Product Reviews Archives | The Good Hearted Woman

Eight Weird But Useful Kitchen Gadgets You May Not Know You Need

We’ve all got a few weird kitchen utensils in that one drawer, right? Thingamajigs that leave other people scratching their heads and asking, “What is this thing for, anyway?!?

^{This post may contain affiliate links, but don’t worry – they won’t bite.}

Everything from our cultural heritage to our mother’s affinity for hot cereal can affect how we cook and what we cook with. We rarely have the exact same tools in our utensil drawers because we all come to the kitchen with a different background and set of experiences.

For a tool to claim permanent residency in my kitchen utensil drawer, it must be one that I need and use at least once a year, and usually much more often than that. For example, I often use a lot of fresh garlic when I cook, and consider a garlic press to be a mandatory kitchen item.

On the other hand, I have a dear friend who, every time I am over at her house cooking and ask if she has garlic press (and yes, it happens more often than you might imagine) – every. time. – she looks at me like I’ve just asked her if I can borrow her spare flux-capacitor. (Note to self: Get Cheryl a garlic press {or a flux-capacitor} for her birthday next year.)

The most ringing endorsement I can give for the items on this list is that I would buy another one exactly like the one I have if mine broke. That’s what it really boils down to, right? Would you miss it if it was gone?

Listed below in order of relative awesomeness, here’s my list of useful kitchen gadgets you may not know you need:

Scottish Spurtle

What the heck is a spurtle!?! Good Question! A spurtle is a Scottish cooking implement used to stir oats as they cook. Its design allows you to keep the oats off the base and out of the corner curve of the sauce pan as they are cooking. I use it whenever I cook any kind of small-grained product on the stove (i.e., grits, polenta, etc.)

I use my spurtle several times a week because I absolutely love my porridge! Porridge is nothing more than cooked oatmeal, but it’s taken very seriously where I was born: Scotland. In fact, each October the World Porridge Making Championships are held in a tiny village, and it’s called The Golden Spurtle!
~ Christina, Christina’s Cucina

TRY: The 21st Annual World Porridge Making Championships: Award Winning Recipe for Sticky Toffee Porridge

GIFT IDEA: Package a Scottish Spurtle and a bag of Irish Oats in a pretty ceramic cereal bowl and BOOM – a perfect gift for just about anyone.

Danish Dough Whisk

Ever wished your whisk had a little more heft to it? Here’s your new best friend – straight from your grandma’s kitchen! Built to last, this heavy-duty dough whisk is perfect for hand-mixing mixing batters and doughs of all kinds. Dough doesn’t get caught up in the wires, and it cleans up in seconds.

TRY: Buttermilk Biscuits

German Spaetzle Maker

A spaetzle maker, common in German-speaking countries, simplifies the spaetzle making process and speeds up the prep time. It’s kind of a one-hit wonder, but if you love spaetzle, it is almost indispensable.

We were raised eating spaetzle noodles with goulash in Austria, and of all the tools this was the most important one in our culinary college. Yet, the Spaetzle maker or the spaetzle press is not that well known outside the German-speaking countries in Europe; except in the US, where German/Austrian/Swiss immigrants brought it along with them to the new world.
~ Helene, Masala Herb

TRY:

Microplane Zester

When Mr B and I got married, a dear friend gave me a Microplane zester as a shower gift, and it immediately became one of the single most indispensable tools in my kitchen. Not only does it zest citrus like a dream, but it shaves parmesan and other hard cheeses into the finest, lightest shredded cheese ever, and grates everything from chocolate to garlic to nutmeg with equal ease. If you don’t have one of these babies already, pick one up today in your favorite color!

Note that this is the only item on the list that I’ve narrowed to a specific brand. This is because I’ve tried many other zesters and fine graters, and in my experience, none do as good a job as the Microplane brand does.

Food Mill

If you’ve ever wondered how people make those uber-smooth sauces and soups, a food mill might just the thing you’ve been looking for. Food mills are a tool that has endured the test of time, and are often employed when canning or making preserves to produce a smooth puree without seeds, skins, or stems.

A favorite memory from my own childhood is standing on a chair over our food mill and turning it round and round while my mom peeled apples for applesauce.

Many food mills are mechanical, but if you aren’t up for grinding away at a pile of apples all day long, there is a nifty little food mill attachment for your Kitchen Aide that does the work for you.

I love my Kitchen Aide Food Mill. It lets me make applesauce from feral found apples workout needing to waste a day peeling around weird shapes or discoloration on the skin.
~ Alecia, Chicken Scratch NY

TRY: Easy No Peel Whole Apple Applesauce [Chicken Scratch]

Narrow Measuring Spoons

Do you have a set of measuring spoons that are narrow enough to measure spices directly out of spice jars? I’ve had a set of “skinny” measuring spoons for years, and I can attest that they can make life so much easier.

Watch how using these measuring spoons will make cooking easier:

25% OFF! Enter CUPS2YOU at checkout when you order this measuring cup and spoon set for a 25% discount! [Discount code generously provided by Danielle, Cooking Gods]

TRY:

Collapsible Travel Chopsticks

Technically, this one isn’t a “kitchen” utensil: it’s a “travel” utensil, but it’s one of my favorite things. Plus, it’s good for the Earth.

Recently, I started carrying my own chopsticks, for a number of reasons. I use them for everything from stirring drinks to tossing salads. (I also use them to eat, when appropriate.) They have their own little carrying case, and take up almost no room in the small festival bag I carry as a purse. (One of my friends calls it my “Jenga Purse” because everything is so precisely placed.) I use them instead of grabbing plastic utensils or disposable chopsticks whenever possible: I’m pretty sure I’ve already saved at least one very small tree in the process.

The first time I whipped out my chopsticks at a restaurant when my teenager was present, she was tempted to tease me a little, but she immediately had a change of heart. “I’m kinda glad you do little things like that,” she told me. “It’s cool.”

I like being able to pull my little chopsticks out at a moment’s notice, and I love that I will never again have to face that awful moment when you crack open a pair restaurant chopsticks and pray they break apart evenly and don’t give you a splinter in the process.

Did you know that over 20 million mature trees are cut each year for single-use chopsticks? If you need another reason to buy a set of travel chopsticks, how about this: it is one small way you can help to make the world a little better – with virtually no effort at all on your part. What is this thing for, anyway?!? 👩🏻‍🍳 Eight Weird But Useful Kitchen Gadgets You May Not Know You Need Click To Tweet

Silicone Garlic Peeler

The first time I ever used a silicone garlic peeler, it seemed like magic! Just pop a clove in the silicone tube, roll it around under your palm a bit, and Voila! The garlic falls out peeled and the tissue paper skin can be simply brushed away.

I put one or two cloves inside, roll it sideways on the counter with my hand and the peel comes right off. Before this, I would crush the clove with my knife and it gets all sticky and I waste some of the tasty juice.
~ Merc, Easy Filipino Recipes

TRY: Filipino Chicken Adobo

We’d love to hear about your favorite kitchen utensils! Please take a moment to tell us what you can’t live without in the comments below!

Thank you so much for being a faithful reader and supporter of The Good Hearted Woman. ❤ Be sure to Pin this post!

^{Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, which means we may receive a commission if you click a link and purchase something that we have recommended. While clicking these links won’t cost you any extra money, they do help keep this site up and running. As always, all opinions and images are my own. Please check out our disclosure policy for more details. Thank you for your support!}

The Gift They Will Remember, Treasure & Love Forever: Songfinch Personalized Song {Review}

April 24 By Renée ♥ 24 Comments

This year, give them a gift that they will remember, treasure, and love forever – a Songfinch personalized song, written just for them.

This post may contain affiliate links, but don’t worry – they won’t bite.

When Songfinch reached out to me last year and asked if I’d like to try out their personalized song writing services, I thought, “Cool. Sounds like a it could be something that my readers would LOVE. Plus, what a great way to give all those young, hungry singer-songwriters a solid side-hustle!” (Really, it’s all side-hustle when you’re a young, hungry songwriter, right? 😉) So I put a pin in it and waited for the right time to come around.

That “right time” happened last month as Mr B and I were preparing to leave on a Caribbean cruise to celebrate our wedding anniversary. I wanted to do something really special for him, and at first thought of writing a song myself. But then I remembered Songfinch, and I thought, if there was ever a great time to try their personalized songwriting service out, this is it.

Songfinch promises that, in a week or less, one of their professional songwriters will craft a one-of-a-kind song, based on your story, that you can give to the one you love. And boy-o-boy, do they deliver!

**Giving a Songfinch Personalized Song is Easy!**

When I began ordering my song from Songfinch, one of the first things I noted was how smooth and streamlined they had made the entire process. It was far easier than I had imagined; especially when we’re talking about asking a complete stranger to craft something so personal. The whole Songfinch ordering process took me just 30 minutes.

Once you pay for your song, a series of clean, easy-to complete screens will walk you through the process. The first one is literally a MadLib:

After I filled it out, mine read: I want to give my husband a song for our anniversary that makes us remember how much of a miracle our relationship is.

The next screen, on which you share your story, is the most time-consuming. Completing it took up about 25 of the aforementioned 30 minutes.

I’m including our personal story below in case you’d like to see how much of what I gave them is woven into the lyrics of our completed song.

Our story reads like a Hallmark movie. My husband and I met in choir during our sophomore year of high school. He was a gifted guitar-playing baritone who loved Elvis and old-timey country music, and I was a passable soprano with an affinity for ’70s singer-songwriters and classic arena rock. By the end of our junior year, we were engage to be married and had become one of those couples that everyone just knew was going to make it. However, after our senior year, when he went in the Navy and I went off to college, fate stepped in, and we broke up. Thirty years of life went by, and then by some miracle, we got a second chance. We were married on the same date we had chosen way back when, and the little diamond that he gave me back in high school is now in my wedding ring, flanked by two emeralds as a nod to our May birthdays. So now instead of celebrating our 35th anniversary, we are celebrating our 6th year of marriage. Some things don’t change though: music is still one of the cornerstones of our life. We play and write songs together, enjoy making music with our extended family, and can’t imagine our lives without music in it.

After writing up the story paragraph, there are just a few quick screens that allow you to specify a mood or two, genre (everything from country to hip-hop to acoustic pop), and whether you would prefer a female or male vocalist.

For mood, I chose Romantic & Reflective. For genre, I wrote that I would like “something singer-songwritery with maybe a bit of a country vibe.” (If you listen to our song, you’ll hear that our singer-songwriter, Will Duvall, absolutely nailed this one, despite my ridiculously specific description.) Conversely, I didn’t specify what kind of vocalist: I just wanted the best person for the job, regardless of gender.

After I submitted my song application, I received a series of emails from Songfinch letting me know that my song was on its way, and then I sat back and waited.

No. That’s not true. I ran around the house trying to pull everything together for our trip while I worried that the song might not arrive in time because I had accidentally forgotten to order it until exactly a week before we set sail, when I would likely have no wifi access. As I mentioned earlier, Songfinch promises to deliver your song within a week, but I cut it way too close for comfort, and that was on me.

Five and a half days later, however, on the evening before we were to take off on our flight to Florida from where our ship was to embark, I received an email letting me know that our song was ready. I could listen to it, download it, read the lyrics, and learn about our singer-songwriter on our personal Songfinch page.

Songfinch Personalized Song Review {Sound of a Miracle} | The Good Hearted Woman

CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO LISTEN TO OUR SONG: This is our personal song page on Songfinch, where we can download our song, read the lyrics, share it on social media, and learn about our singer-songwriter.

How cool is that!?!?

Still, I pressed play on the website with some trepidation. I mean, a week is a pretty small window in which to write, record, and mix a song (unless you’re Jackson Browne or one of the Nashville Cats), and I was a little concerned about how well everything would turn out.

I shouldn’t have wasted my time worrying. To capture the spirit of the moment, here’s the exact email that I sent to my contact at Songfinch right after I downloaded our song:

Hey Rob –

One more quick note before I go dark for a week: I just listen to the song four times and I couldn’t wait to let you know how much I LOVE IT! Everything is perfect, and I couldn’t be more pleased.

I’ll check in when I get back, but in the meantime, please pass on to everyone involved my pure delight and deep appreciation! Thank you so much!

Peace,
Renée B.

So how did my gift go over? Well, after a wonderful day strolling the streets of Old San Juan, as we spent the evening sitting on our balcony and watching the lights of Puerto Rico drift off into the distance, I told Mr B that I wanted to play a song for him. That’s when things got a little funny (haha, not weird), mostly because I didn’t tell him anything else ahead of time. As he listened to the lyrics, at first he thought it was a song by someone with a story that mirrored ours to a remarkable degree. Then he thought maybe I had written it and had someone else record it. Then, when he finally figured it all out, he LOVED it!

Songfinch Personalized Song Review | The Good Hearted Woman

One night, we sailed into the moon. (Taken from our cruise ship balcony.)

One of the things we both love about our song, Sound of a Miracle, is that it has so many personal messages wrapped up in the layers of its seemingly simple lyrics. Will did such an expert job of telling our story, and we love it more every time we listen to it. We’ve already worked out the chords so we can sing it ourselves, and we see it as being a song we will be singing to our grandkids as they years go by. That, my friends, is a gift that keeps on giving. ♥

* * *

This year, give Mom a gift she will remember, treasure & love forever! 🎶 A personalized song from @Songfinch 🎶 #ad #mothersday #perfectgift #giftofmusic Click thru for $20 #DiscountCode Click To Tweet

Who in your life would love the gift of a song? (Your mother. I know that your mother would love a song. Trust me about this.) I can think of dozens of people and occasions for which a Songfinch personalized song would make the perfect gift, including:

Mother’s Day
Father’s Day
Grandparent’s Day
Birthdays
Best Friends
Sibling Day
Weddings
Wedding Anniversaries
New Babies (Personalized lullabye, anyone!?!)
Family Reunions
Class Reunions
Graduations
Valentine’s Day
Retirements
Memorials

SONGFINCH DISCOUNT CODE

If you would like to order a song for someone you love, use this discount code – GOODHEART – when you check out for $20 off a Song From Scratch.

Who would you like to gift with a song? Let us know in the comments! {And If you use Songfinch, please be sure come back and leave us a link in the comments so that we can have a listen!}

Disclosure: Our thanks to Will Duvall and everyone at SONGFINCH for creating and recording our song, free of charge. This post may contain affiliate links, which means we may receive a commission if you click a link and purchase something that we have recommended. While clicking these links won’t cost you any extra money, they do help keep this site up and running. As always, all opinions and images (except as noted) are my own. Please check out our disclosure policy for more details. Thank you for your support!

How to Start Raising Mason Bees {& Why You Will Love Them}

March 23 By Renée ♥ 3 Comments

Exceptionally easy to raise, Mason Bees are ultra-gentle uber-pollinators that will improve the health and well-being of your flowers, fruit crops, and garden.

Mason Bee with Purple Flowers - Raising Mason Bees | The Good Hearted Woman

[Image Credit: Mark Jones {CC BY 2.0}]

^{We teamed up with BeSpoke Bee Supply to bring you this sponsored post. This post may contain affiliate links, but don’t worry – they won’t bite.}

Are You a Backyard Gardener? Have you heard about Mason Bees? These little non-stinging, super-pollinating bees are one of the best kept secrets of the gardening world, and Mr B and I are excited to be welcoming them into our garden this spring!

Admittedly, until recently I didn’t know much about Mason Bees. I knew that they used mud for something, and they are usually included as a footnote in articles about the global impact of our overstressed honey bee population, but that’s about it.

That all changed when BeSpoke Bee Supply reached out to ask if we’d be interested in raising Mason Bees and sharing our experience with you. However, I can’t very well share, much less endorse, something I don’t know about, so I set about educating myself. As in, somewhere in the process, the hyper-obsessive researcher in me grabbed the reins and made me spend hours and hours pouring over everything I could find on the subject; and just like that, I’ve got the equivalent of a minor in Mason Bee husbandry and we have a Mason Bee Cottage all set up and open for tenants in the backward.

I’m excited to share what I’ve learned so far with you. Read on for everything you need to know about why you should raise Mason Bees, and how to get started today!

What are Mason Bees?

Mason bees are solitary nesting bees that emerge in early spring and lay their eggs in long, skinny tubes. These super-pollinators are exceptionally gentle and will only sting if you trap or squeeze them. (Can we all just agree to not squeeze the bees, ok?) There are about 300 species of Mason Bees found across the Northern Hemisphere and in Australia, so chances are you can find them in your area. Moreover, they don’t make honey, so there’s very little upkeep involved in raising these fuzzy little garden friends.

7 Reasons Why Gardeners Love Raising Mason Bees

Mason Bees are far more efficient pollinators than their Honey Bee cousins. According to Bryan Danforth, Professor of Entomology at Cornell University, “[Mason Bees] are three times better pollinators than honeybees.“
Mason Bees tend to stick closer to home. Honey bees will range up to two miles from their hive, while Mason Bees usually stay within 300 feet of home.
Mason Bees are very gentle. The males do not have a stinger, and the females will only sting if trapped or squeezed. (Once again, just don’t squeeze them, ok?)
Raising Mason Bees takes almost no time. In exchange for an hour or two hour each year, your Mason Bees will improve the health of your fruit crops and garden and give you hours of relaxing entertainment in the process!
You don’t need any fancy protective “bee-gear” to raise Mason Bees. [See #3 🐝]
Mason Bees are fascinating to watch, and can be as educational as they are eco-friendly. And finally…
Raising backyard Mason Bees is one more step toward being a good steward of the land. Aiding the increase of Mason Bees in your area can ease the burden of overstressed Honey Bee populations, therein protecting and sustaining our future food supply… and possibly contributing to the survival of every land-dwelling creature on the planet, or at least every almond. (Though I’m thinking that last point is probably a different post for another time on my other blog. {Sigh}😊)

Why don’t Mason Bees Sting?

Mason Bees are categorized as “solitary bees.” This means that each female is a Queen Bee and – like most single mothers – must do all of the work herself; including gathering pollen/nectar, laying eggs, and doing upkeep on her little mud nursery. She simply doesn’t have the time or disposition to get all aggressive and defensive, so you can get very close without any fear.

Raising Mason Bees | The Good Hearted Woman

[Image Credit: Gail Hampshire {CC BY 2.0}]

Mason Bee Life Cycle

Mason Bees emerge from their nest as adults in early spring. Males usually emerge before the females, which are mated immediately after emergence from the nest. Female Mason Bees begin to lay eggs in the beginning of the season, usually mid to late March. When Mama Mason Bee has provided a supply of food for the larva, she lays an egg and then seals it in an individual cell enclosed with mud walls. (Hence the name “mason” bees.)

Mason Bee eggs hatch almost immediately after being laid, and the larvae eat, grow, and pupate inside their little mud cell. The larva relies on warm spring and summer temperatures to grow, and by the end of June, each larva has spun a waterproof cocoon. The bees overwinter as fully-formed adult bees in fuzzy, wrinkled cocoons that look like the raisins you clean out of the backseat of the car. A new season of spring Mason Bees will begin to emerge when the weather begins to warm, and the cycle begins again.

Mason Bees are the blue collar workers of the bee family. 🐝 #ad @BespokeBees Click To Tweet

How to Start Raising Mason Bees

Everything I read about attracting Mason Bees for your first season is all very Field of Dreams, in that if you build it, they will come. In other words, give them an attractive place to live, a ready supply of mud, and a nearby garden or fruit trees, and they will move right in. With that in mind, the first thing you need to do is decide where your Mason Bees will live and what they will live in. The latter part of this was a no-brainer for me because Bespoke sent me a beautiful Mason Bee Cottage (that sounds so rustic and cozy!) to help me get started.

If you order a Mason Bee Cottage or Apartment from Bespoke Bee Supply, it will arrive fully assembled and comes with 10 Mason Bee Tubes.

Hand-made in-house by actual Pacific Northwest craftspeople, all of Bespoke’s beehives are made with Forest Stewardship Council lumber, making them the most sustainably made hives on the market today. Bespoke’s Mason Bee Cottage and Apartment hives are created from cut-offs created during the construction of their bigger Honeybee Hives. (Admirably, Bespoke has set a goal to become a zero-waste facility, and sets aside scraps and even dust and shavings for repurposing into other products.)

Bespoke sands everything down for a nice, smooth surface, and suggests that you finish the exterior with a coat of high-quality tung oil. By finishing your Mason Bee Hive, you’ll increase the life of the hive and make a more beautiful home for your new little Bee Buddies.

Setting Up Your Mason Bee Digs is as Easy as 1-2-3!

1. Select a location and set up your Mason Bee home. It should face the morning sun and protect the bees from wind and rain. (Under an eave with southern exposure is perfect!) The Bespoke website also suggests that you place your bee-home at eye-level so that you can “see your new friends coming and going in their dapper new digs.”

2. Make sure there is a supply of moist, clay-rich mud nearby, or at least the “ingredients” to make mud. (If you live in the Pacific Northwest, this shouldn’t be a problem!) Mason Bee mamas need mud to seal their eggs into their little cells, so it’s important that they have open ground with moist clay mud for building their nesting chamber partitions. Of course, they can make their own mud with a ready supply of water, but if you have little kiddos around, I’m sure that they would love to help out by making a great big mud pie for your Mason Bees!

3. After you harvest your bee cocoons in the fall, give your Mason Bee Cottage or Apartment a good cleaning with a stiff brush, and store unused tubes in a dry place. A few minutes of maintenance each year will go a long way toward extending the life of your Mason Bee home and nesting materials.

Wait, what?!? What’s that about “harvesting bees“?!?

Don’t worry – “harvesting bees” sounds a lot scarier than it is! Really, it’s more like harvesting “bee seeds.” It’s all a very easy process that simply involves removing the Mason Bee cocoons (aka “fuzzy raisins”) from the tubes, sorting them, cleaning them in a bleach mixture, and popping them into the fridge in a breathable container for the winter. Bespoke has an excellent informational page on their website that explains each step in great detail.

PORTLAND AREA RESIDENTS: If you are lucky enough to live in the Portland area, a regular schedule of bee keeping classes is offered through Bespoke Bee Supply each month. Sign up for a Mason Bee class to learn everything there is to know about how to keep Mason Bees and how to harvest their cocoons, and hang out with some great people who know way too much about bees at the same time!

Mason Bees in Tubes - Raising Mason Bees {Photo Credit: BeSpoke Bee Supply} | The Good Hearted Woman

[Image Credit: Bespoke Bee Supply]

Mason Bee Keeping Basics:

Early Spring: Set out your Mason Bee home and make sure there is water and clayey mud nearby. Put out your cocoons if you have them from a previous year, and new Mason Bee tubes. [If you are concerned about attracting bees the first year, you can spray an attractant to entice free-roaming mason bees to your cottage or apartment (…which upon rereading sounds way racier than it is meant to).] Temperatures should be reliably above 55°F, and plants should be beginning to flower so that your bees have something to eat.
Late Spring (end of active period): Collect nesting tubes and store them in the garage or shed to protect them from harsh weather and parasites.
Fall: Store harvested bee cocoons in the fridge in a breathable box. Mason Bee cocoons like a little humidity, so be sure to include a very slightly moist paper towel alongside your cocoons and check it regularly to insure that it stays moist. Mason Bees and nesting materials also need to be cleaned each fall to protect them.
Winter (Optional): Share cocoons with family, friends, and neighbors. (Christmas presents, anyone?)

Visit Bespoke Bee Supply to order your Mason Bee Cottage or Apartment, and for more information about raising Mason Bees.

I'm not saying that raising Mason Bees will save the world, but I'm not saying it won't either. 🐝 #ad @BespokeBees #savethebees #masonbees #masonbeehome Click To Tweet

THANK YOU so much for being a faithful reader and supporter of The Good Hearted Woman. ❤ Be sure to Pin this post!

Cookies by Design {Review}

November 16 By Renée ♥ 6 Comments

Looking for a thoughtful, easy gift that is sure to bring a smile? Then you should definitely check out Cookies by Design.

This post may contain affiliate links, but don’t worry – they won’t bite.

For over 30 years now, Cookies by Design has have has been delighting customers with freshly baked, hand-delivered cookie bouquets. With over 100 locations across the country, they offer same day delivery on dozens of cookie gift baskets and bouquets for all occasions. (Even if there isn’t a Cookies by Design location near you, they will quickly ship to any location nationwide.)

I was impressed with how much thought was put into the shipping of our bouquet. Our cookie bouquet – a customized version of the Butterfly and Daisy Birthday – arrived in a carefully packed box, wrapped in plastic. (Yay! No broken cookies!)

The colorful, decorated cookies arrive individually shrink-wrapped, with a plastic sleeve stuck to the back with a dowel inserted, allowing the cookie to be securely placed in the base.

I loved the cheery vibe that our Cookies by Design bouquet brought to our home! The colors were bright and vibrant, and it just seemed to make the whole room a little sunnier!

Cookies by Design {Review} | The Good Hearted Woman

As you can see by my “Good Vibes” cookie, you can customize cookies with your own special message.

So, the cookies were bright and beautiful, but how did they taste? Cookies by Design makes all their cookies from scratch, but I have to be honest: they weren’t my mom’s sugar cookies. (Nor did I expect them to be.) For reference, like my mom before me, I use the my trusty old Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook sugar cookie recipe. These were slightly less sweet than mine, but not too much so, and I actually think less sweet is better than too sweet, especially considering many of the cookies are completely covered in icing, which just brings more sugar to the party.

The Cookies by Design cookies were also significantly thicker than my homemade cookies – well over a quarter-inch thick – and a bit more solid than I personally prefer. However, I found that when we were ready to actually eat the cookies, just ten seconds in the microwave did a world of good for the texture, bringing them back to a more “freshly baked” feel and softer consistency.

Cookies by Design bouquets are great for any occasion: holidays, birthdays, celebrations, or just to say “I’m thinking of you.” If you take a little time to browse through their website, you may be as surprised as I was at the sheer number of occasions for which they have created cookie bouquets. (I know I was. Did you know that there is a “Father-in-Law day?!? Yep, they’ve even got a bouquet for that one!) You can customize also any bouquet with your own message. Prices start at just $18.99 and go up from there, depending on how many cookies you want in your bouquet.

**Find the latest sales & discounts from Cookies by Design on our Partner Page.**

This is just a handful of the multitude of cookie bouquets that Cookies by Design offers. (Click on the image to browse their website.)

In addition to their colorful cookie bouquets, Cookies by Design also offers made-from-scratch gourmet cookies, cookie trays, cookie cakes, and (new) chocolate truffles!

Bottom line: a cookie bouquet from Cookies by Design is a great choice for brightening someone’s day, whatever the occasion! You should definitely check them out!

Disclosure: Many thanks to Cookies by Design for providing this beautiful cookie bouquet to us for review free of charge. As always, all opinion are my own. This post contains affiliate links, which means we may receive a commission if you click a link and purchase something that we have recommended. While clicking these links won’t cost you any extra money, they will help us keep this site up and running – and (relatively) ad-free!! Please check out our disclosure policy for more details. Thank you for your support!

Quinoa Fritters with Arugula-Strawberry Salad {Sun Basket Review & Recipe}

September 26 By Renée ♥ 63 Comments

SUN BASKET organic meal kits deliver everything you need to cook easy, delicious, nutritious meals right to your front door.

BONUS: SUN BASKET will give you all their recipes – no strings attached!

Today, along with my review of Sun Basket’s meal kit delivery service, I’m sharing their recipe for these delicious, family-pleasing Quinoa Fritters. [Recipe at the bottom of post.]

This post may contain affiliate links, but don’t worry – they won’t bite.

Let’s start with a little about Sun Basket. I have to admit that I’m kind of intrigued with the vast number of weekly or monthly food delivery services that have been popping up in the last couple of years. For a small fee, you can have everything from fancy European chocolates to curated vegan cuisine (and virtually everything in between) delivered to your door on a regular basis. In the past couple of months, I’ve been sifting through the chaos to discover the best of the bunch.

When I first learned about Sun Basket, there were a few things that really stood out:

Certified organic, non-GMO, sustainably sourced, seasonal ingredients from the country’s top farms.
Grass-fed, antibiotic-free, pastured meats, and sustainable seafood from ranchers & fishermen with whom they have a direct relationship. (Read: trust)
Paleo, Gluten-free, and Vegetarian options.
Healthy, innovative, easy-to-prepare meals that require 30 minutes or less to prepare.
Environmentally responsible, 100% recyclable packaging.

With all those points on their side, we decided to give them a try, so we sat down to order our first box. (Click here to get your first three SUN BASKET meals for free.)

The online ordering process itself is very simple, but our household dynamics make it just a bit tricky. Until very recently, we had very a full house – including kids home from college for the summer and married kids landing for a few weeks. And guess what? Everyone had a slightly different eating style!

Luckily, Sun Basket offers a variety of meal plans: Vegetarian, Rise & Shine, Paleo, Gluten-free, and Chef’s Choice. Since everyone home at the time was OK with fish, we went with Chef’s Choice, which means that you get to choose any three meals you want. We chose these three meals:

Roasted Salmon with Red Chermoula & Seared Endive
Quinoa Fritters with Arugula-Strawberry Salad
Shrimp Tacos Diablo with Pickled Cabbage & Lime

Our shipment arrived on time, as scheduled. I was very impressed with the packaging, which clearly reflects Sun Basket’s commitment to the environment. The packaging is 100% recyclable, plus they offer free delivery and free return shipping so that they can reuse the materials. Boxes arrive with clear instructions on recycling, and the sauces came in awesome little reusable plastic containers with lids.

All of the ingredients arrived fresh and in premium shape, including tricky-to-ship items like strawberries and cilantro. Ingredients for each meal were clearly marked and packaged together in a brown paper bag, except the fish and shrimp, which were packed separately in the bottom of the box with additional ice packs.

Sun Basket follows best practices when it comes to preparing ingredients, and all allergens are clearly listed. Moreover, while they are not a completely gluten free facility, they take ingredient preparation very seriously. Each meal came with a beautifully photographed, detailed recipe card as well.

Clean, Responsible, Healthy & Delicious: A Review of Sun Basket Organic Meal Delivery | The Good Hearted Woman

Quinoa Fritters with Arugula-Strawberry Salad

Each of the meals we ordered serves two. (Four-meal plans are also available.) However, as I mentioned earlier, we had a full house, so we decided to have a party and make all three meals at the same time. Sounds like a great idea, right?!?

Let’s just say, I do not recommend it. Things got a little confusing at times. I tried to keep things organized by arranging the ingredients for each meal on top of the bag that it came in. (This part wasn’t as easy as it looks.) Nevertheless, the meals were simple to prepare, and the directions were straight-forward. It definitely would have been easier it I hadn’t been trying to take pictures and access the process at the same time I was preparing the food!

Our meals not only turned out deliciously, but they plated up beautifully. I referred to the photos on the recipe cards for plating, and everything looked as good as it tasted.

Each meal provided enough for two decent-sized portions, but in the future, I think I’ll try to have a few extra sides to bulk up the meal for those with heartier appetites. Of the three meals we prepared, the Quinoa Fritters by far went the farthest.

Not only did they go a long way, but the Quinoa Fritters were without a doubt the biggest hit from our box as well – everyone in the family loved them! (Believe me, this is no small feat!) They were very flavorful, and had just the right amount of contrasting textures with the crunch of the fried quinoa and the smooth yogurt-tahini sauce. The arugula-strawberry salad paired with them very well too, although honestly, I think almost any light, slightly sweet salad would do the trick.

One of the things I appreciate most about Sun Basket’s business model is that (unlike some other meal delivery programs that keep their recipes as secret as an Italian Nona’s sauce recipe) they share all of their recipes online – free to anyone. You can go online right now and browse through their menu. Then click on the highlighted name of any dish, and – Voilà – there’s the recipe!

Note that if you order Quinoa Fritters from Sun Basket, the yogurt-tahini sauce comes premade; however, it is super easy to whip together at home. (My recipe follows.)

Quinoa Fritters with Arugula-Strawberry Salad

These simple cakes form a gorgeous, crisp crust when pan-seared.

Course Main Dish

Cuisine Vegetarian

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Total Time 40 minutes

Servings 2 generous servings

Author Sun Basket

Ingredients

1/3 cup rainbow quinoa
2 scallions finely chopped
Handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley stripped from stems & finely chopped
¼ pound baby arugula divided
1 lemon
2 pasture-raised organic eggs
2 tablespoons panko breadcrumbs
2 tablespoons shredded Parmesan
¼ pound strawberries hulled and sliced thin (1/4”)
2 tablespoons walnuts roughly chopped
Yogurt-tahini sauce Recipe below

Instructions

Quinoa Fritters

Combine quinoa and 2/3 cup salted water in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, cover, and cook until the quinoa is tender and most of the liquid is absorbed, 15 to 18 minutes. Spread the quinoa out onto a sheet pan or plate. Prep the rest of the ingredients while the quinoa cools.
Finely chop ½ cup of the arugula, reserving the rest for the salad. Zest and juice the lemon, keeping the zest and juice separate.
Crack the eggs into a bowl, season generously with salt and pepper, and lightly beat.
In a medium bowl, combine eggs, scallions, parsley, chopped arugula, lemon zest, panko breadcrumbs, Parmesan, and cooled quinoa. Mix well to combine.
Shape into the mixture into 6 patties.*** Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. When hot, add the quinoa patties in batches and cook until golden brown and cooked through – 4-5 minutes per side. Transfer to a paper-towel-lined plate to drain.

Strawberry-Arugula Salad

Hull the strawberries and cut into ¼-inch-thick slices.
In a small bowl, combine the lemon juice and 1½ tablespoons olive oil. Season with salt and pepper.
Add the strawberries, walnuts, and remaining arugula and toss to coat. Season to taste.
Transfer the quinoa fritters to individual plates and top with some of the yogurt-tahini sauce. Serve with the salad and more sauce on the side.

Recipe Notes

*** I find that the easiest way to form the patties is by using a 1/3 cup measure. Just pack the quinoa mixture into the measuring cup and turn it out directly into the hot skillet. Flatten slightly with the back of a spatula and you're good to go.

Yogurt-Tahini Sauce

Course Sauce

Cuisine Vegetarian

Author Renée B. ♥ The Good Hearted Woman

Ingredients

3 tablespoons tahini
1 clove garlic minced
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons maple syrup or honey
Kosher salt to taste
Freshly ground pepper to taste
Water as needed

Instructions

In a small blender, mix together yogurt, tahini, garlic, lemon juice, maple syrup, salt and pepper until smooth. You may need to add a little water; just be sure not to make it too thin.

Recipe Notes

I like to add a little sweetener to my tahini sauce to offset the bitterness. (I have a high sensitivity to bitter.) Just omit the maple syrup if you prefer.

BOTTOM LINE

Would we order from Sun Basket again? Absolutely! This service would be perfect for a working couple or small family, or anyone wanting to expand their cooking repertoire. You get reasonably priced gourmet meals, ordering is online is super easy, and you can skip a week or cancel at any time. Their demonstrated commitment to both the environment and quality customer service is a real selling point to us as well.

Ready to try Sun Basket out for yourself? Click this link and get your first 3 Meals Free from Sun Basket! (If you win the giveaway, that’ll be six free meals!!)

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, which means we may receive a commission if you click a link and purchase something that we have recommended. While clicking these links won’t cost you any extra money, they will help us keep this site up and running – and (relatively) ad-free!! Please check out our disclosure policy for more details. Thank you for your support!

Spice Up Date Night with an Exotic Cooking Class!

September 6 By Renée ♥ 10 Comments

In which Mr B and I take an exotic French-Moroccan cooking class and learn (among other things) the difference between a tagine (the vessel) and a tagine (the stew); plus an awesome recipe for Carrot Salad with Harissa, Feta & Mint!

Mr B and I recently took a cooking class together at Sur La Table, and not only did we learn a ton while we were there, but it turned out to be an amazing Date Night too!

I partnered with Sur La Table to bring you this post. This post may contain affiliate links.

Cooking classes are one of the best Date Nights! You get to spend time doing something active and interesting with your sweetheart, meet some fun new people, and eat a great meal at the end of the day.

Our class – “Exotic French-Moroccan Cuisine” – was held in the teaching kitchen at Sur La Table in downtown Portland, directly across the street from Powell’s. (Check here to find Sur La Table classes in your area.) Aprons and recipes were ready and waiting when we arrived, and ingredients and tools were strategically placed around the work area.

One thing that immediately impressed us about our Sur La Table cooking class was the caliber of instruction. Our instructor for the day was Chef Priscilla Umeda, a beautifully warm, captivating woman with great passion and skill for cooking. Chef Priscilla, originally from Nigeria, grew up as the oldest female child in a family of eight children, so it fell to her to “insure her siblings were fed.” Thus, the seeds for creating delicious food and educating others in culinary arts were planted early. After earning a degree in Business Administration & Management in Nigeria, Chef Priscilla taught herself the art of cake making that became a thriving business in Nigeria before her migration to America. Now a trained, professional chef, she is actively engaged in the culinary training of both home cooks like us and professional chefs.

Before we got to work, Chef Priscilla gave us a little history about Moroccan cuisine. We learned that Moroccan cuisine is considered one of the most important cuisines in the world, due in great part to the remarkable diversity of colonizers and immigrants who have influenced it over the last millennia. The cuisine of Morocco’s first inhabitants, the Berbers, still exists today in dishes like tagine and couscous. It took on spices, nuts and dried fruits, and the sweet and sour combinations from Arab invasions; olives, olive juice and citrus from the Moors; pickling from Moroccan Jews; and kebabs from the Ottoman Empire. The short-lived French-Moroccan colony left behind a culture of cafes, pastries, and wine.

Chef Priscilla also introduced us to the quintessential hallmark of Moroccan cooking: the Tagine. The word tagine has two meanings. First, it refers to a traditional North African clay-pot cooking vessel. The bottom is a wide, shallow circular dish used for both cooking and serving, while the top of the tagine is distinctively shaped into a rounded dome or cone.

Second, tagine refers to the iconic Moroccan stew: created in layers of warm spices, tender meats, fresh vegetables, and dried fruits, tagine is slow-cooked in the aforementioned traditional cooking vessel.

Apricot Chicken Tagine with Ginger & Mint is an exotic, warmly spiced stew that is easy to prepare, family-friendly, and oh so delicious!

Stay tuned – I’ll be sharing my recipe for Apricot Chicken Tagine in an upcoming post! (Pictured above in my newest kitchen toy – a beautiful Emile Henry tagine.)

Sur La Table offers two kinds of class formats: demonstration and hands-on. Ours was of the latter variety, with everyone taking part in the preparations. Chef Priscilla walked us through four dishes: Chicken Tagine with Dried Fruits, Couscous with Saffron & Ginger, Carrot Salad with Harissa, Feta & Mint, and Cardamom Madeleines with Rosewater Glaze.

Sur La Table Exotic French-Moroccan Cooking Class | The Good Hearted Woman

Chef Priscilla was a master of the Microplane!

There were about twenty people in our class, and there was plenty for everyone to do. Mr B jumped right into the action! One of the things I appreciate about Sur La Table’s class philosophy is that they aren’t just about throwing together a short list of menu items, but rather, they aim to teach techniques and send you home with practical advice and information that you can immediately use in your own kitchen.

As far as Mr B and I are concerned, every meal needs to include a little something sweet. These Cardamom Madeleines with Rosewater Glaze were as lovely as they were delicious.

Mr B and I both loved the fresh, sweet and slightly spicy flavors of this Carrot Salad recipe (shared here courtesy of Sur La Table). Note that it uses preserved lemons, an indispensable ingredient in Moroccan cooking. Their unique pickled taste and texture cannot be duplicated with fresh products. You can buy them in specialty stores, or they can be easily made at home.

Carrot Salad with Harissa, Feta & Mint

Course Side Dish

Cuisine French-Moroccan

Ingredients

1/4 cup olive oil
3 medium garlic cloves minced
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground caraway seeds
1 tablespoon harissa
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
1 tablespoon honey
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 preserved lemon rind only, finely minced
Sea salt & freshly ground pepper to taste
1 pound carrots peeled and julienned or coarsely grated
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh mint
4 ounces feta crumbled

Instructions

Heat oil in small skillet over medium heat. Add garlic, cumin, caraway, and harissa. Cook until fragrant; about one minute. Remove from heat and add the cinnamon, paprika, honey, lemon juice, and preserved lemon. Salt and pepper to taste.
In a large bowl, combine carrots, herbs, and feta. Pour prepared dressing over carrot mixture and toss to combine.

Overall, we loved our Cooking Class Date! Not only did we have a great time together, but we learned some new cooking techniques that we can use in our everyday cooking. We are definitely looking forward to taking more classes in the future.

Have you ever taken a cooking class? If so, please share your experience in the comments below!

Disclosure: Sur la Table provided Mr B and me with a complimentary cooking class to facilitate this post. All opinions are 100% our own. This post may contain affiliate links, which means we may receive a commission if you click a link and purchase something that we have recommended. While clicking these links won’t cost you any extra money, they will help us keep this site up and running – and (relatively) ad-free!! Please check out our disclosure policy for more details. Thank you for your support!

Capturing Adventure {Blurb Photo Book Review}

August 17 By Renée ♥ 22 Comments

Capturing adventure in a Blurb photo book is simple, easy, and so worth the effort!

This post may contain affiliate links, but don’t worry – they won’t bite.

Preserving memories in book form is a passion of mine. Since my preteen years, I’ve been an avid scrapbooker, adhering images and ephemera between the pages of weighty albums with everything from old-fashion black photo corners to high-end archival-approved adhesives. Keeping those images accessible and leafing through them from time to time with the people I love brings our experiences back with vivid clarity, and gives us all a chance to enjoy the memories together once again.

About fifteen years ago, I made the conversion to digital scrapbooking and never looked back. The end products of my efforts are now high-quality hardback books, printed through one of a handful of dependable self-printing book services.

My most recent scrapbook project focuses on the trip Mr B and I took to Hawaii last July. We were on Oahu for ten days, and while we were there, I took well over a thousand pictures. (If you’ve been reading me for a while, you may remember that when we got home, I wrote so many blog posts about our trip that I had enough material to create our Ultimate Oahu Vacation Guide!)

Our adventures in Hawaii were a perfect subject for a stand-alone memory book, and this time I chose to print it through Blurb, a well-renowned print-on-demand company that I have used a couple of times in the past.

Blurb offers a number of both online and print formats, but for this review, I’ll be focusing on printing photo books.

Printed photo books are available in three formats: soft cover, image-wrapped [hard-cover], or dust jacket [hard cover]. (My preference for photo books is nearly always image-wrapped hard-cover.)

Blurb offers three options for shape and size, ranging from a small 7” x 7” square book to a large 13” x 11” in portrait or landscape. I chose a moderate 8” x 10” landscape book for our Hawaii album.

There are also five paper options, with varying weights and/or textures; everything from the standard semi-matte up to Premium semi-gloss or Proline pearl. Blurb’s basic, standard weight is 80 lb. paper, (about the same as good-quality printer paper), but it cost very little to upgrade to the 100 lb. Premium paper. I strongly encourage that you upgrade too, especially for a book with a lot of images. (I went with 100 lb. semi-gloss paper for Our Hawaiian Adventures.) You can print up to 440 pages in one book: our Hawaiian Adventures came in at 114 pages!

Now, let’s get to the two things we all really care about when it comes to making photo books online: Ease of use and quality of final product.

EASE OF USE

This is where the rubber meets the road when it comes to online photo book creation. Some photo book printing sites are a little intimidating, but Blurb is not one of them. In fact, one of the things I like best about Blurb is the wide variety of options that they offer for content creation, and the ease at which a book can be completed. Whether you are a professional digital Creative or can barely turn on your computer, there is an option for you.

Make Your Book Online
Make your book quickly and easily without downloading anything. You can pull in images directly from Facebook or Instagram, or upload them from your computer and use Blurb’s templates and layouts to create a beautiful photo book quickly and easily.

Adobe InDesign Plug-in
If you have Adobe experience, this may be just the thing for you. Blurb’s Adobe InDesign Plug-In is free to download, and lets you create and lay out books directly within InDesign, with output options for both print and digital formats. You can also work on your book within Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.

Upload PDF to make your book
If you prefer, you can use Blurb’s specifications calculator to fine-tune your PDF to a Blurb-friendly book size.

I’ve used all of these options at one time or another, but for this project, I wanted a fast, simple method that would give me complete control over my layouts – and I needed to be able to do in while I was on the road and away from my primary computer. With that in mind, I decided to go with my all-time favorite online photo editor, PicMonkey.

My 3-Step Streamline Blurb Photo Book Creation Process

Step 1 – Create individual pages on PicMonkey. Save as high-resolution JPGs.

PicMonkey is a simple, easy-to-use tool for editing photos online. From Capturing Adventure {Blurb Photo Book Review} | The Good Hearted Woman

↑ I created all of the images for our Hawaiian Adventures book in PicMonkey.

I created all of my pages in PicMonkey, saved them as high-resolution JPGs, and then uploaded them to Blurb. Then all I had to do was drag them onto the pages as full-bleed images. After that, I just proof-read everything about 100 times (but that’s just me), and then ordered my book. That’s all there was to it.

Step 2 – Upload Full-page images to Blurb. Drag and drop.

Step 3 – Proofread, proofread, proofread. Then proofread one more time, and order book. 🙂

PRODUCT QUALITY

As far as I’m concerned, Quality is the online photo book creation endgame. I expect my photo books to Pop! with bright, true-to-life colors, clean, clear printing, and solid, well-crafted construction. Anything less is unacceptable. Blurb did not disappoint.

Overall, the quality of our Hawaiian Adventures book is excellent. The cover is solid, smooth, and semi-matte, which discourages fingerprints, and the cover image is clear and vivid. The printed images inside the book are sharp and clear, and the resolution is good to excellent. The colors are vivid and true to the digital preview. I do think that paper selection makes a significant difference here, so once again, I strongly encourage you to upgrade to Premium or Proline paper.

BOTTOM LINE

Mr B and I could not be happier with our newest photo book. Flipping through those pages is like reliving our adventure all over again (yes, fellow grammar divas, I know), which makes all the time and effort it took to create totally worth it, and the book itself priceless.

Ready to start your own photo book? Visit Blurb’s website to get started today!

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, which means we may receive a commission if you click a link and purchase something that we have recommended. (Rest assured though, we will NEVER recommend anything we don’t believe in just to make a buck. We like to sleep at night.) Anywho, while clicking these links won’t cost you any extra money, they will help us keep this site up and running – and (relatively) ad-free!! Please check out our disclosure policy for more details. Thank you for your support!

Beautiful Harvest at Sur La Table

September 29 By Renée ♥ 9 Comments

Find out what’s new this season from Sur La Table and KitchenAid®, including a FREE online cooking class!

When I stepped off the elevator into Sur La Table’s headquarters last week, I had literally been looking forward to the moment for an entire year. A highly-coveted excursion ticket at this year’s International Food Bloggers Conference [IFBC] in Seattle, it was a chance to see demonstrations of some of the newest KitchenAid® products, kitchen gadgets (who doesn’t want more kitchen gadgets!!), and seasonal offerings from Sur La Table. (Plus, I’d be lying if I didn’t mention that I was looking forward to receiving one of those now-legendary IFBC blogger gift bags Sur La Table has become known for.)

After an entire afternoon of product demos and delicious treats, I think the thing that most impressed me was Sur La Table’s commitment to culinary education. This quote, emblazon across the headquarters entry wall, highlights this mission:

So, did you know that Sur La Table has a culinary education program? I’m not just talking about in-house “cooking classes,” but a full-on culinary education program.

“We try to teach techniques instead of just recipes,” Sephi Coyle, Director of Sur La Table’s Culinary Program, told us. “If you learn techniques, you can then apply them in all kinds of ways in your home kitchen.”

Technique classes are offered every day of the week at local stores, and also online through Craftsy. Check out Sur La Table Craftsy online class offerings for October:

Cooking With Spices: Techniques for Big Flavor – Spice up your life and your seasoning techniques with Sur La Table Resident Chef Angie Lee.
Secrets to Cooking Fish: Eight Essential Techniques – Learn to confidently cook fresh, flavorful fish! Sur La Table’s senior resident chef, Joel Gamoran, shares expert tips for sautéing, roasting, grilling and more.
FREE CLASS!! Cooking Mistakes: What Can Go Wrong and How To Make it Right – Fix your most common cooking mistakes with guidance from Sur La Table’s senior resident chef, Joel Gamoran!

In addition to learning about their culinary education program, we got a sneak peek of the upcoming holiday line at Sur La Table, plus a couple very cool product demos.

Unfortunately, the first of the product demos is going to cost me, because I’m getting one.

By now, you’ve probably seen the plethora of spiralizers on the market. Most require significant wrist-action or hand-cranking, which is why I’ve avoided them [thank you, carpal tunnel]. But this KitchenAid® Spiralizer attachment, exclusive to Sur La Table, is pretty darn slick. Not only does it create long, beautiful spiral veggie noodles effortlessly, but it also peels, cores, and slices, as shown below. (Sorry that there are no action shots of it spiralizing actual vegetables. I was so fascinated by the process that I momentarily forgot to take any pictures.)

We also got a demo of KitchenAid®’s new Precision Press Coffee Maker. With both an integrated timer and an accurate scale, this battery-powered French press gives you precise control over every part of the brewing process.

After the coffee maker demonstration (and a rather dramatic pause) it was announced that we would all be taking one home in our gift bags, and the reaction of the blogger-collective was priceless. (Oh, how I wish I had my camera filming!) You’d have thought Oprah herself had just come into the room – in all her royal Oprahness – and boomed, “You get a coffee maker, and you get a coffee maker, and you get a coffee maker…”

When I called home later that night to tell Mr. B about our new coffee maker, I could literally hear him doing his happy-dance over the phone!

A free KitchenAid® Precision Press Coffee Maker would have been a wonderful gift all by itself, but Sur La Table has made a name for itself among past IFBC attendees for its generous blogger gift bags, and this year they definitely did not disappoint!

In addition to the aforementioned awesome coffee maker, seasonal swag dominated our gift bags, including some of my personal favorites: a beautiful Staub Pumpkin Cocotte (a fancy name for a oven-safe casserole/soup bowl) and a NordicWare Pumpkin loaf pan. Oh, and brownies – Cheesecake Swirl Pumpkin Spice Brownies. Oh.My.Goodness.

You will be seeing that Pumpkin Loaf Pan in my post this Wednesday, when it serves up my very own recipe for “Nana’s Old-Fashioned Pumpkin Gingerbread.”

Disclosure: As an attendee of the International Food Blogger Conference in Seattle this year, I participated in an excursion to Sur La Table, where I received all of the aforementioned swag and then some. Furthermore, this post contains affiliate links. (Don’t worry, they won’t hurt you: I think there’s even a ointment for them.)

Chevy Impala 2015 {Review}

June 23 By Renée ♥ 5 Comments

Looking for a full-size sedan with a smooth ride, plenty of cool luxury features that come standard, and a sleek exterior? You should definitely check out the 2015 Chevy Impala.

Thanks to my role in the Chevy Shop Social: Portland, a fundraiser held recently to benefit Doernbecher Children’s Hospital, I had the opportunity to drive this sweet little number around town for a few days and run her through her paces.

There are a couple of things you should know before we go any farther though. First, this is my very first car review. (Woohoo! And yes, Scotty at SheBuysCars.com, I would be willing to make the sacrifice and do another one should the need and opportunity should arise.) Second, every car I have driven in the past decade or two has been at least seven years old, so I’m pretty awestruck by things that many who drive newer cars may think of as run-of-the-mill or even compulsory.

Wifi, Navigation & OnStar (Oh my!)

Every OnStar 4G LTE vehicle includes a 3-month or three gigabyte data trial (whichever comes first), after which you can purchase data in a monthly or one-time package.

First off – everything was so cool! I was like a kid in a candy store. A candy store with Wifi! The touch-screen was relatively responsive and very easy to navigate. Connecting to the internet was easy, as was pairing my phone with the car’s system. The signal came in strong, and the kids had no problem surfing the internet while riding in the car. I also appreciated the fact that that the connectivity didn’t immediately drop when the car turned off.

The navigation system was easy to follow and gave clear directions in a pleasant-sounding, courteous tone. (Which is a nice way of saying that it did not make me want to scratch someone’s eyes out as some navigation systems apparently are wont to do.) I liked that it warned me of upcoming traffic issues well in advance.

Starting with the 2015 model year, every OnStar-equipped Chevy comes with a 5-year OnStar Basic Plan that includes RemoteLink Key Fob Services (remote start/unlock/horn honk), OnStar Vehicle Diagnostics, and Dealer Maintenance Notification. I didn’t need or use the OnStar feature while I had the car, but just knowing it was there gave me a level of security that I found very reassuring.

Drive

I hear you. “That’s all pretty cool, Renée,” you’re saying, “but how is the drive?”

Glad you asked. Once again, from the perspective of someone who drives a ten-year old Corolla, the drive was awesome. Even in heavy traffic, the interior was calm and quiet, and the car did this thing where, when you push the accelerator, it actually picked up speed right away. As in, it didn’t feel like it was dragging and had be telekenetically encouraged to go. (Oh. Like you’ve never tried to internally pushed your car into upshifting with your mind.) Nope – it just up and went! Now! (Someday I’ll have a car of my own that just up and goes when I push on the gas, she thought wistfully.)

Comfort:

The soft leather seats are very comfortable, and come with adjustable lumbar support. Heated seats are standard, as is dual climate control, and there is also an option for cooled seats. (Would you like your buns chilled or toasted?) The leather-wrapped steering wheel was comfortable for my smaller-size hands, and I felt like I had plenty of room to breathe. (For reference, I recently drove a 2015 Mini-Cooper that made me feel a little claustrophobic until I got used to it.)

Safety

Sometimes it’s the little things that make me the happiest. The Impala has many cool and new-to-me safety features, including forward collision alert and rear cross-traffic alert, but my favorite safety feature was the blind spot indicator sensor. (I’m sure there is a more technical name for it, but you get my drift, right?) Basically, it’s a little icon on the review mirror that lights up when someone is in your blind spot. I loved this feature. Sure, I’m still going to look before I go, but it gave me a lot more confidence when merging, especially in busy freeway situations.

The Impala gets excellent crash test scores, due in part I imagine to the hundred (or ten) airbags that come standard. It also has an anti-lock brake system, a theft deterrent system, and all the other safety features (aka seat beats, child locks, etc.) we’ve come to expect.

Another little touch that I appreciated was this secret little compartment behind the gearshift. It’s big enough for a phone, wallet or any other little thing you want to hide from plain site.

For a car this size, I was pleasantly surprised by the generous trunk space: almost 19 cubic feet!

The back seat was roomy as well; plenty of space for three teenagers to fit comfortably, and I liked that the backseat had a standard outlet. (Gone are the days when you had to shell out big bucks for a converter. Thank goodness.)

2015 Impala 2LT Sedan

Engine: 3.6L SIDI V6
Transmission: 6-speed automatic
Fuel economy: 21 combined city/hwy (18 city/ 28 hwy)
36 month / 36,000 mile bumper to bumper warranty
60 month, 100,000 mile power train warranty AND roadside assistance

Standard Vehicle Price: $30,285

This Vehicle (with Extras): $37,400

Bottom line: Love it! As far as I’m concerned, the only thing Chevy forgot to include with this car was a box of Kleenex – to soak up my tears when I had to return it.

Disclosure: This car was provided to me by our local Chevrolet dealerships working with She Buys Cars, for my participation in the Chevy Shop Social: Portland in connection with Doernbecher Children’s Hospital.

Chicken & Egg: A Memoir of Suburban Homesteading {Cookbook Review}

June 18 By Renée ♥ 6 Comments

A review of CHICKEN and EGG: A Memoir of Suburban Homesteading with 125 Recipes and an exclusive interview with author Janice Cole.

Last evening before sunset, Mr. B and I pulled our deck chairs out onto the lawn for an hour and watched our little flock of young chickens glory in the green grass outside their coop.

Occasionally, a truck would honk a few streets away or a helicopter would whir far overhead on its way to the airport, and they would run for the safety of the coop door, where they stood huddled until the scary danger had passed. Then it was right back to the grass again.

Chicken & Egg {Book Review} | The Good Hearted Woman

Our little flock is not at egg-laying stage yet – right now they just run around like gangly teens.

In the fading of the day, life was sweet, sitting there watching Rosylnn Carter, Lady Bird Johnson, Harriet Johnston and Hillary Rodham Clinton peck away… our own little slice of Mayberry.

I think it was that feeling of nostalgia that first drew me to Chicken and Egg: A Memoir of Suburban Homesteading with 125 Recipes. Written by chicken caretaker and veteran food writer Janice Cole, Chicken and Egg chronicles the amusing, exasperating, down-and-occasionally-dirty details in the life of a first-time chicken steward. [Bad pun intended.]

See that beautiful dish in the corner? It’s a Strawberry Soufflé Omelet with Caramelized Almonds, one of my favorite recipes from the book. (Look for the recipe in tomorrow’s post.)

Both a guide for new and would-be backyard chicken hobbyists and a recipe resource for home cooks; Chicken and Egg is an entertaining and informative read, even if you have no intention of ever raising chickens.

Janice has great affection for her feathered charges and their antics, and shares both her triumphs and her foibles in her book. Moreover, she makes it clear that while the promise of fresh, organic eggs from happy chickens is definitely a bonus, if you think you can just buy a few chicks and then sit back and wait for “free” eggs to pop out, you will be sadly disappointed. Even a quick once-over of her book will reveal that keeping chickens takes some work, and the eggs are definitely not free. (What with a coop, feed, and other necessities, I figure that our first dozen will run about $29 – for each egg.)

Both stories and recipes are organized by season, from Early Spring through Late Winter. (Yay! Seasonal cooking!) Lovely full-color photographs accompany the creative collection of 125 chicken and egg recipes, and all the recipes that I have tried thus far have been flavorsome, well outlined, and easy to prepare. However, recipes notwithstanding, it is Janice’s advice and recollections that make this book shine. Chicken and Egg covers everything from choosing a coop to the miracle of your first egg, and her stories of adventure and hardship with her chickens are engagingly funny, making for an easy, relaxing read.

Janice was kind enough to answer a few questions for me, and her thoughts reflect the same love for her chickens that is so well expressed in her book.

Janice Cole, author of "Chicken and Egg" by Janice Cole | The Good Hearted Woman

Photo courtesy of Janice Cole.

What advice would you give to would-be suburban chicken farmers?

I would advise them to begin small. Start with a flock of three or four hens at the most, as a small flock will be a little less work, require less feed and less clean up than a larger flock. You can also get by with a smaller coop, which may be easier to build or less expensive to buy. If you find that you love it, then by all means increase the flock size.

I would also ask new owners to consider the future of their hens. Will they be keeping their hens as pets until they die a natural life? (If so, as my experience points out, this could be ten years or more.) Or will they want to rotate their flock so they always have fully laying hens available? If that’s the case, will they be able to slaughter their hens or bring them someplace to have them slaughtered? They should know, there really isn’t a market for those who want to give away their non-laying hens to someone who will keep them as pets.

Along that vein, Janice also shared her thoughts over the loss of one of her original flock this spring:

Cleo, one of my three original girls, passed away. She was over nine years old—amazing for a chicken—but still doing remarkably well in spite of suffering from a tumor in her abdomen. One minute she was eating a treat of fruit; five minutes later she had passed away. Knowing she was ill, I honestly expected to lose her over the winter months but she had continued to eat well and keep up with the rest of the flock. Luckily she didn’t seem to be in much pain.

It’s always hard losing a pet, as I’m sure you know, but I felt especially sad because she was one of my favorites and always loved to sit cuddled in my lap. Her flock mate Roxanne (also in the book) is still going strong and, in fact, is still laying eggs this spring!

What is one of your favorite chicken stories that didn’t make it into the book?

I think one of my best memories since writing the book has been watching a mother chick handle her babies.

A friend of mine asked if I would be interested in taking home a Silkie hen along with her day-old chicks. Of course I was thrilled and quickly drove out to pick them up from my friend’s farm. (Back story: Originally, the Silkie had been mine, along with her flock mate who was guaranteed to be female but turned out to be a rooster, hence their transfer to my friend’s farm.)

What was fascinating about this experience was that mama Jazzy had hatched eggs that were not her own, so the chicks quickly grew larger than their small bantam mother hen. It didn’t bother Jazzy or the babies at all; she continued to smother them with love and protect them with a fierceness that was amazing to see. She grew twice as large as she fluffed up her feathers protecting her babes from the other hens in my flock. And as the chicks grew larger than mama, they all still tried to hide under her tiny wings and faithfully followed her in a line around the yard as she marched them proudly around showing them how to dig for worms and chase bugs.

(I guess that, when it comes to Mothering, some things don’t vary much between chickens and people.)

Bottom line: Janice’s book is entertaining, informative and full of delicious recipes. If you are interested in keeping chickens, or just like to cook, I highly encourage you to check it out.

Be sure to tune in tomorrow when I’ll share Janice’s recipe for Strawberry Soufflé with Caramelized Almonds.

Disclosure: I did not receive any compensation for writing this review, nor was I asked to do so: I wrote it because I thoroughly enjoyed the book and wanted to share it with you. This post contains an affiliate link, for which I make thousands of dollars each time you click on it (said no blogger ever).
Secondary Disclosure: I don’t really makes thousands on affiliate links. More like a penny. Maybe some pennies, but that’s it. Seriously.