For something different why not show the world your love by decorating your cake with a special picture of you both using this sturdy acrylic Photo Cake Topper.

After all there is no reason why you should follow tradition  by decorating your cake with the traditional bride and groom statues.

This heart shaped Photo Cake topper can hold two of your favorite photos, back to back with one on the front and one on the back and let your love for each other be seen from all angles, by all your family and friends.

This photo cake topper is only restricted to use on wedding cakes, it can also be used for other special occasions with great effect.  Why not decorate birthday cakes with a baby photo on one side and a recent picture on the other,  and how about for anniversaries, show a picture from the original wedding date and a recent image of the happy couple.

The photo cake topper measures 4inches by 4 inches  and is a 1/2 inch thick.

Where Can I Buy This Photo Cake Topper?
Shop.com

And what could be better that having a weather resistant cooler that you can wheel from inside to outside from season to season as the need arises. So your can wheel the cooler on the outside patio  during the summer months and bring it back inside during the winter.

One side of the cabinet has five racks which hold 18 bottles of wine and three champagne bottles fit on the bottom of the cooler and on the other side of the cabinet there are three shelves that hold 24 bottles of beer.  There is also a drawer where you can store lemons, limes and your garnishes to keep them cool. 

This  indoor/outdoor wine and beverage cooler is not only just the thing for keeping your red wine at the right temperature of 55° F but you can also keep your beer and other beverages at the right drinking temperature of 39°.  This is possible because there are two separate temperature controlled coolers in the one unit. and you can even set the cabinets to different temperatures.

Once you set the heater it will automatically activate whenever the outdoor temperature falls below the  temperature of the cooler this ensures that the preset temperature is always maintained. 

The  indoor outdoor wine and beverage cooler has doors with triple-pane glass  which will keep out the UV rays that would normally cause your wine to spoil.  

The cooler is 33 1/2″ high, which means it can be installed conveniently under a  countertop or you can simply keep it as a stand-alone unit.

Where Can I Buy an Indoor/Outdoor Wine Cooler?
Hammacher.com

Heat is Not Evenly Applied When You Cook

When you cook, it’s rare that the entire surface of your pan is exposed to the exact same temperatures. In a gas range, for example, the flames make contact with a specific portion of the pan first, which takes a larger portion of the heat. The flames then spread across the rest of the pan at a somewhat lower temperature.

On an electric range, you usually have concentric round burners which distribute heat more evenly, but which still have gaps between the circles which are exposed to lower temperatures.

Even if the heating surface could be absolutely uniform, the pan itself might be warped or bowed, which would prevent it from lying flat against the burners. Plus, there are the sides of the cookware to consider, which do not come into direct contact with the heat. Therefore, some parts of the pan will always be hotter or cooler than the rest.

What Is Heat Distribution?

Heat distribution affects how well the cookware material passes the heat from warmer to cooler areas of the pan. Ideally, the transfer would work so smoothly that the entire surface of the pan reaches a steady, even temperature. In practice, flaws and imperfections in the metal can cause some areas to become much hotter than others.

How Heat Distribution Affects Your Food

When heat is not evenly distributed, your food can burn in some areas while remaining undercooked in others. This makes it very difficult to create an evenly cooked meal. For example, coatings may stick and pull away from breaded items, meats may become tougher than intended, or milks and sauces may burn and stick to the bottom of the pan, tainting the flavor of the entire dish.

Counteracting the effect of hot spots is a lot of work for a cook. You’ll need to stir liquids or turns meats and vegetables often to produce a well-cooked meal. A moment of inattention can easily ruin your cooking. Lack of good heat distribution also means you need to use higher heat to get the same effect, wasting energy.

Furthermore, since foods will be more prone to stick to the pan, cleaning up is more difficult as well. Scrubbing can damage protective layers of your cookware, reducing their longevity.

For all of these reasons and more, even heat distribution is among the most important features of high quality cookware. By investing in good cookware, you can get better results with less effort, while requiring less wasted energy and expense.

Robby has appeared on numerous tv shows, movies and ads since 1956. My most vivid memories of him are from a couple of episodes of Lost in Space but he has also appeared in Forbidden Planet, Gilligans Island, Columbo and even The Simpsons.

When I saw this life size 7 foot copy of the original robot I just thought how great it would be to have one of these working in the kitchen. This robot is remote controlled and does speak.

I want one!!! I think I will be putting this on my Christmas list for next year.

How do I get one?

Just click on this link and you can buy your own Robby the Robot —> The Genuine 7-Foot Robby The Robot.

I know a super mom…Sshh she doesn’t like to be called that, just mom. My friends call her mom too.

Mom is pretty busy; she is a Day Care Mom. That means she looks after other peoples children while they are at their offices and workplaces during the day.

I help her at the market and in the kitchen sometimes.

She buys things like peppers, parsley, lemons, and onions when they are cheap and then freezes them.

Capsicum and onions get diced and placed into ice cube trays and when they are frozen the blocks are transferred into zip lock bags and placed back in the freezer. The parsley is finely chopped and as the stalks as they are good for flavoring they are also chopped and frozen; the lemons are grated and the zest frozen, and the juice is frozen in ice block trays. She also freezes them whole sometimes.

It means she always has basic ingredients on hand for drinks, cakes and flavoring and she saves money by taking advantage of ‘windfall’ or mid season specials.

Mum always buys enough to freeze, so that we can have fresh ingredients without having to buy canned or bottled products. It saves money and time.

Tomatoes are minced and the seeds removed. This is then mixed with minced capsicum and finely chopped onion and frozen in 400ml containers in the freezer - instant pasta sauce! Just add herbs.

When we shop for meat mom buys bulk items and then prepares lots of dishes, she does this on her day off.

Chicken wings become Chinese chicken sticks and honey ’n’ soy chicken wings.

Chicken breasts are sliced for a stir-fry and some are filled with cheese and garlic butter and crumbed.

A beef fillet gets the beef Wellington treatment and other steaks are coated in peppercorns and garlic. Some is sliced for steak sandwiches and breakfast steaks and the tail is sliced for stroganoff.

A side of lamb is boned and curry is made from the meat removed from the bones.

The leg roast is stuffed with rosemary garlic olives and lemon juice from the freezer and placed back in until she is ready to cook it.

My mom does this so that after a busy day running after 4 two year olds and the 4 of us, she can just take out the evening meal and it is already prepared.

Cakes are frozen, icing gets frozen, she whips cream and pipes rosettes onto trays and freezes them then pops them into zip lock bags in the freezer, to have with deserts, apple pie and whipped cream rosettes mmmm.

I love my busy mom!

On the rare occasions she isn’t prepared she has an ‘almost there’ meal. Here is one she loves to share.

Ready cooked Chicken is an ‘almost there’ meal.

Cut a chicken into portion sizes or purchase pre cut chicken pieces and place into the oven. Make a sauce with chicken stock, worstershire sauce, nutmeg, black pepper and pour in some cream. Don’t boil the sauce.

Plate up the chicken and pour the sauce over. In the time it takes to make the sauce, some vegetables can be assembled, finely sliced carrot sticks celery sticks and zucchini sticks, placed in the microwave on high for 3 minutes.

Couscous is so quick!

Place a knob of butter in a little water and bring it to the boil, add couscous and before you know it, about 3 minutes, the couscous has absorbed the water.

A spoonful of couscous, the steamed vegetables and a portion of chicken with a delicious restaurant style sauce, is on the table.

Clever aren’t you?

So if you are a busy mom like my mom then you will know that being organized makes life so much easier. And having the ingredients on hand to make a tasty meal ensures that you and your family are eating healthy.

Aluminum is used in approximately 50% of all cookware. You may be using cookware that contains aluminum and not even know it. This is because aluminum is such a good conductor of heat and is often sandwiched between two layers of another material such as stainless steel.

Read our latest article on Aluminum cookware and whether it is still considered to be bad for your health.

My daughter has embarked on a journey to becoming a “JOY” maker. My daughter finds joy everywhere she goes. She is meticulous and careful, artistic and creative and loves people and discovering new things. 

What has this to do with becoming a chef you might ask? Well, being a chef is a creative occupation requiring a love and joy of preparing food for others. Without this love it is merely a process and not a creation.

My daughter wants to:

1. Travel - in order to experience and visit other places and work overseas and learn from international chefs. To discover how these chefs remember their childhood and how joy was tasted in their homes.

2. Discover - new ingredients and meld flavors, match and compliment textures, create dishes from exotic ingredients and capture the flavors of the wonderful places they originate from. In other words, wringing out her true artistry in an edible medium.

3. Praise and Notoriety – The opportunity to prepare nutritious full flavored food with fresh exotic ingredients for the enjoyment of every guest that samples what she prepares. Having friends and family and customers return just for a tantalizing aroma, a fine delicate morsel, a satisfying explosion of flavors and textures, and praising her for her culinary competence.

4. The opportunity - to share her joy of creating dishes, of having fun in the kitchen. She loves enjoying a glass of wine while chopping and stirring and sharing good conversation, and the tasting there is always the tasting to share.

5. Pride in tradition - She will make her family proud, the family traditions can survive, the skills learnt from me and my mother can live on in her to share with others.

A chef is an artist, a musician, a skillful craftsman, a perfumer, a creator, an innovator and with these tools joy is created.

My daughter will be a chef, a master of all five - a ‘JOY’ maker.

For us here in Australia, it is just another day as we don’t celebrate Thanksgiving. I am kind of jealous at missing out on all that beautiful food but also thankful that I don’t have to spend the day cooking…although I probably wouldn’t be the one cooking anyway

My understanding is that Thanksgiving is purely an American and Canadian tradition originally celebrated to give thanks for the bountiful harvest. And now I wish that Wanda was writing this post as she is the one that loves her history and would probably write a complete essay on how Thanksgiving came about and how it is celebrated. But unfortunately, you are stuck with me so I won’t have much else to say on the subject.

So now the next big celebration is Christmas and that is not too far away!!

I guess I’ve burnt potatoes more than any other food and more often than any one else. I have a short attention span. I’ll be in the garden or at the sewing machine or cleaning the car and hear my kids call out to me “Mom, you’ve burnt the pot again”.

I get distracted and forget that I have a pot of jam on the stove or potatoes and other vegetables cooking for the evening meal. I‘ll be the one to take the vegetable scraps out to the compost bin… and then I’ll be distracted…my gaze will fall on the ripening plums or great bunches of parsley that require harvesting. Or I will rescue a capsicum seedling from a scampering herb and I’ll have forgotten about dinner. Then I’ll hear the call, “Mom what are you burning now?!”

Someone has gone into the kitchen or been drawn there by something unpleasant. I know I’m responsible for childhood memories, the smell of burning food and burnt pots is not a pleasant one for them, but it balances the wonderful gems that I create and don’t end up burning.

So to clean burnt pots, potato peelings always worked for me. Just fill your pots with peelings and leave to soak, then gently bring to the boil and the burn comes away.

I have destroyed more pots than most people as well. Two pots with welded copper plates on the bottoms I heated to such temperatures that the copper came off! My father calls me a cooking beta tester, and said anyone designing a cooking product should give it to me to test. Two days with me would determine a good product. He is incredibly unfair I think. I can’t help it if things aren’t made to last and as I said I get distracted easily.

Caring for pots is something I’d like to do more often. I have always admired the pictures in home magazines with the pots hanging up above an island bench. Shiny and interesting shapes and big useful pots and fish shaped copper moulds and conical strainers, all ready to be put to work.

When they were new and I only had the four of them and they were my pride and joy. They sat to attention in the pot cupboard with their lids on shiny and happy. Then I bought great pots for stocks and sauces and spaghetti. A conical strainer or two, stainless bowls and more stainless bowls, biscuit trays and muffin pans, Madeline pans, gem irons, cup cake pans, square tins heart tins round cake tins all sizes. And then more pots and frying pans, woks and steamers. I just kept increasing the range and variety of pots and pans without thought to the storage of them.

The truth about my pots is they are stacked on top of one another - baking pans, roasters, saucepans all crammed in on top of one another and they crash and bang when I try to retrieve anything. My pots have dents in them, they are crowded into a pot cupboard and the care they get is very general, they are used and abused.

Cleaning and caring for your pots and pans

I took out my pans beginning with my oldest copper bottomed stainless lifetime guarantee saucepans and bless them they look like they’ve endured a couple of lifetimes. I checked the welds and handles and the bases for signs of copper that may have come away. When I was satisfied with the soundness of the products I cleaned them to a shiny new finish. The same way silver is cleaned in the sink, with aluminum foil hot water and bicarbonate soda. No scratching and rubbing is needed. Just dry them with a soft cloth and the shine is lovely.

I went through all of my favorite pans in the same way except baking tins of course. I then separated them into two cupboards. Now my pots and pans look like someone care’s for them.

“Mom what are you flooding now?!”…I must have left the hose on in the garden… I got distracted.

So this is my job for the day. Fortunately I love this sort of thing so I will be having fun! And hey, please leave a comment or two. We love comments!!