Absence and Review Round Up

It has been a hot minute since my last post, and for that I do apologize. Here I would normally insert excuses about Winter Storm Jonas, my kids, or my work but to be completely honest what really has been the cause for the delay was a lapse in my medication for depression and a not so pretty minor depression episode. Nothing like what I experienced this time last year, but bad enough to where I just wanted to bury my head in the sand or to sleep all the time to make everything go away. At the insistence of my spouse I resumed my medication and I am working towards getting back to a more natural and balanced emotional rhythm.


So before I head into my review round-up, I do have a funny "horrible parenting" moment to share. Lately in our house, we have been running a little thin on sippy cups for Number 3. The small pieces that prevent them from leaking are either getting lost or getting eaten by the dishwasher. To further complicate things, it feels as though we never have the right lids for the available cups. This brings out count of usable sippy cups down to three. The other morning, while getting all of the kids ready for school, I holler at minion Number 1 to go fetch a sippy cup with milk in it for minion Number 3 while I changed his diaper and got him dressed. After a few minutes Number 1 reports back stating that there were not any available sippy cups, reminding me that I had just loaded up the dishwasher with all three right before waking the minions. Number 3 does okay with open cups with supervision and I instruct Number one to find the smallest cup and fill it with milk. A few minutes later, Number 1 strolls in to the den with a shot glass filled with milk. I had an internal struggle of about 10 secs regarding whether or not I should let the baby drink from the shot glass. Then I thought, 'good enough'. Kudos to Number 1 for indeed finding the smallest cup in the house.

Shot Glass - Bottoms Up

The shot glass that was used in the above story was a new shot glass I had received from Make Em Laugh. The shot glass is a little larger than most as it will hold a full 2 oz shot compared to the 1.5oz of other glasses. The shot glass is made really well with a thicker glass bottom to keep it properly weighted and it is free from any imperfections. The lettering on the shot glass is black and is easily legible not matter what is in the shot glass (clear spirits, dark spirits, milk) and best of all don't come off in the dishwasher. Yes, this shot glass is dishwasher safe. I once has a set of Boondock Saints shot glasses, and after using them my husband was going to be nice and have them washed. To wash them, he put them in the dishwasher. Much to my surprise I go to unload the dishwasher and I see a set of plain shot glasses without any designs.

Make Em Laugh has several different designs for their shot glasses and their sense of humor displayed on the shot glasses is evident in other aspects of their company. Here is their instructions for the shot glass.


Instructions For Shot Glass Use:

* Place Shot Glass on flat surface with open side up

* Pour Liquor(s) into the Glass

* Raise Glass off flat surface to lips in one swift motion

* Quickly empty contents into mouth

* Place Shot Glass back on flat surface

* Repeat if necessary

* Enjoy




Yummi Gear Divided Lunch Boxes (Set of 4)

These are a bit smaller than the ones I have gotten in the past, but are perfect for packing a lunch for my son and daughter. The main compartment perfectly fits a sandwich and the two smaller compartments allows two sides to also be packed providing a complete meal all in one grab-and-go case. (I like to fill all four at night and have the kids' lunches ready to go for the next two mornings. It definitely helps with that morning chaos.)

The containers individually seal with the lid, however the seal is not air tight. You might want to refrain from packing a side that is wet or you may end up with a soggy sandwich. I usually stick with fairly dry sides like baby carrots, grapes, and/or goldfish snack crackers.

Mr. CookWare Stainless Steel Grater Zester

I would inwardly groan every time a recipe called for lemon or lime zest. Gathering citrus zest was always such a pain. Who knew I was just using the wrong tool. I used to use a hand cheese greater with a super fine grate on it. First of all, getting any significant amount of zest would take a forever and secondly, the zest itself would be a super oily mushy mess. I always felt like I ended up with more zest on surfaces where I didn't need it and never where it needed to be.

This zester is fast and efficient. It is also very sharp, which is why I am very glad that it came with a cover. A little brush also was shipped with the zester. That right there was the icing on the cake. I can't tell you how many dish sponges have become victims to my graters. I can't wait to try it on some of the other foods.

Digital Kitchen Timer by kitchenen

 

I love just how portable both timers are.

Both the large and the small timer have large screens and are easy to read. They are super easy to set too. Both timers have a loud and clear chime for when they reach zero. The small one has a really thin design that can easily slip down into my pocket so I can clean while I bake and carry the timer with me. 

They will also be an invaluable asset for when I begin potty training Number 3. When I potty trained the first two minions, I took away their diapers for a weekend and put them in cloth big kids undies and set a timer. Every hour and a half, I would take them and sit them down on the potty. It is usually pretty successful. Is it messy? Yes. But if I notice a lot of accidents in between scheduled bathroom breaks, I schedule them to be much more frequent. If, by the end of the weekend the my kid has not once had a successful trip to the bathroom, I mark that up as they just weren't ready and we table the idea for about a month when we try again.

As always feedback, questions, comments, and suggestions are always welcome. Please remember to follow the blog and register your email address at the top of the page to have new posts delivered right to your email inbox and never miss an update.

Disclaimer: please be aware that any item mentioned in this blog may have been received for free or at a discount in exchange for a fair and honest review. The opinions expressed in this blog are my own regardless of how the items were acquired.

Kitchen Tools Thanksgiving Round Up Edition

Who doesn't eat on Thanksgiving?

The Turkey, because he is always stuffed!!

As I cleaned up from our Thanksgiving meal, I realized that the whole ordeal would have been a lot more difficult without some of the tools I have in my kitchen. 

While my knives and my pots and pans along with my KitchenAid mixer are my favorites (and most likely always will be), I have found some new kitchen tools that also helped make the dinner a success. 

I have recently tried out products from a company called Sunsella and since then have become a big fan of theirs. Their products are practical multi-tasking tools that in my experience are well made and take care of a wide variety of tasks.

The Sunsella dough cutter and scraper proved invaluable out on the Thanksgiving field this year. This dough scraper has a sharpened edge than can cut through almost anything. While it will not replace my knives it is great for cutting through small vegetables and more importantly dough for those delicious dinner rolls. The stainless steel blade is stamped with inch measurements so I can be better about making all my rolls roughly the same size. The handle is made out of a durable rubber material that is shaped to fit comfortably in my hand. It is definitely a contender for MVP in my kitchen!!




The  vegetable steamer that Sunsella makes is useful for more than just vegetables. This Thanksgiving when stove top space is at as much a premium as a well located apartment in down town New York, turn over has to be completed quickly and efficiently. This steamer aided in that especially while I was hard boiling a dozen eggs for my deviled eggs tray. The steamer allowed me to pull all of the eggs at once and get them into their ice bath in a fraction of the time it would have taken me to pull them individually. This freed up that space on the stove top for other dishes to begin cooking.  Like Sunsella's other products this steamer basket is 100% stainless steel and the flanges of the basket are a little thicker than other steamer baskets I have seen making this one more durable. Probably the best part is how small it is when it collapses down. It really does save space.



The next big challenge after cooking a Thanksgiving meal is storing the left overs. In the past I have stored each dish in its own container and then some of the left overs would get eaten quickly while others would linger in the fridge until eventually I would have to throw them out. This year, I decided to take a different approach. I decided to try Sunsella's bento-style buddy boxes. These containers have three compartments allowing me to store a full meal in each one.

Each compartment seals individually preventing food from one compartment from spilling over into the others and "contaminating" them (words from my picky eater who cannot stand to have food touching). These boxes have made packing lunches for work a breeze as now all I have to do is grab one and go and I know that it is a full meal all in one go. 

And the MVP award for this Thanksgiving's preparation tool goes to........

The Sunsella Bento-Style Buddy Boxes!!!

The buddy boxes may have made left over storage a little more time intensive but having the ability to just 'grab-and-go' before work has proven invaluable. They also seem to be holding up really well to the abuse of the dishwasher without warping.


As always, comments, feedback, questions and suggestions are welcome. Don't forget to follow the blog and register your email address at the top of the page to have updates sent directly to your inbox so you never miss a  post!


Disclaimer: Items mentioned in this blog may have been received for free or at a discount in exchange for a fair and honest review. The opinions expressed above are my own regardless of how the item was acquired.