Party
Animal
Ok,
we have to admit it, Party Animal Dancing Pet Speaker is cute, cute, cute.
Cobra Digital’s “toys” have adjustable arms so Tom or Cleo the Cats can jive
with Sandy the dog. I played with Spike, a black dog with a white belly who
made everyone smile when he swayed hips and tilted his head to music from the
laptop. My daughter chose “Cabaret” for his debut. Spike goes from Broadway to
pop and beyond with style. A portion of Party Animal proceeds benefit animal
support groups, so the smiles keep spreading. We brought this to a party and it stopped traffic.
The Yogurt experiments
My friend Brenda stumbled upon my yogurt experiments and
now she wants a T-Fal Balanced Living Yogurt Maker, too. It seems young people
in her household are consuming flavored store-bought cups of the stuff at an
alarming rate. Sure, it’s a better snack/dessert than many other options, but
the costs can stack up. Making your own is a budget buster and allows you to
control ingredients. You make it with your milk and starter, add fruit, honey,
etc. if you like, but leave out a host of artificial gunk that you read about
on some labels.
I’ve enjoyed several batches of thick, creamy yogurt
from the T-Fal and love the jars with a dial-a-date lid you can pack for work.
I heat milk, mix it with starter, fill the jars and set the maker for at least
8 hours. The next morning, the jars are ready to refrigerate. My preference is
plain yogurt with honey, nuts, chocolate shavings and such added upon serving.
I’ll bet my friend will play around with the cooked fruit versions. For the
holidays, I’m going to strain some into yogurt cheese and serve it with olive
oil and herbs. Imagine, an addictive hobby like this can help you keep up with
New Year’s Resolutions.
The bamboo business
Core Bamboo has a catalogue with the most tempting
bamboo kitchen creations. It’s easy to visualize chip and dip bowls, cake
pedestals, serving and cutting boards, and serving utensils created in smooth
natural, or brightly colored wood. The look is simple and clean and classic and
modern. Here’s the thing that amazed me, the knives. I tried a vegetable dicer
that’s both soft and sharp, and I even shredded red cabbage with it. I carried
it around in my purse for a week just to show people and let them feel it. They
were as impressed as I was. The line includes serrated slices for bread. Of
course, your cheese tray would be graced by such a well-bread tool.
What you need to know about men
“Men Don’t Pee Straight: And Other Things You Should
Know About Us” is Mr. Rick Dean’s little book that reveals much. It’s
apparently well documented that men think about food, sex and sleep, and will
even on occasion buck the notorious trend for not asking directions if it is
for something like sex, sleep or food. Men need attention, the author asserts,
and they do so by doing things like yelling, driving fast cars and drinking.
Under the fragile ego category, he suggests that asking “Can you lift that”
constitutes fighting words. The mode of this book reminds me of ‘70s printings
read in the “grown-up” section of gag stores. Of course, it’s meant to be funny
and the notions don’t sum up all of mankind, but I’ve got to admit, from my own
experience, that I snickered under the cleaning dishes section that men find
more than one spoon confusing.
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