Archive for January, 2010
I have to blog about this child restraint harness. This is absolutely an amazing product in my personal opinion. I am so happy to have found it. We live far away from my parent's and fly to visit them often. I will be buying this child restraint harness now and using every time we go on the plane. What a blessing.
Anyone out there that has purchased this child restraint harness and used it, please leave comments for the rest of us. We would love to hear the feedback and comments about this product.
Cares claims the following about their product; The Cares child restraint harness is good for 22 to 44lbs. It claims to be the only child restraint harness approved by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). At a weight of 1 pound and fitting in a 6 inch bag, it is easier than carrying a car seat on and off a plane. It claims to be made of the same strength webbing as your own seatbelt on the plane. The webbing is manufactured by AmSafe Aviation who is the main manufacturer of aviation seatbelts.
I am really sold on the idea of this product and will be ordering one as soon as I am done blogging about it. I am so excited about this product. This is way easier than carrying on a car seat and based on what Cares claims and having the FAA approval, it appears to be safe. Check it out yourself and make your own determination on its safety. Make sure you research it and feel comfortable with your decision.
Check out this short video about Cares.
I have blogged about Presale Show Codes and Offers before. I am going to blog about it again now as the new Presale Codes for the upcoming Franklin Show are out as of today. How did I get these codes? It is actually really easy and I am going to tell you how to get them yourself.
Have you ever purchased tickets and seen that box asking for your promotion code or offer? Ever wondered how people get those codes? Have you searched the internet trying to find the codes only to find people trying to sell them to you? Well, I am going to tell you what to do to get them. It only takes a little bit of work once, to get the codes you want for future shows.
There are two things you can do to obtain presale codes and I recommend you do both as the discounts are sometimes different depending on which code you are using.
Firstly,go to Ticketmaster for you country and set your show preferences for which you want to be notified for. Set the My Performers, My Venues, My Teams and My TicketAlert. I have these set for Children shows and I receive ticketalerts from Ticketmaster about everything I am interested in.
I recently received the Presale Show Code for Franklin And The Adventures of the Noble Knights. I have the code for Canada, which is TREASURE.
To use the code you purchase your tickets through Ticketmaster and enter the code TREASURE in the promotions box.
The other thing that you have to do to receive discount codes is sign up for the updates and newsletters at the company who manages the live shows which you are interested in.
For example;
If you want to know about Disney on Ice show you have to sign up on their website under the Get Connected area.
Another good site to sign up for the newsletters and updates in order to receive the discount codes is Koba Entertainment. You will see on Koba Entertainment's home page at the bottom right a question that says "Want Presale Announcements? Sign Up." That is where you sign up and you will receive presale show codes for shows such as Franklin, Caillou, The Backyardigans, Doodlebops, Little Bear, or whomever they represent and is touring.
I receive the Presale Show Codes from Koba Entertainment which arrives in an email from Paquin Entertainment and I just received a code for the Franklin show from them as well. The code from Paquin Entertainment appears to be a bigger discount than the Ticketmaster code. However, the Ticketmaster code appears to be good for Canada, where the Paquin Entertainment code appears to be specific to your given location.
My Paquin Entertainment code for the upcoming Franklin show is valid from: Presale Offer Period: Jan 18 at 10 AM - Jan 21 at 10 PM
Discount Offer Period: Jan 18 at 10 AM - Jan 31 at 10 PM
The Paquin Presale code is DRAGON.
If you are wanting to purchase tickets for the Franklin show, both presale code offers say that for a limited time you have a chance to also win a meeting with Franklin if you purchase the tickets with the presale code. Ticketmaster seems to indicate the limited time is 72 hours from 10:00 am on January 18th, 2010. The Paquin Entertainment offer does not specify the time.
Another great place to keep an eye on is Kidomo. Kidomo is the company that does the live shows with the life sized characters at various venues such as shopping malls. Kidomo organizes these appearances for Toopy & Binoo, Fifi, Thomas and Friends, Angelina Ballerina and much more. Check them out often as they list where the characters are appearing next and the appearances are often FREE. Kidomo does not appear to have email updates for being notified so this is a website I keep my eye on.
In the end, I hope that you get the discount codes that you want for the shows for your little ones. Don't ever pay for a discount code. Just go sign up to get them yourself. The emails with the discount codes often say to share or send to a friend so remember to save your friends a few dollars also.
See you at the shows 
I am going to share with you the best way to make Plank Smoked BBQ Salmon that people are going to be begging you to make for them every time you invite them over for dinner.
If you love salmon, then you will love my very easy plank smoked salmon recipe.
My Secrets & Tips
First of all, the best salmon I find to smoke on a plank is SOCKEYE. You can smoke any type of salmon, fish or steak for that matter. Meat seems to always be better with a little smoked flavour in it. But the best salmon is a great piece of sockeye.
Ingredients
Sockeye Salmon fillet (as much as you need for you dinner guests)
****Make sure you ask the butcher to use his special deboning tool and get as many bones out as possible. Makes it nicer for eating. But hey fish has bones so no worries if there are a few in there still.*****
Plank (Alder or Cedar)
Sea Salt
Lemon Pepper seasoning (I like the Clubhouse brand)
Appeoximately 3 Tablespoons of Lemon juice (Bottle or fresh you choose)
Spray Bottle FULL of water
1. Soak the plank for at least two hours prior to cooking. This needs to be done so that the plank smokes and does not just catch on fire. I just soak it in my kitchen sink. Make sure both sides get soaked though.
2. Take your salmon fillet and put it on a plate. Season it by rubbing in the lemon pepper seasoning and sea salt. The salmon fillet should be generously seasoned. Not too much sea salt though as this will just make the salmon really salty and over power the lemon pepper.
3. Warm your BBQ and get it all clean and ready for cooking. Make sure you have your full spray water bottle by the bbq because no doubt at some point your plank might have a few flames you need to put out.
4. Bring the plank you are using out and tongs and place the smoothest side of the plank down on the bbq. You will be cooking the salmon on the smooth side. You place it down on the bbq to seal the plank. So just a few seconds until the plank looks a bit dry. Then flip the plank over now. Smooth side should now be up.
5. Take the lemon juice and put some on the smooth side of the plank. I think that three tablespoons is usually about enough. Then place the salmon fillet skin down on the plank. You put the lemon juice under the salmon because this helps to keep it really moist. You can use water instead of lemon juice if you want. All depends on how much you want the lemon flavour in the salmon.
6. Now adjust the temperature to keep the plank smoking and not on fire. Close the lid to keep the smoke in. Make sure to stay there and keep an eye on it at all times in case the plank ignites. You need to be there to put the ignited portion of the plank out with your water bottle and to adjust the temperature.
Telling you what temperature works best is hard as all bbqs seem to be different. I find that I usually need to keep the temperature between the low and medium setting, but closer to the low if I want smoke and not major flames.
7. DO NOT FLIP THE SALMON. The salmon never gets flipped. It stays skin side down the entire time you are cooking it.
8. I tend to find that salmon fillets take about 20 minutes to bbq. When the fillet is done, it looks a lighter pink and the oils have started to form on top of the salmon. You will see the oil is white and coming out to the top of the salmon. If you take a fork and pull at a flake of the salmon fillet, it will just fall apart when it is done.
Make sure it is cooked in the thickest part of the fillet. That is usually where I put the fork to pull a flake apart to make sure the fillet is cooked.
Do not over cook the salmon. If you do it will be dry.
9. I like to serve the salmon on a platter of lettuce. It just looks great this way.
10. Turn the bbq off when you are done cooking the salmon and let the plank cool completely on the top rack. Planks are only used once, so discard when completely cooled.
Which Wood Should You Use?
I tend to like Alder better, but Alder tends to be more expensive. Cedar is a great choice and is usually the more popular type of wood. The best is to do a piece on each and let everyone tell you their preference. You can really see how the wood affects the taste of the salmon when you have a fillet cooked on Alder and one cooked on Cedar.
There are many packages of planks that you can buy that have both Cedar and Alder in them. You just need to experiment and figure out which one you like best. It is just a matter of taste.
Now how easy was that?! Great salmon to impress your dinner guests with and oh so simple.
I have always loved cooking and baking. People have always commented on how great my recipes are, but the one thing that I get told the most is that I have great buns
This is a really easy and not very time consuming bun recipe. In total it will take about two hours to make your amazing buns, but most of the time you are having to go keep yourself busy elsewhere while you wait for your dough to rise.
Hope you have fun with this recipe and that people tell you that you have amazing buns too. It is a complement that I love
The Recipe
Ingredients
1 1/2 cup of LUKEWARM water
4 TBS sugar
1/4 cup oil
1 egg
1 TBS yeast
1 TSP salt
4 cups (or so) flour
Now lets get mixing.....
Take the lukewarm water and place it in a nice size bowl. My Mom always said that the bowl should be a special one because the bowl that the dough is mixed in helps make the bread good. I agree with this and so I always mix my bread in my Royal Worcester large mixing bowl. Superstition I guess! Also, make sure the water is lukewarm.....too hot or too cold will make the yeast not work as well.
With the lukewarm water in your gorgeous bowl, put in the 4 TBS of sugar, the 1/4 cup of oil (vegetable is what I use) and 1 egg. Mix all that together. I use my whisk and get it all good and mixed up.
Now go get that TBS of yeast and sprinkle it over your mixture. Let it sit for a few seconds and then just gently mix it all together with the whisk. Don't get all excited and kill the yeast mixing it too hard though! Now put the 1 TSP of salt in the misture and gently mix it in again with your whisk.
Now we are ready for the messy part to start.....so far so good and easy though right?!
Take a cup of flour and pur it in the mixture. Get a plastic or wooden spoon and stir it in. Once it is mixed well add another cup of flour and mix it too. Sounding repetative, but grab that third cup of flour and pour it in there and mix it in as best you can. Ok now you have to ditch that spoon cause it just will not be able to mix well enough anymore.
Get two more cups of flour ready in a measuring cup on the counter beside your bowl. I know I said it only takes cups of flour, but it usually takes a wee bit more than that to make the mixture perfect.
Add a fourth cup of flour and mix with your hands. You should have a cup of flour still in the measuring cup sitting beside our bowl. Now we are having fun and we are also at the important part. You have to mix that dough with love. Get it all nice and mixed evening and together. You probably have dough stuck to you hands and that is a sure sign that you need to reach over and grab that cup of flour in the measuring cup on the counter and put a BIT in. Do not put the entire thing in. Mix in a bit at a time until the dough is smooth and you can handle it without it sticking all over our hands.You will now when the dough is perfect because it will be smooth as a baby's bum.
Now put the dough in the special bowl. Put some oil or melted butter, whatever you prefer, into your hand and rub the top of the dough you have placed in the bowl. Cover it with a clean dish towel and let it rise for 15 minutes.
After 15 minutes go punch that dough down. Pick it up and knead it a bit and it should feel smooth and you might even hear some air pop out of it. Perfect! Now get your non-stick pan out and grab chunks of dough and roll it into smooth balls. Make the top look good, because any cracks will be seen on the top of the bun when cooked. I like my buns smooth! Make the buns whatever size you want. I like to make 12 buns with this recipe because I like a good sized bun. As you have each one ready, place it in your non-stick pan. once all of your buns are in their pan, then get your oil or melted butter again and rub the tops of the buns.
Now cover the buns with a clean dish towel and let rise for one hour. When you return in an hour, your buns should have grown and look awesome.
Preheat the oven to 350 degress F and when ready put them in the oven for 18 to 20 minutes. You will know that the buns are ready when the tops are a nice golden brown. Take them out when ready and get them out of the pan and cooling on a cooling rack.
There you have it.....amazing buns.