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Hey there everyone! Lindsey here with a new series: Baby Blinks! that name come from my husband, who thinks its funny to call our blog 4 Blinks instead of 3 Winks. Anyway, as a new mother there are millions of products thrown at you and you're told it's a must have. Well, I am here to review once a month baby products that I am actually happy I have, which have been very useful to me. This month I am telling you about our bottle warmer!
Fun fact, you should never microwave breast milk. It can kill off the good bacteria that should be going into your baby's little tummy. For us, this bottle warmer has been a huge help. If you remember from my lactation cookie post, our daughter has had a hard time latching when I nurse. this has resulted in me doing a lot of pumping and feeding her with a bottle. So we have lots of bags of breast milk in our refrigerator and freezer and we use this bottle warmer every time. It's so easy!
The warmer comes with this nifty little vial. You fill it with water to whichever fill line is appropriate and then pour the water directly into the warmer. Put the bottle in the bottle carrier and set it in the warmer and push the on button. The warmer will heat the water which will in turn, heat the bottle. If you fill to the 2 minute fill line, the warmer will heat for 2 minutes.
It also comes with a handy sterilizer.
When you need to sterilizer your pacifiers you stick them in the carrier. Fill the water vial to the five minute mark. After setting the carrier in the warmer, cover with the blue sterilizer cap. Five minutes later your pacifiers will be sterilized!
Here are some handy links to a few bottle warmers for you to choose from!
Those two (and many others) can be found on Amazon. You can also purchase from Target. Like these two options.
I love having a bottle warmer. It's made warming up our bottles so much more efficient. Don't take my word for it, ask the little baby puppy herself.
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I thought that after the holidays (already a month ago!) that things would slow down and there would be fewer events and gatherings. But, I was wrong, it seems like we have had a lot of reasons to celebrate life's events. Not only that, there are more reasons coming up! Think Super Bowl, Galentine's Day, Valentines Day, Birthdays...the list goes on. Of course, delicious dips are appropriate for any of these occasions, so we have put together a list of our faves for you! With so many things always going on, it is nice to have options of different recipes for appetizers and finger foods. We have a plethora of printable recipes for you today, so hang on to your hats and get your printer paper ready to take advantage of Friday Faves #49.
What are your favorite dips?
First of all, we have a few favorites that we usually purchase, even though we sometimes make them. It is just that a lot of times there is a brand that we love that makes life easier and sometimes even less expensive.
Purchased Dips:
Hummus-Maddy loves a Red Pepper hummus that we get from our local grocery store. Hummus is actually easy to make in the food processor, but this flavor from the Private Selection Kroger brand is so good that we tend to stick with it.
Pesto-I love pesto, and I have wanted to make it, but the price of pine nuts always holds me back. It has to be fresh pesto, too. None of that on the shelf canned stuff.
Guacamole-Actually, I have made guacamole a lot of times. But, the Wholly Guacamole brand is so good and fresh tasting that many times I just end up purchasing it.
Our Recipes:
Now is the time to get ready to print! Here are the dips that we love to make and eat with chips, crackers, bread, tortillas, fruit, veggies or whatever makes you happy!
Alicia came up with great new salsa recipe that has roasted peppers and tomatoes in it. I showed you my fresh salsa recipe a couple of years ago on this post. But this one looks delicious and I am sure you will love it as well!
Lindsey was trying to decide which dip is her favorite and going through all of the kinds with her husband. When they hit upon Slow Cooker Spinach Artichoke Dip, she was like, "That's It!" She loves this recipe because you can put everything into the crock pot and it all comes together into a creamy, cheesy dip that is so good!
My choice is an oldie but a goodie. I have fond memories of making and eating Clam Dip with my husband early on in our marriage. I hadn't made it for awhile, but I thought about it the other day and decided it sounded perfect for our upcoming party. (I had to get my cute new owl kitchen towel in on the act, of course!)
My oldest son, whose family is staying with us for a short time, tells me he has tweaked and perfected his Chili Cheese Dip over the years. I have to say, as I sit here eating it as I work, It is pretty darn delicious!
My DIL and my grandchildren, on the other hand, love this fluffy fruit dip! I love it, too! A splash of OJ in the mix is an alternative to this dip that brightens it up.
If you haven't tried any of these, we hope you will give some of them a try! Introduce something new at your event or party this year! Have fun!
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Hello everyone! This week I have a guest blogger... sort of. You see, I am sharing with you what PH made for us, but he did not want to do the writing (I asked.)
For Christmas in 2016 I got PH a stove top smoker. As I have told you before, he is a really great chef, and he really enjoyed my brother's smoked turkey at Thanksgiving, so I got him a smoker so he could give it a try. Then we moved. The smoker sat in our garage and was left unused. I would make comments about it sometimes, which PH basically brushed off. Then, we had a baby and he has been home for four weeks going stir crazy because there is a flu epidemic so I won't take the baby anywhere. So he said to me suddenly the other day, "I think I am going to smoke that brisket in our freezer." I had bought the brisket a couple months before when it was on sale. It was 8.5 pounds of brisket, a lot for two people. I had been saving it for some kind of family gathering at the house, but, how can I tell him no? (Answer: I cannot.)
This is the stove top smoker I got him from Nordic Ware. I also got him this smoker recipe book to get him started. It works on the stove or outside on the grill. You place the wood chips in the bottom and then cover it with the pan for the meat. Cover the meat with the lid and put it on top of one of your stove burners. When it starts smoking you turn the valve on top to close it. Leave it there for half an hour, then place in your oven which has been preheated to whichever temp the recipe calls for. You leave it in the oven for whatever specified amount of time is required.
First PH did a wet smoke, where you put a little water in a separate pan. When he did the second half of it (the brisket was so big we had to do two separate nights of brisket) he did a dry smoke. I felt like for the brisket the dry smoke was a little more moist and tender. It made the whole house smell delicious both times though.
If you wanted to get started with smoking your own meat I'd highly recommend the stove top smoker. PH admitted to me that he had put off using it because he felt it was going to be much more difficult and involved than it actually ended up being. And for the brisket it was a total of four hours to smoke it. That would make a great Sunday dinner!
Smoked Brisket
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This is the third installment of my (Alicia) culinary adventure through Germany. There will be one more German food post after this and then we will be moving on to Ecuador!
This has been such a fun little adventure and has made my husband and I excited to go to Europe one day and eat the 100% authentic versions of the meals we've had. I'm a little sad the month is ending but excited for our next "trip" to South America! But I still have 2 more German dishes to share with you and this week's dish is Käsespätzle and I got the recipe from Kimberly at The Daring Gourmet again. Käsespätzle
Described as German mac and cheese, don't be fooled into thinking it's the same just with spätzle instead of macaroni. The German egg noodles, spätzle, are layered with Jarlsberg cheese (or another good Swiss cheese), and caramelized onions and then baked. It is so much more delicious than mac & cheese.
The Jarlsburg Swiss pairs so well with the caramelized onion to give you this great depth of flavor. And the noodles themselves are quite delicious, though I'm having a harder time explaining the flavor of them.
My tips for making käsespätzle:
I didn't make a side dish with our käsespätzle because I felt it didn't need one, I did feel like we did need a large helping of green salad on the side though. You know, for digestion.
Please make this! It's the dish you've been missing your whole life. It's so good and actually very easy to make. There's really no excuse ;)
Have you tried any of the other dishes I've highlighted? What are your favorites? Let us know in the comments below!
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Creators of Hot Cocoa Bombs! (copyrighted)
Author
Helen Reynolds: Mother of six children , grandmother to eleven! I love to cook, craft and create things and I especially love doing that with my family, So, when my lawyer daughter, Lindsey, my artist daughter, Madalynn, and I came up with the idea of Hot Cocoa Bombs, this blog was born. Then, one more daughter, with her technical and science skills, plus creativity has joined in to round us out! Read more about us here! Archives
May 2024
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