Friday Things #394
1. Math assessments while waiting at the allergy office 🤓 This boy is obsessed with numbers, counting, adding, etc.
2. My little best buddies, they are hardly ever an arms-length away from each other 😍
3. Great food for thought >> How to Stop Living Life on Autopilot
4. Who owns a GreenPan? I have a large non-stick skillet, but it’s sometimes too large for certain tasks and I’ve been thinking about adding a smaller one to my arsenal. I’ve heard great things about the GreenPan, and wanted to pick your brains!
5. We ordered sushi for the first time with the kids this week! Joseph said he really liked it (although left the nori on his plate), but Dominic and Isabelle were a hard pass. It’s exciting that Joseph progressing with his allergy tolerance means we can start trying more new things with them!
6. Have you made buffalo chicken dip recently? I feel like it’s quintessential fall food!
7. I made an impulse purchase in my last Costco order (sidenote: is it still considered an “impulse” if you have to add something to Instacart?) and snatched up a bag of Ghiradelli peppermint bark squares. Loving a little taste of Christmas!
8. Love this idea of an after-school snack cheese board! I bet it would be a big hit with my kids.
9. We’ve been watching The Son on Hulu; it was originally on AMC and stars Pierce Brosnan… follows the story of a Texas rancher family over the span of 150 years. Some of the scenes are a little violent and I have to not look, but it is an excellent story!
10. TGIF! I hope you have a great weekend!
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My cardiologist recommended the blue diamond pots and pans. I must look into it all my non sticks are developing stick to itness lately. Tenacity is of great value in humans not so great with pots and pans.
Love watching your children grow and develope their own personalities. You are a great mom.
I love that your son likes numbers. My youngest son does too. I remember he taught himself how to count by 2’s and 3’s when he was still young enough to sit on the counter to “help” me bake and started counting the cookies cooling on the baking sheet by 2. It surprised me. Some kids are just born with that kind of mind. So kudos to Dominic!! As far as the green pan, I have the smaller size one and am thinking of getting the bigger size. My older son is learning to cook by himself and he burned some eggs on it, and I had the hardest time hand-scrubbing it off. What eventually worked was putting it in the dishwasher face down on the top rack, and it came out clean. Who knew?!? Just my two cents. Have a good weekend! Thanks for all you do on this site.
Hi Michelle! Firs, I hear Dominic and Isabelle on the sushi…not a fan. *L* As for pans – I had a Green Pan. Thought it was great…at first. Used it daily and it kept getting harder and harder and harder to clean because things just stuck. Recently bought a pair of Scan Pan Pros. I absolutely LOVE THEM.
Hi Michelle,
Here are my thoughts on the green pans. I have about 4 or so of them. I have mixed opinions and it depends on how you want to use them.
1. Not all green pans can be used on an inductive stove. The newer ones can, so you should check.
2. I liked the larger green pan skillet as you can cook 4 pancakes at a time.
3. What I did not know, and it is in the pamphlet, that they are not for high heat. So if you really want to turn up the heat to sear something, I would recommend using a different pan.
4. I had used it for eggs and other higher heat cooking and the coating will go bad. You can clean the pan, but with a lot of effort once the coating goes bad.
5. I am now trying the non-green color pans (e.g. black) that are approved for inductive tops. They seem good, but I have had them less than a year. My cook top is smooth – e.g. radiant heating.
6. For the new pans,, I am careful not to heat things up too hot.
7. I also have a few Kirkland brand pans that seem to hold up very good.
My favorite pan is the large green pan I destroyed. I love the shape and size. I have been looking around for something similar, if not another green pan. I am also considering a company that makes expensive pans out of the UK (Alex Pole), that are like cast iron, but can be used on stoves, etc. It would be a real splurge.
I picked up an instant pot that we are trying now. Tried split pea soup, but I added extra stuff and it turned out more like bean soup. Much to try.
Love your emails and it is wonderful to see how fast your family is growing!
Those peppermint squares are the best. Love the dark chocolate over the other one.
I can’t get over how much sweet little Isabelle looks just like your mini-me😊. I always wonder if you had blonde hair as a child.
Aww, thank you! My hair has always been brown, but my husband’s was quite blonde when he was little!!
I prefer the older cast iron skillets. I had a ceramic skillet and it pitted on me, total waste of money.
Those peppermint squares are the best. Love the dark chocolate over the other one.
I love seeing your children–they are so loving and kind to each other!
I have 2 Greenpan… Something skillets, has a waffled texture to the white ceramic coating. Came as a 2-fer from Costco. Loved them the first few months, then they became harder to clean if any bits/residue stuck. Food still comes out easily.
But clean up is a pill. Have read ceramics don’t last that long. would not repurchase. Am liking an 8″ Circulon Radiance(?) Skillet i got recently at Tuesday Morning.
Your cutie noodlemuffin and pupper pics always make me smile!
The Son. I read the book and it is violent. A good book though that might upend what you think you know.
I haven’t made your buffalo dip, but my recipe is very similar – it uses Mrs Marzetti blue cheese dressing instead of ranch and quantities are roughly half of your recipe. But my daughter (22 yrs) wanted buffalo mac and cheese this week and wanted my buffalo dip ‘on top of mac and cheese. So I mixed up the dip ingredients and cooked some pasta. Mixed about half of the dip with the pasta and put the rest of top of that. Sprinkled some extra cheddar on top of that and baked it for 15-20 min at 350. It was da bomb! Very rich, but delicious. May have been better to have baked it a little longer (~25 min)
I wish I could get my kiddo to try sushi, but he hates rice, so it’s a no go for us. However, if your kiddos like rice, perhaps try the veggie sushi with them first…something familiar, like cucumber rolls, or veggie rolls (futo maki), sweet potato tempura rolls are amazing and a little sweet/savory…Saga (in Cranberry) even has rolls with tempura fried chicken in the middle. Those all sound kid-friendly to me…I have made “dessert sushi” with mine, using rice krispie treats, swedish fish and fruit by the foot (for the nori). Candy, of course, he will eat.
Do you have a TJMaxx near you? I got these really cool nonstick skillets there a year or two back. Not sure if they still have. And otherwise I do cuisine art and splurged on one allclad.
My kids have allergies too and so we had to avoid some foods and ethnicity restaurants for a long time and I feel like that impacted some of their food choices. We eat quite a wide variety but I also wanted to be able to order sushi as a family. What helped was making our own. The nori was eaten as well :). And getting the seasoned seaweed helped break the plain nori aversion. They snack on seasoned seaweed and eat sushi :). Yay
Good luck!
Love my green pans! I have a couple from Sur La Table and actually got a set from Christmas that Costco sold. NOTHING sticks to them, food cooks nice and evenly, and they clean so easily! Definitely worth the investment.
I’m with Joseph. For years (well, decades), I thought that I didn’t like sushi (technically, I don’t if you use the term narrowly). Turns out, I just don’t like nori. I love sashimi and nigiri, just not rolls/sushi.