Summertime Party Treat Ideas plus an Easy Blueberry Lemonade Popsicle Recipe (#HABAusa)

Thank you to HABA for providing samples of fun silicone molds for us to base this review upon and for providing additional products for our giveaway prize.  All opinions expressed are our own.

Summer is almost here, and finding easy-to-make treats that cool off hot children is a must. HABA has come out with an amazing line of silicone molds that make cooking even easier. This simple but tasty popsicle recipe is sure to delight children and parents alike.

Easy Recipe:  Blueberry Lemonade Popsicles

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup frozen blueberries

1 cup lemonade

1. Use ½ cup frozen fruit per one cup of juice. We used frozen blueberries and lemonade (not freshly squeezed lemonade) because it makes for a sweet and tart popsicle that we love.

2. Pour all ingredients into a blender and push the “smoothie” (or similar) button.  Continue to blend the ingredients until it is almost completely liquefied. Occasional chunks of fruit are fine...in fact, they make it taste even better.

3. Gently pour into HABA Silicone Popsicle Trays (or Ice Cube Trays), being careful not to over-fill.

4. Freeze on a level surface until completely hardened.

5. Carefully remove popsicles from the silicone trays and enjoy! These do not freeze solid, but instead more of a popsicle texture because of the frozen fruit mixed in.

You can pour these into HABA Silicone Ice Cube Trays too and serve in tea, lemonade, or water for a nice little addition to drinks. While the flavored ice melts, your drink’s flavor starts to change.

These silicone molds are great for parties, barbecues, or just because. The Jungle Snake Silicone Cake Mold was fun to use and we elaborated on our cake by covering it with frosting and decorating it with gumdrop scales, eyes, and a Fruit-By-The-Foot tongue. And we can’t forget the “baby snakes”, aka gummy worms.

All the molds are very well made of sturdy silicone and they are dishwasher, oven, and freezer safe. We look forward to using ours for many years. You can purchase these and all HABA’s amazing products on their website, www.habausa.com. The silicone molds start at $9.49.


Enter to win a set of 5 HABA silicone molds (a $75 value) . . . 

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This giveaway is open to U.S. entries only. You do not need to be a blogger to enter, but you must have a valid email address and be age 18 years or older. A random drawing will be held shortly after the contest closing. The winner will be announced here and will be contacted via email. If the winner does not respond within 48 hours, a new winner will be drawn.

The Wolfgang Puck Pressure Oven Makes Delicious Home Cooked Meals in Less Time Than a Standard Full-Size Oven

Thank you to KitchenTek for providing a complimentary sample Wolfgang Puck Oven for us to base this pressure oven review upon. All opinions expressed are my own.

We lead a very busy life. Actually, that's quite an understatement.  We actually lead a crazy, hectic, and non-stop busy life. I don’t ever remember being this busy when I was younger and my mother always seemed to have time to prepare a proper dinner for us. As a parent myself today, I simply do not know how she did it.  Any tools, tips, or tricks that can help my wife and I prepare a quality dinner are welcome in our home. It is not uncommon to reach 6pm and we are still figuring out what we are going to do for dinner! Well, recently we were introduced to a tool that could potentially help us prepare a home cooked meal for my family in a shorter amount of time. I was instantly interested.

We were sent the Wolfgang Puck Pressure Oven to try for ourselves. As excited as I was to try such a nice oven, I was equally skeptical of the oven's key feature: Pressurization. That's right, the Wolfgang Puck oven seals and cooks with pressure. I was intrigued and cynical at the same time.

I understood the concept of cooking with pressure and knew that it works, but in an oven? Once I opened the oven up and placed it on the counter I knew right away this was no gimmick. The Wolfgang Puck Oven is a serious and solidly built machine. The all stainless steel construction has a handsome and professional look.

This pressure oven is more than just a pressurized oven.  It is also a rotisserie and can be used to replace your toaster. You can use the oven as a regular un-pressurized oven as well. The oven comes with all the drip pans, racks, crumb trays, and meat skewers needed to use all the features of the oven, although it would have been a wonderful bonus for a mini cookie sheet to be included. The unit even comes with removable handles to use in removing the racks and trays from inside the hot oven.

The operation of the oven is simple and intuitive. Although you could probably figure out how to use the oven without reading the manual, I highly advise reading it, even for experienced cooks. When dealing with high heat and pressurization, you can never be too careful. I certainly learned some important safety items in the manual that I may not have figured out on my own. For instance, the oven needs to be run through a 30 minute cooking cycle before the first use in order to burn off any coatings or oils applied during manufacturing. The oven also gets very hot on the outside and needs to be at least 3 inches from everything all around, even in the back. I made sure my children stayed far clear of the oven when it was in use.  The oven has a pressure release valve on the top that lets out extra gasses to control the pressure and to release it all when the cooking cycle is done.

Now for the big question: Does it work? Did the Wolfgang Puck Oven cook our food well and save us time? The short answer is yes, cooking with pressure saved a great deal of time and the food was delicious.

We chose to try a roast and some sliced baby red potatoes to test the oven. I decided to cook the potatoes earlier in the day as they can take quite a bit of time to cook (and honestly I had no idea what to expect). Although the oven comes with a recipe and cooking instruction book, I did not have instructions for potatoes so I had to wing it. I decided to set the temperature at 350 and the timer at 60 minutes. As it turns out, I was lucky and nailed it with those settings, the potatoes were cooked to perfection. Nice and roasted on the outside and soft on the inside. One hour roasted potatoes? Win.

We bought a 4 pound rump roast to rotisserie. I prepared the meat simply by drying it off and rubbing salt and pepper into it. I really wanted to see if the oven could make the meat taste better than a non-pressurized oven so I didn't want to complicate the taste with lots of other flavorings. The instructions called for 1.2 hours at 450 degrees for a 5-6 pound roast. I decided to leave the temperature at 450 but cut the time to 60 minutes for my smaller roast.

I should mention at this time that I have no idea how I could have fit a 6 pound roast in the oven as my 4-pounder was as wide as it could have been while still fitting (it was shaped like a giant meatball). I guess a thinner and longer roast would work at that weight. I should also mention that I had never used a rotisserie to cook anything before either!

How did I do? It came out nearly perfect. I was stunned that I could cook a roast in an hour. In my regular oven it would have taken 2.5 -3 hours depending on how I wanted it to come out. My roast was unusually round so the middle was a bit more rare than my family likes it, but still nicely cooked if you like your beef rare. The outer edges were ever so slightly overcooked.  If I were to do a roast again today, I would choose a longer and thinner, but heavier roast and used the same settings because the exterior of the roast would not be as close to the heating elements. So, now I know and my next roast in the pressure oven is going to be the best I have ever had.

The Wolfgang Puck Pressure Oven is not tiny, but it is not that big either. You will NOT be preparing a turkey in this oven. But the Pressure Oven is a nice size to supplement your existing oven or to be used as a specialty oven for roasts or what have you. You can bake with it, but you would only be able to bake 6 cookies at a time. I can see the oven used for loaves of various kinds.  The oven can also be used as a 6 slice toaster oven, so you can get rid of your current toaster oven, saving some counter space (a precious commodity in my home).

Overall the Wolfgang Puck Pressure Oven works. I am excited that I can prepare perfectly cooked meat in the same time it takes to order takeout. If you want to roast a chicken you don’t need to plan it a day in advance, you can cook it 3 times faster in this oven. Side dishes like veggies or potatoes cook 30% faster and turn out delicious.

If you are as busy as we are, then I know you would appreciate the Wolfgang Puck Pressure Oven's fast cooking times and quality results. The construction is solid, the operation is simple, and it looks great. At $299.95 the Wolfgang Puck Oven is an investment, but if you appreciate properly cooked food in a short amount of time you will think it is worth it. Rotisserie is now on my families menu!

This oven would make the perfect Holiday gift for someone with a busy lifestyle or someone who needs multiple ovens to prepare more than one food item at once.  You can learn more about the Wolfgang Puck Oven at www.puckoven.com, where you can watch the oven in action in their video library and order a pressure oven of your very own.  You can also find ideas and tips for using the Wolfgang Puck Pressure Oven on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, and YouTube.

Enjoy Your Favorite Foods Grilled to Perfection with the Help of the Precision Grilling T-Fal OptiGrill

Thank you to T-fal for providing a complimentary OptiGrill sample for us to base this indoor grill review upon.  All opinions expressed are my own.

I like to eat meat. I would say “who doesn't?”, but I'm friends with enough vegetarians to know better. That doesn't mean I can't talk about how much I love meat! There is nothing worse that improperly cooked meat, and conversely, there’s nothing better than perfectly cooked meat.  As much as I consider myself a decent cook, I don’t think I have ever been good at cooking meat. I always seem to get it a little bit wrong . . . a little too well-done or a little too pink. Trying to get it right for 5 different tastes in the same household doesn't make it any easier either!

We have owned a variety of indoor grills, all of which were decent and worked as advertised. None of them, however, helped my inability to judge whether a piece of meat was actually cooked properly or not. Luckily, there is a new indoor grill that does just that, and I got to try it.

At first appearance, the T-fal OptiGrill is not a great deal different than many other high-end indoor grills. It looks like two heated griddles on a hinge that cook both sides of the meat at the same time. We have seen that a 100 times, but the OptiGrill does something that no other indoor grill can do: It tells you exactly when your meat, regardless of the variety, is cooked to your taste. Really.

I am not going to waste time talking about the removable non-stick griddles, the ease of cleaning, the stainless steel body, or the high quality construction of the OptiGrill. We expect all those features and T-fal delivered them as expected. What I will discuss is the grill’s ability to cook a piece of meat perfectly every time and without the need to stand over the grill monitoring it.

The OptiGrill uses a colorful lighted circle to indicate when your meat is cooked to your taste. There is also a beep that indicates each level of doneness so you do not need to be near the grill to know exactly where your meat is in the cooking process. Sound like a gimmick? Well it works, and it works very well. The grill measures the thickness of the meat and adjusts the temperature accordingly.

Operation of the OptiGrill is intuitive and simple. Turn the grill on, select the type of meat or fish you want to cook and hit OK. That's it. The lighted color indicator will let you know exactly what phase the cooking process is in. You can also choose manual operation for a traditional indoor grill experience. The OptiGrill even has a defrost and a sandwich setting! Also, for the veggie-lovers out there, you can grill vegetables on the manual setting.

Cooking multiple pieces of meat for different tastes? No problem, simply take out the rarest pieces as the indicator tells you to, leave the others in until they’ve reached their desired doneness.

The grill will turn itself off after it determines that it has cooked its contents as well done as can be. If you want your meat cooked even more, just switch over to the manual setting for as long as you desire. The manual cooking does require attendance.

My only complaint about the OptiGrill is that meat within an inch or so from the edge of the grill does not cook as fast as the rest. The fix is simple enough, just rotate the piece 180 degrees at some point. Not a big deal, but the OptiGrill would provide a 100% unattended cooking experience otherwise. Another solution would be to cook a bit less at a time.

The T-fal OptiGrill is simple to operate and it works well. I can finally cook meat exactly to my family’s taste without any guesswork. The OptiGrill gets an easy recommendation from me. I will certainly be using it over using the oven or the frying pan to cook meat indoors all year long.

The OptiGrill indoor grill would make the perfect gift for someone who loves to grill year round, but is not lucky enough to have the weather for it. This grill sells for $179.95 directly from T-fal at www.GetOptiGrill.com.  To learn more about this product or to find grilling tips and recipes, visit OptiGrill on Pinterest, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.

Living Green With Jerinda: Back-to-School With the CamelBak eddy BPA-Free Reusable Water Bottles

Thank you to CamelBak for providing complimentary product samples for us to base this review upon. All opinions expressed are my own.

Being an eco-friendly person, I love reusable water bottles either made of glass, stainless steel, or BPA-free plastic. Regular, disposable plastic water bottles are a huge source of pollution so we try to avoid them as much as possible. CamelBak has just release their redesigned eddy bottle which features a faster flow rate and is more durable than its predecessor. It comes in a .6L, 1L, or a .75L bottle, which is the size we received, with their patented flip-top bite valve that allows you to drink without tipping or spilling. Plus, its loop handle can be hooked to a carabiner or easily held with just a finger.

We love our stainless steel water bottles, but have been looking for something more lightweight and easier to carry when we’re out running errands, working out at the gym, hiking, or walking as a family, and the CamelBak eddy is a perfect fit for our needs. This bottle is very light - even full of ice and water - and the loop-top is really easy to carry and is ergonomic so it doesn’t leave harsh impressions on my finger. We very much love these bottles and always carry them with us everywhere we go. This also helps us all get in our daily recommended water intake, and that’s an added bonus. We all love drinking out of them and will be purchasing two more soon so we can each have our own and not have to share. The CamelBak eddy is also dishwasher safe.

My only critique would be that I really wish these bottles were insulated because they sweat quite a bit and leave wetness from the condensation everywhere. When we purchase additional bottles, we will be opting for the insulated CamelBak eddy.

You can purchase the .75L CamelBak eddy at www.shop.camelbak.com for approximately $15.00 and the .6L Insulated eddy for about $20.00.

The Keurig OfficePRO Single-Cup Commercial Coffee Brewer & My Favorite K-Cups Delivered Right to My Door from Staples.com

Thank you to Staples for providing complimentary product samples for us to base this review upon.  All opinions expressed are my own.

I love coffee (who doesn't?) and appreciate a great cup freshly brewed. But, like many people, I really do not like the cleanup or the extra time that comes with conventional machines. I am also the only coffee drinker in the house and I waste so much coffee using a traditional machine.

Using coffee cartridges like Keurig and Tassimo are really the only option for me. They are easy, fast, and are virtually mess free. I used the Tassimo for a bit, but the quality of the coffee was not quite up to par with my traditional machine, but the Keurig coffee I have tried has always been an excellent alternative. So far, my favorite is the Coffee People Original  Donut Shop Coffee K-Cups.  When I had the chance to try the Keurig OfficePRO Single-Cup Commercial Coffee Brewer for myself I jumped at the chance.

(Click any photo to enlarge)

My Keurig OfficePRO came from Staples of all places. I always associated coffee and coffee machines with specialty housewares stores or department stores. Not only did the machine come from Staples, the assortment of K-cups available from Staples was impressive. I was able to find my favorite flavor and brand with ease. The price was superb. This Keurig OfficePRO, which comes with a sampler of 12 K-cups, at Staples is $129.99 with free shipping, while Amazon is selling the exact model for $142.77 shipped. Wow.

This Keurig OfficePRO is basic in operation and built solidly, exactly what you want in an office or commonly used coffee machine. The plastic is heavy duty and the lift arm made from a thick chrome plated metal.

To use the machine you simply power it on and wait a short bit for the machine to heat up. Once the machine is heated up you won't need to wait again unless the machine is powered down. Leaving the machine on in the morning is worry free. This Keurig OfficePRO will power itself off after 2 hours of inactivity. The reservoir holds 48 ounces of water or about 4 decent sized cup fulls. Refilling the reservoir is as simple as removing a cover and pouring the water in.

The machine has a 3 cup size selector, just choose the size and press brew. Making excellent coffee could not be easier to do with this machine.

Clean up is even easier than brewing with a Keurig. Throw out the used K-cup and that is it. My Keurig OfficePRO doesn't drip like some I have used, so I have not had to wipe up one drip yet. If I did spill or drip, the base pan/plate slides out and comes apart for easy cleaning.

Overall I love my Keurig OfficePRO and am glad to find a suitable replacement for my ground coffee machine. I have no hesitation to recommend this machine to heavy or light coffee drinkers. It is high quality, easy to operate, easy to clean, and makes good coffee at the office or at home.

Visit Staples.com to find out more about the Keurig OfficePRO Single-Cup Commercial Coffee Brewer or to view all the Keurig coffee brewers and K-cups available.  If you are a Staples Rewards member, then you will get 5% back in rewards on all your Staple purchases, plus free shipping on all orders from Staples.com.  Can't get more convenient than having your K-cups delivered right to your front door at no extra cost to you!

Personalized Beer Glasses . . . a Perfect Gift for the Home Brewer

Last year for a Father's Day gift, my children and I gave my husband a home beer brewing kit.  It was something he had mentioned previously as possibly being an interesting hobby.  I knew it would appeal to his scientific side and I was right.  This gift also opened the door to future no-brainer gifts, such as additional ingredients, supplies, and equipment.  A gift idea that did not occur to me until I saw it on RedEnvelope.com was a set of Personalized Pub Glasses.  There were actually two styles to choose from . . . these Bulldog Pub Glasses and a set of Barley Pub Glasses.  Both styles were dishwasher-safe.  Since we are a dog-loving family, I went with the Bulldog design.

Of all the gift ideas for men I have seen, this one was uniquely perfect for my husband.  These personalized beer glasses sort of make his hobby "official" even though he is still a novice.  I was able to personalize these glasses with our family name, town and state, as well as the year in which my husband started being a home brewer.

On the back of the glasses are printed the words "Sit.  Stay.  Drink." . . . a very hospitable message for anyone who will be sampling my husband's brew.

Although the product description states that the glasses have a 16oz capacity, I think they could comfortably hold 12oz of beer (as shown below), especially if the beer has a thick head.

My husband was extremely thrilled to received this surprise.  It was not his birthday, nor was it a holiday, so it was very unexpected.  Just because gifts are sometimes the best ones!

Thank you to Red Envelope for providing a complimentary product sample for us to base this review upon.  All opinions expressed are my own.

Living Green With Jerinda: Make All-Natural Sodas at Home with "The Artisan Soda Workshop" Recipe Book

Soda is something most Americans enjoy, so when I was offered The Artisan Soda Workshop recipe book, I was excited to learn to make my own, all-natural sodas. With 70 yummy and interesting recipes, step-by-step instructions, and dozens of appetizing photos, this book makes it easy to create your own fizzy drinks using fruits, herbs, and spices.

When we got the book, we immediately started checking out all the different concoctions to choose which ones we thought we’d like best. We knew classics like cherry cola, root beer, and cream soda would be big hits, but we wanted to try out some of the other more unique ones like Fizzy Cantaloupe Agua Fresca, Green Tea, Grapefruit, and our new favorite, Apple Cider. With nearly all these recipes, you make a syrup, then add it to seltzer when you’re ready to drink it.

For the Apple Cider soda, you combine apple cider and spices over high heat until it boils. You then let it boil down for approximately 15-20 minutes, watching closely so you don’t scorch it. You then add maple syrup and stir it well and use a mesh strainer to strain out the spices. You can then add it to seltzer, or store it in the fridge for up to 5 days so you can have fresh soda all week long. This soda is delicious; unlike anything I’ve ever had. It wasn’t difficult to make either and we loved that we could enjoy the soda easily all week.

We have also made the soda and root beer varieties, and they were amazing as well. Not only are the delicious, but it’s nice to drink soda without all the guilt that usually goes along with it, not to mention all the harmful ingredients and chemicals that are in commercial soda. We definitely look forward to drinking more homemade sodas in the future.

The Artisan Soda Workshop by Andrea Lynn retails for $14.95 and is available through many major book retailers, such as Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.

Thank you to Andrea Lynn for providing a complimentary product sample for us to base this review upon.

Back-to-School Must-Haves: Pottery Barn Kids' Stainless Nesting Trio

Jumping from one child in grade school to having three has been quite a transition for me.  It was so much easier when I only had one set of homework to check, just one lunch to pack, one set of emergency forms to fill out, and one outfit for picture day to pick out.  I could go on all day.  Really.

One of the things that I am dealing with now that I did not have a problem with when my oldest was in kindergarten is that the twins sometimes get their morning snacks mixed up with their lunchtime snacks.  It is important that they keep them straight because their classrooms need to be peanut-free, where the cafeteria does not.  This is where our Stainless Nesting Trio from Pottery Barn Kids comes in.

My husband and I try to use the 3-1/2" diameter stainless steel containers for the twins' morning snacks as often as we can.  That way, they do not have to try to remember which snack they are supposed to eat in the classroom. For the days when the twins receive a packaged snack, such as a mini bag of pretzels, we put a small sticker on the bag so they can easily identify it as their morning snack.

This trio is leak proof, so we are able to pack much more than just dry snacks in them.  These containers are BPA, lead, and phthalate-free.  I have used a medium size (4" diameter) container for my oldest son for years.  This year for back-to-school, Pottery Barn Kids sent the Nesting Trio for our daughter in pink, which  may be a PBK exclusive.  I have not seen these containers in the pink, blue, green, or turquoise anywhere else.  I ended up buying another set for her twin brother because I love them so much.  The large size container has a 4-3/4" diameter and is perfect for larger items, like peanut butter graham crackers or a bunch of grapes.


The PBK Stainless Nesting Trio sells for $29 and currently ships free!  Visit PotteryBarnKids.com for more information about this item and to see what other items are on their free shipping list.


Thank you to Pottery Barn Kids for providing a complimentary product sample for us to base this review upon.

Back-to-School Must-Haves: Klean Kanteen Wide Insulated Bottle

Now that our oldest is entering the 3rd grade this fall, I think he is old enough to start taking soup to school for lunch during the colder months.  He is all excited about that idea.  The only thing I had to do was find the right type of container to transport the soup.  I need something that is kid-friendly, would keep the soup hot from the time it was prepared in the morning until lunchtime, and something that would fit in our son's lunch box.  Rather than opting for a thermos, it looked like the more compact 16oz Klean Kanteen Wide Insulated Bottle would work out perfectly for us.

In order to find out if the Insulated Klean Kanteen bottle would keep soup warm for 5 hours, approximately the length of time between packing the soup in the morning until lunchtime at school, I filled the bottle with piping hot water.  Then I allowed the bottle to sit for slightly longer than 5 hours.  When I went back to check the temperature of the water, I was very pleased to find that it was still hot.  The water was no longer piping hot, but rather the perfect temperature at which to serve hot soup.

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This BPA-free stainless steel vacuum insulated bottle can be used for both hot or cold liquids.  It does need to be handwashed, but I think it is worth the bit of extra work if it means that our son can have hot soup for lunch during the school week.  All I would need to do is include a covered container (in which he can pour the soup), a spoon, and some oyster crackers to give our son one of his favorite things to eat . . . hot soup.

To learn more about this and other Klean Kanteen products, visit www.kleankanteen.com, where you can also learn more about Klean Kanteen's many charitable partnerships with organizations, such as 1% For the Planet and the Breast Cancer Fund.  This 16oz insulated bottle retails for $25.95 in stainless steel and is built to last a lifetime.


Thank you to Klean Kanteen for providing a complimentary product sample for us to base this review upon.