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Tips for Saving Money this Holiday Season

November 30, 2009 By Leave a Comment

save money for the holidaysAre you are looking for ways to save money for the holidays?  It seems like everyone has been on a tighter budget the past few years.. There are many ways to save money for the holidays.  A little here and there really adds up.  You have time to adjust your regular budget to save up for Christmas, and grabbing some great early gift bargains can also help. With some effort, everyone will be very excited with what they find under your holiday tree this year.

Saving on Your Regular Budget

  • Don’t be shy about buying generic
  • Instead of ordering delivery pizza, make homemade pizza
  • Post-pone whatever purchases you can, to be given as gifts
  • Try and group your trips, to save on gas
  • Go through last years winter wardrobe and do any repairs needed, immediately
  • Hold off on winter clothing purchases until after Christmas if possible (prices will be lower)

Save on Holiday Gifts

  • Take advantage of holiday bonuses on gift card purchases (not only will you get more $ in GC value, the recipient will have more buying power after the holiday)
  • Avoid buying the trendy toys and go for classics.
  • Make sure to save all your receipts and watch to see if a price goes lower before the holiday, many stores will give you the difference (or you could just re-buy & return the 1st one)
  • With kids quantity is often more thrilling than quality.  Get a bunch of small inexpensive toys and wrap them separately.
  • While shopping the great sales, don’t overlook coupons, there are even manufacturer coupons for toys this time of year.
  • Look into making some toys yourself.  Consider your skills and then search the web, to see what others have made ( I saw some great dolls, trucks, and play kitchens that were homemade)

Save on Holiday Entertaining

  • Stick with traditional holiday foods, they will be on sale
  • Consider doing a brunch or hors d’oeuvre party
  • Make your party BYOB
  • Go with a kitschy retro themed Pot Luck (hint: the more you play up the theme, the less you will look cheap)
  • Go with a movie  themed party.  Guests will automatically assume it is a casual get together, and you can serve fun & inexpensive “movie snacks”, or match your food to the movie.  (example: Chinese food for “The Christmas Movie”, because that is what the film’s family ended out eating for their holiday meal)
Filed Under: Shopping Tagged With: ,

Aveeno Baby Essential Moisture Shampoo Review

November 27, 2009 By 3 Comments

aveeno_baby_essential_moisture_shampooI was recently sent a bottle of Aveeno Baby Essential Moisture Shampoo, for review.  I wasn’t expecting to like it very much, because I found the adult moisture shampoo to leave too much residue. I was pleasantly surprised with the results we got from this shampoo.

The shampoo had a thinner consistency than shampoos commonly have, but had excellent lather. A very small quantity lathered my toddlers long hair right up. The scent was pleasant and light. I can’t stand strongly scented product, so I was pleased with the scent. It vaguely reminded me of lily-of-the-valley. The shampoo rinsed well, and my daughter’s hair was easy to comb out once her bath was done.

Once my daughter’s hair was dry I noted that it was shiny, and residue free, yet seemed well conditioned and the curls had been brought out. She was having a good hair day :)

Aveeno Baby Essential Moisture Shampoo was developed to cleanse and condition hair in one step. With a wiggling toddler or fussy baby, this one step process can be a real help. The shampoo contains natural wheat & oat, as well as vitamin E to nourish the hair and scalp. It is a tear-free formula and has been allergy tested.

While Baby Essential Moisture Shampoo is part of the Aveeno Active Naturals line, and contains some natural ingredients, it is not to be confused with an organic or entirely natural shampoo. It contains ingredients typical of most baby and adult shampoos.

Verdict: I’ll buy it.

Disclaimer:  I received a product sample.  This review is my honest opinion and no other compensation was given.

Filed Under: Children, Reviews /Giveaways, Reviews & Giveaways

Ultimate Pie Crust Recipe: Buttery Flakey Homemade Crust

November 25, 2009 By 19 Comments
pie crust recipe - the ultimate pie crust

This pie crust recipe is the result of several years of tweaking.  It was developed by compiling a few different pie crust recipes & hints from several sources, and a bit of experimenting.  I have had wonderful results every time with this recipe. You could say this pie crust is a cross between American and French crusts, since it includes both shortening (for flakiness) and butter (for richness of flavor), that was a tip I got from America’s Test Kitchen.  This pie crust is great for both sweet and savory pies (I cut the sugar to 1 tbs, for Savory pies).  Warning: If you start making this crust, you may never opt for the easy out of ready made pie crusts again.  This is the pie crust recipe I use for all my pies.  It is featured here in my Pineapple Pie Recipe.

Pie Crust Recipe: Buttery Flakey Homemade Crust
Print
Author: Robin Gagnon
Ingredients
  • 2 1/2 cups of flour (all-purpose)
  • 1/2 cup cold shortening (I use the Crisco sticks, half a stick per crust)
  • 3/4 cup cold butter (I use salted butter, 1 1/2 sticks)
  • 1/2 tbs. kosher salt
  • 1 1/2 tbs. sugar
  • 6 tbs. of ice water, add 1 or 2 more if necessary
Instructions
  1. Pulse the dry ingredients in a food processor, to mix.
  2. Add the cold shortening in pieces. Pulse a few times.
  3. Cut the butter in chunks and add to mixture. Pulse until the butter chunks are about the size of pencil eraser.
  4. Add the water a little bit at a time and lightly kneed into dough. (6 tbs. should be enough, only add more if crust is too crumbly to work into a ball)
  5. Split the dough in half, roll in balls and wrap in plastic wrap.
  6. Chill in the refrigerator at least 45 minutes.
  7. Roll out pie crust on floured surface.
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Want some of that yummy filling?  Check out my Pineapple Pie Recipe.

Filed Under: Desserts & Sweet Baked Goods, Featured, Food, pies/tarts, Recipes

Favorite Holiday Activities with our Daughter

November 24, 2009 By 7 Comments

decorating_Christmas_treeMy husband and I were just discussing,  our favorite holiday things to do with our daughter.  It was fun just to talk about it.  Now the anticipation is killing me.  She is not quite three yet, so holiday activities with her are still relatively new to us.

The first thing, that came to both our minds, was selecting and bringing home a tree.  Last year, we used an artificial tree, but plan on getting a real one this year. It is such a great adventure to share with kids.  Even the torture, of waiting for the tree to settle enough to decorate, adds to the air of excitement.  Our daughter is a bit young to do much tree decorating, but should be able to help a bit this year.  The best part is when she sees the tree lit for the first time… the sheer glee on her face is priceless.

Although wrapping presents can be challenging with a toddler, we have already done a couple this year, and it was rather fun.  She helped with the tape and added her own touch with some stickers.  (of course the unwrapping part will be her favorite).

We have been cutting out pictures of toys my daughter likes, in preparation for making her Santa List.  This will be her first “Letter to Santa”, and I felt having her paste pictures would help her participate more, than me writing the items down for her.  We will then drop the letter in the box at Macy’s (They make a small donation for each letter deposited).

My daughter loves playing with dough and kitchen gadgets, so I am looking forward to making Christmas cookies with her.  I’ve already made a couple batches (for blog pictures), and she really enjoys poking around with everything, and of course eating the results.  I will be helping her, to do more of the actual cookie preparation, for the next batch.  She especially likes playing with the rolling pin, so it should be a hit.

One of the activities, my husband and I have both looked forward to since long before we even had our daughter, is watching the holiday specials on television.  We each have our favorite classic TV specials (and a few Christmas movies as well), that we are dying to share with her.  Rudolf is a joint fave, and we will be sure to watch that one with her.  This year we will also be watching “Dora’s Christmas Carol”.  Dora is one of my daughter’s favorite characters, so I am sure she will love it.

These are the five activities, that jumped out at us first, but we are also looking forward to caroling, visiting Santa and viewing light displays with her.  It should be a very Merry Christmas indeed :D

Filed Under: Misc.

Win a Set of Lenox Ballon Wine Glasses (Closed)

November 19, 2009 By 218 Comments

Lenox_O2xygen_balloon_wine_glassesLenox is sending me a set of 4 Lenox “O2xygen” lead-free crystal balloon wine glasses, which retail for $58.  I am receiving these through a blogging promotion, Lenox did in conjunction with Twitter Moms.  The good news is Lenox will send another set, to the winner of this contest.

The Lenox “O2xygen” balloon wine glasses, are made of break resistant lead-free crystal and are even dishwasher safe.  The glasses are designed for maximum air flow, to give your wine room to breathe.  These elegant wine glasses would compliment any dishware.

The winner will be selected from all valid entries, using random.org, and will have 48 hours to respond to their prize winner notification.  If winner fails to respond, within that time period, a new winner will be drawn.  Contest ends 11:59 pm EST, on December 2, 2009.

Ways to Enter:  A seperate comment must be left here for each entry.

  1. Visit Lenox and tell me what item you would love to own.
  2. Subscribe to this blog via email (2 entries/make a comment for each entry)
  3. Subscribe to my RSS feed.
  4. Follow @TwiMommi
  5. Follow @Lenox_Corp
  6. Tweet about this giveaway and leave link to tweet in your comment (up to 2x per day)
  7. Share link to this giveaway on Facebook .

..Congratulations to the winner…  Wanda!


Filed Under: Household, Reviews & Giveaways Tagged With:

Spinach Cracker Recipe : A Sneaky Way to Get Your Toddler to Eat Veggies

November 18, 2009 By 10 Comments
spinach cracker recipe

Homemade Spinach Crackers are a sneaky way to get your kids to eat their vegetables.

This recipe was developed , as a way of sneaking vegetables into my fussy toddlers diet.  She loves crunchy stuff, but just plays with her vegetables.  My devious plan… infiltrate the crunchy crackers she loves, with spinach.

I have made this recipe a couple times now, and my daughter eats the crackers, without complaint.  Sure, she would rather have Cheez-its, but Miss Fussy will eat them.

Spinach Cracker Recipe : A Sneaky Way to Get Your Toddler to Eat Veggies
Print
Ingredients
  • 1/3 cup of frozen loose leaf spinach
  • 1/4 cup oil (I use olive oil)
  • 1/2 tsp kosher salt ( or powdered chicken bouillon, like Goya)
  • 1 and 1/2 tbs water
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 cup flour
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
  2. Puree the spinach, oil salt, baking powder and water in a food processor or blender.
  3. Combine the flour and the spinach mixture, either in the food processor, or a mixing bowl.
  4. Knead the dough and form it into a nice ball.
  5. Roll the dough out on a well floured surface. The dough should be rolled out very thin (like pasta dough).
  6. Put the dough on a floured baking sheet.
  7. Use a pastry cutter to cut the dough into squares.(a pizza cutter or knife will do if you don’t have one)
  8. Prick each cracker 2-3 times with a fork.
  9. Bake for approximately 20 minutes. Thinner crackers and those on the edges will cook faster. Pull them out, and continue cooking those that are still soft. Crackers will crisp a bit more during cooling, but should be somewhat crisp when removed.
  10. Crackers should be put directly on a kitchen towel to cool, to maintain their crispness.
Notes

This recipes will make a batch of spinach crackers equal to about 1/2 a regular size box of crackers. Store in an airtight container.

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The recipe is easy to make and composed of basic ingredients, that most home cooks will have on hand.  I decided to use an all purpose flour for these crackers, over whole wheat, to insure a good “crunch” factor.

Filed Under: crackers, Food, Recipes Tagged With: , ,

Green Tips for Purchasing Cookware & Utensils

November 15, 2009 By 11 Comments

recycle_tagEveryone is going green these days.  Our family has been working on making our home more eco-friendly.  We look for energy star appliances, use cfls, bypass the disposable cups & plates, look for high percentages of recycled content in products and make sure to recycle all we can.

An  often overlooked area to green your home is in your cookware choices.  Here I will cover a few green tips, for the purchase of cookware and utensils.

Buy Quality

The most important rule of thumb to keep in mind, when it comes the purchase of cookware and utensils, is to buy quality items that will last.  It is more costly, to both your wallet and our environment to replace a worn out pan, than to pay a little more, for a well made durable one in the first place.  Look at the item you are about to buy, can you see yourself still using it in 8-10 years… if not keep looking.

Skip the Non-Stick

Forget about advanced non-stick surfaces, not only do they wear out fast, but they actually shed their coating into your food over time.  These coatings are known to kill birds, when over-heated… do you really want to cook in these things.

You are much better off going with stainless steel, glass, enameled or good old fashioned cast iron pans.  I have several commercial anodized pans, which are also great choices.  They are incredibly durable, and provide excellent browning, much like cast iron, but are lighter, and a bit easier to clean up.

Invest in a Pressure Cooker

Pressure cookers cut cooking times by more than half, thus saving a good deal of energy, not to mention precious time.  They also lock in the nutrients in your food.  There is no need to fear using them anymore.  New models are packed with safety features.

Bamboo Utensils

I bought my first bamboo utensil, a few months ago and I love it.  Since bamboo regrows quickly, it is considered a far greener option than wood.  It also doesn’t require the level of processing that  metal and plastic utensils do.  Bamboo has natural antibacterial properties, and is extremely strong. 

There are many different bamboo utensils available these days, but of course bamboo is not a replacement for a metal spatula to scrape up browned bits in a pan.  When you can’t use bamboo, just keep in mind rule #1 durability.  A cheap spatula or tongs will end out needing to be replaced, good ones will last for many years.

As we move away from our disposable society, we will find there are many benefits in buying things to last.  Not only will buying quality items, like the ones I’ve discussed above, be better for our environment, but will save money in the long run, and make the experience of cooking itself more pleasurable.

Filed Under: Shopping Tagged With: , ,

I Made my Dog a Bed

November 14, 2009 By 10 Comments

dog-bedOur German Shepherd is getting older, and has had a bad year. She lost her sister this spring. They were only 3 days apart in age and had been together from 7 weeks old. So I decided it was time for her to upgrade from a rug, to a doggie bed.

I looked in our local pet store, and a few other retailers… I wasn’t impressed. There weren’t a lot of options for larger dogs. The ones available were either junky or over priced, so I decided to just make her one.

I dug through my fabric collection, and found a large piece of printed canvas (which I’d originally intended to use for aprons), dragged out the sewing machine and big box of stuffing, and grabbed some thread.

It took me about 45 minutes, to construct a giant baffled pillow bed, for her. The bed has a great cushy feel to it. All I did was:

  1. hannah-in-bedTake 54″ canvas (or any heavyweight fabric) and fold it over (wrong side out) to a good size bed for her ( approx 30″), and cut.
  2. Sewed the 2 shorter ends.
  3. Turned it right side out
  4. Sewed 2 seams, dividing the pillow into thirds.
  5. Stuffed each of the 3 columns half full.
  6. Pushed the stuffing in tightly and sewed a line across the mid-point of the pillow.
  7. Stuffed the rest, then pushed it tight.
  8. Folded the fabric edges in, and sewed the pillow closed.

That’s it.  A quick and easy dog bed.  My dog went right over and laid down, as soon as, she saw it.  She loves it.

Filed Under: Projects

Thanksgiving Traditions I will Pass on to my Daughter

November 12, 2009 By 3 Comments

Most of us have special Thanksgiving  traditions we would like to pass on to our children.  I am an older mom, and my daughter is an only child, so I will be showing her recipes and handing over the heirlooms to her at a younger age than most.Thanksgiving Traditions

Some of the Thanksgiving Traditions I will be passing along:

  • I will show her how to brine a turkey the night before roasting, to get a nice juicy bird.
  • Teach her to make my Broccoli au Gratin, Orange Ginger Glazed Carrots and Bread & Potato Herbed Stuffing.
  • Have Grandma show her how to make Green Bean  Casserole , Roast Chestnuts and make Pumpkin Cheesecake.
  • Pass on my vintage Thanksgiving decorations (they will be antique by the time she is ready to use them).
  • Her dad will show her the fine art of rooting for whichever Football team,  will help out the Eagles standings,  to win (He is a die hard Philly fan).
  • Last but not least I will pass on, the tradition of scoping out the best deals, in preparation for Black Friday.

If it has you thinking about the traditions you’ve passed or plan on passing down to your children, I would love to hear about them.

Looking to start a new tradition?  Try out this Jagermeister spiked turkey recipe.

Filed Under: Misc. Tagged With:
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