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Best baking tip

  The best baking tip to make scrumptious goodies and savories in one word, is butter.  High quality butter makes all of the difference in baked goods, sauces, mashed potatos, etc.  The pale yellow, almost tasteless butter in many groceries, makes inferior tasting foods.  You need less butter than recipes call for, when using the rich Irish or English butters.  For every stick of that butter, I use 1 tablespoon less in my recipes.  With stovetop  No Bake  Dough Cookies, I use 1/3rd of the recipe amount.  Use  1/2  less butter in mashed potatos than what you are currently using.  I sometimes use an English one, but currently buy unsalted Kerrygold pure Irish butter.    High quality butter is especially noticible in pizzelles, butter cookies, shortbread, pie crusts etc.  This butter freezes well, so I buy a couple of extra  ones to pop in the freezer to use when the baking mood strikes me. Sometimes this Irish or English butter is packaged as 2 sticks together, so when I open one, I divide it in half lengthwise, so it becomes 2 individual sticks.  A dab will do it for  cooking vegetables.  I use less butter and enjoy the foods much more.

Travelling with Infants

Travelling with an infant is doable with a little advance planning. Consider staying in a vacation condo or a short-term apartment rental. I skipped the very cheap hotels and stayed in ones that had a crib. Travelling by train such as the Eurostar, had advantages over flying. I could walk the wee one down the aisle and point to the animals outside of our window. We stayed at my mother’s house across country that had baby paraphernalia. It was fun taking my pre-schooler and his infant brother to my favourite childhood haunts. Some parents forgo a stroller for a baby sling when travelling. If your baby or toddler is still on formula, it’s very easy to do long international trips. I had a container which had 3 separate compartments for the correct amount of dry formula per bottle. The container had a spout on the end for easy pouring of the dry formula into a baby bottle, containing water. I would make up a bottle as I went on the airplanes. Now, you may have to buy water after security control at the airports. While touring foreign cities, I’d buy a bottle of water and pore it ahead of time into my baby bottles and then add the formula, on the go. I used the disposable Playtex liners, particularly on trips. To sterilize bottle nipples, I used a travel heating unit, which heated up water in hotel rooms, and then I poured it over the washed baby bottle nipples. There are family friendly destinations, such as a beach, farm stay or a city like London with huge parks. Some cities have a children’s museum, zoo and fun festivals. My nine month old son ate as much at a big outdoor food extravaganza  in Chicago, as I did. Animal sanctuaries and countries…

Savvy Travel Tips from Frequent Fliers

Here are  travel and safety tips from frequent fliers: 1.  Take blunt-tip baby scissors. They pass through security and are indespensible at opening foil packets or plastic tubes.  Save the magazines samples of lotions and cosmetics to bring on journeys. The scissors are handy to use with hotel sewing kits. I had to use them to cut ace wrap for my son’s wrist, while enroute to France. 2.  Buy skin serums in the form of capsules, for individual uses while on trips.  Easy to pack and no bottles to tote back home. I take the sample packets found in magazines and in some stores at their beauty events. 3. Take small wrapped toys for little tots and dole them out during the trip.  Get comic books or fun magazines for the older ones. Pack energy bars, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and snacks since meals can be off schedule. 4. Double your payment for bills before you leave, so no worries while abroad. This way you are covered if your trip is unexpectedly longer, and you do not return to a stack of bills to pay. 5.  Get some new toys to give your pets when you depart. My cats like a new catnip mouse or cardboard scratching post. 6. Those large plastic travel bags really do work, to flatten clothes when packing. 7. Watch for pickpockets and this INCLUDES little children. Some families are in it together.  A prime time is when people are gathered around street muscicians or buskers. Watch your possessions when there is a diversion on the street or when people ask directions and stick a map in your face. 8. Familiarize yourself with landmarks, not just street names.  When you are running to catch the last bus out of the night street market in Thailand, it’s handier to remember…

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