluted cutter. With 1/2 of the rounds, cut a hole from the middle of each round with a heart or spade shaped cutter. Place all the cookies on an ungreased baking sheet and chill for 15 minutes.
Bake the cookies for 20 to 25 minutes, until the edges begin to brown. Allow to cool to room temperature. Spread raspberry preserves on the flat side of each solid cookie. Dust the top of the cut-out cookies with confectioners’ sugar and press the flat sides together, with the raspberry preserves in the middle and the confectioners’ sugar on the top.
Posted in food and drinks, fun, good value, kitchen appliances and gadgets | No Comments »
December 1st, 2009 admin
While microwave popcorn is extremely convenient, it’s just not on our radars because we are very wary of the safety of microwaves and no one can definitively answer the question: is microwaved food safe? We’d just like to play it safe and opt for this particular popcorn popper (and nut roaster, a bonus!)
The Kettle Krazy Popcorn Popper and Nut Roaster makes a wonderful gift for someone who loves to curl up on the sofa with a big bowl and munch on America’s most popular snack while watching an absorbing movie or favorite TV shows. There’s nothing more comforting and fun than watching your big screen (or little screen!), grabbing a huge handful of popcorn and then stuffing it in your mouth! Okay, some of you might eat one at a time but admit it, it’s fun to try to get a whole bunch in there at once sometimes!
Kettle Krazy Popcorn Popper and Nut Roaster popper quickly pops up to 6-quarts of fresh popcorn in just minutes. There’s a motorized stir rod that moves the corn kernels so they don’t burn, which also means there will be very few, if any, unpopped kernels. When the popcorn’s ready, just turn the bowl upside down and it’s ready for major munching! The appliance also makes up to 3 cups of mall-kiosk-style glazed nuts or roasted nuts, so you can make some Cracker Jacks!
Get a Kettle Krazy Popcorn Popper and Nut Roaster now!
Posted in electronics, family, food and drinks, fun, good value, kitchen appliances and gadgets | No Comments »
November 26th, 2009 jeniii
As much as I love Thanksgiving and Christmas, my absolute favorite time of the year is Black Friday! Waking up at 3 A.M. to get a good parking spot at the mall; even better, camping outside of Best Buy for days to get the season’s greatest deals! Once inside your select stores, you literally have to shield yourself from claws and hair pulling, and that’s just from your best friend. But, if you’d rather stay home and miss the crazy retail madness, there are many retailers that offer Black Friday deals specifically for online shoppers. Check out sites like blackfriday.com and blackfriday.gottadeal.com. They list top retailers’ advertisements with the best deals. Also, for even more savings they provide you with some online coupon codes. Awesome, right? It gets even better, some companies offer free shipping with a minimum purchase. For example, Target.com offers free shipping for all orders over $50 and Nordstrom.com offers free shipping on orders over $100 (piece of cake!) So relax in the comfort of your warm home, perhaps with a glass of eggnog (don’t forget the rum, haha!) in front of your computer. Black friday isn’t that bad, right?
Posted in CDs, DVD, PC Games, bags / purses / backpacks, books, computer games, computers, cosmetics/lotions/makeup, coupons / deals / sales, diamonds, digital cameras, digital video cameras, discount codes, electronics, games, gifts, home entertainment, jewelry, kids, kitchen appliances and gadgets, laptops / notebooks / computers, music, phones, sales, shoes, special occasions, t-shirts/clothing, television / film, televisions, watches | No Comments »
July 13th, 2009 admin
You might have guessed by now, if you’ve been reading this blog for a while, that I do not like products that break soon after you buy them. Remember when appliances lasted decades? Ok, I don’t have anything that lasted for decades but my parents’ generation experienced this. I think their washer and dryer lasted 30 years. I’m not kidding. I think they still have a hand blender that is at least 40 years old…and it still works!
Sadly, many items these days are not meant to last so that you will buy another one over and over again. This is not only bad for the environment because these things end up in landfills, but also, you the consumer waste an exorbitant amount of money over time. This is why I like to recommend durable appliances that will last quite a while.
Enter the stainless steel Lello 4080 Musso Lussino 1.5-Quart Ice Cream Maker. Here’s what people have to say about it:
Fully automatic and precisely controlled by a timer, this machine takes the trouble and guesswork out of making ice cream, sorbet, frozen yogurt, gelato, and frozen drinks at home. Ingredients go into the bowl, the timer is set, two buttons are pressed and about 30 minutes later 1-1/2 quarts of a frozen confection are ready for consumption. Because the machine doesn’t require its bowl to be frozen for hours in a refrigerator’s freezer (like less expensive machines that only churn), it can immediately begin making another batch. If a batch becomes too hard the machine shuts off automatically. Not only does it work professionally it looks the part, as the housing, bowl, and paddle are made of stainless steel for sanitation and easy cleaning. The 100-watt machine measures 12 inches wide, 11 inches high, and 18 inches deep, and it weighs 38 pounds. Made it Italy, it carries a one-year warranty against defects. An instruction booklet with many recipes is included.
Find out more about it
Posted in efficient, electronics, equipment, family, food and drinks, fun, kitchen appliances and gadgets, plastic is poison | No Comments »
July 9th, 2009 admin
How many blenders have you gone through? If your answer is more than 1, you’ve been ripped off not to mention that you probably got cheap polycarbonate (plastic) ones. Don’t do that! My recommendation is to get a reliable, durable and performing blender that will last a lifetime. Designed for the commercial environment, the robust Kitchenaid KTA-KPCB148SPM Pro Line Bar Blender design handles job after job with outstanding results. Thoroughly blends smoothies and frozen drinks, and purees sauces and soups in less than 20 seconds. Jar collar, blade assembly, and seals are built into jar for strength, durability, and water-tight performance. The patented one-piece blade has extra thick stainless steel blade design with sharpened edges and high blade angles for extreme performance and long life. The 48 oz stainless-steel jar is dishwasher-safe.
Ok. It’s expensive but it is one of the best blenders you will ever have and it’s made to last.
Read more about it
Posted in efficient, electronics, energy booster, equipment, family, fitness, food and drinks, health, kitchen appliances and gadgets | No Comments »
January 25th, 2009 admin
Do you know how sometimes, while you’re cooking, (you might have guests or you’re just cooking for the family) – you feel like you need a couple of extra stove top burners. You think, “Gosh, if I just had another burner or two I could prepare all of the food to be ready at the same time!” Yea, you COULD prepare everything without those couple of extra burners but it would make life so much more convenient. Some of you KNOW what I’m talking, about, right?
You need this
.
Posted in efficient, equipment, family, food and drinks, kitchen appliances and gadgets, practical | 2 Comments »
December 19th, 2008 admin
You didn’t think all you could do on your Nintendo DS Lite
was to play Yoshi’s Island
and Mario Kart
all day long, did you? Or are you more of a Dr. Kawashima
kind of DS game player? Whatever the case, get with the program; you can cook up a storm with Personal Trainer: Cooking on your trusty DS. It’s so wonderful because the DS is small and will fit on your counter while you cook and remind you about what you need to do to prepare some of the most tastiest dishes on earth. Check it out.
First things first: select a recipe. With 245+ to choose from, Personal Trainer: Cooking makes it easy to find what you’re looking for by helping you browse by country, ingredients, difficulty, cooking time, cooking technique or even calorie count.
Once you’ve found something that looks yummy, take a look at the ingredients. Out of butter or need to buy some cumin? Just tap them with the stylus to automatically add the ingredients to your Shopping List. Making several dishes tonight? Just keep tapping ingredients – your Shopping List keeps it all in one place for you. Now that you’ve got your ingredients, it’s time to start cooking. The DS Chef is there with you, talking you through every step along the way. Don’t know how to fillet a trout? Watch the demonstration video when you get to that step. Didn’t quite catch the last step? Just say “Repeat,” and the Chef will explain it again. You can pause the recipe at any time to consult the Cooking A-Z guide, and prompts will appear within recipes for specific terms you might need more information about.
Click below to get one now.
Personal Trainer: Cooking
Posted in computer games, efficient, electronics, food and drinks, fun, gifts, health, hobbies, kitchen appliances and gadgets, practical | No Comments »
December 18th, 2008 admin
It’s cookie making time! Well. For me, anyway. I love making all kinds of cookies, cakes and candies during the holidays; let’s just say that I really get into the spirit of Christmas, Channukah, Kwanza and whatever else I’ve missed. Back to cookie making. These cutters rock because you have so many different sizes to make all sorts of goodies AND when you’re done, they store in a tiny amount of space.
Complete with a tin storage box to reduce clutter, this set of 11 round, stainless-steel cookie cutters comes in handy for all seasons. The cutters range in size from 3/4 inch high to 3-5/8 inches high, and they have rolled edges on top to protect fingers during the cutting process. They’re constructed to be long-lasting and are dishwasher-safe.
* Professional gauge pastry and cookie cutters with a plain edge.
* Set of 11 in a reusable storage tin, ranging in size from 7/8″Dia to 3-3/4″Diameter
* Stainless steel.
Get these cookie cutters now
Posted in Do it yourself - DIY - Home made, efficient, family, food and drinks, fun, gifts, good value, hobbies, kids, kitchen appliances and gadgets | No Comments »
November 15th, 2008 admin
Shop early for gifts! Yes, right now. You’ll thank me later.
“This slicer is an inexpensive alternative to a professional stainless-steel mandoline, this device makes it possible to quickly, uniformly, and safely slice and julienne vegetables and fruits. It also shreds cabbage and neatly dices potatoes, tomatoes, and onions. For safety, a holder firmly grips food with stainless-steel prongs so fingers are protected from the German surgical-steel blades, and the three inserts accompanying the device lock in position. The inserts act as a guide for slicing against the V-frame’s knife that reverses to create slices either 1/4-inch or 1/16-inch thick and two julienne inserts for creating 1/8-inch or 3/8-inch strips. For storage, the V-frame, all three inserts, and the safety holder fit into a caddy that can stand upright on the counter, lie flat in a drawer, or hang on the wall. Made of rugged plastic, the device measures 15 inches long and 6 inches wide when assembled for storage.” –Fred Brack
Get a V-Slicer Plus now
Posted in efficient, equipment, food and drinks, gifts, good value, hobbies, kitchen appliances and gadgets | No Comments »