If it looks good, smells good and tastes good...
I love the Vine program, especially lately since the newsletters have been much much better targeted to my interests.
If you don't know about Vine, it's a buzz program that Amazon does, people who are a part of it get 4 books or other products a month to review. There are 2 newsletters, the first one, on the 3rd Thursday of the month is a targeted newsletter you can pick 2 items off of, it's targeted by purchases you've made and things you've reviewed. In the last few months, the targeted letters have gotten shorter, but for me at least, they are much better targeted. The second newsletter is the leftovers letter a week later, and you get to pick from whatever is leftover from everyone's newsletters plus things leftover from previous months. You have to review at least 75% of what you get to order more books, and you can't post the reviews in other places.
I'm easy. Even the newsletters that weren't super well targeted had things I was interested in. I like books. I ordered a lot of young adult novels for my kids in those first couple of months, plus business management books for Mike. I read them, reviewed them, then handed them to the family member I thought would enjoy them. The last few months though, I've been getting a lot more of what I love. Cookbooks. Craft books. Happy Shala! The idea that people will send me free books for writing essentially a book report.. YAY! I can do that.
So my books haven't arrived from what I ordered last Thursday of course, but my first choice was easy. Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey Treats for Kids by Jill O'Conner. It's mostly for E of course. Her eyes lit up when she heard the title.
The second book was a harder choice. There was one on Tai Chi that looked interesting, but there was also Cookin' With Coolio: 5 Star Meals at a 1 Star Price. So I finally just asked Mike which he thought I should get. Well.. he dithered. I don't think he wanted really to admit which one he wanted. Finally he said "Cookin' With Coolio, but it's your choice!"
So I ordered it. I'm looking forward to getting it.
Looks like a lot of fun. Really truly. Mike had to run out in the company van today, and the radio station was set to what the last person who drove it liked, and on that station there was an interview with Coolio about his new cookbook. So now Mike's even more intrigued. I think he plans to bring the cookbook with him to work after I finish reviewing it to show to a couple of his co-workers.
In other news- car still isn't fixed. Our mechanic had a couple days off, but it should be fixed Wednesday hopefully.
Yesterday I strained the vanilla beans out of my extract, and laid them out to dry. So I'll be mixing them with sugar for E and Splenda in a pretty jar for Lamar. I'll probably recycle an old jar and put a pretty label on it and maybe put some fabric over the top.
If you mixed in the bottle like I did for my vanilla extract, you'll need to shake the bottle occasionally to loosen up the beans to get them all out. I strained into a strainer with a coffee filter in it to make sure I got out all the caviar into a glass measuring cup. I only have about a half cup of extract left because after it went a month, I started using it. It's developed very nicely, but I know for the next batch I do, I'll need to use two bottles of vodka if I want plenty to give away. It's really just that good.
If you don't know about Vine, it's a buzz program that Amazon does, people who are a part of it get 4 books or other products a month to review. There are 2 newsletters, the first one, on the 3rd Thursday of the month is a targeted newsletter you can pick 2 items off of, it's targeted by purchases you've made and things you've reviewed. In the last few months, the targeted letters have gotten shorter, but for me at least, they are much better targeted. The second newsletter is the leftovers letter a week later, and you get to pick from whatever is leftover from everyone's newsletters plus things leftover from previous months. You have to review at least 75% of what you get to order more books, and you can't post the reviews in other places.
I'm easy. Even the newsletters that weren't super well targeted had things I was interested in. I like books. I ordered a lot of young adult novels for my kids in those first couple of months, plus business management books for Mike. I read them, reviewed them, then handed them to the family member I thought would enjoy them. The last few months though, I've been getting a lot more of what I love. Cookbooks. Craft books. Happy Shala! The idea that people will send me free books for writing essentially a book report.. YAY! I can do that.
So my books haven't arrived from what I ordered last Thursday of course, but my first choice was easy. Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey Treats for Kids by Jill O'Conner. It's mostly for E of course. Her eyes lit up when she heard the title.
The second book was a harder choice. There was one on Tai Chi that looked interesting, but there was also Cookin' With Coolio: 5 Star Meals at a 1 Star Price. So I finally just asked Mike which he thought I should get. Well.. he dithered. I don't think he wanted really to admit which one he wanted. Finally he said "Cookin' With Coolio, but it's your choice!"
So I ordered it. I'm looking forward to getting it.
Click to viewLooks like a lot of fun. Really truly. Mike had to run out in the company van today, and the radio station was set to what the last person who drove it liked, and on that station there was an interview with Coolio about his new cookbook. So now Mike's even more intrigued. I think he plans to bring the cookbook with him to work after I finish reviewing it to show to a couple of his co-workers.
In other news- car still isn't fixed. Our mechanic had a couple days off, but it should be fixed Wednesday hopefully.
Yesterday I strained the vanilla beans out of my extract, and laid them out to dry. So I'll be mixing them with sugar for E and Splenda in a pretty jar for Lamar. I'll probably recycle an old jar and put a pretty label on it and maybe put some fabric over the top.
If you mixed in the bottle like I did for my vanilla extract, you'll need to shake the bottle occasionally to loosen up the beans to get them all out. I strained into a strainer with a coffee filter in it to make sure I got out all the caviar into a glass measuring cup. I only have about a half cup of extract left because after it went a month, I started using it. It's developed very nicely, but I know for the next batch I do, I'll need to use two bottles of vodka if I want plenty to give away. It's really just that good.