Review and Giveaway (CAN only): Maple Leaf Foods products

At the Maple Leaf Food's blogger's roundtable event last Thursday, we were treated to dinner cooked in a professional kitchen by some proficient chefs. They made some starters from their new Natural Selections line of deli meats. They took the Dempster's Oven Fresh baguettes and topped them with cheese and sun-dried tomatoes. They grilled some lovely vegetables, and made some nice potatoes. They roasted some delicious chicken - dijon mustard & herb chicken breast, and seasoned flattened chicken. It was really very good.



We were provided with a cooler bag to bring home with samples of these products. Over the weekend, my family tried them all.

I'm quite happy with the Natural Selections meat - it tastes good, the package re-seals possibly the BEST of any re-sealable package I've ever come across, and the ingredients (which are all recognizable) are stamped across the front. It's like someone did their market research and asked me what I wanted in a sliced deli meat.

I also like the Dempster's baguettes. When we lived in England, Mark always had packages of part-baked baguettes around. It means anytime you have a hankering for fresh bread, it's 8 minutes of cooking away. (which, is dangerous actually...carbs!!) The kids just adore fresh bread and butter. Who can blame them.

I wouldn't normally buy pre-seasoned chicken - I pretty much always buy plain chicken and season it myself. The dijon mustard & herb chicken breast cooked up quite nicely - quite moist, but I found the seasoning a bit salty for me.

My family, particularly Mark, adored the flattened chicken. Can we just say spatchcocked, though? Because that's an awesome word. We made it on the barbeque, probably over-cooked it a bit, but it was really very flavourful, and the meat was very good quality.

Would you like to try some of these? Thanks to Maple Leaf Foods, I'm giving away a cooler bag of the following products:

• 2 white Dempster's Oven Fresh Baguettes (vacuum sealed)
• 2 multigrain Dempster's Oven Fresh Baguettes (vacuum sealed)
• a butcher's apron
• a meat thermometer
• a Maple Leaf Foods pen
  
• a coupon for a FREE box of Prime Frozen Meat Products ($11.99 value)
• a coupon for a FREE package of Natural Selections deli meat (~$5 value)
• a coupon for $5 off your next purchase of any Prime Naturally product

I'm going to be covering shipping myself, so I'd really prefer if the winner was in Southern Ontario, but if not, we can work something out!

Here's what you need to do:

1. Leave a comment on this post (just say hi, if you want)
2. Make sure your comment includes your email address
3. Only enter once, please
4. Do it by Tuesday, June 8th at 7pm EST, please

Good luck.

Review: Lysol Healthy Touch anti-bacterial soap dispenser

When I was asked if I'd like to review some new anti-bacterial soap, I replied with an enthusiastic YES because there's this person living in my house who is obsessed with hand washing. Obsessed with having buckets of anti-bacterial soap in the house. Someone who washes their hands before they even get their kid safely off of the diaper changing surface, no matter how high that surface might be, no matter the safety risk! Hint: it's not me. Hi Mark!

The Lysol Health Touch anti-bacterial soap dispenser features a fully automatic, sensor-activated and hands-free dispensing mechanism. You move your hands underneath and out comes the soap. I decided to put it in the kitchen as that's where we handle things like raw chicken (not, like, everyday, but a couple times a week or so!) or putting out waste or dealing with the dog or whatever.


So let's call this portion What Mark Thinks About Stuff. As he thinks the most about soap.

Mark, quoted:

"I quite like it. It dispenses slightly too much soap for me. It's easy to use. It seems to be reliable. I haven't checked to see how easy it is to change the refill or if it's refillable yet. If you have to get specific refills, it could get very expensive. I think it's pretty good, though, yeah."

Now, What Emma Thinks?

I like the smell of the scent we were provided, Hydrating Cucumber Splash. It didn't dry my hands out. I like that you don't have to touch the pump. But it's not that important to me.

I prefer to use mostly environmentally friendly cleaning products. Right now we have a 'green' competitors' foaming hand soap in our powder room and I really like that.

I also prefer to use reusable containers. In fact, just before I received this product, I had just bought a new kitchen soap dispenser from Kitchen Stuff Plus that also holds dish cleaning scrubbers in the front. It's probably meant for dish detergent but as we go through so much hand soap (MARK) I thought it'd be good for us. I think I prefer that. If they combined the no-touch automatic dispensing system with a reusable dispenser, I'd be much more likely to buy it.



But overall, not a bad product. Probably just not for us.

Disclosure: I was provided with a sample of this product to review. I was not compensated in any other way.

Book review: Even the Dogs by Jon McGregor

Thanks to Penguin Canada, I was provided with a copy of Even the Dogs, by Jon McGregor, with no obligation for a positive review.

I was specifically interested in this book for a number of reasons: it's set in the UK (I used to live there); it's about "lives fallen through the cracks...and the havoc brought by drugs, distress and the disregard of the wider world" (quoted from the back cover), and I have worked directly with people living such lives in a social services & educational capacity; and, the book is getting rave reviews in the UK, and is being mentioned in the same sentence as the Man Booker Prize.

The book starts with the discovery of Robert's dead body in his flat. It continues with snippets of information about him, his friends, and how the authorities are dealing with his body.

I'm not actually finished reading the book. I'm about halfway through. I'm being totally honest here: it's hard to read. It's good, it's interesting, and it's very authentic - but it's hard to read. Due to the nature of my life (working full-time, 2 little kids, all the odds and ends that come with parenting and keeping a house habitable), I find it quite hard to have time to read. So I usually read before falling asleep in bed. And a book on these topics of drugs, and death, and poverty, with a narrative style that involves unfinished sentences, and dwelling on darkness - it's hard to read at that time of day.

However, I want to finish it. I want to know what happens. Because this one paragraph at the beginning, on page 4, has sucked me in:

"They don't see us, as we crowd and push around them. Of course they don't. How could they. But we're used to that. We've been used to that for a long time, even before. Before this."

So who is the narrative voice in this book? I don't know yet. Is it Robert's friends, alive, but invisible to most people (as many homeless or impoverished people are)? Or is it a group of ghosts, of friends who have gone before? I want to know.

And it's true. I know from my limited experience working in a homeless shelter in Ottawa, and working to support people who are homeless or who have limited opportunities to access adult education in the UK. We don't see them. So I'm reading. To see them more clearly. To be reminded.

You can find this book at many bookstores, on shelves now. You can also meet Jon McGregor tonight at Ben McNally Books, in Toronto, at a book launch complete with reading and signing.

PS: the Torontoist has an interesting interview with the author here, too.

hydraSense Mom Central blog tour: hydraSense Nasal Aspirator review & coupon

Keep reading to the end if you are interested in receiving an $8 off coupon for a hydraSense nasal aspirator.

Soooooo...baby snot.

One of the things that no one tells you about parenthood, one of about 3000 things that no one likes to share because otherwise the human race will end in this generation, is that you are going to end up removing snot from your kids' nose by any which way necessary. Which can include your finger. I'd never do that, of course. Pick someone else's nose? Ew. *whistles*

Anyway - here's a better solution! A hygienic & safe snot sucker! Sorry, official name: a nasal aspirator, brought to you by hydraSense®.

Before Mom Central Canada gave me the opportunity to review some hydraSense® products, I had already signed up for their Dolphins Club. I'd heard about their products on TV, seen them in the stores, and thought the Mists for congestion relief seemed like a great idea.

Particularly because ever since they decided that cough syrup and decongestant was of the devil? Parents have very few options for treating colds. And a snotty, stuffed up, congested nose can mean little Johnny can't sleep very well, and suddenly Johnny's parents are also losing sleep, and the whole family collapses into tears. (Never happened to us! Nope!)

Anyway, so, I don't have a baby to try the hydraSense® nasal aspirator on. I do, however, conveniently have a 2 year old with a snotty nose! Hurray! So he was my guinea pig for the Ultra Gentle Mist. And instead of freaking out, it made him laugh, having water up his nose. And immediately, his nose was running. Which is good, when you have a 2 year old who isn't so skilled at blowing into a tissue yet. We are going to keep using it until that nose stops running. Perhaps in high school.

The 4 year old is very interested in "the science of the sea" as he keeps telling me (which is slightly freaky as my kids don't see very many commercials - so good marketing, hydraSense®!) and may end up as a guinea pig himself for the box of Easydose nasal care drops we also received. If he gets his brother's cold. If. Ha ha.

I'm going to give the hydraSense® nasal aspirator I received to a friend about to have a baby.

Do you have a baby? Or a friend with a baby? Sign up for the Dolphins Club using this link (see the promo box at the bottom, Mom Central) by April 10, 2010.

Once logged back into your account, you can enter the code MC2010 under the online coupons tab, in order to get an $8 off coupon to be used towards the purchase of the hydraSense® Nasal Aspirator (the coupon expires December 31, 2010).

Want to know more about how the nasal aspirator works? Watch this video at this link.

Happy snot sucking! (Oh come on, it's kind of fun.)

**

Disclosure: I wrote this post while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central and received a Mom Central gift pack to thank me for taking the time to participate

Smelly Washer Winner

Congrats to moplans - you've won the Smelly Washer cleaner. I'll be in touch.
I don't have anything else up my sleeve to giveaway but I'll link back here next time I have something to post about!

Extension - Smelly Washer

I'm giving this contest a few more days as we were distracted by kiddie illness and Christmas parties. You have until Wednesday 7pm EST to enter, now.

Smelly Washer : Review and Giveaway (CAN and USA)

Don't worry, I'm not going to send you my smelly washing machine.


Do you have an HE front loading washing machine? They've become quite popular in North America in the last few years. They are the norm in Europe. When I lived in the UK, everyone had small front loading washing machines (and no dryer, but that's another story). When we moved to Canada, Mark immediately purchased a nice washer and dryer set.

Well, nice, except it stinks and it's filthy.

So Smelly Washer sent me an email asking if I'd like to try out their product, and I agreed, because yes my washing machine smells and I haven't done anything about it. Add cleaning out my washing machine to the list I have of things to do that's about 10 pages long. (Apparently some machines have a setting now that is for self-cleaning, like an oven; seems like a good idea).


I'm very sorry that the internet does not have scratch and sniff photos yet. Oh wait, you're probably not sorry. This is my washing machine, before I used Smelly Washer. Take my word for it - it stank and my clothes did not smell nice.

No need to post an after photo, it looks the same - BUT the result is that my washer does not smell and my clothes genuinely smell fresh for the first time. Really. We don't use heavily scented detergent, and we don't use fabric softener liquid at all, but I had no idea we were missing out so much on that 'fresh' smell.

It's easy to use. It asks you to use the hottest setting on the washer (which for mine is actually just 'warm'), and add a cap to the load. Run it for two minutes, then pause it overnight, and finish the cycle in the morning. That's it.

I've done that cycle with the powder a couple of times since receiving this product in October. It does remove the smell, but it doesn't actually remove the mold or mildew or whatever. You mean I still have to clean my washing machine?! Damn. At least this is a fix in the meantime, and it's safe for septic systems (like we have).

I received one bottle of Smelly Washer for this review, a bottle that says it's a years' supply (about 24 capfuls). Actually probably the only complaint is that it can get a bit messy pouring it into the small cap. Hopefully an easy fix.

Want to try it out on your washing machine? You can win a bottle, just like I received. Here's what you need to do:

1. Leave a comment on this post before 7pm EST Sunday, December 6th. Please include your email address so I can contact you if you win!
   
2. Have an American or Canadian postal address.

I will use random.org again to select the winner, and I will provide your name and postal address to the company so they can send you your product (once I contact you by email).

If you'd like to buy it yourself, Smelly Washer has kindly provided my readers with a promo code for 10% off. The code is wherewiller.