I’m making National Ice Cream Month last a little longer with this giveaway
Jul 31, 2011 Contest/Giveaway
When I visited the Blue Bunny Ice Cream Factory last summer, one of the coolest things I got to do was make my own ice cream flavor. I’m still a little crushed that they didn’t bring it to market immediately, but I guess I’ll just have to live with my disappointment.
We walked into a room and were greeted with every ice cream addition you could possibly imagine, and a big bowl of plastic spoons so that we could try them all if we wanted. I very predictably went for my favorites: fudge, peanut butter, chunks of chocolate, and cookie dough pieces. No crazy experimenting for me! I wanted tried-and-true, “I could eat just this flavor until I die.” And I got it. It was delish.
Earlier this month Blue Bunny helped me celebrate National Ice Cream Month by sending me a large assortment of their frozen ice cream novelties, which sadly I can’t find in Brooklyn. And they’re going to help one of my lucky readers stretch out the celebration by sending them that same assortment, packed in dry ice! Champs, Mint Grasshopper Ice Cream Sandwiches, Champs Mini Swirls, and more. We’re still working our way through our ice cream bounty!
To enter, all you have to do is tell me in the comments section what you would put in your very own signature ice cream flavor. And please, be more adventurous than I was – my one regret from that trip was that I didn’t experiment more when making my flavor!
For a second entry, you may tweet about this contest with a link back to this page. Or, you can copy and tweet the following:
Tell me what you’d put in your signature ice cream flavor, & win an assortment of @Blue_Bunny treats from @SelfishMom! http://bit.ly/q3DgqW
Make sure to leave a second comment with a link to your tweet, or it won’t count (instructions on how to find and post the url of your tweet can be found here).
So, that’s a maximum of two entries per household please! This contest will close at noon-ish on Monday, August 8th. The winner will be chosen by random.org. You must be at least 18 years of age to enter. Prize may be shipped within the continental United States only. See my complete Giveaway Rules page for more information.
Good luck!
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 10. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Tags: Blue Bunny, Food
How to look like a tourist in NYC
Jul 31, 2011 Posted From My Phone
Walk around Eataly carrying an Olive Garden leftovers bag.
Lest you think I’m taking aim at some poor unaware person, that’s my husband.
Originally posted on SelfishMom, from Amy’s cell phone (so please excuse any weird formatting). All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 0 . Please see Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
My oldest turned 10 today, and got to play with fire.
Jul 30, 2011 Posted From My Phone
Ten years ago today, I became a mom. And now here I am, with a son who’s old enough to light his own candles. It seems like yesterday when he needed help just blowing them out. Happy birthday, little man.
Originally posted on SelfishMom, from Amy’s cell phone (so please excuse any weird formatting). All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 0 . Please see Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Krazy Glue’s “My Krazy Life” contest
Jul 29, 2011 Contest/Giveaway
[The following post is sponsored by Krazy Glue.]
You know all those crazy stories about your life that are littering your brain? The ones that are so humorous or unbelievable that you can’t help but tell them every chance you get? Well, now there’s a place for them, a place that could get your stories a wider audience and get you a cool prize.
Krazy Glue recently launched its “My Krazy Life” contest on facebook, and it’s really easy to enter. First, go to the Krazy Glue facebook page and “like” it. Once you’ve done that, you’ll be able to see the rules, and other people’s “krazy” stories, and add your own.
Perusing the stories already on there, I’m happy to see that I’m not the only one who has ever glued her fingers together. However, I’ve heard from many different people that they use Krazy Glue on their hands on purpose, to keep them from bleeding. People like my mom (a nurse), who have to wash their hands a “krazy” number of times each day, and they get all cracked. She Krazy Glues the cracks! Genius!
Krazy Glue Giveaway
I’m also having my own Krazy Glue giveaway right here, with a prize of – what else? – Krazy Glue! Plus, in case you need to buy something to break and Krazy Glue back together again, the winner also gets a $50 gift card to Target! To enter, all you have to do is answer this question: what’s the craziest, most cherished, or expensive thing you or someone you know has ever broken? I’m going to throw my husband under the bus for this one: when he was a little kid, he broke his grandmother’s dentures. (I hope that they were out of her mouth at the time!) It was more than thirty-five years ago, but he still remembers how pissed she was.
Put your story in the comments on this post, and you could win some Krazy Glue, so that you’ll be all ready the next time you break something!
For a second entry, you may tweet about this contest with a link back to this page. Or, you can copy and tweet the following:
What’s the kraziest thing you’ve ever broken? Tell @SelfishMom & you could win some Krazy Glue! http://bit.ly/qYzMzl #KrazyGlue
Make sure to leave a second comment with a link to your tweet, or it won’t count (instructions on how to find and post the url of your tweet can be found here).
So, that’s a maximum of two entries per household please! This contest will close at noon-ish on Friday, August 5th (I originally listed the prizes wrong so I’ve extended the giveaway). The winner will be chosen by random.org. You must be at least 18 years of age to enter. Prize may be shipped within the continental United States only. See my complete Giveaway Rules page for more information.
Good luck! And don’t forget to enter Krazy Glue’s own facebook contest.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has Compensation Levels of 10 & 11. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Tags: Giveaway, Krazy Glue
Today’s Agenda: two extraordinary ways to die edition
Jul 28, 2011 Today's Agenda
So I’m back from our camping trip to Lake George, and I hit the ground running just an hour after we got back yesterday with a dinner and an XBox event. This morning it was up at 5:30 with Jake to get him off to camp and continue the monumental task of putting away all of the camping stuff (my wonderful husband did a ton of it while I was gone last night, bless him!).
After that, Fiona and I will head to the bank on a very strange errand: for the first time since I started blogging, I’m attending an event that requires a notarized waiver. I’m so excited about this event I can barely type! I’ll be taking a helicopter from Manhattan to an airport in New Jersey, where I’ll be joining some other bloggers in a hot air balloon ride to taste Hershey’s Air Delight chocolate!
I honestly don’t know which I’m more excited about: the helicopter ride, or the hot air balloon ride. I’ve never done either. And I love bubbly chocolate, so today is just going to be awesome all around.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 1. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
I want to have my car and eat it too
Jul 22, 2011 What's Going On
OK, what I mean by that is, I want a big car with lots of trunk space that seats a lot of people, but I don’t want it to be big. I live in Brooklyn. Home of narrow streets and a serious parking shortage. When we first moved here we snagged a gated spot in our condo building’s lot and were ridiculously spoiled for four years, but then we sold that place to move a few blocks away to our own brownstone. Literally the only thing I miss about the condo is the parking spot. (My husband misses the 200sf balcony, but that’s only because it took him five summers to get our backyard useable.)
Right now I’m driving a 2004 L300 Saturn Wagon. It’s a nice car, as far as non-luxury cars go. It’s got heated leather seats, a great 6-CD system, a powerful V6 engine, and a good deal of room when the back seat is folded down. I’ve crammed a hell of a lot of IKEA crap back there. But, at seven-years-old, it’s showing its age. The inside of the passenger door is cracked, meaning there’s no good place to hang on to in order to close the door. There are more scratches on it than I could ever count. It does this thing if we drive more than about twenty minutes where it jumps violently every time it shifts gears, and no mechanic has ever been able to figure out why.
The brakes have been replaced way more than usual and I’m convinced it’s because the whole car is a little crooked. I was rear ended when the car was barely a year old, and while the other person’s insurance seemed to have fixed it properly, it just never felt right after that, and I think things rub the wrong way. Other things are going out on it periodically, so when you factor in the extra maintenance costs we’re not really getting to enjoy the extra money we supposedly have from not having a car payment anymore.
I drive it about 95% of the time, so of course I’ve wanted a new car for years, while my husband was happy to let this one limp along. Never mind the fact that it’s me who has to take care of the maintenance, and me who is with it when it breaks down (including once on a very dangerous portion of highway). I’ve finally convinced him that it’s time to let go, so after playing around with the idea for a couple of years, we’re officially car shopping.
So, I want a bigger car, but I don’t want a bigger car. I’ve driven SUVs and really detest being up that high. Minivans are also just too big for my taste. I have to parallel park whatever I get pretty much every time I take it out. So, I could just go with another station wagon, but every once in a while I find myself needing to squeeze more than five people into the car. This is not a routine thing – there’s no reason to get something that permanently seats six or seven. But I would like the option.
I started checking out cars with an extra row of seats, and what I found was frustrating. Apparently there’s just not much of a market for these types of cars in the US. People either want giant gas-guzzling monsters, or tiny compact hybrid four-seaters.
I got really excited about the seven-passenger Ford C-Max, but apparently we’re not worthy. I’ve heard that the Volvo V70 is a station wagon with a third row of seats, but can’t find that model on the Volvo site. The Kia Rondo looked worth checking out, but their website just had a very unceremonious announcement that “all good things must come to an end.” Grrr…
We’re going to skip right over the Mercedes E-Class Wagon, for two reasons. One, leaving that beauty parked on the street would give me nightmares, and two, it starts at about twice as much as I want to spend.
So in the mini-minivan class I’m left with an interesting possibility, the Mazda 5. I’ll be starting my test drives out today with this not-quite-a-mini-van, bigger-than-a-station-wagon vehicle. In its normal configuration it seats four people with extremely generous trunk space (a reported 44 cubic feet), but with the third row of seats in use it seats six. Mazda is letting me borrow it for almost a week, so we’ll be taking it on our camping trip to Lake George. We’ll get to see how it does on a road trip loaded down with gear and people (honestly the V4 engine worries me), and with our gear out of the back we can load it up with extra camping companions for trips into town.
I would love to hear your suggestions on other cars you love. The criteria: it has to seat at least six; the comfort of the fifth and sixth person isn’t that important. It can’t be a Mercedes-level car, unless you know where I can get a pre-dented and scratched one for a huge discount. Not a used car, but maybe something that was damaged during delivery, to take the sting out of the first time somebody keys it. It has to be automatic (no, I never learned to drive a stick). And it can’t be so big that I feel like I’m taxiing a 747. And I’m open to hybrids but nothing that plugs in – I don’t think people walking down the sidewalk would appreciate it.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 1. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Today’s Agenda: Too hot to post edition
Jul 22, 2011 Today's Agenda
The symbol on the weather report on ABC today wasn’t a sun, it was flames. And that’s all I have to say. It’s too hot to type.
Originally posted on SelfishMom, from Amy’s cell phone (so please excuse any weird formatting). All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 0 . Please see Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
The best non-stick pan I’ve ever used in my entire life. Seriously
Jul 21, 2011 Product Review
How’s that for a review headline? It’s not an exaggeration. I’m something of a cookware nut, with a drawer full of expensive pans, including lots of Calphalon One. But I’d never even heard of GreenPan before encountering the company at a gift guide trade show. I didn’t linger at the table too long because, well, I’m not all that green. I’m happy to do my part for the environment up to a point, and that point is when I have to give up quality in exchange for being green. I never would have purchased this pan without trying it first. I would have been too skeptical. I was curious enough to accept a unit for review, but didn’t expect to like it.
Turns out they already had me pegged on their site. They describe their mission as bringing “constainability” to their products: “‘Convenient’ as we don’t ask you to change your lifestyle, ‘sustainable’ as we are preserving the natural resources of our planet in a responsible way.” I’m helping without having to do anything. That’s how I like my green living.
I can say without reservation that this is the best non-stick pan I’ve ever used. GreenPan sent me a 12-inch frying pan from their GreenPan Copenhagen collection. I’ve had it for a couple of weeks now and have been trying it out with foods that usually require lots of oil or butter to keep from sticking. When I make scrambled eggs I want them to slide out of the pan, and I hate it when a thin layer of egg sticks and burns and then gets all over the “good” egg, but that usually requires an amount of oil that I’m just not willing to use.
I first tried cooking scrambled eggs in my GreenPan with a small amount of butter. I couldn’t believe it, but the eggs just slid around like they were on a thick coating of oil. Next time I tried them with no butter or oil at all. Not only did nothing stick, but there were no little overcooked bits, and once I took the eggs out of the pan you couldn’t even tell I’d cooked anything in it!
This morning Jake wanted pancakes, so I did the ultimate test: pancakes in the GreenPan with no oil or butter whatsoever. Adding to the difficulty, Jake likes chocolate chips in his pancakes, and they usually burn right onto the surface of whatever pan I’m using. But not this one! It was flawless. I was able to wipe out the little bits of chocolate that remained with a paper towel, instead of the scrubbing I have to do on my other pans. (Of course, I wouldn’t use this pan routinely for pancakes, unless I only needed to make one at a time – I just wanted to test out the surface.)
I even used it to reheat macaroni and cheese. I figured that all that cheese sauce would stick and get crusty, but no. Not one bit. I’m seriously impressed.
The design of this pan is fantastic, with no rivets inside for food to cling to. Plus the handle is all metal, which means you can put it right into the oven no problem.
I think the best test of a review unit is asking myself, would I buy it with my own money? Well, I love this pan so much that I purchased an 8-inch GreenPan as well. I’m pretty sure that the next one I’m going to buy is the GreenPan Dubai 8” loaf pan – just the other day I ruined a loaf of rye when I couldn’t get it out of its oiled pan. I can’t wait to report on that one.
I also desperately want to purchase GreenPan universal lids for my pans, but can’t seem to find them online in the US – I’ve written to the company and will update this post with what I find out. UPDATE: The universal lids aren’t available in the US yet! Wahhhh! But I’ll let you know when they are.
So, to sum up: if you care about the environment and want to buy your cookware and bakeware from a company that also cares, GreenPan is for you. And if you don’t care about the environment at all but just want the best nonstick pan out there, GreenPan is also the company for you. I almost wonder if they’d have better sales among people like me if they marketed the same products under a non-green name.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 1. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
