A Coffee Maker for All Types

I was one of those people. I had a drip coffee maker. I had a K-Cup maker. I had a My K-Cup adapter.

I kept the drip coffee maker in the cabinet, pulling it out only if we had a number of guests.

I kept the K-Cup Maker on my counter and the adapter in a drawer.

Then, several years ago, I upgraded to a new K-Cup Maker but it had updated 'technology' to ensure that you were only using 'Keurig' cups and not any others, which unfortunately meant that the My K-Cup Adapter didn't work anymore.

This was frustrating. I liked being able to have options and to buy ground coffee, which was a better value. So, I started looking for options. I wanted flexibility to still make a single cup of coffee from ground coffee but having one coffee maker would be better. There were a few options out there but none of them were quite right for me. Several of the options brewed the cup and the carafe in separate spaces, making the coffee maker much larger than my counter could accomodate.

Then, I saw it, in an ad. The Ninja DualBrew Specialty Coffee System. It had everything! I could make a cup of coffee (or hot chocolate) using a k-cup, I could make a cup of coffee up to a full pot of coffee with grounds, I could make a cup to a pot of hot or boiling water, I could froth milk for my coffee or hot chocolate. And, it's footprint was smaller than my current K-cup maker. Win-win! Of course, it was more money than I wanted to spend, so I started to watch.

Finally, there was a sale and I had 40% off and I earned Kohl's cash. Another Win-Win!

I went and bought the coffee maker. I cleaned everything and set it up. I ordered some cone coffee filters. Then I began to use the coffee maker. I was pleased with the results. The k-cups use an insert and can brew up to 12 oz.

I liked that the hot or boiling water didn't deliver through the space where the coffee brewed (of course, that was an issue when I tried to brew a cup and hadn't changed it off of water - I got a cup of water, even though I had a k-cup in place.)

I love that the filter basket is spring loaded, so when I remove it from the coffee maker to dispose of grounds, it doesn't drip. When I wash it, I have to squeeze to get water through the drip point and/or turn over to dump out the water. When you brew into the pot, it fills from the bottom...which I read years ago helps with the flavor of the coffee. When you brew from 1/2 carafe up to carafe, the burner will keep the coffee warm and shuts off after a set amount of time. I learned that there were two settings - classic and rich for the coffee. And, there is an option for over ice, which my daughter loved for making iced coffees over break. The coffee scoop guides how much coffee to use for a mug, a travel mug, a 1/2 carafe, a full carafe. The frother doesn't heat but does make a nice foam and is easily detached for cleaning.

Once I knew it was going to work for me, I sold both my K-Cup Maker and my Drip Coffee Pot, helping me further reduce the effective price of this new investment. I enjoy the flexibility. On days where I only have a cup, I will still use K-Cups out of convenience mopst of the time but if I want a couple of cups or we have company, I can make from 8 oz -18 oz in a mug or travel mug and anywhere from 28 - 55 oz (classic brew) in the carafe (I supposed i could make 8 oz in the carafe but that seems silly).

My daughter has used the hot water for hot chocolate and for oatmeal, she uses the Iced Coffee setting to make a single cup of iced coffee from grounds.

This new kitchen addition was a great decision and made me glad that I had waited to find the one that was right for me.

I bought this product and all opinions are my own.

Finding a Better Way to Drain Dishes

This year I did some shopping for myself to solve problems that I have had for a while and wanted to find a better solution for.

A few years back we updated our kitchen. I love the new kitchen layout. An area where we had a narrow cabinet, we rotated and put the cabinet doors on the 'side' allowing for a wide but not deep cabinet. i use it for my spices, my food storage containers and some of my baking dishes. It utilizes the space so much better than the old style and since it backs up to the fridge, it helps encase the fridge. On the other side, we replaced a bifold door with wire shelf pantry with a pantry cabinet with roll-out shelves. Again, being able to use and access all of the space was a huge improvement. We added a credenza style cabinet that replaced our desk and added a computer shelf under the penisula so we can use it as a workspace but store the computer out of the way when we cook or entertain. We added an open shelf unit at the end of the peninsula, allowing us to display a few pieces and store cookbooks within easy reach.

One other thing we did was upgrade to granite countertops, and in so doing, went with an undermount sink. The undermount sink we chose is asymetrical, with one larger than normal well and one smaller than normal. This works great for washing dishes and food prep but it was a challenge for us when it came to drying the dishes.

We tried to find a small drainer that we could put in the small side of the sink but none of them seemed to work. It also didn't do well accomodating larger pans and dishes because of the narrow space. I could have gone with any size and had it always on my counter (or would have had to find a place to store it), which I didn't want. So, for several years, I would lay a dish towel on the counter, wash dishes and then let them dry for a bit on their own before drying and putting away. I wasn't a big fan of the wet towel laying the counter for a period of time. The dishes sitting on the wet towel only partially dried on their own with that moisture filled towel below them. I would go through 2-3 dish towels at a minimum each day too.

So, I was constantly on the outlook for a better way to solve my problem. Late last year, I found the solution. A roll-up dish drying rack. It was perfect for me. It solved the problem of drying dishes on towels all over my counter, it allows for the water to drain from the dishes, I can drain dishes large and small and it rolls up for easy storage.

Now, I can wash my dishes, leave them to drain for a while and come back and give a quick dry and put them away. No more need to put them away immediately after washing to keep the wet towels from lingering on the sink. The dishes can breath, helping to prevent those weird smells that were in water bottles after being left to drain even for a short period on a damp towel. I go through fewer dish towels on a daily basis.

When I am done using it, I give it a quick wipe dry to get rid of any excess moisture and then I roll it up. I have a tendency to leave the drying rack rolled up in the sink most days so that I can simply unroll it when I am ready to do dishes but it is also compact enough to stow under the sink when we are entertaining.

What problem have you recently solved with a new tool?

I bought this product and all opinions are my own.

BeepEgg - A Singing Breakfast Party #Tryazon #Brainstream #beepegg

No compensation was received for this post. Complimentary BeepEggs and Ines Rosales torta, as well as information for the post, were provided so that I could host a party, through Tryazon.

This weekend I had the chance to host a Tryazon A Singing Breakfast Party, featuring the BeepEgg from Brainstream and Ines Rosales torta. The BeepEgg helps you make the perfect soft boiled, medium boiled or hard boiled egg.

I decided the best way to start was to demonstrate the functionality of the BeepEgg. We put a few eggs and the BeepEgg into a pan with tap water and turned on the heat.

After a few minutes, the egg beeped, letting us know that it was working and that the water had reached 45C. Then, a few minutes later, a beep to let us know the water was boiling and the stove temp could be turned down to medium. The first song the BeepEgg Classic played was 'Oh Susanna', letting us know we had perfect soft-boiled eggs.

We removed one egg and allowed the others to continue to cook. We cracked it open and took off the cap, revealing a perfect soft-boiled egg:

My mom even commented that she was so glad to have a perfect soft-boiled egg, because they are so hard to make.

The next song that the BeepEgg Classic played was 'Take Me Out to the Ballgame', letting us know we had perfect medium-boiled eggs. We removed one egg and allowed the others to continue to cook. We cracked it open and took off the cap, revealing a perfect medium-boiled egg:

The next song that the BeepEgg Classic played was 'Hail Hail the Gangs All Here', letting us know we had perfect hard-boiled eggs.

We loved that the egg sang each song multiple times and that even if you weren't standing at the stove, you could still make the perfect egg. I loved that the outside of the yolk in the hard boiled eggs was still yellow, mine always seem to be on the edge of turning green.

Now that all of the remaining eggs were hard boiled, we set out to make a few dishes to share.  My son is a fan of deviled eggs and since I use the same 'recipe' to make deviled eggs as I do for egg salad, we took the easy route and made part into deviled eggs and chopped up the rest to be egg salad.

Here the dishes are with some 'fancy' plating.  


Deviled Eggs

Open Face Egg Salad Sandwich



We also tried Ines Rosales tortas.  I hadn't thought to buy some spreads for the tortes, which everyone agreed the Sesame Seed and Sea Salt variety needed.  The Seville Orange variety was a lightly sweet treat to cap the snack.

Everyone had a great time trying the products. Two lucky party guests also took home their very own beep egg - of course, one went to my mom so that she could make perfect soft boiled eggs at home.

History
Dr. Rupprecht Gabriel, a German engineer and entrepreneur, was always annoyed by his poorly boiled breakfast eggs. They were either too runny, too hard. In 2000, he decided to solve the problem and the BeepEgg was born - an egg shaped timer that could sing and float. Shortly thereafter Gabriel formed a creative team and Brainstream became an enterprise. Brainstream strives to impress their customers with their “fun and functional” products. Their line of products include BeepEgg, Cregg, SOI - the automatic handbag light, and more.

BeepEgg
The BeepEgg - looks like an egg, feels like an egg, boils like an egg, but unlike an egg it sings. BeepEgg is a precise egg-timer, which is boiled together with real eggs. The BeepEgg and real eggs have to enter water at the same time. Once yolk and egg-white have reached the desired degree of hardness, BeepEgg will play a tune.

Watch this video to see how it works:

For more information about Brainstream please visit:
http://www.brainstream.de/index.php/en/brainstream/detail/ueber_uns

Brainstream can be purchased at: http://kitchenkaboodle.com or Amazon. Ines Rosales is available at http://yummybazaar.com and at various store retailers.

No compensation was received for this post. Complimentary BeepEggs and Ines Rosales torta, as well as information for the post, were provided so that I could host a party, through Tryazon.

The Pits

Cherry Pits that is!

When I was younger, I liked Marashino Cherries, but disliked Cherry Pie Filling. I mistakenly thought that was what Cherries taste like and for years, wouldn't eat them. Then, one day someone told me that they tasted a little like plums. I finally tried cherries and I was hooked!

Now, I love to eat cherries. Of course (it's good), my kids want to eat anything that I do. The challenge was that eating around the pit and spitting it out was no problem for me. For the kids, they were too young to do that and I had to cut the pit out. Finally, I found the tool that makes my life so much easier.

The cherry pitter.

This is one tool that I have gotten more than my value out of. It is a tool that I use every summer during cherry season. This year, my son started to use the tool himself and pit his own cherries.

You can see in the pictures that mine has a splash guard. This works great because I can set the plastic part down into my bowl and when the pits come out, the juice goes into the bowl.

I have a very full tool drawer (although I did clear it out a bit when I got this), so I really do like that it closes up rather compactly for storage too.

The other day, my manager at work gave me a basket of cherries that someone had brought in. They were a delicious dark, sweet cherry. I knew that we probably wouldn't eat them all in time since we already had a fruit-filled refrigerator, so I decided to use them up by baking with them. I didn't want to make a pie and I had some brown bananas, so I decided to make a Banana Cherry Loaf.

I served it with some Cinnamon Sugar Butter Spread. Yum! I love adding butter and cinnamon sugar to banana bread and having the convenient spread made it that much easier to share at work.

Banana Cherry Loaf recipe

This post shared at Works for Me Wednesday.

Cupcake Carrier

When it comes to kitchen gadgets, I love them all. Okay, maybe not all, but I do find some things to be very clever and very useful.

For years, I was on the market for a cupcake carrier. I had just been using large plastic containers to hold them, but they always seemed to get squished if I took them anywhere and they were hard to get out without making a mess by touching the other cupcakes.

After some looking, I found one online at Crate and Barrel, but the shipping was more than I wanted to pay. I kept putting it on my Christmas list, but never got it. I always had good intentions to get to a store, but never seemed to be near one or only was near one when I had no time. So, after a couple of years of wanting something, I bought myself another cupcake carrier. It wasn't exactly what I wanted, but it would hold 24 mini-cupcakes, 12 regular cupcakes or a 9x13 cake and allow me to transport them more easily, so it certainly met part of my needs.

I was happy to have a cupcake carrier, but still, I thought about the cupcake carrier from Crate and Barrel whenever I had to take more than 12 cupcakes with me somewhere.

Well, about a month ago, while participating in a work function, I found myself right by a Crate and Barrel. I had to stop in. Sure enough, they had the cupcake carrier that I had been wanting. I, of course, bought it. I have already used it a couple of times and I love it!

What makes it better than most, in my opinion, is the fact that you can carry 24 cupcakes in it. When I make cupcakes, I tend to use a boxed cake mix, which makes 24 cupcakes. (of course, for my son's half birthday last week, I had to make it into 27 cupcakes and make them fit on the carrier) It is so nice to have a carrier that fits them.




This is one cupcake carrier that works for me!