Five Favorites: Kitchen Gadgets Edition

If you know me in real life you may know that given a gift card and a day when I'm lacking in self control, I'll head straight over to Amazon and start dreaming about kitchen gadgets.  Lately the fact that there is no room in my kitchen for more gadgets had managed to rein in this tendency, but as the weather has gotten warmer and the humidity has been driving me a little bit nuts, I've found myself more and more thankful for my various kitchen gadgets because turning on the gas oven (or even stove top) right now is a very bad idea.  The last couple nights the house heated right up to around 90 by bedtime and I'm doing everything I can to keep that from getting any higher (thank goodness the high for today is supposed to be in the low seventies!).

So I thought I'd share with you my five favorite kitchen gadgets, starting with my very favorite kitchen device.  The popcorn maker.

My Favorite Popcorn Popper

We received a popcorn popper when we got married and I used it frequently for the last seven years.  This spring it finally died... while I was pregnant and pretty much living exclusively on popcorn.  I may have been a little overly panicked when I went on Amazon and found that they had a "slightly scratched but otherwise new" popcorn popper shipping with prime for $12.

When it arrived in 2 days and was my favorite color and wasn't scratched or damaged at all I may or may not have danced around the kitchen while waiting for my popcorn to pop... because microwave popcorn just can't hold a candle to popcorn from an air popper!

Next in the lineup is the yogurt maker:

The Yogurt Maker!

Mine arrived as a birthday present last year, a few short days before Patch's first dairy allergy came back positive... and I was banned from milk for the duration of nursing.

Still I was determined to make yogurt and when I found that it was possible to use coconut milk I quickly set out to find a non-dairy starter.  And it worked.  With the help of a little gelatin for thickening we had homemade coconut yogurt in a single day and the kids loved it!

Which brings me to gadget #3.  The food processor:

The Food Processor

Mine is on it's last legs after a solid seven years of use, but so far it's still hanging in there!  It's helped make everything from a special Paleo key lime pie Mae could have (with avocado!  It was surprisingly amazing!) to dips to laundry detergent.

The Dehydrator

We've used the dehydrator to make everything from beef jerky to the kids' favorite, dried strawberries.  I haven't yet tried fruit leather, but that's up pretty high on my dehydrator to do list (and has been for the last year!).  One of these days I'll actually find the time to give it a try!

The Slow Cooker

Lastly is the appliance I rely on the most during summer... the slow cooker.  It's only drawback is being organized enough to know what I"m making for dinner each morning, which somehow proves to be a challenge even when I have a schedule made up.

And those are my five favorite kitchen appliances!  Do you have a favorite gadget in the kitchen that helps you get by, especially during summer?

For more Five Favorites head over to the Link Up!

Five Favorites: Library Edition

Weekly trips to the library have become a regular weekend activity around here.  Usually Sadie comes with me while Paul watched Maggie and Patrick, but this past week I went by myself in a rare solo outing.  And as I began to think of five of my favorite things of the moment, our huge pile of library books came to mind.  And so I went through and picked out our favorites of the moment (some have or will get checked out over and over again!) for today's Five Favorites post!

1.

Books about Pluto...

On Saturday night I pulled the sturdy diaper bag I've been using as a library book bag, over to the couch and began to pull out books.  I was getting out the two ballet books that Sadie would be taking up to look at before bedtime (she usually falls asleep reading a ballet book on her own) when she saw what I had planned for a special school treat this week.  Squealing commenced.  I almost couldn't get Pluto: From Planet to Dwarf back from her to save for the next morning:   

2.

Kid's Books about the Saints

I've also discovered the religion books in the children's section.  And a certain five year old has also been pouring over these (they definitely make the favorite list):

3.

A Bit of History

In addition to our Little House on the Prairie (the Rose years) reading that we've been doing in the afternoons we've also been reading the Addy and Kaya stories that we check out from the library.  They always leave Sadie asking a ton of questions about what life was like in the past:

4.

Mysteries for Mom...

Then there's my books. I'm on a mystery kick at the moment.  I read these while I'm getting Patrick to sleep.  I'm almost done with Murder on the Orient Express.  And I totally got Dying in the Wool for the cover (and title!):

5.

What I've been learning about:

Lastly I'm reading this whenever I have a spare moment.  The writing is beautiful and the insight into the way the author looks at the world, especially his amazingly clear memories of when he's two and three, definitely puts this on the "must read" book list I've been making in my head these past few weeks (as opposed to some of the books on autism I've check out, read ten pages of and sent back to the library).

Although it also led to a conversation with Paul where I said that I do a lot of the things that he writes about doing, like tracing lines and making patterns on objects in my head constantly... but then again I did find myself thinking "does my brain just work differently than everyone else" every ten minutes or so when I was in college (slight exaggeration).  Honestly one of the most surprising things to me as I've begin learning and reading (especially online) about autism is the idea of "neurotypical."  I usually see it used to mean that most people think a certain way (obviously I'm very new to all this and still learning constantly), and I have to admit that I always felt like everybody thought rather differently than I did, but I also figured that they thought differently from one another so it wasn't a big deal in my mind.  So.... all of this has been pretty interesting...

But anyways, I'm still in the midst of reading it but I would definitely already recommend it:

For more Five Favorites head over to Moxie Wife!

Five Favorites: Spices Edition

Maybe skip this first little italicized paragraph in which I stress about stuff to get straight to the happy.

Today is a good day for me to actually come up with a Five Favorites post so that I can spare you the post that I just wrote about how Comcast is driving me completely and utterly crazy (it wasn't a short one either folks) or how it's been like 85 degrees and 100,000% humidity and the upstairs in my house feels like a sauna, or how I just walked down to the basement and saw that the floor looked a little wet in the box room in the place where the floods inevitable start, and we'd stupidly moved boxes back into that room when I was still trying to organize before the mold situation occurred and I was no longer able to go downstairs without firing up my asthma from non-existent to full blown.

So sitting down and thinking happy thoughts is exactly what I need to be doing right now so that I don't turn into a moody little rain cloud and drift away.

Besides, there's a post I've been meaning to write for months and I've never gotten around to it and I think it would fit perfectly with five favorites.

Since the vast majority of my cooking is from scratch these days, I rely on spices more than ever to make the things that our family likes to eat.  I've always (at least since I've started cooking more than hot dogs and grilled cheese) used a lot of spices (let's just say that they don't sit around and go bad in my kitchen), but now I use a ridiculous amount.  Narrowing them down to five was pretty much impossible until I realized that I tend to think of them in little groups and use them together.  And so I offer my Five Favorites, Spice Edition... and if you have a favorite spice you don't see here definitely share what it is and what you like to make with it!

Garlic and Onion Powder

I try to remember to buy these two spices (especially the garlic) in the big containers  Once in a while I forget and get a little shaker and I use the entire thing up in much, much less than a month and then try to remember to get the giant half gallon size thing with the handle to refill the cute little shaker that actually fits in my spice rack.

I use these two spices in almost every recipe that I come up with.  That may sound odd because I use actual garlic and onion in most of my recipes too... but it adds just a little extra flavor that I miss when I don' use it.

From chili to spaghetti to lasagna to steak to a roast chicken these two powders (usually accompanied by kosher salt) are a basic part of most meals I make.

Chili Powder, Paprika and Crushed Red Peppers

My poor husband.  Before we got married he didn't do well with spices.  He has been quoted as saying that "ketchup is spicy."

I, on the other hand, tend to think that many recipes could be improved with a little more chili powder and red pepper.

Our relationship may have only survived dating because I didn't really cook at that point (hot dogs, grilled cheese and anything else on the foreman grill doesn't really call for any sort of seasoning expertise).

But once I started cooking a balance had to be found.  And basically his spice tolerance has gone way, way up since his ketchup is spicy days.  And I hold off on the crushed red pepper (for the most part) and then sprinkle it on my own dish...

Cumin

When I was going to school in South Africa one of my friends and I used to stop on the way to class and buy samosas from the street vendors.  They were delicious and they were seasoned with a spice that I didn't recognize.

When I got back to the states I missed them (and couldn't find any that were comparable, even at restaurants) until one day I smelled a spice and realized that that was the spice that was in the samosas we'd eaten.  Once I recognized it I began to find it in all sorts of different things and now I buy it in the same bulk containers I get garlic powder in.

I usually use it these days in tacos and with other spices as a rub on steaks... and one of these days I'll get around to actually learning how to make samosas...

Oregano, Basil and Tarragon

These are the first three spices I began cooking with.  I knew all of one actual real recipe when Paul and I met, which was a complicated spaghetti that I'd learned to make in Cape Town and these three spices were the basis for that recipe.  I've used them to season yeast bread, in cream cheese based dips back before our dairy free days and in spaghetti and lasagna and soup.  

I thought that I relied primarily on oregano and basil (since I usually don't need more than a tiny bit of tarragon) but after running out of tarragon a few months ago I developed a whole new appreciation for it as a key spice in my spice cupboard arsenal.  

Bay Leaves

Because split pea soup just isn't split pea soup without a couple of bay leaves!

For more Five Favorites head over to Moxie Wife!

Five Favorites: Pizza Edition

If you know me in real life you probably know that I have a real weakness for pizza.  It's pretty much my favorite food ever.  And so, for today's Five Favorites I thought I'd pay homage to my favorite food and share a few of my favorite pizza places:

Johnny's Pizza 

Weaverville, California

Johnny's Pizza gets the top slot.  It's a little pizza place that our family frequents every time we go to California.  

On our last trip west Paul was in town for only a few hours... and his one request?  Stop and have pizza at Johnny's.  Their pizza is delicious.  You can find the Rock and Roll themed restaurant in the heart of the historic section of Weaverville, in far Northern California (think hours north of San Francisco).  

And you know what makes me love this little restaurant even more than I already did?

They have gluten free and dairy free pizza (and they ask if it's an allergy or a preference).  Which means that I could eat knowing that the food had been prepared in such a way that what I was eating wasn't going to make Patrick sick.  And even better?  The vegan cheese was the first vegan cheese I'd eaten that was actually delicious.

Our family ate every crumb of the gluten free dairy free pizza at Johnny's.  And since we ate their before our dairy free gluten free days, I can guarantee that their regular pizza is fantastic too.  Johnny's is the pizza parlor that every member of our family agrees is fantastic.  And since Paul and I have totally different ideas of what pizza should be (his east coast opinions versus my west cost opinions), that's actually a pretty rare occurrence!

Pizza Factory

Dunsmuir and Shasta Lake City, California

This is the pizza of my childhood.  And adolescence.  The Pizza Factory is where we'd go with family and friends before basketball games and football games.  It was where we went as often as not on Friday nights.  In high school we'd call ahead and have a pizza or pizza bread ready at lunch time (since we could leave campus at lunch) before heading back for afternoon classes.  

When we went back to California this last time I made a point of not going to the Pizza Factory closest to my parents' house (still an hour and a half drive, but in the past we've made sure to stop by on the way through) because I knew that I would not be able to resist their fantastic breadsticks with ranch dressing.  Giving up dairy hasn't been that difficult for me... but if their the buttery parmesan breadsticks were in front of me? I'm not sure I'd last.

The Pizza Factory is a franchise... but we've had mixed luck when we've gone to other franchise restaurants...  The restaurants in Dunsmuir and Shasta Lake City are my favorites.

Dominos Pizza

Nationwide

I wasn't a fan of Dominos before we moved to Michigan.  We'd tried them once in California and I remember not being impressed (maybe it was the hour and a half long drive home in the car from the closest delivery place... we passed it while driving through and stopped).  We tried again in Michigan and the pizza is surprisingly good.  

Then the gluten free/ dairy free days arrived and I said goodbye to pizza... except... guess what?  Dominos will make your pizza without cheese (make sure to ask for no butter too because they put a delicious buttery garlic sauce on some of their types of pizza)... and they have gluten free crusts.  My only wish is that the gluten free crust came in a larger size!  

Thus Dominos has become our go to pizza place when something goes horribly wrong with dinner and I need a takeout place near our house to save me.  They're usually here about twenty minutes after I place my order, which is impressively speedy in my book.  And that puts Dominos up among my favorite pizza places at the moment!

West Brooklyn Pizza

San Rafael, California

Shortly after Paul and I began dating I went to work at a rock climbing gym in Marin County.  Across the street was West Brooklyn Pizza.  Paul and I were just beginning to discover that we had totally different ideas of what good pizza was (my response to the pizza he would pick out tended to be "What's that?  A piece of paper?") and West Brooklyn Pizza had the perfect solution.  They sold pizza by the slice and they had both Neopolitan (round thin crust) and Sicilian (thick square crust) pizza slices.  So I could get a piece of Sicilian and Paul could get Neopolitan and everyone was happy!  Which helped out budding relationship survive our drastically different ideas of what constituted a good pizza!

Mamma Mia's

Plymouth, Massachusetts 

This one's for Paul.  It's his favorite pizza parlor on the east coast.  He's not as into waxing poetic about pizza as I am, so when asked why he likes it he said "it's good pizza." 

For more Five Favorites, head over to Moxie Wife!

Five Favorites: Mae is Almost Three!!! Edition

Tomorrow my little Firecracker will be three.  And so for today's five favorites I thought I'd do a Mae inspired post.  Like Sadie, Mae received some birthday money... and like Sadie I'm going to take her on a Mommy and me shopping spree.  But since Mae doesn't have quite the same shopping passion that Sadie has, I also ordered a few things that I knew that she would love that would be here on her birthday.

After a few rather simple birthday/Christmases where I made most of the presents and spent a grand total of $25 per child, I think she's going to be a little shocked when she wakes up tomorrow morning and sees this...  Actually, I'm kind of shocked just looking at this post!  But I think these are going to be awesome for our little bunny who's constantly seeking out new experiences (and ways to get into trouble!).  It ought to keep her busy for a while...:

1.

The Trampoline...

Image from Amazon

I was searching for a small trampoline that she could use to get some of her climbing/ jumping/ diving energy out on, that would actually fit in the school room since the swarms of mosquitoes are discouraging me from going outside much this month.  And then I found the Skywalker 40 inch trampoline...  

I have a feeling that she's not even going to believe her eyes when she sees it... 

2.

A Sit and Spin

Image from Amazon

Since our little princess also has a serious twirling habit, I thought that a sit and spin would be perfect too.  And after watching her spin and spin and spin across the living room last night, I think she's going to love playing on it!

3.

A Balance Board

Image from Amazon

What can I say, the kid loves being perched precariously on pretty much anything.

I'm hoping this cute little monkey balance board might encourage her to stay closer to the ground.

We shall see.

4.

A Tangle Toy

Image from Amazon

When I saw this I thought it would be perfect for the child who always has to have something in her hands...

5.

Jellies!

Image from Amazon

Her first pair of Dora jellies were a gift I picked out from Paul and I... mostly because I remember how much I enjoyed wearing jellies when I was little and anything with Dora, Backpack and Boots is bound to be a success with Mae Bae.

For more Five Favorites head over to Moxie Wife (where she's talking about the best. magazine. ever as her first favorite... I can vouch for it, I have the first issue here!).  And to hear me lament "my baby's turning three!!!" repeatedly stop by tomorrow for a Mae Bae birthday update with lots of pictures!  

Five Favorites (2)

It's time for another round of Five Favorites:

-1-

If I could I would eat these every single day, forever and ever.  Since they're a little pricey and Paul's mouth dropped open when he saw the price, we'll say it's going to be more like a monthly purchase (when I said that he may have said something like "if that often").  But they are delicious.  And they're gluten free (and vegan).  Seriously.  They're like little bits of wonderful melting in your mouth.  I'm not sure I knew that a gluten free (and dairy free and egg free) cookie could be this wonderful but they are.  If you ever see them in a store run to the counter to pay for them and then sit in the car and eat half of the box (don't worry, that's not that much, the boxes aren't that big):

Photo from the Lovely Oh's Website

-2-

So the weather people basically did a commercial for this radio last night.  They began with something like "tornado season has arrived in Michigan, with the first possibility being Thursday night", and I sat and thought "but we don't get a lot right?  I mean you don't think of Michigan when you think of tornados do you?" and then went into the need for a weather radio.

Someone might have rolled their eyes when I broached the idea this morning... but at this point I'd kind of like one (read: am going to drive out and get one tomorrow when Paul gets home from his classes).

Source

-3-

The dehydrator is high on my list of favorite kitchen tools at the moment.

I think we need to plant strawberries this year...

-4-

I love that our grocery store has a horse that costs exactly one penny to ride.  A mention of the horse can mean super behavior for an entire trip to the grocery store:

-5-

For the past year I've been perfecting my chicken fried steak recipe.  I thought that the diet changes were a big setback but... they actually ended up being helpful.  Here's the latest:

The chicken fried steak is a cube steak sprinkled with garlic powder and then dipped in egg.  It's then set in a mixture that's 1 part rice flour and 2 parts quinoa flakes.  After that I cook it in a frying pan barely coated with olive oil until the sides start to look crisp (just a couple minutes) and bake it at 350 for about 20 minutes.  Sometimes I sew it with marinara sauce and noodles (and in the past cheese) like chicken parmesan.  This week I decided to see what the family thought if I added it to another new recipe.

I steamed chopped cauliflower and then pureed it with melted coconut oil.  Then I added a bit of kosher salt, garlic powder and onion powder and mixed it well.  It was surprisingly delicious.  Even Paul, hater of all things cauliflower admitted that he liked it.

Which makes it my favorite meal of the week!

Those are my favorites!  Head over to Moxie Wife to see the rest of the link up fun!

Five Favorites

I decided to join in the Five Favorite's fun!

1.

I just sent Paul an email telling him that if he happened to be stopping off at the store when he was done pouring over books in the library I wouldn't be against him bringing home a bag or two of these:

from Gimbal's Website.

They became my favorite treat during the elimination diet.  Now they are my favorite treat post elimination diet.  They're dairy, egg, fish, gluten, peanut, shell fish, soy and tree nut free.  They're made in the US.  And they're oh, so good.  

See, this is what I miss about not being pregnant.  My cravings text messages about licorice dogs aren't taken seriously (or seen as life and death matters).  And so I have little licorice scotty dogs on the brain, but not in my hand...

2.

If you don't sew you might look at this little bobbin tower and wonder how useful it could possibly be.... but let me tell you, it is high up on my list of "most useful things" at the moment.  I got it when I had some super coupons, and was tired of chasing after my tangled bag of bobbins that quickly turned into a jumbled mass of thread.  The bobbins just snap in and stop trailing thread everywhere.  It is a must if you do a lot of sewing and are constantly switching out different colored threads.

Picture from the Joann's Website

It's saving me quite a bit of time and thread (and I am nerd-ily excited about it)!

3.

Oh my.  Yes, that's what you think it is:

from Crunch Daddy website

Maple and Bacon popcorn.  Need I say more?

4.

I had the opportunity to pick out a dress at Old Navy recently.  I saw this one and thought... maybe...

From Old Navy

And then I tried it on.  Now let's be clear.  It looks pretty different on me.  I'm not 6' tall so it's knee length, which is just perfect!  But I love the stripes.  I don't think this picture quite does it justice, because the model is already perfect, so it doesn't show how flattering the dress actually is!  The stripes are surprisingly slimming, especially for being practically horizontal.  I am a fan!

5.

This might be my very, very favorite item in the house at the moment:

Photo from Target

You see, someone doesn't think they need to wear clothes anymore.  And now even sleepers aren't slowing her down.  The solution, after I found this particular toddler prancing around in a diaper (apparently she can now escape from her sleepers), is a backwards sleeper.  Now to see if it's still on in the morning...

Head over to Moxie Wife for more favorites!