Knitting Zeal's two cents

Lasagna on the stove-top with 360 Cookware

I recently attended a demonstration of a new-to-me line of cookware that uses vapor technology as a method of "speed" cooking.  360 Cookware is manufactured by Americraft Cookware, a US company that practices "green" manufacturing. This stainless steel cookware is not only beautiful to me, a hopeful home gourmet chef, but it allows for healthier cooking styles, which is something important to me.  At the demonstration, we watched the chef prepare three main dishes, a veggie dish and a cake, all on the stove top in these amazing stainless steel pans.  She made a lasagna, a whole chicken, and a tilapia dish, all in under an hour and a half, including a chocolate cake from a box and carrots and broccoli that were cooked with water vapor and nothing else.  They actually tasted better than my usual method of steaming.  Even the kids at the party ate the veggies!  I really liked that all the foods cooked used no added oil or butter and they cooked fairly quickly.  This means a healthier meal faster for my family.  

I currently own a set of non-stick, fairly expensive, cookware, that is about five years old.  I love them and they work great for me, but lately I've noticed the non-stick finish on the most used ones is starting to flake off.  I bought the non-stick over the stainless steel because I thought it would make for healthier cooking, as no extra fat would need to be added, but now I have two issues with my older pans; I have to spray or grease the pans where the finish is flaking, and I'm worried about ingesting the finish (or my family ingesting it.)  I had been thinking about purchasing stainless steel pans, or even enamel pans, one at a time to replace my current set.  I was happy to have the opportunity to attend this demo of 360 Cookware at the right time!  

360 Cookware sent me a complimentary 3.5 Quart stainless steel Sauté Pan to try out and share my experience on my blog and twitter.  I am so grateful for the opportunity to use it and share my experience.  The 360 Cookware Test Kitchen has a many recipes available online and a few came with my pan too.  I decided to try out the lasagna recipe first, since it seemed almost too good to be true.  I altered the recipe slightly, using ground turkey instead of beef.  It was great!  My family loved it and the leftovers were a hit as well.  I did slightly overcook the bottom of it because I just didn't trust the recipe to cook the dish on low heat.  I learned that I need to trust the recipe and follow the cooking directions exactly!  The design of the stainless steel pan makes cooking at lower temperatures easy and quick.  My lasagna was finished cooking in 45 minutes and ready to serve after ten more minutes for the cheeses to set. The next recipe I plan to try is the tilapia one and the healthier version of chicken parm.  (After days of turkey, Italian and Mexican recipes really appeal to me!) And this crust less quiche sounds like a great brunch recipe to try over the holidays! 

So, while I did receive this awesome pan for free, I really do love it!  So much, that I decided to replace a few of my worn out non-stick pots and pans with three new pots/pans from 360 Cookware!  (I can't resist a really good cyber Monday sale!!)  I can't wait to get my new pans and I feel relieved that I will be cooking with safer and healthier methods.  

Some quick facts about the 360 Cookware stainless steel pans with Vapor technology, as copied from their website:  

• Multiple layers T-304 stainless steel (highest quality) and alloy construction
• Ergonomic, stay-cool handles
• Stylish design compliments any décor
• US owned and made by 1 of America’s greenest companies
• Lifetime warranty
• Vapor technology cooks food faster & more evenly with less energy
• No need to add grease or water
• Oven-safe to 400º
• Bakes on stovetop

So how did I get to see a demo of this cookware?  I was invited to a Candyland Party for mommy bloggers.  We got to bring home a new candyland game to play and I got a goody bag of fun stuff. During the party while the kids played the mommies got to experience the cooking demonstration by 360 Cookware.   At the party I also got a chance to meet a bunch of local mommy bloggers and to chat with them about their blogs.  Maureen, Jennifer, Sherry, Chrissy, and Kate and their kids, were a lot of fun and made for a great Monday afternoon.  My monkey is still talking about how much fun he had playing with the other kids.  Thanks to Chrissy of Mama's Little Helper and Jennifer of Sisterly Savings for hosting such a fun and educational experience!  And thanks too, to 360 Cookware for the demo, the new pan, and the opportunity to learn about a new way to cook meals.

Snack & Play travel tray makes car rides fun!

The Snack & Play travel tray is one of those inventions that a parent can really appreciate.  Constructed out of durable nylon and crash-tested for safety, this soft tray easily attaches by a belt strap to a child sitting in a car seat (forward facing,) airplane seat, or stroller.  The tray has three padded edges on it that prevent small toys from wandering away unintentionally, making it perfect for catching wayward crayons, pencils, and little cars.  Clean up is simple, just shake it out or wipe with a damp cloth.

We had a chance to try out the Snack & Play recently on a road trip to Lancaster.  Our three year old was quite content to have the tray buckled around him so that he could draw and color while we drove.  He also brought along some little cars to drive around the tray.  The mesh storage pockets on each side of the tray were great for holding extra toys and a water bottle.  They were a bit deep for him to access on his own at this time, but they came in handy for clean up when we arrived at our destination.  He reported that it was fun to have the Snack & Play tray for during our trip.  I liked that instead of the usual cries of his toys falling on the floor of the car, most of them stayed put on the tray.   My sister in law used the Snack & Play with her 2.5 year old son on an international flight and found it very useful in creating a soft play table that was at the perfect level for his use.

The Snack & Play travel tray is available from many retailers as listed on the web.  It would make a great gift for the holidays and is reasonably priced at under $20. 

Disclosure:  I was provided with a Snack & Play travel tray for the purposes of this review.  No other compensation was received and the opinions expressed her are my own!

 

The Anybook reading gadget: a review

My son adores reading stories and being read to by anyone willing.  We read to him at least twice a day, before nap and before bedtime.  He has amassed quite a library of books, mostly because I am a big fan of books, particularly picture books.  (I’ve been buying them since we got married whenever we went anywhere special, so he already had a collection before he was born.)  He now recognizes logos of brands and can “read” them to us, as well as recognize the alphabet, but he isn’t reading books on his own yet.  He does enjoy looking through books and pretends to read them, especially ones he has memorized. 

Recently we started using the Anybook reading device in addition to his story times.  This is a small electronic gadget that is shaped like a bulky pen or marker. The Anybook is a new gadget by Franklin Discover and is used by a reader, such as mom or dad, to record a book in your own voice.  The child can then use the device like a speaker to listen to the story, even when playing alone.  The Anybook uses stickers on each page that activate the recording on that page.  The Anybook works with every book in your personal library!  The gadget we are using is the Anybook DRP-4000, which holds up to 60 hours of recordings.  It can also delete books as needed, once the 60 hour threshold is met, so it can be enjoyed for years.  It runs on two AAA batteries and does not require software or a computer to use.  Unlike some of the other reading gadgets on the market for kids that I’ve investigated, the Anybook does not need special books to go with it.  As its name implies, it can be used with anybook in your personal library!

I started first with a short board book, one of my favorites, Chicka Chicka abc.  After putting a small circle sticker on each page, I then used the Anybook’s record mode to record my voice reading the words on each page, while touching the sticker on that page with the device.  I recorded each page of the book and then was able to play back each page by touching each sticker.  It was that simple!  I was surprised by several things: how I sound during playback, how important enunciation is, and how amazing this gadget is!  I did have to re-record two of the pages because I thought they sounded a bit muffled, but once I figured out how far away to hold the device from my mouth, it turned out great! (Speaking directly into it seemed to be too close, so holding it down a few inches from my mouth, similar to how one holds a microphone, seemed to do the trick in improving my recording quality.)

The stickers that come with the Anybook are the key to making it work.  They use a unique code, which seems like magic to me, to recognize the assigned recording for each page of the book.  They are about a half inch sized circle and the ones that came with my Anybook are white.  The Anybook sticker pack has approximately 400 recordable stickers and also includes four sheets of stickers that are pre-recorded with sounds, such as a train, a child laughing, clapping hands, a phone ringing, as well as some animal sounds.  There are also two sheets of faces stickers representing moms and dads, grandparents, and brothers and sisters.  These stickers can be recorded, so for the mom one I recorded my voice saying “Mommy.”  I will place this mommy sticker on the front of the books I read, and my husband or parents can use the other stickers for when they record their books.  The stickers can be removed from a book and re-used.  I was able to peel the sticker and move it quite easily when I realized I wanted to move a sticker to another spot on the page.  If the stickers can be used in other books and re-recorded over, so to speak, so until the sticky part stops sticking, they are reusable.  Additional sticker packs are available for purchase from the manufacturer. 

To say that my son liked “reading” his book with Anybook is an understatement.  He kept asking me if the voice was me and went through the book several times in a row.  It was very exciting to him to hear his mom read to him through this gadget.  I later recorded a second book; A is for Angry, by Sandra Boynton, a favorite author of ours.  He enjoyed reading and using the Anybook reader gadget just as much.  With this book, I even added a few things to the recordings, the way I add extras when I read, such as asking him to recite the alphabet at the end of the story.  I also used the Mommy sticker on the front and included a personalized greeting with the title of the book.

The Anybook by Franklin Discover is sure to be a hit this holiday season.  I am going to recommend it to a friend of mine whose daughter adores reading so much she would be happy to be read to all day.  This is the perfect gadget for a family with a parent that travels or is in the military.  What a great way to be there for a child by being able to read a story to them even when you can’t be there in person.  I am planning to have my husband record a few books for my son so that when he is away on his next business trip or even just at work during the day, my son can listen to daddy read to him.  I also am hoping to have my son’s grandparent’s record a book so that we have their voices recorded for him.  With it being so easy to use, a book can be recorded in just a few minutes more than it takes to read it. 

Disclosure:  I was provided with a complimentary Anybook gadget and stickers set for the purpose of this review.  The opinions and experience expressed here are honest and my own!  

(product photo is courtesy of Franklin Discover, child photo is the author's!)