Author Archives: Meg
The Kitchen Report: Ninja Master Prep Professional
Though we usually review snacks here at PCFG, from time to time we’ll also review kitchen equipment. Unless otherwise noted, none of our product reviews are paid for. The only bonus we’ll get is if you decide to order something through our Amazon Associates link, and even then the amount we get isn’t worth lying over. Our reviews are simply to give our opinion on things we think our readers are interested in.
Since the return of Smoothie Sunday is right around the corner, I decided to do a review of the blender I use to make my smoothies.
When I first started making smoothies I was using a blender that I’m pretty sure was older than me because I think it was one of my parents’ wedding presents. Needless to say, a 20+ year old blender didn’t handle making smoothies that well. We got a new blender, but it was still the same style – with the motor on the bottom and the jar part that goes on top with the little blades in the bottom. It worked better at first, but soon I ran into similar problems. The ice would jam up the blades and smoothie making was just generally a hassle. It was time to try something new.
The Snack Report: Dole Smoothie Shakers
Smoothie Sunday season is almost here! I better get to work and start coming up with some new smoothie recipes! In the mean time, I decided to ease into things by reviewing some smoothie products you can buy in stores. First up is Dole Smoothie Shakers. These seem to be the option for if you want a quick smoothie on the go since no blender is necessary. There are seven flavors available (though I only saw two in the store I was in): blueberry banana, pineapple mango, strawberry raspberry, peach mango, strawberry, strawberry banana, and mixed berry. I tried pineapple mango. I went with that one because it also has carrot and sweet potato in it, and since I tried making my own carrot and sweet potato smoothies last year, I wanted to see how a different one would taste. I also I just enjoy both pineapple and mango.
So, how did the smoothie stand up?
Pizza Lab #42: Cinnamon Bun Pizza
Ask and ye shall receive. This month’s Pizza Lab was actually a request from a fan. We’d already been tossing around ideas for a different pizza, but when the request came in we jumped to it and brainstormed how to make this pizza work. We briefly tossed around the idea of making them cinnamon roll style, just using pizza dough instead of cinnamon bun dough. But ultimately we decided that, while it’d probably be delicious, it strayed too far from the traditional pizza format to be a Pizza Lab (though we may still experiment with that sometime in the future). Just putting cinnamon and sugar on the pizza dough would have resulted in a pizza too similar to the dessert pretzel pizza we made years ago. It was time to take things to the next level. We had to make this a stuffed pizza.
Test the Recipe: Grandma Lil’s Peanut Butter Cookies
“Test the Recipe” is a recurring column on PCFG where we test vintage (anything published before 1990) recipes and see if they stand the test of time or need updating. In this post we test the recipe as exactly as possible for the most accurate outcomes. Those recipes that need updating will be featured later in a “We Can Do It Better” post.
I’m mixing things up a little bit with this Test the Recipe post because I didn’t find it in a book; I found it in my grandma’s recipe box. As such, I don’t know the actual date on it, but considering the recipe is my great-grandmother’s I think it’s fairly safe to assume that the recipe falls within the time frame I established. I think a lot of the Christmas cookies my mom makes use my great-grandma’s recipes, but she doesn’t usually make peanut butter cookies, so I wanted to give these a try. I really enjoy peanut butter, and cookies are great, so I was excited to have some peanut butter cookies to eat. I’m sure my great-grandma didn’t come up with the recipe totally from scratch, but I don’t know where she may have gotten the original recipe from either.
Great-grandma Lillian
The Snack Report: Thomas’ Blueberry English Muffins
I feel like I start a lot of my Snack Reports with, “I was in the grocery store and saw this on sale.” But that’s really how I end up finding most of the stuff I review. Some foodstuffs I hear about in advance and seek out to review, but a lot I find while just wandering around the grocery store, and if it’s on sale, I’m game for giving it a try. So…I was in the grocery store the other day and saw these blueberry English muffins on sale. Actually I saw a different Thomas’ product on sale first, but it’s going to be on sale for longer than these are, so I ended up getting them first. I had tried the limited edition apple pie English muffins a few months ago and enjoyed them, so I figured blueberry English muffins were worth a shot as well; I like both blueberries and English muffins.
The Poor Couple's Food Guide 
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