I couldn't end 2011 with a post about the stupid door-to-door Kirby vacuum cleaner salesman...

It's New Year's Eve.

I'm hitting the hard stuff...

 ...and it's only 8 o'clock.

I rarely drink soda...especially not caffeinated soda, so I really am livin' large tonight. 

My husband just left for the party to sing in the New Year. Everyone is to bring a song that will represent their 2012. I told him to pick "I'm Too Sexy" by Right Said Fred. Instead, he chose "If I Were a Rich Man" from Fiddler on the Roof...but he changed the title to "When I AM a Rich Man" and rewrote the lyrics to reflect what he wants to have in his life. Clever man, he. 

I do kind of wish I were going, but someone has to hold down the fort. So instead I'm sneakily sucking down Dr. Pepper in a dark corner in the kitchen while watching movies with my older three kids. We are having a slumber party in the family room...they are so excited. 

I know they look glazed over...a screen'll do that to a body...

but they really are excited.

Before he left, my husband made stuffed mushrooms as his potluck contribution to the singing party...and he pulled out a Granny's Gadget for their preparation :) Unfortunately, I was not around for the initial usage, but Baby X and I staged a re-enactment for your viewing pleasure...my camera work is not as professional as my husband's...and it was very challenging to ad-lib the narrative and wield the camera and direct the action all at the same time :P

Nonetheless, I give you...

#31

Ooops!

Forgot...it's been a long while so I'm cutting myself some slack...

Had to tack this on...my Granny's Gadgets video policy is 

~ONE TAKE~

so no do-over to get the big thumbs up in there at the end.

And on that note...

I am giving this year...this two thousand eleven...this year of super cool happenings and then some...

two big thumbs up :)

Wishing each and every one of you all the wonderment and joy life has to offer in 2012.

Slacker Suburban Housewife's Single-Serving Tuna Casserole

You don't have to be a slacker housewife to make this dish. Just being lazy or tired or pressed for time...or just hungry for tuna casserole when no one else is would be criteria enough.


Is anyone ever hungry for tuna casserole?

Why, yes! In fact, I was sitting in my third parent/teacher conference of the morning on this cold, rainy day when I suddenly became obsessed with the idea of making tuna casserole and eating it. This is not something I ever make. Nor is it something my own mom ever made. It is not something my kids have ever eaten. Or heard about...until last week. Baby X read about it in a book and asked me about it. That must be what planted the seed. *my 'a-ha' moment*

After an arduous trip to Target during which a lady totally slammed her cart into my body ("I could swear you weren't there!" was her excuse) and it really, really hurt. Also during which we had severe disagreements about the stupid wrapping bag/paper/ribbon for a child's birthday present and intermittent whining about the lack of Lego purchases...I needed comfort food. And for some irrational reason, tuna casserole sounded very comforting.

There is no way in Hades my kids would eat tuna casserole, so I knew I was on my own. I made them their lunch and then made mine. I know tuna casserole is easy, and everyone who's reading this and likes tuna casserole already knows how to make it, but whatever... here is my slacker way to make enough for one person.

What you'll need:

Tools

• small saucepan
• can opener
• oven- or microwave-safe bowl
• fork
• knife

Ingredients

• water
• large handful of pasta (I chose Bionaturae Gluten-Free Elbow Macaroni because this type of GF pasta is the best, in my opinion)
• 5-oz. can of tuna, opened and drained
• glop of mayonnaise (for greasiness)
• squirt of sweet pickle relish (for zest)
• salt and pepper
• cheese, sliced (I used havarti and gruyère and cheddar)

Directions:

Pasta

1. Put enough water into saucepan to cook the pasta (I fill the pan as full as I can because I always forget that I am cooking something and this way all the water doesn't boil away and the pasta and pan do not burn). 
2. Put pan of water on the burner and turn that burner on (this is a critical step). Set to "high."
3. Bring water to a boil and then place in the large handful of pasta.
4. Set timer for the prescribed amount of cooking time...usually found on the packaging. Start the timer and put in a prominent location where you are likely to hear it when it goes off.
5. Try to remember to stir occasionally so pasta doesn't clump.
6. Turn burner off when timer goes off or when you remember that the pasta is still cooking.

Pasta boiling.

Pasta that was forgotten, 

illustrating the awesomeness of filling the pan with a lot of water.

Everyone clear on how to cook pasta? Okay...good. 

Tuna part

1. Open can with can opener. This part was going to be a Granny's Gadget, but while we were making the video the phone rang, and someone left a really loud and distracting message so we had to can it. (get it?) And no, those are not mouse droppings on the kitchen counter. They are seeds from Big G's seeded sourdough artisan baguette that he needed for his sandwich. Dude is such a princess sometimes.
2. Drain the tuna and dump into oven-safe bowl  It should look like this.
3. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
4. Glop on the mayo and squirt on the relish 
5. Mash and mix it all up with a fork.
6. Add in the pasta and stir it all up until well mixed.
7. Slice the cheese. Layer on top of pasta and tuna mixture 
8. Bake uncovered in conventional oven at 425ºF for 15 minutes or zap in the microwave for 2 minutes 30 seconds on 70% power (or until cheese is melted). Oven method produces nice crusty browning of cheese ...

Yum.

And you know that if I can make this without hurting anyone or burning the house down, you can, too :)

Important note: after seeing how yummy this looked, and largely because of the fact that it did not produce that frighteningly cat food-like odor but instead the delicious smell of toasting cheese, my kids were hovering over me begging for bites. Well, not really. But they didn't run gagging and screaming from the room... so I'm calling it a 'win.'

All the things this blog's been missing...

...are back.

Up until about six weeks ago, we had a couple of regulars going on here at Taking It On. They gave things a little structure... or something. In any event, once my husband left me, they kind of went by the wayside. And after that... well... then I had the big thing that I am trying not to mention for the rest of the week because I have been told I need to let go. (what I want to know is... how do you "let go" of one of the coolest, funnest, most amazing things of your life? anyone?)

So today we are returning to routine... we are grabbing those three regulars and wallowing in the 80's... Doing it up BIG time... you can tell by the beer and the big hair...

...shrouded in mystery...

Granny's Gadget #29 (it's been so long, I had to research which number we were on and it wasn't easy!)

I used one of these a LOT in the 80's.

I don't think twist-tops existed back then.

Does anyone remember?

Vecchio Venerdi

I didn't spend a ton of time this slack-jawed, but I did frequently have a beer in my hand.

Note the Farrah hair... classic early 1980's.

Musique

And I might need to apologize... but I had to put this on here.
Such a classic 1980's music video... the tight jeans and the butt shaking...
and what the heck is that weird pearl necklace, one-sided epaulet thing?

Who remembers the 80's? Anyone else old enough? 

What is your favorite memory from way back then?

***********************

Additionally, I need to give a huge shout out to The Blonde Ponytail and Tall Mom on the Run... two of my Team Nuun mates... Jess and I both served in Nuun Platuun and Mel and I were roomies the night before the main event... that I am on hiatus from mentioning. Jess isn't going for a specific time as this is her first 10K, but she has sworn to achieve swagina.

These two awesome women are running in the Athleta IronGirl 5K/10K this weekend in Seattle! Go, friends! Go! I am so envious... I'll bet they'll even get a chance to meet up with some of the awesome Nuun people.

Anyone else racing this weekend? I am not... I will be running a memorial 11 on 9/11/11 with some other friends... Cupcake and Co.

I hope this weekend is beautifully memorable for everyone :)

Do you like avocado? And more Friday FUN stuff.

Got that gadget! ... keeping you guessing... no longer reserved for Mondays ;-)

Summer turns me all around and upside down. Some people seem to think I live on the computer and spend no time with my kids. Not true. The truth is... I don't sleep. Not very much, anyway. It is a bad habit that I am working hard to break. 

Last week's ice cream scooper was deemed 'weak' by my husband. While this week's gadget is a little more ...ummm... rare, I feel a need to apologize for my somewhat 'weak' presentation. I usually get super pumped to do the gadget, but being sort of injured and tired and basically fried, the perfect opportunity to do the video did not coincide with my pumpedness. It happens.

I actually bought these awesome avocados last weekend in anticipation of this video, wanting to present a perfect 'cado being serviced by the perfect 'cado gadget... well, I waited a little long and suddenly realized that my window of opportunity was about to slam shut. Must do gadget video NOW! is what the last not-rotten avocado screamed at me.

I present to you...Granny's Gadget #28...

To hopefully make up for the suckiness of my attitude, I am including the outtake...because this girl is just the supercutest thing EVER!!!!

And after I cranked (as in was cranky) my way through the video and through dinner and through the evening round of swim lessons, I got to go work out!!! yay!!!! more exclamation points!!!!

I want to again thank Big Daddy Diesel and Patrick from The Road for encouraging me to try the bike. I was so resistant. So resistant. But it is saving my life. I even went and got that leaky tire fixed so that I don't have to carry the big pump around with me in the backpack anymore and pump it up every 15 minutes!

I rode my bike for 55 delicious minutes... fairly vigorously. I don't know how far I go or how fast I go... I just go until I need to stop. My legs were quivering when I was done, so I know it was a good effort :)

The sun had already set when I started, and the fog was rolling in. We live in a little pocket that seems to get the fog last... it's pretty sweet. But I do so love watching it stream through the Golden Gate and tumble over the hills of Marin County, on its way to nestle up in the East Bay hills.

The view of the fogbank as I stepped outside The Gate...

looking south... 

(you are looking at that Costco in the distance)

and looking west...

the beauty that is the fog...

obscuring the view of the Golden Gate Bridge.

I came home feeling way less cranky. 

Playing Catch-Up Big Time

Oh, boy!

I have been Slackerama Mama this week... I think it was all those questions that I still haven't answered ;-)

You might think that since I haven't been able to run, I would have tons of time on my hands... but then you might remember that I don't really spend all that much time running and wondered what the heck is going on. Or maybe you just don't really think about it :P Or care.

Anyway...

Starting with the first forgotten thing...

Granny's Gadget #27! which was supposed to happen on Monday.

My husband accused this one of being kind of weak. But as far as most of us are concerned, if it has to do with ice cream... it's pretty awesome. Am I right?

The second forgotten thing...

Musique pour Mercredi!   which was supposed to happen on Wednesday.

This is the world's worst music video... every time I watch it I just crack up and want to make an imitation of it. I find myself acting out the moves and singing the totally lame song. It is like a really contagious disease or something. Or lice.

These guys caught the disease. They did what I want to do. I am so impressed by the fact that so many of them participated! I think I would be lucky to get anyone other than my kids and my husband to do it with me. I want to party with them!

This couple did a more intimate rendition. Just the two of them were able to effectively do the ensemble dancing and solo parts... incredible! Someone needs to sign them up! I wonder if they already have an agent? hmmmmmm....

And if you made it through the above madness... what with the ice cream scooper (ooooooo) and the triplicate music video (aaahhhhhh) and you are ready for more...

I bring you the third forgotten thing...

Vecchio Venerdì!  which was supposed to happen yesterday.

This week's photo of the past is not a scary-looking guy with scary sideburns... nor is it of the same guy after the beard filled in the spaces between the sideburns... nor is it of that same guy clean-shaven to look like Mr. Clean.

No.

It is a photo of Coach XL and her National Championship-winning crew...

1989 USRowing Senior Nationals

Senior Women's Four with Coxswain

Bachelors Barge Club

Philadelphia

This was, incidentally, the very same regatta at which my own personal "most embarrassing moment" occurred. But that's a story for a different day. And thankfully, there are no pictures of the incident... though they wouldn't be appropriate for this family-friendly blog anyway :P

What's missing?

Life has been very full this past week... what is today anyway?

Quick recap here...

*Thursday... almost hit a return-to-running 5K PR in the middle of a tempo run
*Friday... rode that bike even with it's holey tire (have pump, will ride) and gave Miss C her first-ever chocolate chip cookie :)
* Saturday... awesome grey beach day!
* Sunday... I returned to the scene of self-destruction and took that 9-mile Rapture Run on again, this time triumphing... thanks to my sweet new water bottle
* Monday... I dug through my kids' baby pictures and selected some of my favorites to share in the Rockin' the Baby link-up over at Things I Can't Say
* Tuesday... my brief 'brick' workout in the moonlight by the bay... where I practiced some photo skills with my sucky camera/phone

But do you see what's missing? Did you even miss it? bahahahahhaahaha!

The gadget!

So here's that gadget for you gadget afficionados... #26... in all its gadgety glory...

Would you rather have neatly-balled melon or a teeny tiny scoop of ice cream? With this gadget, you can have both! You could even have both at the same time if you wanted :P 

I know I usually post the gadget on Mondays, but honestly, I don't think anyone really cares... let me know if it really throws you off to have it on a different day, and I'll see what I can do in the future ;-)

Granny's Gadgets #25, a bike ride and GIANT kites!!!

So I'm a little late with our gadget this week...you should now by now that I am that person who is annoyingly 3 to 5 minutes late pretty much all the time. Sorry. It's how I was raised. It's an issue I struggle with and endeavor to correct, but I no longer beat myself up about it... unless it makes me miss a plane or something :P

How many de-followers can I get for that one?  ;-)  I'll let those of you who stay know tomorrow.

My post-Apocalyptic training run on Sunday and my wonderful, sunshiny-with-a-cool-breeze-blowing recovery bike ride yesterday filled most of my free time the last couple of days, leaving just a minute (literally) to film the gadget in action but no time to download it and post it. My sincere and humble apologies to all four of you who expect a new gadget video every Monday.

My bike ride was just what I needed after that cataclysmic ordeal on Sunday. It was the total opposite... cool, calm, breezy, easy and fun! I rode for longer than I have in over a decade... a whopping hour. My butt didn't hurt until the very end. I did get a flat tire somewhere around these awesome kites at my turnaround, but the tires are fat, sturdy mountain bike tires and there did appear to be a little bit of inflation going on, so I just kept going since I was headed home anyway.

You can see the people on the ground for size comparison...

yes, the tiny white dots under the big yellow kite...

these kites are HUGE.

I returned home from this beautiful morning ride to a house humming with activity... my husband is so amazing... he had these kids working! Laundry, cooking, cleaning disastrous rooms... it was incredible and so needed and so appreciated :)

Usually I wait until the kids are in bed to do the filmwork... whether a gadget or a barefoot outdoor activity... but tonight I had my intricate dinner prep filmed 'cuz I used the gadget in real life!

Here it is:

And if you want to know who is screaming in the background...

it's a new phase.

It can't end soon enough.

XL's Make-up Tutorial...

Following my awesome VLOG last week in which I introduced myself and showed my face on camera, I got numerous emails and comments telling me how lovely I am and how incredulous people were that I don't wear make-up. Okay... I got a couple. Two is a number.

Well, folks... I'm coming clean... and as a part of hooking up with the good ladies at Vlog Talk...

Today, I am going to share my make-up routine with  you... watch closely ;-)

Have you ever noticed my URL?  lol

Did you get any of that?

And because I don't do it that often, I forgot to show you how sometimes I wipe my fingers across my eyebrows to try and make them look like they go all the way across the top of each eye. And I also forgot to show you how I do my hair when I am getting ready to go out... I take it out of the bun!  

Woo hooo! That's right... I just whip that ponytail holder right on OUTTA there!  yeah, baby..... mama lets her hair down!

Whew! Can you believe I did two vlogs in one night? If you missed Granny's Gadgets #19... get it HERE. Whoa... I just realized... I posted my race videos earlier today! So that makes more than two in one day ;-)  Seriously, I am so good at math.

And if you have the time... punch that little pink "Vote For Me" button at the top right :) Or click HERE to go directly to my page to vote... no need to join anything or share any info... just two clicks! And you can do it every day :)

Body Image

I wasn't there when this picture was taken and haven't asked for the real story behind the image. She's only 9, so I don't think she is all kinds of head-hangin' sad because her body doesn't look like that thong model.

I think it's because she just finished her ice cream and daddy said, "no" to more.

**********************
And in case you missed the "Vag Off"... you can check it out here (SUAR) and here (XLMIC).

**********************

As part of my Granny's Gadgets presentation yesterday, I opened up a Gadget Challenge! Read more here.... *click*

happy birthday to meeeeeeeee!!!! and the gadget giveaway winner announced!

In the GREAT GADGET GIVEAWAY featuring the amazing garlic peeler, it is:

Table for Seven....

being named the winner of said gadget by way of the Scrabble Method! I swear, I've got to get more creative with my random choosing methods... I almost fell asleep doing this one this time.

If you missed this awesome gadget, here is the instructional video... right here.

So Table for Seven, let me know where this sucker ... and the $15 Target gift card :)... are going by emailing me at:  xlmic.tio (at) gmail.com  and I shall hook you up!

And today is my birthday... I will write a whole narcissistic, attention-seeking post about myself later, but feel free to wish me a happy birthday, become a follower of my blog, go check out my Facebook page and click that lil ol' "LIKE" button... and if you want to see what 47 years, 363 days can look like in action, you will need to see my latest video creation:  Synchronized Carpet Swimming.

If you want to see this become an Olympic sport, you can help by making this video go viral. The IOC would have a hard time turning it down if the WHOLE WORLD was clamoring for it. And we could probably get them to consider the Going-Nowhere-Fast Triathlon also described in that post.

Granny's Gadgets #17... and a giveaway!

This one is probably the most useful gadget to date...

and so easy to use :)

aaaannnnnndddddd.....   drumroll, please...  


It's up for grabs!

The way I found out what this weird thing happens to be is pretty funny. This past Christmas, my stepdad gave us a hot pink one, demonstrated it and went on and on and on about it and how much he LOVED it. After one time using it on our own, we were totally sold. We were so excited to have this little, pliable, rubbery gadget!

Imagine my surprise when going through my Granny's Gadgets stash this week! In the bin was this same gadget... only older and brown... not stylishly hot pink ;-)  At that moment I remembered seeing it in there several years before, back when I received the Gadget stash. And I remembered wondering, "what the....? hmmmmm...." and tossing it back in and never trying to figure it out.

What that means is.... I have TWO!  And one can be YOURS!  It really is an amazing helper. If you use a lot of garlic... or any garlic... you will be so pleased and amazed at how easy and fast this thing works.

To enter this giveaway:

• Be an official Taking It On follower and let me know in a comment that you are one  (this is mandatory this time) 
• Tell me how you currently peel garlic... in another comment  for an extra entry
• Let me know what you think of a Gadget Challenge in which readers post a gadget video of their own and we link them up on Mondays, or people send me their own gadget video and I post it along with mine... or something like that... in yet another comment  for an extra entry
• blog or Facebook link to this giveaway... and let me know in another comment  for an extra entry

That means a separate comment for each attempt at winning. And I will throw in a $15 Target gift card on the side for the winner :)

You may enter up until 12:01 a.m. on Friday, May 6, 2011. I will hold the drawing on Friday in honor of .... my birthday!  Woooo hooooo!  I find giving to be lots of fun :)

Best of luck to all who play!

Granny's Gadgets #16

Whew!

This is the very first time I have actually forgotten to do Granny's Gadgets! Space City over here :P  Must be the jet-lag... I am getting a lot of mileage out of that one ;-)  Oddly, today I received something in the mail that was completely related to gadgety goodness, and I still didn't remember I needed to pick a gadget and make a video. Might have something to do with the gazillion posts I already did today... well, three anyway... one really long one, one cute short one, one about French produce vendors, and one about my hip problem. Another whew for the psycho-ness of all that posting!

After my run tonight, I showered (!) and put on my jammies. My husband was making dinner... as usual (he is a total keeper). When he took a break from the kitchen to go conduct his real business for a few moments, I was languidly slicing the tomato, thinking about the post I would write about the run and the manner in which I would thank Catey from Random Thoughts from the Zoo for the surprise I received in the mail, when it hit me like a rake hidden in the grass... right between the eyes and sharp underfoot.

I need to do a GADGET!!!!!

I looked down at the cutting board, and divine inspiration swept me away...

Here is this week's fine work of gadget-genius from the good people at EKCO...

Contrary to how things turned out tonight, I do think this item will be useful ... on a smaller tomato or a hard-boiled egg... if I had any from Easter, I could have tried it out that way :P

And Catey... you are just  so super sweet!  I am so excited to try out the replacement :) How on earth you have the time to do an ebaby for me... well, honestly, I am blown away by your thoughtfulness and generosity.

Any of you who have not yet checked Catey out... get on over to her blog! She is one of the prettiest, most inspiring, most fit, incredibly organized, thoughtful and perceptive, funny and fun mom of eight kids you could ever hope to read about. She is the reason I not only returned to running but a big part of why I started blogging. I *heart* Catey.

Go!

Granny's Gadgets #15... and last leg of the trip update

Dear Gadgetfans,

I sincerely apologize for leaving you hanging on Monday without a gadget to ponder. Preparations for our return home from our awesome vacation were ... ummmm... overwhelming. Time got away from me and I was just too wiped out to make it happen. It was a bummer especially because there were a couple of other really weird-looking things in those drawers in France! I so badly wanted to share them with you all :)

Anyway...

Back in America...

Yes, we are home... rolled in at just before 10 pm and crawled into our beds. That last leg of the journey was exciting! All the missing of connections, stand-by and separation and reunification, mechanical problems... then finally on the "spare" plane! Which only had one bathroom! It was so funny when they announced over the PA system that everyone on the flight should go use the bathroom before getting on the plane... reminded me of me :)  "Okay, mom."

Our flight attendants were "Ken" (Barbie's boyfriend) and Luis Guzman's cranky twin brother. Because there were so many problems and inconveniences, "Ken" told some of us that we'd get comped movies. And the pilot even said to all of us, "If there is anything we can do up here on the flight deck to make your trip more enjoyable, just let us know." But LG's cranky bro kept saying they needed to "evaluate the criteria" regarding free movies. Dude! Just tell the captain to flip the switch or there'll be rioting in the aisles! About an hour into the flight, that's just what they did... whew. Those free previews were getting really repetitive :P

On to today's Main Event...

This gadget harkens back to the days of my youth... Some of you might recall the days of manually-operated things such as this... Others of you are such spring chickens that you may never have seen one of these babies in action... well, here it is:

It really is over 60 years old... my mother-in-law verified that fact a couple of months ago. She received it for a wedding present in 1950. Honestly, this gadget sticks so annoyingly (might be those twist-ties) that I rarely use it anymore. I have hunted for a new one to no avail. I usually use my hand-held electric model nowadays.

Incidentally, if you listen closely, you might be able to hear Miss C listening to Blue's Clues in the background. Did you know that Mr. Salt and Mrs. Pepper are from France? What a coincidence that we were just there! LOL

Tale of Two Lawns...

 This is the one you are allowed to go on... see the sign? It means "authorized lawn" ;-)

This lawn is the FORBIDDEN lawn. That is what "interdite" means... FORBIDDEN. Do NOT go on this one or the little gendarme dudes in their little uniforms with their shrill whistles will rip you a new one. This is how they keep the lawns looking so lovely... they rotated which ones are allowed and which are forbidden. Sometimes they say that the forbidden one is "resting" (pelouse au repos) which sounds a lot nicer.

The weather has been amazing while we've been here, maybe a little cold for a couple of days... but clear and dry. The past 4 days have been gorgeous. People flock to the parks ... and the lawns.  Where they can't sit on the lawn, the park provides chairs so you can sit how and where you like OFF the lawn.

Sometimes I wish this was me...

peaceful, calm pique-nique by the pelouse...

 But then I wouldn't have this...

or this!

Not to mention all of the other incredible, feel-good mommy moments I have had the good fortune to experience while on this trip

(as well as in 'regular' life)

I am sad that we need to leave.

We are just about all packed and it is time for bed.

Thanks for hanging with us while we traipsed about :)

There are a few more posts about the trip on the way...

I need more energy and time to craft something coherent.

Maybe tomorrow!

Today is a Granny's Gadgets day... unfortunately, the camera is packed and I don't know where my husband put it :(  There will be one up as soon as I am back in my kitchen stateside. Thanking you in advance for your patience and understanding ;-)

Granny's Gadgets #14... en France!

Bonjour!

This week's gadget comes to you from France. I have no idea what it is for or what mélange of accents I assault you all with in this video. In my after-midnight attempt to pull of a brusque French accent, I manage to throw in bad German, very strange Chinese, perhaps some Russian... can you identify any others? Holy cow... I really kind of go through the whole U.N. in the course of less than 2 minutes.

If you have any idea what this gadget really is for, do let me know. It is really neat-looking. I kind of want one... but what good's a gadget if you don't know how to use it?  :P

Granny's Gadgets – Quarterly Review and Giveaway!

Don't be alarmed!

I am not out of gadgets! There are still many more to come :)

This little change-up is to give us all a bit of a breather, have a chance to see what we've learned, digest the information and talk about which are winners and which are ... not. I know you can go to my tabbed page "Granny's Gadgets" and check out what we've seen so far, but how many people do that? So I am putting it all together into this one post, so we can easily compare.

And there is a lil' giveaway attached to this whole shebang!

The Meat Pounder started the gadget game... it was a mystery. And in its post, how I came to be in possession of Granny's Gadgets is explained. Mandatory reading for any GG lover :)

Over the past 12 weeks, we've seen 4 gadgets that are egg-related.  There was the super cool egg topper, the nostalgic egg slicer, the bizarre contraceptive-device-esque egg peeler, and the nearly-unanimously-agreed-as-unnecessary egg separator.

There were three items that relate directly to baking... the very handy pie-slice-lifter-outter thing, the well-loved and oft-used apple corer, and the super birthday gadget... the cake tester!

We pondered seemingly-broken utensils... our grapefruit tools :P

And rounded things out with our Valentine's Day-appropriate spurtle (who doesn't love saying that?) and attempted to take fancy presentation to famous-restaurant-standards with the butter stamp mold thingamajig.

This brings us to the giveaway part...

To help you start (or continue) your own gadget collection, you can win a...

$20 gift card 

to
Williams-Sonoma!

There are several ways to win this amazing jumpstart toward your own heirloom Granny's Gadgets set. Here's how you can enter:

1. Mandatory!(only this first one is mandatory)  write a comment telling which was your favorite gadget video to date and why (gets you 1 entry), then you can also...
2. leave a comment about which gadget you wish you had (1 more entry) OR
3. post a comment detailing which gadget you felt was a dud and why (2 entries!) OR
4. go to the Taking It On Facebook page and click "like" (another 2 entries) OR
5. link this giveaway on your blog or Facebook (worth 2 entries) OR
6. tell me what kind of gadget do you hope to see in the future! (1 more entry)

You get a brownie point for being a public, official follower of Taking It On... but you needn't follow if you don't like to read my stuff :P And do let me know in the comment that you are a follower. If you add it all up, that's TEN possible ways to win! WOW! I know!


You don't need a google account to leave a comment... anyone can leave a comment :)
And you don't need to leave a separate comment for each entry if you don't want to, just maybe put the corresponding 'ways to enter' number in front of each entry within a single comment... I can add them all up and sort it all out.  


The entries will close Monday April 4, 2011 at 8 a.m. I will announce the winner in that day's Granny's Gadgets post.


Good luck to all who choose to play!  And remember...


you've gotta play to win ;-)


(And don't forget to vote in the photo contest in the sidebar!!!)


Disclaimer:  Williams-Sonoma had nothing to do with this giveaway, other than selling me the gift card ;-)  This giveaway is solely a way of thanking gadget-lovers, followers and "likers" for supporting my blog... and trying to find out if anyone is actually paying attention to this mess :P 

Granny's Gadgets #12

Before we can get to the gadget, I need to know.... did you vote yet today?  For my picture?     >>>> 
I am trying to win something for YOU... but I can't do it without your votes!  The info on the contest is here.

Now we can do our gadget :)

You know it has something to do with

pie.

I have wanted to try this gadget out for years.  But I have been a pie-chicken... not to be confused with a chicken pie.  Pies are tricky.  That whole crust business ...

I did master the pie over the holidays, however.  Or so I thought.  I made a turkey pot pie after Thanksgiving and another one after Christmas, and they were amazing!  The crust on the second one was PERFECT.  And gluten-free.  Yes, I have to eat gluten-free things... otherwise, no one would hang out with me 'cuz wheat makes me sooooo wacky... and not in a good, fun way :(

Well, over the weekend I realized that we had waaayyyyyyyy too many berries in the fridge.
Over-shopping on my part + generosity on my mom's part = quart of assorted berries going to the dogs.

Time to try a pie...

And give that little slice-ease thingabob a whirl!

My understanding of the gadget is that you bake it under the crust, then when the pie is done cooking and ready to serve, you slice along the edges and just lift out a PERFECT slice without making your pie look like a ravaged, exploded mess.

What I didn't bank on was screwing up the crust :(  I used a different recipe with a different blend of gluten-free flours than with the turkey pies, and it just sucked :(  It tastes fine... but it disintgrates when you simply look at it.  Big ol' bummer.

But...

I was able to cheer myself up by pretending to be Mrs. Tweedy from the movie "Chicken Run" ... I kept saying, "Mrs. Tweedy's pies..." over and over in the Mrs. Tweedy voice.  It was annoying the heck outta my kids... so of course I kept on doing it ;-)


And eating that slice I cut out in the video really cheered me up... 'cuz it was so good!  


But the slice stuck to the slice-ease thingamajig even though I had greased it ... so while that gadget does keep the pie looking lovely upon first slicing and I say that it's a winner at the end of the video, I am not sure if I'd really put it in the 'awesome' category... in fact, probably not.


Do you like pie?  What kinds?  
– I am the only one who is going to eat this pie.  I like most kinds of pie.  I am not choosy about pie.  I even used to eat those Hostess ones.  My kids do not like pie... yet.  And my husband prefers lemon meringue. This is a lot of pie for one chick to snarf eat all by her lonesome :)  ... not a problem.