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Misc Blogging Stuff
Apr
16
Mi-Bags
Filed Under Green Products, Household Gear | Leave a Comment
Several years ago I started a little collection of reusable shopping bags to take to markets and grocery stores. The collection is mostly Trader Joe’s cotton bags, some large LL Bean and Land’s End totes and some medium bags about the size of a regular plastic grocery bags, as well as a couple string bags. I keep them folded up in the back of the car, ready to haul out when I hit the market. They are great, solid, reusable, and never wear out, but they all don’t fold and pack up well, plus my kids have played with the string bags until they’ve given out. I decided to look for something that would fit into my purse or diaper bag, handy for any time I needed it.
When I saw these cute Mi-Bags on Mummy’s Product Reviews I knew I wanted one. Vicky, who is also a DC Metro Moms blogger, was having a giveaway, and I won one of the bags, a brown bag with an artsy cat design (pictured). I have to say I’m impressed. It arrives neatly folded up in its small attached pocket, and at just 6×7 inches, it’s a perfect size for tucking away in a purse, but it opens to a large 18×23x7 inches. It has large handles that work great over the shoulder, and the bottom is gusseted to allow for expansion. The bags are made of ripstop nylon and very lightweight, yet pretty durable enough for daily use.
It did a great job with my groceries then folded right back up into my purse, so I’ve found it very handy. The price is more than other market bags, but in this case you are paying extra for the beautiful design and convenience with the attached pocket. The materials are not organic, so you will need to look elsewhere if that is a factor for you. I would not use this bag to carry any sharp objects, but for everyday use it’s great.
The bottom line:
Pros: lightweight, durable, folds into a small attached pocket, artsy designs
Cons: material is not organic, costs more than other market bags
Designs available: zebra, elephant, cat, birds
Cost: US$24.00 + shipping if ordering online
Where to buy: ID-A Designs (online), various retailers in California and Seattle, WA
Company website: ID_A Designs
Apr
13
The Sweet Melissa Baking Book
Filed Under Cookbooks | Leave a Comment
How often do you find a cookbook that is so chock full of good recipes that you want to make every single one of them? That day? That’s how I felt when The Sweet Melissa Baking Book by Melissa Murphy arrived in my mailbox. I grabbed the package and took it along in the car when I went to pick up the boys for school, knowing I would have a few minutes to browse while waiting for them. A few minutes was not enough because I found myself pouring over the pages. Many of my cookbooks have sticky flags on the pages with recipes that I like or want to try, but for Murphy’s book I didn’t even bother because I will eventually make everything in it, and the things that I have made so far have been fantastic.
Murphy is the chef and owner of Sweet Melissa Patisserie in New York City, a popular bakery considered one of the best in the city. I spent some time on the bakery’s website, wishing I had a spot in my neighborhood with food that good so I could take the laptop and hang out there on my mommy days. The menu is so tempting and her wedding and specialty cakes are breathtaking. Murphy has some baking podcasts available on PodCastGo.com, which are now on my iPod. I plan to take a trip to New York City sometime, and one of my first stops will be Sweet Melissa, especially if it has WiFi.
Because my favorite meal is breakfast, I started in the “Dessert for Breakfast” chapter with her Sweet Muffins recipe. For both her sweet and savory muffins, Murphy encourages variation by not specifying particular fruits or cheeses and vegetables within the text of the recipes, but saves the suggestions for tasty combinations for the end. I made the sweet muffins while Michael’s parents were visiting a few weekends ago, and added apples, cinnamon, and dried cranberries. The muffins were a hit, and it’s a good thing I made a double batch that morning, otherwise there would have been none left for me to photograph. They were perfect right out of the pan, no butter or jam required, with a slightly crispy crust and moist crumb, and the vanilla sugar on top added a sweet, aromatic crunch. Read more
Mar
6
101 Easy Peasy Cookie Recipes
Filed Under Cookbooks | Leave a Comment
In January I received an email asking if I was interested in reviewing a cookbook called 101 Easy Peasy Cookie Recipes. Easy cookies? What busy mom would not be interested in easy cookie recipes? I gladly accepted and eagerly waited to receive the book.
The book, written by mother and daughter team Lucinda Wallace and Heather Wallace, is basic and all about recipes with no photos or lengthy introductions to various cookies. The recipes are divided into sections for bar cookies, drop cookies, rolled cookies, shaped cookies, and no-bake cookies. The instructions are simple and many of the cookies can be mixed in one bowl. I skimmed the book as soon as it arrived, looking for what I call pantry recipes, or cookies that I can make on short notice because all of the ingredients are pantry staples. I was pleased to find many pantry cookie recipes, and I marked those for future reference. When I need cookies fast for a school function or some other occasion, it will be easy to find them.
So far I have made three different cookies from the book and we enjoyed them all. The first cookie was the Colossal Double Chocolate White Chip Cookies, which this time happened to be a pantry cookie because I still had some milk chocolate and white chips left over from Christmas baking. They were very easy to make and the neighbors loved them! They are big, gourmet size cookies with a slightly chewy texture, great for gift-giving in a cookie basket or sending in a care package Read more
Feb
26
Cooking.com $1000 Gift Certificate
Filed Under Other | Leave a Comment
Did that grab your attention? It got mine! Cooking.com is giving away a $1000 gift certificate to one lucky winner. To enter, you have to sign up for one or more of their advertising emails. Go to Cooking.com for complete entry information. The deadline is March 26.
Feb
14
Whether you are blogging or making money in some other way, if you are in business for yourself, then having business cards is essential. For a long time I printed my own at home on my laser printer, but lately I wanted to change the look and dress my cards up in some way by incorporating some of the photos I’ve taken for my cooking blog. After checking with several different brick and mortar stores as well as different online companies, I decided to give iPrint.com a try.
The feature that attracted me the most was the very easy image manipulation. I wanted to use my photo as a background and then have a layer of text fields with my blog information, but I needed to use a crop of the photo, not the whole image. Other services didn’t allow me to crop easily or at all, but with iPrint I could upload the whole image, which was much larger than the available space, and then move it around so that just the portion I wanted to display was within the print margins. Very easy.
For the photos to print well, you need to have a resolution of at least 300dpi. Photos should be in either TIFF, JPEG, or BMP format, and no more than 5mb.
I have had no need to contact customer service for any problems. My cards all arrived promptly in good condition and just the way I ordered them. The full color cards are printed on nice, glossy paper and prices start at $19.99 for 250 cards, but they have discounts all the time ranging from 15 to 50% off. Sign up for their email savings alerts so that you know when the prices are going down on products you want, just be aware that you’ll get email, sometimes two a week.
I was specifically looking for business cards, but like many other print companies, they offer many different types of items, including magnets, bookmarks, address labels, Post-It Notes, letterhead, and postcards. The company has an affiliate program for those interested in partnering with them. I have no affiliation with the company, just happy to order my business cards from them.
The bottom line:
Pros: easy interface for making cards, good sale prices
Cons: lots of emails for their sales, but not overly annoying
Costs: full color business cards start at $19.99 for 250 cards, but they have frequent sales.
Company web site: www.iprint.com