How to Clean and Sanitize Your Medela Pump In Style Breast Pump
It’s important to keep your parts clean and sanitized to keep your baby happy and healthy. Here is a tutorial on how to do that quickly and effectively with just a few handy tools!
The Secret to Cooking Crispy Bacon
How fitting, that my first savory post should be about the most savory of them all: bacon. Even the word should get your mouth watering in a way that no dessert ever could. I have been in pursuit of the ultimate bacon-crisping technique for years now. I have pan-fried my bacon. I have baked my bacon, aluminum foil rack and all (which is useful if you’re feeding a crowd). I have even microwaved my bacon, which is okay if you’re in a hurry. However, none of these techniques have yielded the crispy, crunchy, intensely salty bite that I crave.
Fruit tarts seem to be the one dessert that everyone can agree on– even self-proclaimed “not a dessert person”-people, so it’s always a safe bet. The beautiful fruit patterns also make a bright splash on the dining table, so I like to think it adds to the festivity and decor of the celebration as well.
There are a gazillion recipes for fruit tart out there, which basically consist of a crust, filling, fruit, and glaze. My main gripe with most fruit tart recipes has always been the bother of chilling, then rolling out a crust. I have finally found a crust that skips those finicky steps and gets right to business. Below is my version of this much-loved dessert!
How to Store Your Breastmilk
Now that you’ve got this precious bottle of liquid gold in a bottle, be sure to store everything properly so that your baby has as much safe milk to drink as possible!
Two Christmases ago, my mother in law gave us a huge tin of Starbucks Hot Cocoa Mix. I’m picky about my hot cocoa, and get especially snobby when people think hot chocolate mix and hot cocoa are the same thing. They. Are. Not. The packets you find near the hot water dispenser at summer camp are way too sweet, and they can be mixed into water. They serve their purpose in warming you up a degree or two during chilly campfire sharings that go late into the night, but… that’s about it. My cup of hot cocoa is one that is mixed into hot milk, offering a warm-you-to-your-toes balance of creamy dark chocolate goodness and just a hint of sweet.
“I used to be a WM but now I’m a SAHM! BF is way easier than pumping bottles LOL. But now DS is no longer taking bottles, and I feel trapped in the house. DH and I had no problem with our first LO taking the bottle (but DD also SSTN at two months with no CIO!). Any tips on how I can get R to take my BM with a bottle? TIA!” – Ridiculous Person
Why. Just why.
But that’s how it is. I’m guessing the only acronym you got there was LOL (yes, it still stands for Laughing Out Loud), but the forums are littered with this kind of silly. I’m sure I will start using them, too. SIA (Sorry In Advance (made that one up myself!)). So here’s a quick key for the most commonly used acronyms specific to the parenting forums
One of the highlights of attending UC Berkeley was the easy access to inexpensive good eats. One such place was Raleighs, on Telegraph. The first time I ate there, a friend ordered a huge hunk of mud pie. While it looked tantalizing (ice cream and Oreos– what’s not to like?), my first thought was, I could make that for a fraction of the cost! So… I did. The next day, I pieced together four simple ingredients and wowed my friends. It was just as easy as I had hoped, and it was one of the first recipes I created and shared (on Xanga, if you’re old enough to know what that is!). A crowd-pleaser with just four ingredients and a practically no-fail guarantee– what more could you ask for?
So you’ve already got the spatula, the whisk, and a few mixing bowls. What’s next? Ready to up your game? Here are the next 10 items I think would be most useful to add to your baking collection!
This photo will have to do for now 🙂
(I keep forgetting to snap one of the ice cream!)
My good friend David (I wish) has a lovely ice cream book that I turn to for fantastic flavor ideas whenever I’m ready to get my ice cream on, which is always. One particularly well-loved page is the one titled Black Currant Tea Ice Cream. He says I can use Earl Grey or oolong tea instead, so I do. He also suggests pairing it with Dark Chocolate Truffles, so I did. It’s divine.
Ben and I recently went to an event at Smitten Ice Cream, the trendy liquid nitrogen ice cream spot that just opened up in Los Altos, and got to sample several scoops of ice cream, including generous portions of their Earl Grey with Milk Chocolate. Long story short, Ben likes my (er, David’s) Earl Grey with Dark Chocolate Truffles better than theirs. Done.
Our daughter was born on a Friday. One week later, we brought this delicious cheesecake to share with friends as we enjoyed a Thanksgiving feast together. That should give you some idea of just how doable this cake really is; a first-time nursing mother with a 1-week old was able to throw this together and bring it to a dinner!
It started with a big can of LIBBY’S® Easy Pumpkin Pie Mix. I saw it at the grocery store thinking it was a big can of pure pumpkin, and was miffed when I realized my mistake at home. I’m not a big pumpkin pie fan, so I went online in search of another way to use up this can of mix, and came across this recipe. The recipe looked very doable and the photo convinced me it couldn’t taste terrible, and I was right. The pumpkin and cheesecake melded perfectly with the taste of Thanksgiving, and the pecan praline topping added a sweet crunchy touch.