Another Fabulous CSN Stores Giveaway!

Just in time for the holidays, the wonderful folks at CSN Stores are offering one of my readers the chance to win a Gift Certificate to be used at any of their over 200 stores!

Stumped on what to buy for a special guy in your life? I think these leather messenger bags are pretty fabulous! I'd love to get one for Ed, who uses a backpack to carry all his work gear, lol!




I think they're so stylish secretly, I LOVE the smell of leather, is that weird?!

Wouldn't it be great to win a $45 gift certificate to do a little shopping with?

Want to enter? Okay here's the deal, visit any of the more than 200 CSN Stores and then come back here and tell me what you'd use your winnings for and why.

For extra chances to enter you can: become a public follower of my blog, tweet, create your own blog post or add a button to your blog sidebar for this giveaway and leave a seperate comment for each thing you've done.

Here's a sidebar button to use if that's the option you choose.



Dont forget to leave seperate comments for each entry!

Giveaway is open until December 7th, 2010 at midnight. Good luck!

Read more...

Kalorik Blender Product Review and Recipe for Pesto

A while back, I was given the opportunity by the terrific folks at CSN Stores to pick a product of my choosing from their hundreds of stores to review here on my little blog.

After this post where I frustratingly discussed my dead blender, I spent the summer longing for a new blender with high speed and sharp blades that could whip, blend and puree anything my heart desired. Enter my new Kalorik. Isn't she lovely? Isn't she won-der-ful? (everyone sing along now!)

I love her streamlined look and brushed finish. She blends seamlessly (no pun intended!) with my other appliances.

The operating system is really basic and to the point. There is a dial that turns from off to low and then to high- with the option to turn counter clockwise to pulse. What makes this almost overly simple design different is the unique 6 blade design inside.

These blades helped the Kalorik Blender BL to win Cook's Illustrated's Best Buy Award.

Let me tell you- I turned the blender onto "1" (low speed) and it liquified the living daylights out of the basil, pinenuts, garlic and everything else I had stuffed into the 6 cup glass jar!

If I had to make a complaint, the only thing I don't love is the lid. I mean, it does it's job- it stays on securely and nothing coming flying out at you. What it doesn't do is come off easily. The handle in the middle is rounded and hard to grip, so I used the little lip on the edge of the lid to pry it off. And when I tried taking the handle/center of the lid off to stream in a bit of olive oil, the ingredients inside DID splatter out- which never happens on cooking shows on TV,so I had hoped I'd gotten a blender where that wouldn't happen either. Ah well, can't win 'em all!

But again, it did blend like a dream and I never once had to switch to "2" (high speed). It is that powerful! My pesto was creamy smooth and the clean up afterward was fast and easy. It is handwash only, but I don't really mind; I have vintage Pyrex which I use daily. And that has to be hand washed as well- the extra effort for things I love to use in the kitchen is well worth it to me!

So that's my review, now here's my recipe for basic pesto sauce!

Ingredients:
(this makes 2 batches, so I only used half my ingredients at a time)
4 packed cups fresh basil leaves
2 cups fresh parsley
8 cloves of garlic
2/3 cup pine nuts
1 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus a little extra for drizzling
2 TBSP lemon juice
zest of 1 lemon
3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste


This recipe is so simple:

Toast the pine nuts over medium high heat until oils begin to release and they become golden brown (about 3 minutes). Set them aside to cool while you prepare your other ingredients.

Add all ingredients -except parmesan cheese- to your blender and blend until smooth. Add more olive oil at a slow drizzle or a TBSP or 2 of water to thin out if necessary.



If you are eating fresh, pour into a bowl, stir in the parmesan cheese and serve immediately.



If you are planning to freeze, leave the cheese out until ready to thaw and use. Pour your mixture into an air tight container.
Drizzle a bit more olive oil on top of the pesto, place a piece of wax paper or plastic wrap directly on top of the sauce to keep the air out and then freeze for up to 3 months.


Enjoy!

I received a gift certificate from CSN Stores, which I used to purchase this blender for review. All opinions are 100% mine!

Read more...

Home from vacation, I need a vacation and an upcoming review!

So we've made it home from Maine (lots of pretty, funny and vintage-y photos coming soon, I promise!) and I am thoroughly exhausted from all the fresh air, family time and fun! One thing I would love to show you now though is the the old barn wood dining room furniture we ate on every night in our adorable old camp cabin.

This long expanse of reclaimed wood seated our clan of 8 comfortably with room for more! We had many tasty meals around this table last week, I can't wait to share more pictures with you!

On our way home from the Moosehead Lake region of Maine, we stopped in Kittery at the outlets. I wanted to go into Le Creuset to ogle the cast iron pans since I got to use a gorgeous green vintage one at the cabin but the guys won and we went to the Kittery Trading Post to look at knives instead. LOL. Such is the life of a mom.

In the end, though, it worked out well, because I came home to discover that the ever amazing CSN stores had sent me a generous offer to review one of their fabulous products. And can you guess what I'm day dreaming about?

CSN stores has a site called cookware.com and on it they sell all sorts of lovely things like this

And oooh, drooling over this one

And what about these

Mmmmmm piping hot pancakes made in this

Or a fabulous oven roasted something or another in this

I am SO excited! This is going to be a tough decision, stay tuned to read about the choice I make and my review of the product!

Read more...

A Fabulous New Giveaway from CSN Stores!

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED, THANKS FOR PARTICIPATING!

For those of you who haven't heard of CSN Stores, boy are you missing out! But never fear, I am here to tell you all about them!

CSN is a group of more than 200 stores with the most amazing items to purchase- They have cookware sites, children's sites, home furnishing sites and even a site dedicated to making your bathroom look fabulous! We've been thinking about putting a new vanity in our 1970's avacado green bathroom since we bought our house last summer. Look at these gorgeous pieces:

For those with traditional tastes:

And if you know me, you know I am drooling over this entire beachy bathroom:

But realistically because we have a 5 person family and one bath, we need something much larger- more like this lovely one:

But CSN doesn't stop there- they have an amazing site called cookware.com filled to the brim with everything you need to stock you kitchen! I am in love with this lime green set from Le Creuset

And these Rachel Ray casseroles are so funky and fun! They come in cobalt blue, lime green, orange, mustard and brown.

I've also shopped their allmodern.com site and am now the proud owner of this adorable reversible pillow:

It just doesn't end, there are so many things to choose from! So now for the contest...

CSN Stores is offering one of you, my wonderful readers, a $40 gift certificate to be used at ANY of their 200+ stores! How cool is that?!

To enter the giveaway, simply visit CSN Stores and browse through their listings of stores, and once you find a site you like, tell me which item you'd love to spend your $40 gift certificate on if you should win!

For additional chances to win, you can (1) become a public follower of my blog (2)mention this giveaway on Twitter or Facebook or (3)mention this giveaway on your own blog.

That's up to FOUR chances to enter- please come back and leave a seperate comment for each individual entry!

Giveaway will run until midnight on Saturday, June 19th. I will choose a winner using random.org on Sunday the 20th. Good luck and happy shopping!

Read more...

Presto PopLite Popcorn Popper Review

(stock image courtesy of CSN Stores)
A few weeks ago, CSN stores gave me the wonderful opportunity to pick a product from their 200+ stores to review in my home. After combing over page after page of gorgeous products, I finally decided that I'd review the Presto PopLite Popcorn Popper.

A little back history on me and popcorn. If there is popcorn to be eaten, I'll eat it! I love being able to mindlessly devour handful after handful of fluffy white popcorn while I watch some good (or even bad) TV!

Fast forward to March 2nd; two nights before I connected with CSN stores. I was settling in to watch LOST with the hubster when I decided to pop a bag of popcorn in the microwave. I have long since given up on the popcorn button- that thing is never accurate with timing. I put my bag in, set the time for a minute, twenty and at the 55 second mark I could smell burning and a closer inspection revealed that the bag had burned a hole clear through and the popcorn that HAD popped was turning black and the rest was still a pile of kernels in the bottom. This is NOT the first time this has happened to me. And it's happened at my house, at my brother's house, at my friend's house. And it doesn't matter what brand of popcorn I use either. Bottom line, I think that microwave popcorn sucks, I think the kernels are probably old and I'm tired of wasting so much of it because of burning.

So anyway, I told Ed that night that I was going to get us an air popper instead. I just don't see any reason to keep using the bagged stuff any longer when it's a let down every time.

Enter CSN. I don't know why I didn't think of it immediately, but when I discovered the wide range of kitchen products they have available on their cookware.com site, it dawned on me what to look for. I found the Presto PopLite Air Popper and it had great reviews from buyers already and it had all my basic requirements, so I went ahead and requested it.

The popper arrived at my house this week and I rushed to the store to buy a jar of popcorn kernels. I bought a jar of Orville Redenbacher's Original Gourmet Popping Corn. I brought it home, opened up the box and discovered a coupon lying in the top of the box for the exact popcorn I just bought, lol! So there's bonus #1 about this product, it comes with a coupon- I just wish I'd opened the box before I went to the market!

Set up is really easy, There are basically 3 parts- the popper portion, the shield and the butter melter/measuring scoop. There is no ON/OFF switch, no dials to adjust, it's just straight forward, plug it in to start the popping, unplug it when you're done.

You use the provided scoop and put in a level scoop (1/2 cup) of kernels. Then you put the shield in place and if you want butter, you put it into the scoop (which doubles as your butter melting dish). A side note here- according to directions, your butter has to be at room temp to melt fully in the amount of time it takes to pop the popcorn. I had mine out for about an hour and it still didn't melt all the way, I had to put it into the microwave for about 20 seconds to get it liquified. Annoying, but not enough of a reason to not buy the popper (for me anyway).

Then once your ready, put a giant bowl underneath it (one scoop of kernels fills a 4 qt mixing bowl) and plug it in. Ooh, the first piece!
Once it gets popping, it goes so fast!
I timed it and it took 2 1/2 minutes to completely pop everything- about the same time as microwave popcorn is SUPPOSED to take. So that's cool, no long wait time.

Then for research sake, we poured melted butter over it and added some fresh ground sea salt. Ed, Austin and I settled in and watched True Lies on CMT
(I love the screen shot of Jamie Lee Curtis in this photo!)


and polished off the bowl in about 10 minutes. Man was it good! Hot, fresh tasting and the real butter- OMG- SO much better than the fake crap immitation butter flavoring in the microwave kind.

So let's see so far-
valuable coupon inside the box? Check
ease of assembly? Check
quick pop time? Check
great taste? Check

What's left? Clean up. No part of the popper is machine washable, but because you're not adding any oil or anything into the machine portion, you can just wipe it out with a dry cloth and it's good to go. The shield didn't really get dirty and the butter cup is one tiny little thing to hand wash. So ease in clean up? Check!

My final vote? For those looking for great popcorn that can be made easily and healthily (if you skip the butter) this is the popper for you! The price is a reasonable $23.99 and because it's such a cinch to set up and put away, it's not something you'll dread having to "drag out from the way back of the cupboard". This is definitely a kitchen appliance we're going to get a lot of use out of!

I think next time, we're going to sprinkle some freshly grated parmesan cheese on top and try that out- Mmmmmm, can't wait!

I was given a Presto PopLite Air Popper by CSN Stores in exchange for my fair and honest review of their product. All opinions are mine!

Read more...

CSN Stores Product Review Sneak Peek!

As a work at home mom (and self proclaimed homebody as well), can I tell you how much I hate having to wander out into the "real world" to shop for stuff I need? As a lot of you know, I make jewelry and often times I get so consumed with what I'm doing I look up to discover it's getting dark outside and I am still in my jammies and there's nothing ready for dinner! My days fly by so fast that I am grateful when I can find a place online to help me get some of my errands (read: shopping) done.

Today I found CSN. They have over 200 stores to shop from with brand name products everyone needs- from cookware to cameras, to kids bedding and even the kitchen sink!

One of CSN's stores is cookware.com and let me just say, I'm drooling over the selection of high end pots and pans and cutlery they have available there. And they don't gouge you on shipping either, I HATE it when I find really great stuff online and it costs damn near as much as the product to have it shipped. I've left many a shopping cart abandoned because of that. You won't find that problem shopping at CSN Stores- it's all really reasonable and in fact, there are several items available with free shipping and once you purchase a certain dollar amount, you are also eligible for free shipping!

Enough of my sales pitch, you'll see all the cool stuff for yourself if you visit any of their amazing stores- And now, down to the important business: I'm uber excited because I get to review this Hot Air Popcorn Popper by Presto! Honest to goodness, I just announced to Ed on Tuesday night that I am tired of lame microwave popcorn and wanted to look for an air popper instead, so this review couldn't come at a better time! I can't wait to see how it works, I'm sick of burnt bags, stinking up my kitchen and tons of unpopped kernels rolling around at the bottom of a greasy sack.

I hope I love it!

Read more...