Key Ingredient Review and Giveaway

One of the things I love to do when I cook and bake is try new recipes. My family likes to rip out recipes from the newspaper and magazines to try. Some of my favorite recipes were obtained that way.  I also have a lot of recipes that are really old and unorganized. Every year my family does holiday baking. One of the recipes we make is Peanut Blossoms, we always use the same recipe. It is from a cookie magazine from 1982.  That means my mom received the recipe when I was one years old.  If I ever lost that recipe I would be heartbroken.  I know whose recipe it is but it wouldn’t be the exact same.  I have kept all of my loose recipes in a Target bag.  There is a huge stack of them in there.  The bag has deteriorated over the years many times but I always replace it with a Target bag. Through the years I have lost recipes.  These are recipes that are secret. You can’t find them online. One of the recipes I lost is a cookie brittle recipe that was created by a family friend who passed away. That means I will never be able to make that recipe again.  I am very sad about this because it was an amazing recipe.  I am horrible about organizing recipes.  My mom used to put recipes in photo albums. We still have them but I would need many photo albums if I were to use her method. It isn’t space effective honestly. 

I had the opportunity to try out Key Ingredient Recipe Reader. Key Ingredient is an electronic recipe box.  It is similar to a tablet. Think of it as a recipe tablet. It has five built in timers. That is a great feature when you have all kinds of things going on in the kitchen.  Sometimes you are using the oven and the oven timer is on, you have something cooking on the stove and you are using the microwave timer. Then you realize you need the microwave to make a snack. You can’t run both the timer and microwave at the same time. You have to remember how much time you have to set it after it beeps.  When I say five timers, I mean heavy duty long timers. Noah decided to test it out.  It will go up to at least 1,000 HOURS.  It has Wi-Fi for too.  It comes preloaded with recipes and you can easily put your recipes on it and find others recipes too.  It has a feature that you can keep your recipes private if you want. I really like that because I have certain recipes that I will never share unless you are family.  Usually these are recipes my Grandma Rose created. I think they are great recipes but the memory of making them with her is sacred to me.

More about Key Ingredient:

A perfect gift for Mom, grandma or the pint-sized budding chef in the family, the Key Ingredient Recipe Reader lets home chefs access up to 4,000 recipes at the touch of a screen. Your readers may want to share a treasured family cheesecake recipe with the world. Or perhaps they prefer to keep the recipe secret and share only with other family members? The Recipe Reader also syncs with a free keyingredient.com account, which allows people to search, download and “cookmark” an unlimited number of recipes online. Just load it with favorite recipes and switch it on.

Earlier versions of the Key Ingredient Recipe Reader have been featured on national shows including The View, The Talk and popular cooking and family blogs.

With a color, large-font touch screen feature, built-in-timers, handy substitution and conversion tools, and durable construction that withstands the hazards of a kitchen, the Recipe Reader is a great gift for all the chefs in the family. Retailing at $149, the Recipe Reader is available at Key Ingredient, Costo and Amazon.

Sometimes I find great recipes online, I never seem to have a working printer or ink when I find them. I have done the whole running back and forth from the kitchen to my iPhone and back to follow a recipe.  I don’t want to ruin my phone or computer.  I want to keep it safe. I also have a seven year old who sometimes distracts me when I am en route, and I forget something, I either have to look again or think I know what I am doing, that usually results in one of my famous crisis cooking episodes. It always turns out great but it is funny because I am prone to doing something silly.  The Key Ingredient is totally kitchen friendly. It is made to withstand spills and splatters. I am an insanely messy chef.  Somehow I start in one area and dance around the kitchen because when I am done, it is a mess.  I think it is great that Key Ingredient is Sheila proof.  When I am cooking with Noah it is also fun chaos. I have had recipes disappear mid recipe, it falls off the counter or ends up in the trash. I catch it before it is lost for forever though.  Key Ingredient would be a great gift for anyone who likes to cook and bake. I think it would be a great gift to load with your family recipes before giving it as a gift.

For more information please visit the Key Ingredient Website.

I have a giveaway for you!

One super lucky winner will receive their very own Key Ingredient.  You can keep it or give it as a great gift.

Mandatory Entry:  Tell me about a kitchen mishap you have had

You must do the mandatory entry for the extra entries to count.

Extra Entries:

Follow @Sheilacakes7 on Twitter worth 2 entries

Tweet about this giveaway including a link to this post. Worth 1 entry but can be done daily.

Like Sheilacakes on Facebook worth 2 entries

Like Key Ingredient on Facebook worth 2 entries

Follow Key Ingredient on Twitter worth 2 entries

Please leave separate comments. 

This giveaway is open to US Residents ONLY.

This giveaway will end on December 7, 2013

Doodle Roll Review

As I have mentioned before, Noah loves to draw.  He will make the most elaborate coral reef pictures, city pictures to name a couple. He is a really good artist.  He is constantly drawing and asking me for more paper. He has even asked for tape to make a picture longer.  It doesn’t always work too well because of the seam of the taped part. He would love paper that was really long and he could have it on a roll. I remember my Grandma Rose had a roll of paper that she used to take messages and jot down plans and prayer requests. I remember how cool it was when she gave me a long piece to draw on. I of course am no artist, but Noah definitely is.  We had the opportunity to try out a product called Doodle Roll.  I love this concept. I can give it to Noah and he can make his pictures as long or as short as he wants. He is no long constrained by the paper running out. It even comes with double sided crayons which is great for when you are traveling. You have your paper and crayons all together in a nice little set.  I only have to keep track of four crayons instead of eight.  That is always a good thing as we are traveling this holiday season.  It also is pretty compact so you don’t have to worry about it taking up a lot of space. You get 30 FEET of paper. That is a lot that will keep Noah entertained for hours. He can work on a picture and come back and work on it some more. I don’t have to worry about it getting lost in the shuffle.  Noah is working on a Coral Reef mural right now. I can’t wait until it is finished! He puts a lot of thought and hard work in to his drawings.  This is a great gift for kids who love to draw detailed and complicated pictures. You could even use it for banners and signs.

For more information and to order please visit Doodle Roll.

Thank you to Doodle Roll for providing us with a couple samples to test out. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Calendar Sponge Review

Cleaning is not one of my favorite things to do. It is more a chore than something I enjoy or even want to do. Everyone has that chore that they hate, they would rather do anything than this chore.  My most hated chore is dishes.  I have to do them, but I am not smiling when I do them. I love to cook but I am really messy sometimes, so cleaning up is always a pain in my side. I used to want to get married or have a boyfriend so they would do the dishes, so I wouldn’t have to.  I really don’t like cleaning the kitchen at all.  When I was younger I would put water and soap in a bowl and say oh it is soaking.  I am sure we all have pulled that move. Unfortunately, I do have to clean the kitchen and do dishes because I don’t have a kitchen cleaning fairy to magically make my kitchen and counters shine.  I use sponges a lot especially when Noah spills milk and applesauce, it is a quick clean up and it is easy to just throw in the dishwasher. When I was younger, before I was a mom, I didn’t realize you need to change your sponges out. I thought as long as they are sponges, they were fine. I was wrong. You are supposed to change them every month.  Thankfully I never got sick from using “expired sponges”.  How does one keep track of when their sponge needs to be changed. I don’t think writing on it will do any good, since it I constantly wet and soapy.  I guess you could write it on a calendar, but what if you forget to do that. You would have to mark it each month.  I am pretty busy and I don’t even own a normal calendar at the moment.  Even if I had one, I wouldn’t remember to look at it.  I would forget to buy a new sponge at the store.  It is really hard to remember to change your sponge out until now.

I had the opportunity to work with a company called Calendar Sponge. When I learned about Calendar Sponge I was like that is brilliant.  You get twelve which is a year’s supply of sponges. They have the month written on them. It is part of the sponge it’s self so you always know if it is time to change the sponge.  If it’s December and you are still using November’s sponge well… you need to change it.  I really like the scrubbers on the sponge too, that are great for the stuck on stuff. They are well made, high quality materials.  It’s even something Noah could keep tabs on. I sometimes ask him what the date is.  He thinks I am testing him, not that I have no idea. There is no second guessing how old your sponge is anymore. Even if you alternate colors you still have to remember the color of sponge you are using.  I think that Calendar Sponge would be a great Stocking Stuffer.  It is a practical and fun invention. There is no excuse ladies for your man to use an old sponge again.

For more information and to order please visit Calendar Sponge

I received a sample package of Calendar Sponge for review purposes, all thoughts and opinions are my own.