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yonanas review

Posted on January 4, 2012

We recently had this on an employee incentive, so thinking my kids love ice cream and they love bananas, this would be a no brainer. Watching the demo on bedbathandbeyond’s site, it made it look easy enough. Let me first say that while the setup of the machine was a breeze and the instructions are clear, my first go at it was not easy. I felt it was hard to push the frozen bananas down the chute and it took a lot of effort. Not easy like the video made it look at ALL! Maybe I should have let the bananas sit a little bit to thaw beforehand, but that will be for another time. All in all it made a nice little treat but you really do need to freeze bananas when they are past being ripe. When they start showing brown spots all over, it’s a good time to freeze them. That’s what’s going to make this sweeter. Now I haven’t ventured into mixing it with other fruits yet, but first impressions, it’s ok. It does what it says it will. I’ll keep you all updated on our later adventures with this machine.

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oatmeal chocochip cookies

Posted on December 27, 2011

I’ve been having a real hankering to bake lately. The last time I attempted oatmeal cookies it did not come out well at all. The banana oatmeal chips were very dry and on the 2nd day rock hard. Not a good thing for a cookie IMO. I was determined this time and while definitely an improvement on last time, it still was lacking something. Maybe i’m overmixing the batter, or baking the cookie slightly too long. It’s hard, my oven bakes unevenly plus i’m not very experienced with baking cookies in general. Anyways it must not have turned out that bad though because the whole batch was gone before dinner time! I only had two. *shrugs*

my very approving taste tester.

Oh and in case anyone needed a recipe, I used this one but instead of raisins I threw in semi sweet chocolate chips. Anyone that knows me should know I despise raisins in my cookies! They need to stay far far away. Stupid raisins. Have a awesome day everyone.

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merry christmas

Posted on December 25, 2011

All the stress leading up to this day was all worth it this morning when the little hooligans woke up. They excitedly ran to the living room, faces lit up with joy and excitement, followed by lots of high pitched yelling. Haha. We ate some breakfast first as we waited for everyone else in the house to wake up. Then onto the best part of Christmas day for them…the presents. Oh boy was there plenty of them. Between myself and their father getting them gifts, they also had from their uncles and godfather. As Ry started ripping paper and tossing aside one toy to move onto the next, Ro was pretty content after just the first one. He’s not impressed with all the presents, he was happy with his Cars and Spongebob leapster explorer games that he did not even care to open another gift. It took much coercing from all to get him to open another. Once he opened up his Cars2 DVD he did not think anymore presents could possible top this. Can you see a pattern now with the Cars2. We left him be for awhile and let Ry open up the presents for the both of them just to move things along. The best gift of the day is from their uncle, a Cars shake and go race track. It provided them a whole morning of entertainment as I looked on thinking, oh man, where on earth am I going to store this. I still haven’t figured this out yet….

I hope you all had an equally wonderful and enjoyable Christmas. I feel very blessed for my family this year, especially after all that we’ve been through in 2011. It’s a great feeling to know that through all the ups and the downs, the good and the bad, we were able to pull through it. Wishing you all well.

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Week in iphone photos

Posted on December 24, 2011

I thought this would be a fun way to recap my week. Soo we had a secret Santa exchange at work and I spent 6 days knitting on and off a cowl neck scarf for my boss. I ran out of time so it wasnt as wide as the pattern called for but it still looked super cute and cozy. She did love it. I finally got my Michael Kors watch sized. This was my Christmas gift to myself. Ive only been eyeing it forever and I must say the rose gold color was definitely the right choice. I’m not sure why I even doubted myself. I ran all over town to various drugstores trying to track down revlons facets of fuchsia (relaunched as scandalous) nailpolish for my girlfriends holiday gift bag. It is the most beautiful glitter polish.

As the holiday weekend is now upon us, the boys have been extra cuddly and cute. Yeah they really know how to butter mom up (especially Ry, hes a sweet talker..the stories I can tell you!) Weve now reached day 24 on the advent cal and they are sooo excited for Christmas and all the presents. And boy is there a lot of them!!! I will have to remember to take some pics tonight after everything is under the tree.

Lastly I just want to mention Jeni’s Ice creams because this was my first time experiencing this particular ice cream. My buyer who is in recovery right now in the hospital after a surgery decided that he wanted us all to have a little treat so he had some jeni’s icecream cookie sandwiches sent to the office. I had the oatmeal cream sandwich and it was delicious to say the least. The cookie was buttery and chewy with no raisins in sight, just how I like my oatmeal cookies. They are based out of Ohio if my memory serves me right, so if you are in OH or don’t mind ordering ice cream online (this place is no joke, they packed it with dry ice and we couldn’t even eat the ice cream the day it arrived because it was frozen solid!) this place is worth a try!

Hope you all have a wonderful holiday season from me and the hooligan co.

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holiday photos

Posted on November 28, 2011

So every year around this time I’m scrambling to get the boys photos done and holiday cards created to be sent to the printers. I took the hooligans out in early November to attempt said photos. Luckily we were having some unseasonably warm weather and the sun was just about an hr away from setting. We were even able to catch the last bit of fall colors. Ry was giving me a run for my money per usual, he just would not sit still, so with roughly 100+ photos taken, most of them were blurry. Whoever has tried to take photos of toddlers I’m sure can sympathize here with me. It’s no walk in the park. Ro (who seems to love the camera) hammed it up for me in his usual silly fashion. I actually fell in love with a bunch of these photos and am thinking some larger prints for the living room may be in order. Onward to the photos…

If you notice the red patch of something in Ry’s teeth, it’s cherry starbursts. I’m not above using bribery with my kids, though in retrospect, chewy candy was not the way to go. Next year I stick with the smarties if needed. Also in one of the pictures, it looks like Ro may be biting Ry and I just want to go on record in saying that IS NOT the case. He was just laughing and trying to get himself back up after Ry had pulled him down to the ground. They really did have a lot of fun by the end of all this.