Armommy

A few months ago, Rae of Armommy, asked me if I wanted her to send me some of her products to review.  Of course I was delighted, I have been a fan for a while now...remember this post?  I received the package in the mail a few months ago and moved soon after, so it's been on the back burner for a while.  Now that the sun has decided to make it's appearance for a few days, I thought I had better take advantage and pull the package of goodies out and snap away.  I asked my niece, Kate, to be my little model.  She kindly obliged since it involved being a model and looking cute.

First, here is a picture of Rae and her cute family. Isn't Rae beautiful?

Rae made customized place mats for each of my children.  Since the boys are at the perfect age for wanting to help me set the table, Rae thought it would be fun to send me the place mats that show children where each thing goes.  Brilliant!  Kate didn't need any help and thought it was so fun to set the place setting herself.  You can go to Armommy's shop to see what other goodies they have.  If you like the style of place mat that Rae made for my children, you can see them in her shop.

Meet Kate.  At first she was shy.  

That didn't last too long. 

The place mat.  I think these are so cute.  I love the owl.  They are made of professional grade laminate and are 12x18.  Armommy also does custom orders.  Just send them an email and they will be happy to work with you.

Look how good she is doing...no help from me.

Look how hard she is concentrating...the tongue comes out when she is concentrating hard.

Yes, her hair is all natural.  Add a little water, and voila!  Back to the place mats.

The last item placed...the cup.   

The finished product.  These would make the best gifts for those little one's in your life.  

Blake's custom place mat...

and Carter's.

Lastly, she sent me their signature snack bags.  Look how stylish they are.  Plus, they save the environment.  

Just fill them up and velcro them closed. 

Thank you, Rae!  I love it all.  

Go here to view Armommy's blog.  Lot's of creative ideas.

p.s.  Another of my favorites is their smib.

My New Blender and Homemade Peanut Butter

I've been researching the best of the best blenders for quite a few years now.  I narrowed it down to two: the Vitamix and the Blendtec.  I reviewed Consumer Reports, youtube videos, websites and even the actual blenders themselves.  I'm lucky enough to have two people in my family with  both.  I decided on the Blendtec for a few reasons.  There are two sizes that the Blendtec jars come in.  The standard is the 64 ounce and then they have come out with a new 96 ounce jar that has a four inch blade.  The actual blender itself comes with a 64 ounce jar.  I purchased the larger jar in addition to the 64 ounce one.  I have my reasons for wanting two jars.  The rest of my reasons for purchasing the Blendtec over the Vitamix are as follows:

Quiter

Computerized

Fits under a standard cabinet

Lighter base

More shallow jars (easier for scraping things out)

No plunger needed

There are more reasons, but those are the major one's.  My family, like most, love green smoothies.  This machine makes them so easy to make.  No shaking of the blender, or plunging ingredients down.  In 20 seconds or less we have a wonderful, nutritious, green smooth packed with wholesome goodness.  I purchased mine through Costco and got an additional 4 year warranty making the total warranty 7 years.  That is identical to Vitamix.  I like the Vitamix also, I just decided to go with the Blendtec because I liked it a little bit better.  

Today, I made homemade peanut butter in less than a minute.  I put in three cups of dry roasted unsalted peanuts.  Set the level to 1 and let it grind for about 15 seconds.  Then I turned the speed to level 5 and let the machine do the rest of the work for an additional 30 seconds or so.  I made smooth today, but chunky would be just as easy.  I added about 3/4 teaspoon of salt.  I had a few empty peanut butter jars so I filled them right up.  I made a total of three batches (3 cups of peanuts in each) and filled two Costco size peanut butter jars (the organic kind).  I love the flavor and so does my family.  I bought the bag of peanuts in the bulk section at my local Winco.  I paid $4.81 for the bag.  

I have a list a mile long of all the different foods I want to try out.  I'll keep you posted on how that goes.  For now, I will easily use my blender 2-3 times a day.  It even whips fresh whipping cream in a matter of seconds.    If you are in the market, I highly recommend Blendtec.  It's definitely an investment, but one worth making.

{I was not paid by Blendtec to write this post.}

Winner of the Wusthof Knife

And we have a winner....

Alyssa Griffeth said...

I have Henkels knives and while I LOVE them, I think I would love Wusthof even more! I have heard such fabulous things!

Congratulations Alyssa! Please email me your address at thecooknextdoor@gmail.com. Wusthof will send your knife shortly.

Thank you for entering everyone. Stay tuned for more fun giveaways in the weeks to come.

The Most Important Kitchen Tool...and a Giveaway

Have you heard of Wusthof Knives before?  I have envied their knives for a long time now and longed to get my hands on one.  Recently, they gifted me with one of their beautiful Classic Santoku knives so I could do a product review.  Ever since opening it I have been in knife heaven.  This knife is seriously amazing.

I've had good knives before, but this is the mother of them all.  I can't imagine what their other knives can do. One of the best parts about Wusthof is their warranty.  Behind every good knife is a warranty.  They also have great sharpeners to help keep your knife in tip top condition.  Go to their website for more information about all of their products.  For this review I put together a few different foods, that to me, need good knives if you are going to cut them up the right way.  It really is true -- a knife is the most important kitchen tool.   Are you ready to get chopping and slicing?  Let's begin.

 The knife looked so good in the box when it arrived, that I just had to take a picture.

 Doesn't it look powerful?

 First up, cutting fresh mozzarella cheese.  If you do not have a good sharp knife for this, you might as well rip the cheese apart with your bare hands. The beauty of this knife is in the hollow edge which creates pockets of air to prevent extra thin or soft slices from sticking to the blade.  Fresh mozzarella cheese has finally found it's match. 

 The knife really does glide through the cheese.

 No sawing, or extra hard pushing to get the cheese to cut.

 Just for kicks, I used the knife to cut a tomato. Normally, I use a serrated knife, but I thought I would give this a try.  Perfecto!

 I made a homemade pizza using this recipe for crust.  I place the fresh mozzarella, thinly sliced turkey bacon (with the help of my new knife, of course), fresh tomato, crackled pepper and Parmesan.

  

 Next up, the onion.  With the right knife, cutting an onion will not be the dreaded kitchen chore anymore.  Just watch.

 I love this knife so much, I cried when I was done.  The onions might have helped me out a little.  Okay, bad joke.  On with the next...

 Meet a fresh pineapple.  These are SO much better than cracking open a can of them.  Oh, and having a good knife helps too.

 No sawing to cut through the skin of this baby.  Just a gently push down and away it goes.

Be sure to cut off the hard middle core.

 Slice off the hard skin.

 It's really that easy.

 Once you have the skin and core cut off, it's time to slice all of the wedges up.

 Thank you knife, for making my life easier.

 Last, the all mighty watermelon.

 I cut through that baby watermelon in the blink of an eye.  

 See how clean that cut is?

 Want to learn how to cut a watermelon correctly?  Go here for a wonderful tutorial.  Who knew it could be so easy.  

Fresh summer fruit, cut right in your own kitchen.  

Do you want to get your hands on one of Wusthof's fabulous knives?  Go here for a list of stores. 

Wait, I'm not done.  How would you like to win the knife featured in this post?  Well, you can.  The team at Wusthof has generously offered one up for grabs.  Just leave a comment stating 1) your experience with a Wusthof knife in the past, or 2) how one of their products would change your life in the kitchen.  

Leave your comment by Friday May 28th at 11:59 pm.  Winner announced on Saturday. Good luck!

Bake It Pretty Giveaway

Bake It Pretty wants one of YOU to win a $25 e-gift card to their pretty little online store.  There is so much to choose from.  My cart is always full.  Go take a look at what they have. 

I am 100% in love with these.  I really want these, this and all of these too.  And about everything else they sell.  Really, go take a look.  

You have until Sunday May 23rd at 11:59 pm to leave a comment stating what your favorite item is on their site. The winner will be announced bright and early Monday morning.

Ready, set, go! 

Giveaway Winner

The winner of the Anthropologie Latte Bowls is......

Comment #16 who said:

 Candace said...

Love the recipes, plus the latte bowls are lovely too!

Congratulations!  Ironically, we have the same name.  You have 24 hours to email me your contact information to thecooknextdoor@gmail.com.  Thanks for playing everyone!

Anthropologie Latte Bowl Giveaway

Good morning everyone.  To start off this wonderful Monday morning, I am announcing another giveaway.  Just because.

THE LOW DOWN:

• Open today ONLY, February 8, 2010.
• Leave a comment.  That's it!
• Ends Monday night at 11:59 pm.
• Winner announced Tuesday morning.

UP FOR GRABS:

• A set of six Anthropologie latte bowls in pink.  

Aren't they lovely?  Good luck!

Wheat Grinding

Meet my wheat grinder.

The Nutrimill. She is very easy to clean and very easy to clean up.

You pour the grain in the top (also known as the hopper)...

and out it comes freshly ground in the container at the bottom...after a few minutes.

This is where you insert the bowl. They have conveniently placed a "yes" and "no" to make sure you have the bowl in all the way. If you can still see the word "no" that means you need to push your bowl in a little more. Nifty, huh?

This is the bowl that captures all of the freshly ground wheat. It can hold up to 20 cups of flour.

This is the top of the bowl. The black circle is a sponge-like filter that captures unwanted particles from the grain.

This is the inside of the bowl. You can see some of my leftover flour. I never clean mine out when I am done with it. I just dump all of my flour into a storage container I have and put the bowl back in the Nutrimill.

Another convenient feature is the way the cord stores inside the machine. No messing with cords all over the place. They sure did get this one right. I have never had a problem with mine going back inside either...and I have had mine for 4 years.

This is white hard wheat.

This is red hard wheat.

You can choose to have super fine OR course flour. The Nutrimill has the ability to grind super fine flour (much finer than any other impact mill) and also adjust to produce the courser flour you may need for things such as cornbreads. Nutrimill has a 400% range of adjustment from fine to course, ten times greater than other mills. The possibilities are endless!

I LOVE white hard wheat because of its sweetness; however, I like the strong flavor of red hard wheat. Sometimes I mix the two together when I make whole wheat bread, or sometimes I just stick to the white hard wheat. Either way, you will have a great end result that is very good and nutritious. If you want to read more about the differences between the two wheats, go here.

Go here to get your very own.  Valentine's Day?

{Apron giveaway ends tonight!  Go here to enter}