Garlic Twist Review

Everyone knows I love garlic. I will only use fresh garlic. With fresh garlic that means I have to chop it which can be very time consuming. I thought I would be smart and buy one of those garlic cutting gadgets with the wheels. It didn’t work very well, it made the garlic in to paste, it was hard to remove the garlic, it was hard to clean because there was a blade that made me nervous as it could do some serious damage. The garlic smell was almost impossible to get off of it. I only used it twice and decided it was more trouble than it was worth and went back to chopping or mincing.

I learned about a gadget called the 3rd Generation Garlic Twist or the GT3 for short and I just had to try it. The GT3 is made by NexTrend Products. I love this product because it has little teeth instead of a dangerous blade. All you do is whack the clove twice to remove the skin and then put in 2 or 3 cloves of garlic in and twist it. It is really easy and fast to use. I had my garlic minced quickly. It is really a time saver in my opinion. I was able to get the garlic out easier since it is circular. I was able to run my fingers on the teeth to help remove the garlic, which is something I would have never done with the one with wheels. The garlic was perfect, it minced it smaller than I could which was a good thing because it brought out the garlic flavor more. I really recommend the 3rd Generation Garlic Twist for the chef in your life. My favorite part is that you can put it on the top rack of the dish washer! As some of you know I hate doing dishes, so I love things that I can just put in the dish washer and not have to worry about it.

For more information please visit The Nextrend website.

Thank you to NextTrend for sending me a sample of the GT3 to try out and review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The Swiss Colony Review and Live Giveaway!

We have been receiving The Swiss Colony catalog every year for as long as I can remember. One year I asked for one of the boxes of treats for Christmas. It was one of my favorite gifts that year. It was full of delicious candy including a chocolate Santa. I have the opportunity to include The Swiss Colony in my holiday gift guide this year. I received the Holi-bars set. It has Cheddar Cheese, BEEF LOG ® and Summer Sausages, Smokey Cheddar 'n Pecan Cheese Log, Dobosh and Double Chocolate Tortes. I received the set of 8 so it also had Kreme Kaese Cheese and Swiss & Cheddar/Almond Log. Right now they have a bonus gift with the Holi-Bars which is 24 mini petit fours. Noah actually opened the refrigerator and got in to the mini petit fours. I caught him before he ate the whole box, which he would have done if he had the chance. He really likes the petit fours. I have to agree with him there. My favorite were the meats. We made a great platter of meats and the cheese. We also had crackers for the cheese logs. Then for dessert we had tortes. You could make a meal out of the goodies in this box or a beautiful snack tray for your holiday guests. It would also be a wonderful gift for those that live far away especially if The Swiss Colony is a family tradition like it is for my family.

For more information please visit The Swiss Colony.

Thank you to The Swiss Colony for sending my family a sample box of the Holi-Bars for my family to enjoy and providing the giveaway prize.

I have a LIVE giveaway for you.

One (1) lucky winner will win an item from the Swiss Colony of their choice under $30.

Mandatory Entry: Please visit The Swiss Colony website and tell me what you would like to win.

You may comment as many times as you want after that about whatever you want. The comments have to be at least a full sentence to count. No copy and pasting the same comment over and over again. That is not fair to those who actually take the time to comment honestly.

This giveaway will end at 11:59 pm ET December 16, 2010. I will use random.org to pick a random winner.

This giveaway is open to US Residents only.

Mickey Mote Review

I wanted to share with you guys about a fun and interactive way to watch DVD’s. My son like most children answers the TV when they ask him a question. I think that the Mickey Mote is a great way to be involved in the DVD. Noah loves to play little games so, he loves the Mickey Mote. The Mickey Mote is a child’s sized remote that you can use to play along with specially marked Disney DVD’s. This would be a great gift for your preschooler. You get the same game system feel without the expense. I had bought him one of those baby game systems when he was younger and he never really played it, so I am leery to spend a lot on another game system for him.



I think that the Mickey Mote is perfect for the price and the enjoyment that your child will get from playing this. I wish they had something like this when I was younger. You know that almost all kids love playing with the remote. I had bought Noah his own little toy remote, but this Mickey Mote actually does something. It is really easy to program with your own DVD remote. You just press the buttons in a certain order and you are good to go. I had to program it on my DVD player up in my room because I didn’t know where the DVD remote was downstairs. I found it the other day and I am excited to program it to that DVD player so Noah can play with it downstairs.
How It Works:

The Mickey Mote works with any Disney Preschool DVD that includes Discovery Mode(tm), the interactive "Watch & Play" feature on the DVD! All parents have to do is program the remote control - there's an easy and quick set-up guide in each DVD- and select the Discovery Mode feature on the menu screen. Within minutes, kids will be easily responding to questions, throughout the story, about scenes they just watched (such as "What color is Goofy's hat?") by pressing one of four color-coded buttons on the device -- a yellow star, green circle, orange triangle or blue square - to click in their responses. Discovery Mode features include two levels of play, which provides more challenging questions as the child grows.

Why Parents Will Love It:
Once families have purchased a Disney Preschool DVD that comes packaged with the Mickey Mote, they can continue to build their Disney Preschool libraries as the Mickey Mote works in compatibility with any Discovery Mode enhanced DVD. For example, kids can immediately use the remote with any of the following titles:


* Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Road Rally
* Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Mickey's Adventures in Wonderland
* Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Mickey's Choo Choo
* Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Minnie's Bow-Tique
* Handy Manny: Manny's Motorcycle Adventure
* Handy Manny: Manny's Big Race
* Little Einsteins: Fire Truck Blast Off
* My Friends Tigger & Pooh: Super Duper Super Sleuths
* My Friends Tigger & Pooh: Bedtime With Pooh

Discovery Mode can also be played with any DVD remote as well.



Noah received the Mickey Clubhouse and The Handy Manny DVD’s. He likes to play along and also just watch the DVD’s when he just wants to relax. I think that they help with memory and helps preschoolers recall something they saw, which is great for cognitive skills. His favorite is definitely Handy Manny. Noah loves to fix things like Handy Manny. We even have a Handy Manny toy or two. Noah likes the Mickey’s Clubhouse though too. I played for a while at first to figure it out and I had a lot of fun. I had to make sure I knew how it worked so if he had questions I could show him how. He was able to figure it out quickly and he was very interested in what was going on. I am definitely going to buy some more of the DVD’s for the Mickey Mote as they become available. If you have more than one child you could easily purchase two sets with remotes if that is an issue but I like good old fashion sharing and taking turns.

You can find the Mickey Mote at most retail stores. You can find it in the Electronics department with the kids DVD’s. The sets with the remote are $29.99 with a bunch of DVD’s you can purchase for endless hours of play. Recommended Ages are 2-5 years old.

Thank you to Walt Disney Entertainment for providing my family with a complimentary Mickey Mote for us to try out. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Winter Survival Basket Made With Cold Stone Cocoa!!

Cold Stone Creamery now makes delicious and creamy cocoa. As a fan of their ice cream I had to buy it! With the holidays coming and the cold weather that is now here, hot cocoa is a staple in my house. I headed to Wal-mart to shop for things to put in a winter survival kit. My family always does a lot of baking during the holidays and I thought that would be something to base my basket around. Unfortunately, it gets very cold here in the winter and we spend a lot of time indoors. I decided to make a winter survival gift basket for my family to use. You can make gift baskets for gifts but who says you can’t make one for your family to enjoy too?

I went to a very crowded Wal-mart to shop for the items I wanted to put in it. I love shopping at Wal-mart and Noah love to get the stickers from the greeter. He gets so excited, on this particular trip the greeter asked him how many he wanted. Noah said ten and they gave him ten. I got 2 boxes of Cold Stone Creamery Milk Chocolate with marshmallows cocoa for us to enjoy this winter. I don’t know about you but extra mini marshmallows are a must. If for some reason I only have big ones, I cut them in fourths. I still make cocoa the way my grandma used to make it. It is the only way to make it. I know some people use just water or just milk but I use a very scientific formula for my cocoa. It is one of those secret family recipes.

I also picked up some easy things to make as treats, some mugs, a game and some other goodies to help this family brave the cold and snowy winter. I had a lot of fun shopping for this basket, I hope you have just as much fun seeing my Whrrl Post and I hope it inspires you to make one of your own. Look for Cold Stone Cocoa at your local Walmart! You can check out my Whrrl Post below.

More check-ins at Walmart Supercenter #923

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Be sure to check out all the awesome posts and tweets using the hashtag #coldstonecocoa on Twitter.