Cuisinart Elite 4-cup Chopper

The internet has been good to me. I have made some of my best friends, re-connected with old friends, and let's not forget the time the internet saved my ass when the Bad Man pulled that violent crap, took all our money and left the kids and me in a horrible pickle.

But when a friend gave me this shiny new toy -a very dear friend who I met on the internet, saved my ass in many ways, and also knows that when I am worried or stressed I like to bake- I was very excited.

Look....shiny....pretty.....new.... and most importantly, not broken like my other (smaller) one which I forced to die a horrible death while chopping bittersweet chocolate even though it resisted. Whoops. My bad. So...don't chop up thick bittersweet chocolate bars in your mini-pro-chopper. You're welcome.

Not wanting to abuse it on it's first time out of the box, I decided to make key lime bars. Why? Because yet another internet re-connection (high school friend from across the country) had sent me some delicious key lime juice and I wanted to expand beyond pie.



I based the recipe on a classic key lime pie, but wanted a substantial graham cracker crust for the first layer of the bars. I was pretty sure the Cuisinart Elite 4-cup (yeah, you heard me - FOUR CUPS) Chopper was up to the task of crushing graham crackers.

Key Lime Bars
First layer- combine:


1 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
5 -6 Tbsp melted butter
1/3 cup brown sugar

Press in to an 8x8 square pan and bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes.

Key Lime Bars
Second Layer - Pour into your Mini Cuisinart and mix well:

3 egg yolks
1/2 cup key lime juice
1 can of sweetened condensed milk.

Pour over the graham cracker crust and bake at 350 for 10 minutes, until filling is firmly set.

Do you see that? The second picture, where the blade is not falling out to slice of my unsuspecting thumb wreck the filling? See? This is the best mini food processor ever, based on that fact alone. First impressions are important.

Let's have a closer look:
Cuisinart, I love you. Thank you for figuring that one out. Thank you for locking the razor sharp blade onto the work bowl when I dump out the contents.
Seriously.
BladeLock System?
I want to speak to that product design person and then kiss them.


Key Lime Bars
Third Layer - Combine in your mini Cuisinart:

1Tbsp softened butter or cream cheese
2 Tbsp key lime juice
1/2 cup confectioners (powdered) sugar

Blend together and add enough milk or half and half to make it about as thick as pancake batter.
Pour over the cooled key lime bars, chill until set.



Thanks, Grace!

Jif Omega-3 Awesomeness in a Jar

My son has Apraxia. It's a neuro-processing and oral motor coordination affliction which manifests in the form of a speech delay. I have been giving him DHA supplements for approximately 23 months, roughly the same amount of time he has been in speech therapy.
He is sick of the funny tasting fishy DHA gummy supplements, only eats one certain flavor of the gel caps, and woe is me if I forget which flavor. Because I am out another $20.
Another challenge for us is that Bubbles will only eat about 12 foods. So finding the correct and ample sources for DHA is a challenge. Luckily, one of the foods he will eat, is peanut butter.

So, when a rep from Jif contacted me, asking if I would like to try out their new Jif Omega-3 peanut butter, I jumped on the chance! I even tweeted that this peanut butter could possible change the world. At least, my world. The only question remaining was: Would he eat it?

The package came, looking identical to other Jif jars, but for the bright green lid identifying the brain cell enhancers inside the jar ready to do their stuff.
The ingredients looked suspect: anchovy oil? sardine oil? Oh sure, they claimed to be 'tasteless sources of DHA' but even I have burped up fish oil when the source was 'tasteless' going down. Truthfully, I doubt that I would have taken the chance on the jar of peanut butter with fish oil listed in the ingredients. But because Smuckers loves poor single writing mothers knows how to woo a mommy who happens to be a blogger, I didn't have to buy this jar. They sent me one for Apraxia Boy, when I told them how I had been feeding him Omega 3s in various forms.

First thing I made was nutty buddies. Take some rice/corn/wheat chex-style cereal coat it in peanut butter, melted chocolate, and powdered sugar (which my kids have no idea is cut with a 50% blend of vanilla protein powder), and my kids will eat it. They sucked it down like anteaters. But straight peanut butter was going to be the true test.
Even I would eat fish peanut butter with chocolate in it, right?
I kept sniffing the jar for fish smells.
Nothing but peanuts. Seriously yummy smelling, and I finally couldn't resist. I sniffed, grabbed a spoon, and surfed in.
This stuff is good.
I mean, really good.
And I am picky. Almost as picky as my kids.
I swallowed, waiting for the fishy after taste and burps.
Nothing.
No fish.
(I confess, I did eventually burp, but it was a very peanutty burp!)
I slapped that Jif on some bread and tossed into the bentos the next day.
One child likes jam and the other one thinks jam is a tool of the devil so he got the straight stuff.
I am pleased to report that only the crusts came back!!
Two tablespoons of Jif Omega-3 Peanut Butter provide a combined total of 32mg of DHA and EPA. You can easily get 2 Tablespoons on a sandwich.

Oh, and thank you, Jif, for not putting high fructose corn syrup in my kids' peanut butter!

We give it a six thumbs up from this family of three.

Johnson's Head to Toe Foaming Wash

I am a sucker for that Johnson's Baby smell.

Like a comfort food, I know that there are other products out there now, maybe products which claim to be better, wash better, smell better, wash more gently, etc., but I like the smell of original J&J shampoo and soap.
So when the awesome and psychic ladies at Mom Central asked me to write about Johnson's baby products, I squeed. (Squeed: v. Compound word make up of 'squealed' and 'agreed'.)

I remember my own bottle of No More Tears shampoo on the side of the tub in the seventies - it was my bottle alone, because my two older brothers and one pre-teen sister weren't going to be caught using 'baby shampoo'.

My daughter (7) is a fish, so getting her in the tub and covering her with soap has never been a struggle. But my son (3) is more selective, and must be lured into the tub with just the correct assortment of dinosaurs, submarines, and measuring cups.
So when I handed my daughter the new foaming hair and body wash from Johnson & Johnson, she immediately lathered up with the extra thick foam, transforming herself into a kewpie doll with a long white beard, and demanded a mirror.
And my son, watching this with great interest, screamed, "I want some! I want some on my head!!"
(And I evilly thought to myself, 'Woman, you deserve some wine! This review is going to write itself!')
And sure enough, it did.


My three year old son hates to have his hair washed.
He asked for Johnson's foaming shampoo on his head.
He laughed.
There were no tears.
He loved it.
The end.

What Melts in Your Mouth, Not in Your Hand? My Kids Faces! On My M&M's.

Mom Central offered me the opportunity to try out some custom M&M's, through MyM&Ms.com and I am never one to turn down chocolate.

I was very excited to get these for my mother and my MIL; since we weren't going to make the 3000 mile trek back east this year, it seemed like a whimsical substitute to offer them edible faces of my children instead.

Ordering proved to be somewhat of a challenge. Their website does not save information, even after creating an account, so it was frustrating to have to upload the same photos repeatedly.
The good news is that this is ultimately correctable, and easily improved upon (I did suggest the hire dh, web designer extraordinaire, but no response to that one) if they put in the effort.

Eventually, I was put in touch with a representative who took my information and jpegs via email, so we could expedite the order.
These are custom made, so order with plenty of time to spare before your estimated time of candy needs.
The first thing that impressed me was the amazing array of 22 colors available from MyM&Ms.com! It is like every shade of every holiday M&M color ever made, available to you in a rainbow of shiny candies on the screen.
I got to choose three colors for my custom M&M's, as I had chosen the photo upload option, which allowed me two messages and two photos. I was going for a traditional holiday theme for the grandmothers, so I chose red, white, and green, but it felt like a boring choice to me when I had all those other colors from which to choose
The final product is fun enough that I thought it outweighed the ordering glitches.


I would stick with light colors - as you can see, the white ones printed the best quality picture, but pastels would work just as well. I suggest you stay away from red, as the faces were most difficult to make out when printed on that color.

I have some doubts that the faces we sent to the grandmothers will actually get eaten, but I tried. We of course, had to try them - for quality control purposes - and they taste exactly like M&M's! Because, you know they are. My adorable babies' faces may have made them taste just a little sweeter.

Personally, I prefer the peanut M&M's. I guess they don't print well on the lumpy ones. I can see why though, because I had a hard enough time getting them to hold still and stop spinning long enough to take a picture, I can only imagine how difficult it must be to hold those little guys down and paint each one. (I kid!)

This was a great novelty to send to our relatives - the most fun in giving this gift was the surprise when they realized just why those M&M's were so special!

Seat Snug

When I heard about the SeatSnug product, I was more than interested.

(I was all, "ME ME ME! PICK ME!")

Supergirl is seven years old and weighs forty two pounds soaking wet. She is about 45 inches tall. She is, in a word, a peanut.
We will be in the world of booster seats for a long time to come.

I was excited to try it out, being all about The Safety, and truthfully, since Supergirl moved from an internal harness booster to one which uses just a regular seatbelt, I have been threatening to put her back in her old one. She leans forward to grab anything, stretches the seatbelt out here and there, and generally has no respect for the seatbelt whatsoever. Conversely, her little brother yells, "NO BUCKLED! BUCKLE ME! BUCKLE UP!!" if he is put in his carseat for thirty seconds without being buckled immediately. There are no variations on this law for him. (ABA how do I love thee, let me count the ways...)
So I was secretly hoping to use this as my latest weapon and last stand before stopping by the CHP to show them how she won't sit in her carseat which is my usual threat putting her back in her old, internal harness carseat.


Received:
Finally our postal person delivered the shiny new object! I think our mail route is served by a snowshoe-wearing octegenarian ninja, but I cannot confirm this, as ninjas are...well, ninjas. The object was satisfactorily shiny. (Mmmmm.....purple!)



Install:
If you are one of those non-direction following people, this is not for you. You will NEVER MAKE IT through the installation process.
READ the instructions, WATCH the video, and for best results, watch the video on your laptop in your car as your install it.

Use:
Practice buckling this thing in and out of your seatbelt before you have to actually go anywhere. You will not be able to remove it, and you may not be able to use it properly, and you may swear in front of your children, and this would be undesirable.
Practice pressing the on/off switch also, as this is what allows me to buckle it in to my car. In our Scion, the buckle will not engage unless I switch it off. After I have buckled her in, I switch it back on. This was frustrating until I got the hang of it, but does not in any way compromise my overall satisfaction with it's safety enhancement! The end goal of safety was reached, so that is my priority.


Overall impression:
AWESOME! I am ordering another one for Bubbles' carseat!

Modeled by my ten year old friend, who also says, "It's fine!"

Horizon Organic Creaminess in FOUR FLAVORS!

Bubbles has two favorite foods: bacon, and milk.

The pork people haven't gotten to me yet, but the Horizon peeps know where to look to find some serious milk drinkers: Ask the Mamas.

We had planned on having a big milk taste test last week, but when Bubbles blew chunks (can I say that in a product review? probably not)...erm...got sick all over the parking lot of Target (thus ensuring the 30 minute drive there was futile since I have a personal issue about walking into a store covered in kid-puke), it pretty much squashed that idea.
Now, however, everyone is back in working order and thirsty.


I am guessing that most of the mommies I know have caved at least once at their child's request for some chocolate milk at Starbuck's. I mean seriously, you are in line waiting to pay for your $4 latte, your child grabs a strategically placed chocolate milk box and sweetly asks you for a treat. You shake your head impulsively, rejecting the notion that your Starbuck's excursions are now going to cost you an added $2 if you dare to bring your small child near the child-friendly display case. Then you see the label: Horizon. Organic. Milk.
And you are a loser because you realize that other customers witnessed you trying to prevent your child from having something as wholesome as ORGANIC MILK just so you can jack up your caffeine fix. So of course you buy them the milk box, because there you are indulging yourself.

But then you discover that Starbuck's is not the only vendor for those little milk boxes; they are actually available to the public at other outlets! Like grocery stores!
So you could buy a whole pack of the milk boxes and take your own milk boxes to starbuck's because you are so cheap theoretically put them in your child's wholesome lunch.
But that's not all! They have FOUR FLAVORS! Yes, you heard me. This is the modern world, where we expect the most from our cows milk.

Even Supergirl got in on the action, and she is not generally a fan of The Milk. But she saw 'strawberry flavor' on one of the boxes and, being a huge fan of Charlie and Lola, wanted to try 'pink milk' as a show of solidarity.

We prepared the shot glasses (this was my fancy and clever way of avoiding the single straw issue):


First, they tested the strawberry. Supergirl chose this flavor first, and handed a glass to Bubbles, ignoring his pleas to "Have choco! Want choco!"
Supergirl was a little skeptical that it wasn't actually pink milk, but I was thrilled to note the absence of red food dye. If you have ever been around my daughter after she had ingested a red vine or bowl of trix, you would be emphatically nodding your head in agreement here.



She loved it. She drank it. She asked for more. For the first time in her life since giving up breastmilk (at 16 mos), she asked for more milk.
My children's mantra seems to be: ingest the least amount of calories to get by each day. So when Supergirl discovers that she likes MILK with some sugar (cane sugar! no high-fructose corn syrup in Horizon products!) and strawberry flavor, I am all over that. Even I will cave to the single serving boxes to get her to drink some milk.

Bubbles tried the strawberry, obliging us with a sip, before he slammed it down on the table and pointed again at the preferred flavor: CHOCO!
Since we knew he would love the chocolate flavor, we moved on to vanilla for the second flavor.
I cannot believe this, but both of my kids gave it the thumbs down. I think it was because Supergirl was already hooked on the strawberry, and Bubbles was obsessing over the chocolate, but they both wrinkled their noses and asked for another flavor.
I tried it myself to see what the big deal was about, and decided those two are certifiably crazy. The vanilla tastes like a creamy melted vanilla milkshake. THE BEST, in my opinion.
Do NOT trust your children in matters of taste, even when there is a cute little cow on the label, thus implying that children will be impressed by the contained product.

Moving on to the chocolate.

Supergirl took one sip and made this face:

BECAUSE SHE IS A KID WITH NO TASTE! WHO THE HECK DOESN'T LIKE CHOCOLATE MILK? She is totally fired.



Bubbles, on the other hand, demanded a bigger cup of the stuff. I offered him the straw, but the little guy gets the most satisfaction out of a nice long draw off a sippy cup, so he helped himself to another cup and poured it in himself. Then he handed me the box of chocolate milk and asked me to pour the rest into his sippy cup. I love that boy's initiative.
Bubbles decided that the beloved CHOCO milk was all his. He would not share the coveted box of chocolate milk with anyone.
I saved the box of regular 2% milk to keep on hand for emergencies, because Bubbles will drink regular milk any day, all day. We are regular fans and buyers of Horizon products - I want my children to have an organic, hormone and additive-free diet as much as possible, so I tend to stock up when it is on sale.

If you would like some coupons for Horizon products, click here and they will send you some!

One could deduce from these results that my children are fickle and unreliable taste testers, OR one could deduce that Horizon offers something for everybody.

Greenworks Soap Review

I don't do reviews for things I don't use. I mean, what's the point?
But soap? Well, yes I do tend to use that. I like things clean. Unfortunately, I am Sisyphus in my quest to also have things tidy. So, clean it is.

I do live in a remote mountainous area. It is beautiful and rugged, this mountain, but also fragile; evidenced by the recent fire which threatened our home. This was a reminder to most of the residents up here to tread lightly.

Everyone in our area has a well. Which means that we need to protect the ground for ourselves, our neighbors, our environment.
Which is why Greenworks Soap was appealing to me. Greenworks products are 99% natural, biodegradable, and not tested on animals. No phosphorous. No bleach.
Bring it on.
So they did.
('They' would be Momcentral.)


The first thing I noticed about Greenworks soap is that it is green.
I understand why the manufacturer wanted to color the soap (LOOK! We are GREEN! Even the color GREEN helps to remind you that this is a GREEN product!), but personally? I see the color and think that must be the 1% that isn't natural. Sure enough, the soap is colored with what is listed in the ingredients as 'blue and yellow colorant'. I guess if it is not food-based then they don't have to list the source. And to be fair, although we do avoid artificial colors in our diet, we are not planning on eating this soap.

Instead of eating it, I decided to use it for it's intended purpose.
Bring on the dirty dishes!

The scent of this soap is very nice, I have to admit. Reminds me of an orange and green tea combination.
It's slightly thinner than regular dish soap, so of course I put it in the pump dispenser so I didn't use too much at once.
It works!
I had a few things to wash by hand; some cake pans (caked with buttery cake scum), a crusty cheese grater, a greasy grill pan, and a sticky frosting bowl.
Everything came right off, and rinsed clean without any residual film or smell. Even the seven-minute frosting came right off - and that stuff is like edible plaster. Delicious plaster, but still.

I would rather see this available in a 'clear liquid' version - I don't need to see green to believe green.
But overall, good stuff!