I was recently sent the brand new 11 inch nonstick stir fry pan. The pan has a nano ceramic coating that makes it non stick and also is PFOA, PTFE and Cadmium free making it eco friendly. It is also BEAUTIFUL. The outer is red and the inside is pure white. I am a huge fan of red for my kitchen so I fell in love fast. This is what I call Italian style and beauty!

And the handle is just one solid comfortable piece, completely covered with not hot metal or pieces to burn my hand

So I had to try it out and make some stir fry! We’ve been trying to eat better but haven’t really bought or cooked meat for a couple months or so, only eating fish and seafood for “meat”. sadly we ran out of shrimp so I set out to make some vegetarian stir fry that was both light and tasty. I raided the fridge and pantry and came up with some good stuff and a light quick recipe!

You will need 3 bell peppers, 8 oz mushrooms, organic rice, Steamfresh Asian medley veggies, Sesame Seed Oil (tbs), sesame seeds and a rice cooker. Okay you can get by without a rice cooker but its awesome.

1. Make your rice, it takes the longest

2. Chop those veggies! (my job made easier thanks to Boos and Wusthof!)

3. Heat sesame oil in stir fry pan… med-hi depending on your stove. Stir fry by nature is meant to be cooked super fast on super high heat so use your judgement!

4. Toss in the veggies and keep them moving in the oil and heat to get them cooked, and for this recipe I liked the crispness after I had them cooking for 4 minutes. Shake in some sesame seeds.

5. Plate Up! Couldn’t be more simple, just put some rice on the plate and a big scoop of the stir fry, and you are done!

After I cooked all of this in the Bialetti stir fry pan I literally went to wash the pan and sprayed it out and it was clean, I just took a paper towel to wipe it out and it was CLEAN! Talk about easy. Beautiful, functional and easy clean. Yeah, this pan is getting this chef’s thumbs up!

Buy it: You can get your Bialetti Aeturnum 11 inch nonstick Stir Fry Pan at Bed, Bath and Beyond!

Giveaway!

Bialetti is giving one lucky reader their very own Aerturnum 11 inch Stir Fry Pan! Enter using the Rafflecopter form below, GOOD LUCK!

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Product received to facilitate review, opinions are my own.

It’s not very often that one has a whole book written about them but when you are a kid, nothing is cooler than seeing YOUR NAME in a book, right? Recently my daughter turned nine and right before her birthday she received a Book from the I See Me company called My Very Own Fairytale Book. This is a hardcover book that is both full color and beautifully illustrated but also is written out to match the letters of your child’s name.

For every letter of your child’s first and middle name, there is a page with a story attached to it. As they get through reading they see their name.

Pretty cool, huh?

Ok one thing about this book that surprised me was the quality. I know my daughter will for sure be keeping her book for a long time and a special feature they have for these books is that you can have a custom dedication right in the front. We made a sweet dedication for our daughter on her ninth birthday and she loved it. When she got this book dyuring her party she kept reading and reading instead of opening her presents, so she really did love it!

This is my daughter reading the book at her party. the video was shot by her dad but it is sort of shot from the view of a fly on the wall so its fun

I love this idea to make your child feel special. They have different theme books like big sister and brother, royal birthday, world according to me etc. type books, all personalized

Buy It: Want to get your child his or her own book or even give one as a gift? This My Very Own Fairytale book retails for $33 and you can buy it at the I see Me Site!

Giveaway

I See Me Books is giving one lucky reader a custom book!! Just fill out the Rafflecopter below to get entered! GOOD LUCK

Product provided to facilitate review, opinions are my own.

Here are descriptions on the new flavors:

Almond Dark Chocolate Biscotti Bites

Classic almond biscotti dipped in gourmet dark chocolate. This bite size treat is a modern tradition combining the delicate flavors of biscotti with the rich taste of the finest chocolate available.

Classic Almond Biscotti Bites

Crisp and crunchy, with the sweet flavor of almonds and just a hint of anise. This classic bite-size creation is rich in Tuscan tradition, and is excellent compliment to a cup of coffee or expresso.

Caramel Milk Chocolate Biscotti Bites

Light and crunchy filled with sweet creamy caramel and dipped in gourmet milk chocolate. This bite-size treat is truly indulgent combination that is irresistible.

And irresistible they are. I took a photo of that plate this morning, then proceeded to eat every single one. They are just so yum! My favorite is the Almond Dark Chocolate! Nonni’s Biscotti Bites are available at grocery stores nationwide, and mine were in the cookie aisle

Do you have a Biscotti moment?

‘

Nonni’s is running a contest on Facebook where the Grand Prize is a trip to Hollywood! there are weekly prizes too! I am thinking about entering the photo above, sinc eit makes me want to have a biscotti break every time I look at it!

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I wrote this review while participating in a campaign by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Nonni’s Biscotti and received a product sample to facilitate my review and a promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate

Info on the product:

The My Friendship Bracelet Maker Traveler is the latest product from Choose Friendship (formerly Crorey Creations), the company that first brought the innovative grandpa-invented My Friendship Bracelet Maker onto the scene. They also have a Ribbon Barrett Maker available that they introduced last year. And, since friendship bracelets are such a great gesture of friendship, the company created a video to shout out the message that kids should choose friendship, not bullying, which has become such a destructive force for kids today. Proceeds from song and t-shirt sales will be donated to non-profit organizations that support anti-bullying initiatives. See the music video on the company’s website at www.myfbm.com.

Ok so here is my take on this product. I have made many many friendship bracelets in my life and thought this product was perfect because you didn’t have to worry about taping the threads down and all that like the old days. I had experience though which proved useful. My daughter just turned nine in March and this arrived literally a day before her birthday. The plan was to open the kits and have the girls try making them at her party. They got as far as opening the boxes and that was it, thanks to the chaos. Not a problem though, after we took a weekend vacation we came home and I sat with her to start them.

I showed her how to start the bracelet and how to make the knots. I would do a few rows and then hand the maker to her to tie them herself. I don’t know why but she just couldn’t get the hang of it and would mess up each time she had to make a new row. She was getting frustrated but I assured her with practice she would get better. Honestly I can’t fault the product, I think it is just my kid that had issues. She got bored because she couldn’t figure it out but I kept all the stuff with me so that I could make bracelets and hopefully she will see me making them and want to try again

Here is the travel maker, the slide out drawer for the floss is neat!

And here is the ribbon barrette maker. This one we are trying again this week and hopefully we can share what she makes with them!

What I did LOVE about this product is the company’s message which is that kids should choose friendship instead of bullying. I take huge issues against bullying because both my husband and son have been bullied in their past. And of course the media right now is saturated with sad stories of kids who couldn’t deal with bullying anymore. I watched the company’s music video with my daughter and she definitely understood the message from them:

Really love that this product was born out of a need to reach out to others and be kind, what a great message. Please learn more about this company and the grandpa behind the idea!

Buy It: You can buy the My Friendship Bracelet Maker kits (and they have a barrette maker as well as a photo charm bracelet coming this summer too!) at Michaels craft stores, prices range from $12.99 to $16.99.

(1990)

When I suffered an injury and could not return to work, I decided to go back to college and I wasn’t sure what to do next.  I had already gotten into taking lots of family videos of my own with various camcorders so I had something to remember the family by when I was gone three weeks at a time, sometimes longer on the road.  I thought about what skills I do have, my physical limitations, and that I have a family of five I would like to see more of in the future than I have for so many years.  I sometimes felt I was missing things and couldn’t even have a memory in my mind of what my kids were doing to take with me.  I remember the feeling of seeing the old videos that my parents shot, and thought this would be a great calling for me to follow to shoot and edit film professionally.   It has not been an easy road to take to accomplish what would be needed, and to feel like I was doing the right thing with my life and trying something completely different that may just be looked at as foolish by many of my friends and family.  There is a way to make a living for many types of video, audio, and cinema talent but it does not come to you.  As even my truck driving trainer said to me during my training, “You can make tons of money and get the good loads, but they wont just get handed to you.  You have to want it.”  There are some people that whole heartedly believe that the chosen career they are in is what they should do and realize there is a need for it and a future if you work at it and believe.  All you have to do is really want it.

(2006)

Even when I worked, let’s say for legal purposes “70 hours a week” as a truck driver, I still did a lot of video editing, and made slideshows with pictures on my laptop during my little breaks.  I never saw the “work” involved as much as I replenished myself by spending time creating memories I could watch over and over.

(2007)

(2010-Back in college again/still from a class video)

Now, onto the review.  And why I am excited about this software should now be apparent…

I learned to use several types of software for video editing, and making slideshows.  Some were bundled with cameras and things, and were simple to use but did not have a lot of features and seemed to use way too much of my laptop’s resources.  I don’t recall the bundled software that made me decide enough was enough any more, but it had a huge problem syncing music with pictures and video.  The first software I found to pull this off quite well though, was Camtasia.  Since the developers of Camtasia are local (located in Okemos, MI), I will give them a free shoutout and Camtasia users will know why I was so happy with it, and may wonder after a while where are all those features that make some of the awesome, film like videos out there?  A popular answer is Sony Vegas.  Sony is great, and I use DVD Architect.

(Quick Note:  Was very happy to see after uninstalling Edius 5, the start screen for Edius 6 still had all my projects and I like this start screen much better than the one in Edius 5!)

I will not be able to say which is “THE” best video editing software out there.  But from trying several in a crunch to find something that opened multiple formats from several popular filmmaking cameras and accomplish my visual goals & complete my assignments in a timely manner, Edius was the sigh of relief I needed.  Avid Media Composer just took too long, and I’d lose work sometimes in a crash on both Macs and PCs.  Sony Vegas wouldn’t open the file format I needed.  Adobe Premiere never looked right when I played it back and was very very slow.  Forget trying to do much in Camtasia besides making cuts.  Once I found Edius, it just kept getting better and better as I looked around and tried things with it.  When that 30 day demo was ticking away, I had to get it.  I purchased Edius 5 through Gradware and never looked back at another program to get started with my edits.

I always felt like I was in control, that whatever I wanted to do with color correction, white balance, and transitions was an extension of myself.

There were a few things missing though since I had the Educational discount edition of Edius 5.  The bonus software disc with NewBlue Effects and things were absent.  I still went into Camtasia occasionally for audio leveling and things.

I wanted so badly to pick up Edius 6 since it came out, but I also needed to keep expanding my business so I could accomplish the shots that clients desired.  Edius 5 worked great, and a lot of the features that are still Edius 6 you should definitely play with and see what they do.  But it’s always nice to see what the interpretation of “Auto Contrast” is before going overboard with it manually.  Luckily, I already have tons of footage where I can compare what I did without the extra plugins to what the plugins’ presets do.  Some of them take me down to earth a bit, and some of them push the concepts further that I was afraid to do.  There’s always a creative decision to make.  But if you aren’t sure, you can quickly let the presets decide and check/uncheck the filter and look at it in real time and see which one you like better.

Off topic a bit, I wouldn’t have even known about the great piece of video gear known as the Konova Slider if not for seeing what people actually thought was impressive looking and professional video.  The solutions I knew of for such stable video included rails and extra setup time and in some cases as a one man crew would be impossible anyway.  In a similar manner, the NewBlue Effects included with Edius 6 try to accomplish the most popular looks and much needed edits and effects that clients expect.  Edius runs very fast, one person can get tons of edits and creative effects completed and meet deadlines.  Every second counts, and you will save a lot of time using Edius over software like Adobe Premiere.  Spare time to make more money, and spend time with your family is invaluable.

Edius 6 offers a complete video and audio solution, including iZotope audio effects.  You can experiment with sound effects and even get your feet wet with mastering reverb and other things that are an audio engineer’s dream.  I have been using Pro Tools for a lot of things before I bring my sounds and music into my videos.  I am also a long time VST audio plugin user, from many years of using Cakewalk.  VST is the most compatible type of audio plugin, and several are included.

iZotope is not just another company that tries to include audio effects in their products.  They are very well known for their software being used in audio engineering classes at some of the top colleges in the country.  Part of my training in my Digital Media, Audio, and Cinema classes included audio editing and was very exciting but we were limited to using Pro Tools and I never did get to touch iZotope software so that really caught my eye.

I am very glad that I was able to explore on my own some plugins in between Edius 5 and 6.  I found some ok solutions for cleaning up video and stabilizing it.  It was kind of a chore, and very time consuming since I used some plugins in a program called VirtualDub.  DeShaker for stabilizing, and Neat Video for cleaning up noisy footage at least were in existence as solutions for me on a low budget.  I thought perhaps it was time to “go the budget way” and put up with the hours and hours of one frame per second analyzing and processing.  Then I thought, “I need another laptop for this!”  That’s not very cost effective.

The proDAD Mercalli 2.0 plugin is mind-blowingly fast.  I found it to be from eight to twelve times faster than DeShaker.  I liked the little GUI.  This is so much easier to explain to future employees to use than VirtualDub plugins and settings.  Another point for “time saved=money=family time.”

The NewBlue Touchup filter is the Neat Video type plugin I needed.  As you are looking at these plugins in Edius, you can access the help file (question mark) in the plugin at any time and there are videos that play and very simple to understand instructions and explanations of just what they do.  The clip for Touchup shows a close-up of someone’s face and every plugin shows some type of “before/after” example.  If you don’t like to read, you can probably figure out in a few seconds what does what by viewing that help file.

In between video clips, it is always good to add a transition.  On some transitions you will see a “D” on them for “default.”  These are not “boring default if you aren’t sure what to do here” type transitions.  These are industry standards like a simple 2D dissolve.  I use those a lot, and they look great.  Sometimes I bring in my JPEGS of matching 1920×1080 black and white backgrounds so I can dissolve to those (fade in/out).  It is always good to think of what you want to transition to to close a scene and end the video.

There are so many transitions, it is almost overwhelming but once you click on one it will show a little animation so you can decide before you add it to the timeline (usually right clicking and adding it to the currently selected clip).

Some of my favorite transitions are “peel” for a page turning effect (or to create an opening/revealing effect), explosions (the end of the clip just explodes like the Death Star in Star Wars), waves & flags (love the ripple effect that makes everything appear under water so I extend that one a lot so it lasts longer), and a new one I see that comes in the bonus proDAD package, a great Vitascene transition.

Vitascene effects (non transitional) opens up the largest plugin GUI so that you can look through the features and still see the effect on your video.  It has some very much requested dreamy film looks and solutions.  You can adjust the look to create continuity between clips that were shot on different days with different types of daylight that might reveal the “video magic” of shooting things that were supposed to happen seamlessly.

Another great plugin for continuity is the NewBlue Dual Booster.  The help file shows a video to demonstrate ways you could use this to even take a daytime shot and make it appear to be well after the sun has gone down.  Very nice!  (Lots of the screenshots I used are from the help file because it is so well done!)

If you use consumer DSLR for video, or camcorders (some even as you upgrade toward “prosumer”) you still have a rolling shutter effect.  I notice this on DSLR more than camcorders.  If you move the camera and it seems like your eyes are having a hard time tracking the details in a video, it is most likely the rolling shutter effect happening.  NewBlue includes a rolling shutter correction plugin, and once you get to the point where you notice this it will be a must have.  The proDAD Mercalli plugin also includes some rolling shutter correction as to take a video walking around, and especially driving around, there will be a lot of shaking and things that will make it hard for your eyes to watch.

The NewBlue Detail Enhancer plugin does a great job of restoring details that you will lose with depth of field.  You may not even notice a depth of field effect until you see the difference.  You will have to be careful how you use the plugin as I chose a scene where the detail was lost quite a bit because I did not use a fast enough shutter, so there was a lot of motion blur.  There is a way around this through keying and combining your detail enhanced video track with the original and most likely a way to select the parts of the video to work with. But it’s always good to see just what a multitrack video looks like and what keyers can do for you.

Before & After NewBlue Detail Enhancer:

My favorite keyers from Edius 5 were the ones that allowed certain things to come through like types of light.  Those you will have to see for yourself for your particular needs.  To add keys, you have to click on the video clip toward the bottom.  Your clips will have three parts you can click on, the top being the video (most of the time you will use that), the middle being the audio, and the very bottom and thin line is where you add a keyer to let the program know it needs to look for information from another track.  You can key in pictures, graphics, and even other videos for multitracking.  It’s not really very hard at all to do but will take some experimenting to find out what they all do.

The NewBlue Video Essentials keyers included really blew me away.  I had not seen these before.  The split screen worked so well I had to do a double take because it was so seamless looking.  If you are careful to keep some of your subjects on one side of the screen you could mix and match scenes with different backgrounds, perhaps another part of the location with more trees or less things in the background.

The Title Tool is easy to use and keys itself for you and you can create transitions and fades.  There are some creative looking fonts filled with textures and useful options for creating shadows and depth to your titles, and they are very fast to make & align.  Once you create your text, you can drag it around and stretch it as needed.

One of the things that caught my eye with Edius 6 was a video on Youtube by EdiusMagic called “01. Using the New Mask Filter in EDIUS 6.”  I really wanted to jump in and do this first as I was very excited to see the preview video but am going to watch this some more and see what I can pull off.  I have an idea already that I’d like to try, but this is the one feature that is a little over my head, but if you are familiar with Photoshop editing it should make perfect sense.

Grass Valley Live has lots of videos, one that got me pumped up before my review copy of Edius 6 arrived was “Amazing Video Editing: EDIUS 6 from Grass Valley.”  And that “new freehand curve mask” part with the elephant where they moved it to a new clip.

There are so many things to do, and more than I will use at the moment and there’s where I like to be.  Using multiple cameras and monitors will hopefully be something I will use in the future to save even more time and accomplish something I haven’t before.

(Screenshot from a clip using Detail Enhancer and Color Fixer Plus for the entire shot, and Pixelator on the license plate which is a very small target and not an issue in this clip but was easy to target and blur out).

Gradient Tint should cure me of my over coloring to enhance greens for grass and blues for skies.

A quick example of keying in different backgrounds via Split Screen Keying:

It’s so nice to be able to jump in and use Edius, and learn as you go.  There’s a little tip I need to let you know about exporting your video though.  There’s an icon just below the video preview window that will allow you to “print” your final product.  You will use “print to file” to open up a window that gives you encoding options.  Since I like to have a lossless file and create multiple formats for DVD, media players, Facebook, and many different devices, I use the “Canopus Lossless” format.  It will create a very large file, but you will not only have a perfect copy of your edit but will also be able to bring that back into Edius later and edit it as if it were your raw clips.  Occasionally, I will have so many plugins going and could easily just select the whole thing and “render” it so it plays perfectly, but I like to skip that and make my lossless file so I can create my renders and start uploading as fast as possible and it seems a little easier to work with multiple video tracks that way.  Sometimes, I kill all the plugins and make a lossless file that has my raw video look and key that in.

There are so many ways to get to a unique, high quality, professional looking and sounding video.  Anything you might think of will always have a solution with Grass Valley’s Edius software.

Edius software is simply amazingly fast and powerful, I can’t say enough about it.  Try it out!

1. Good Knives

2. Good Ingredients

3. Good cutting boards.

I have the first two covered but at home, I didn’t have a good board. I have known for years being a culinary student and now graduate of the program, that the number one company for quality butcher blocks and boards is John Boos & Company. They are used all over the world, in almost every restaurant I have had the pleasure to visit the kitchen in, and they are loved by celebrities too! My friend and fellow chef, Chef Billy Parisi recently attended the housewares show in Chicago and didn’t miss a beat posting a photo from the Boos booth touting that they are the best. I love Billy he is amazing and I believe him when he says he loves his Boos!

About the company:

JOHN BOOS & COMPANY

John Boos & Co. is the leading manufacturer of butcher block and stainless steel gourmet and foodservice products in the U.S.A. JB&C is renowned for their famous Boos Blocks® and Cutting Boards. JB&C products are “Made in the U.S.A” of solid and quality North American hardwoods, and are the finest in quality, workmanship and design.

 

Since 1887!

 

John Boos & Co. based in Effingham, Illinois, is one of the oldest manufacturers of premium quality kitchen equipment and butcher blocks in the United States, and has been in business continuously since 1887. Founder Conrad Boos harvested Sycamore from wooded areas around Effingham, processed it at his sawmill, and then brought it to his blacksmith shop for finishing. The first innovation was a sycamore tree placed on three legs to absorb the shock of the smith’s hammer against the anvil. When the local butcher saw and admired the innovation, he realized that he could use one in his meat market. So Conrad’s son, John, adapted the idea and made him one. This was the start of John Boos & Company making butcher blocks for commercial meat markets over 120 years ago.

I had the awesome fortune to be able to review the AUJUS. It is a 24x18x1-1/2” thick hard rock maple cutting board with grips and a juice groove. It reverses to a flat surface and is NSF approved for the FS industry.

You didn’t think I would let you just see the stock photo that does it no justice did you?

ooohhhh ohhhhh so gorgeous!

This model is very popular and ranks as one of their top 10. After using it for a few weeks I concur it is fantastic. I used it yesterday a lot in my appetizer recipe and those groves came in handy!

I needed to concasse my tomatoes and that means a lot of juice and seeds needed to go somewhere so guess what, that groove was perfect!

And also the sheer size of it came in handy as I could chop everything I needed for my recipe!

Being NSF certified means the product stands up to standards enforced by the National Food Safety board meaning i can take this board to my restaurant and use it there because its been proven safe to use. Now many people argue that wood boards are bad but because I have quite a but of money invested in good knives, I know from professional experience that wood boards are much kinder to the blade on my knives. It is preference of course but I much prefer wood. It is easier for me to not worry about meat bacteria because I don’t really eat meat but also because I am the luckiest blogger in the world and Boos sent me 2 boards for my own use. I will be renovating my ktichen and right now I am so glad I have these boards!

As a little side note, the board does make a great photo background

Care of the boards, I use water and spray it as best I can and use mild soap when needed. These have to be oiled once a month or they will dry out. DO NOT EVER put them in the dishwasher!

Bottom Line: My professional opinion and my personal opinion is that these boards really are the cream of the crop. They are heavy, thick, and stand up to the chef abuse I give them. As my classmates in culinary school can attest, I take up a LOT of room in my food prep so having 2 feet of clean prep area is my idea of cooking heaven!

Buy It: You can buy the John Boos 24 inch maple AUJUS model online at Cutlery and More,  or by using the retail locator on the website! It retails for $109.99!

Giveaway!

John Boos & Co. is giving away an AUJUS maple Cutting Board to one lucky winner!

To Enter: Fill out the Rafflecopter giveaway from, good luck!

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Products provided to facilitate this review. And John Boos and Company make the best cutting boards EVER.

First lets take a look at the Fizz. It is futuristic cool looking, and totally sleek!

Just like before you twist the bottle on and press the lever..

Carbonated water, woohoo!

Pick a flavor! (I HIGHLY suggest the Apple Mango it is super refreshing!)

Measure..

Tilt the water bottle and slowly pour the syrup in and then gently swirl the bottle to mix…voila!

Soda!

YUM

This particular unit has a digital readout that tells you when it is time to get a new CO2 tank AND tells you just how fizzy your water is after you add it

Back when I first started working with SodaStream there wasn’t much you could purchase at a brick and mortar store, but now I can go to most any store in the mall or even my grocery and find the refill canisters and the flavors so it has evolved to be super consumer friendly! Still a novelty and fun product and after three machines I think this one might just be my favorite!

Buy it: You can get the SodaStream Fizz at the SodaStream site along with all the flavors, and Cream Soda just came back in stock, YAY! The Fizz retails for $149.99 and comes in 5 colors including PINK (portions of sales support Breast Cancer research!)

Giveaway!

Sodastream is giving away a Prize pack that includes: (1) Fountain Jet Starter Set (black/silver, white, red/silver), (1) MyWater variety pack, and (3) flavors of the winner’s choice!

 To Enter:  First head to SodaStream and check out the flavors! Then come back and fill out this Rafflecopter form! Good Luck!

Products provided to facilitate review, opinions are solely my own. And SodaStream rocks.

Okay I know what you are saying… this is not “busy mom” kind of food..Candy is going all “chef” on us again.. Well, that would be both wrong and right You see when you have the right knives for the job it can make preparing foods easy and you can even make fancy bites like mine! As you know my most favorite knife brand is Wusthof, I have not only done a previous review for them, I also have bought the brand in my professional knife kit! I stand 110% behind this brand as an aspiring chef!

Wusthof asked me to try their 6 inch Classic utility Chopper. At first glance it looked neat with the waves on the bottom. At second glance I had to pay attention because this thing is sharp! The first thing I did was chop 2 pounds of mushrooms with it and WOW, it was done in minutes.

This knife is designed to take care of all knife needs. I purposely left my main Wusthof 8 inch Ikon super knife in my kit so I could try the chopper for a while and it really did take care of all my needs from delicate concasse of tomato to thick slices of eggplant it took the job and made it easy and fast.I like the size as well it maneuvers well and the weight is balanced very well! As a person who honestly chops most everything by hand because, well, I paid thousands of dollars in tuition to learn how to do it professionally, I can say this knife would replace my chef knife at home for sure.

I used this wonderful knife to create an appetizer recipe for you. This recipe came to me nearly 2 years ago when I joined the competitive culinary club at college and needed ideas for competition. I never did get to make it but I had a dream last night what I wanted the final product to look like and I made it come true today!

Grilled Curried Eggplant with Tomato Concasse and Sour Cream & Chives

(seriously no measuring needed here just 1/2 tsp of the spices each that’s it!)

First thing you need to do is skin the tomato and take the seeds out. Score and blanch them

Then you want to do is chop your chives and then slice your eggplant

Take some oil and brush it on the eggplant slices, then sprinkle with the spices

then grill for a few minutes each side; meanwhile .. its concasse time.

CON-CUH-SAY

Don’t be scared its just perfectly uniformly diced tomato. After you peel them, you take out the seeds and the spines until you have the shell basically. it goes flat and you just take your time dicing, Really just a couple tomatoes will be enough practice and the results are gorgeous and more effective than just a plain simple slice. And when i saw uniform I mean SMALL, 2 mm cube small. Again just take your time.

Then it just need to be assembled: Eggplant on bottom, spoon of tomato, dollop of sour cream, few sprinkles of chopped chive. Go the extra mile and lean a long piece of chive against it to make it look pretty! I garnished my plate with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. For the record my husband REALLY liked them! (tip: use a small round cookie cutter on the eggplant for uniform disks!)

If you make this at home PLEASE let me know and send me photos or if you blog, please let me know if you try it, I love when my friends try my fancy ideas at home!

To help you make this recipe, Wusthof is giving away a 6 Inch Utility Chopper Knife! This fantastical knife retails for $99 and is available at Williams Sonoma and Amazon! This product is one of my picks for Mother’s Day, every cook in the home should have one!

Please fill out the Rafflecopter to enter and Good Luck!

Ok firstly I will admit the main reason I wanted to try the phones because we have a 2 story living space and we often have to yell upstairs to our teenager, who is most often wearing headphones. So basically we are yelling into the air instead of getting his help for whatever we need him for. These phones, aside from having BRILIANT clarity due to having HD technology, are the most awesome because with a touch of 2 buttons the second phone base rings right in my sons room. A nice loud ring that he can’t ignore and when he picks up the phone its like we are on the phone to each other. Now I can ask him to come down nicely! As a busy mom, with Mother’s Day just a few days away, I would definitely get this for another mom it helps me with my multitasking!

I JUST got back from 4 days out of town and fell behind on a lot of my blog stuff and I just finished my college semester too so digging deep into my free time (well now its WORK time on my blog) just became easier with the hands free bluetooth set for the phone too! My husband loves the clear sound of it but wishes that it was easier to put together, since it comes with a band for the head. Still he loves it.

Features:

• Hearing Aid Compatible.
• Energy Star Compliant.
• VTech supports RoHS initiatives by reducing the use of hazardous substances including lead, mercury and cadmium.
• Audio equalizer allows you to choose from 4 different profiles to best match your hearing.
• Caller ID/Call waiting stores 50 calls
• Slim handset size.
• Stylish metallic finish.
• Audible time and date stamp on recorded messages.
• Backlit message counter.
• Remotely retrieve messages on the digital answering system.
• Retrieve messages on the digital answering system from the handset.
• Blue backlit keypad and display.
• Expand this system up to a total of 12 cordless handsets and 2 cordless headsets.
• Excellent range, up to 500 feet.
• Protect yourself from identity theft with digital security. Your call is digitized and encrypted, making it nearly impossible for someone to eavesdrop.
• DECT 6.0 digital technology provides the best sound quality, security and range in cordless phones.
• Multiple over the ear and over the head wearing styles.
• Trilingual prompts allow you to choose between English, Spanish or French.
• 50 name and number phonebook directory.
• HD Audio provides an extended frequency band allowing for the signal to be reproduced and tuned for a fuller and clearer sound.
• Voice Announce Caller ID audibly announces the name and number of the caller on all of the handsets and base unit. No need to find the handset to see who is calling. Makes screening calls that much easier.
• Push-To-Talk acts as a multiple handset walkie talkie system to instantly communicate with any or all of the handsets within the system.
• Digital answering system with 14 minutes of recording time. No tapes or moving parts.
• Enjoy the freedom to have a private, cordless, hands-free conversation anywhere in your home or office. This DECT 6.0 cordless headset gives you the same interference free, superior sound, and long range you expect with a traditional DECT 6.0 cordless handset.
• Interference free for crystal clear conversations. Won’t interfere with wireless networks and other wireless devices.
• With the touch of a button, the handset speakerphones makes hands-free conversations easy.
• Handset volume control.

The LS6475-3 Multitasking phone system retails for $99.95, and is available nationwide at mass merchandisers. It is also my favorite cordless phone system to date because of the clear sound on calls and the walkie-talkie functions!

Network: Stay connected with VTech by liking them on Facebook and following them on Twitter!

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I wrote this review while participating in a campaign by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of VTech and received a product sample to facilitate my review

I am so excited to announce that on behalf of the awesomely wonderful folks at Mom Central, I have been chosen to be a Skype Ambassador! What does that mean exactly? Well for the next few months I will be a brand new user to Skype, the technology that keeps you connected with video and phone calls to anyone in the world, even without a phone! I have used it a couple times on wifi but never really called anyone and never ever called someone with a video! I am a busy mom and student so staying in touch with my kids and spouse is very important to me and I think it is just neat to have the ability to use video! There are Skype apps for all kinds of devices like smartphones and tablets. I am really excited to try the service and share my thoughts!

To kick things off I wanted to share a special little Skype Facebook feature on Skype’s Facebook page, Say It With Skype, where you can go in and record a little message, to your mother or other loved one, because Mother’s Day is coming very soon! I will be recording one for my own mom later today! I think it is brilliant to send a little video greeting card to loved ones that are miles away. Do you send video greeting cards? I will be sending more very soon that is for sure!

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I participated in a campaign on behalf of Mom Central Consulting for Skype. I received Skype credits to facilitate my review and a promotional item to thank me for participating.