Tasty Kake Kandy Bar Kake from Influenster Spring Voxbox

Let me start by saying that I am not a fan of packaged snack cake. I prefer to bake when I want cake I just think it tastes better. That being said the pre-packaged snack cakes that I LOVED as a kid and still get the occasional craving for are Tasty Kake's Chocolate Junior and Peanut Butter Tandy Kakes, so I was excited to taste the Kandy Bar Kake.

The flavor I received was Hershey Smores. It has chocolate cake, marshmellow cream filling, chocolate coating, and graham cracker crumbs.  Overall it was ok. It won't be one of my favorites (although I think I might have liked it better if I had gotten peanut butter). The cream filling is overly sweet and the graham cracker crumbles leave a strange after taste. The whole thing also has that packed and preserved taste that puts me off pre packed cakes in general.

My opinion is that if you generally like packaged cake you will probably like these Tasty Kake makes the nicest snack cakes by far, but if you just aren't into the overly sweet highly processed taste of packaged cakes don't bother.

Disclaimer: Influenster and Tasty Kake provided this sample for me free of charge for the purpose of review.

Influenster Spring Fever Voxbox

I was chosen to receive the Influenster Spring Fever Voxbox! Keep an eye on my blog and Facebook for updates about the products inside. In the meantime here is my unboxing.

May 2013 Subscription Unboxings

BIRCHBOX

IPSY GLAM BAG

BEAUTY BOX 5

Palmolive Soft Touch Review

Palmolive Soft Touch dish washing liquids are "mild formulas with a touch of Vitamin E, Aloe, or Coconut Butter. Designed to be soft on hands while still providing powerful grease cutting action, leaving your dishes sparkling clean."

I was really excited to receive the Aloe and the Vitamin E versions of this new Palmolive formula. Washing dishes is very hard on the hands the hot water necessary to clean the dishes and the harsh detergents in dish soaps are extremely drying to the skin and hard on the nails. Washing dishes can cause nails to peel, become brittle, and break. So I was thrilled with the prospect of having a dish liquid that wouldn't damage my nails.

As I said I received the Aloe and the Vitamin E versions. Have a look at my unboxing video.

Now I already have a dish liquid that I am brand faithful to, so when I got these I decided right away that I would do a side by side Battle of the Dish Soaps. I chose the Vitamin E formula (the Pink one) because that is the one I was most intrigued by. The Aloe formula was clear and looked like my regular dish soap but the Vitamin E had a creamy, milky, slightly thick consistency more like you get in a body wash than a dish soap so that is the one I wanted to try immediately.

THE THROW DOWN

I used both my regular dish liquid and the Palmolive Soft Touch Vitamin E on day old breakfast dishes. They were each crusted with dry egg yolk and ketchup. Plus I smeared some bacon fat from the griddle's grease catcher to test the grease cutting power.

1st: The Bubble Test

I love a sudsy dish soap. I don't know if it effects the cleaning power but it doesn't matter I MUST have bubbles. Both soaps were equally bubbly delightful.

2nd: The Smell

I like my dish liquid to have a bit of scent but nothing very strong. My regular one comes in a variety of citrus scents (lemon, lime, and my favorite grapefruit) which I think is perfect. It is light and clean smelling and the smell of citrus seems natural in the kitchen. Plus it seems like a sensible combination in that citrus would help cut grease anyway.

In contrast the smell of the Palmolive soft touch was for me extremely off putting. The Vitamin E oil formula had an extremely strong, heavy, smell reminiscent of body lotion. I know it is designed to keep your hands moisturized but that doesn't mean I want to wash my dishes in hand lotion either. 

The smell of the Aloe formula is a little better in that it doesn't smell like body lotion. It is still very heavily perfumed, so much so that it actually gave me a headache (I am very sensitive to scents) but at least it is a smell that seems normal in the kitchen.

3rd: The Grease Cutting Power

First up my regular dish liquid. It got the plate clean but the egg yolk didn't come off immediately I had to leave the dish stand in the water a bit to soften it. After I was done with the breakfast plate I washed a bowl in the same water to see if there would be any greasy residue left from the bacon fat on the first plate. Nothing. The bowl was as clean as the plate. So a little extra time was needed for soaking but otherwise it was a job well done.

Next up, I rinsed out my dish basin and washed the second breakfast plate in the Vitamin E oil Palmolive. The Palmolive went to work immediately on the egg yolk, no soaking necessary. It also easily dealt with the bacon fat on the original plate and didn't deposit any residual fat on the bowl. It did good job in that aspect. HOWEVER...

The lotion aspect of the Vitamin E oil formula was problematic for me. The Palmolive left my hands feeling soft and moisturized as if I had put on lotion. This got me thinking that if the Palmolive had left a coating of moisturizer on my hand would it have left the same coating on my dishes? The answer is YES. Once dry the plate and bowl I had washed in the Palmolive had a strange slick feel that was I my husband and I found so gross I ended up rewashing them. We didn't like the idea of eating hand lotion. When I did the rewash I used the Aloe formula that one was much better. It had the same great cleaning power but didn't leave the slick lotion like residue.

Finally My Hands

So these new formulas are specifically designed to leave your hands feeling soft and moisturized, do they work? Yes. After washing dishes in my normal dish liquid I always have to apply a good hand lotion to stop them from feeling rough and dry, or I use gloves to help protect my hands and nails from soaking in the harsh detergents. When testing the Palmolive I purposefully didn't use gloves and I didn't apply a moisturizer after so I could see how the dish liquid left my skin. It was really nice my hands were soft and not dry at all.

The Outcome

I will definitely NOT be purchasing the Vitamin E Oil formula in the future. I really dislike the lotion quality of it, I would rather wear gloves and apply hand lotion after doing dishes than deal with the scent and slick residue of this dish liquid. I will definitely be giving this bottle away. The Aloe is better and I will use this bottle but again I found the scent way too heavy and will not be stopping use of my old faithful anytime soon.

No need to take my word for it, if you want to try out Palmolive soft touch for yourself check out my FaceBook page for a chance to receive a $1.00 coupon.

*Disclosure: I was given both bottles of Palmolive soft touch by Palmolive and Inflenster free of charge for the purpose of review.

I'M BACK

...and I've got a plan.

Remember 6 months ago when I started promising you that big changes were coming to my page? Well it took awhile but...HERE IT IS, YAY!!!! I know, I know, I know but better late than never right? 

So What's The Plan?

Way back in December the New Year had me thinking about my life and what direction I wanted it to go in this year, because in March I turned 39. 39! I am officially in the last year of my 30's and my life isn't exactly where I thought it would be by the time I reached this age. So I decided to try and do something about it, to get my life "together-ish" by the time I turn 40. Look I'm no miracle worker, I know I can't magic my dream life into existence in a year, but I can do more than I'm currently doing to get it (which is nothing) and I can definitely be in a better place and on a better road by the time 40 hits. Hence the new name "Girl40Project." I feel like to date I have lived my life in reaction to things that happen to me, but I'm turning 40 and I don't want to live like that anymore I want to live my life purposefully. I intend to be proactive not reactive, but doing that is going to be a project (heh. heh. you see what I did there?) It is going to take work and I've decided to document it here. I also hope that this and my FaceBook page will be a place where WE (that's you and me) will have an ongoing discussion about our lives and how we live them to the fullest each day.

What Are We Going To Talk About?

LOTS OF THINGS!

I will continue to talk about the fun stuff:

BOOKS - I love reading and discussing good books, so that will continue.

MAKE-UP/NAIL POLISH/HAIR - I also love make-up and continue to receive my Birchbox and Ipsy Glambag subscriptions, so I will continue doing openings, reviews, hopefully some tutorials and manicures. I do want to slant this toward the new page though. I watch YouTube videos like everyone else and I love them, especially the beauty gurus but have you noticed that all those guru girls are like 12 (alright more like twenty-something but still) and gorgeous. Well I ain't 20, and I'm not model perfect, so I'm going to talk about the make-up and looks that work for me. For instance I will not be reviewing the latest red glitter eyeshadow because 1) Red?! Really, this is a color we're putting on our eyes? No lie when Wet and Wild came out with an eyeshadow trio last summer that included a red, silver, and black glitter shadow I asked a guru that had given it rave reviews how practical it was and where she planned to make those colors seem wearable. She replied by saying that people just have to have an imagination and be daring. Needless to say the look that turned up in her tutorial looked like a clown did it, but hey if you're 20 and doing it in the club maybe clown is what you want, but I can't hit up the local Stop and Shop looking like that so...NO. 2) Glitter. You know what happens when a 39 year old puts glitter on their eyes. Sparkly crows feet. NOPE. However, I will discuss things like St. Ives' collagen elastin facial moisturizer which is supposed to add elasticity and youthful fullness to your skin, because 1) These are things I care about. 2) I have yet to find anyone over the age of 25 reviewing it on YouTube.

RECIPES - Occasionally I might try things. If I do and they are yummy I'll let you know. Why? Because I love a good recipe swap.

BEAUTY ON A BUDGET - I'm going to continue that because I love make-up and want to look good but I'm also frugal and believe in saving. I don't want to throw money away and I think this really helps me examine my spending.

GENERAL REVIEWS -  I buy things. I like to talk about them.

TV/VIDEOGAMES - I'm junkie. Things need to be discussed. Mostly via Facebook I'd say.


I will start talking about the things I want to "fix" in my life:


OVERWEIGHT - Must start to get this under control. They say losing/maintaining weight is harder as you get older and 40 is the official mark for older right? Ugh. I am not going to enjoy tackling this one but at least I know how it's done. I lost a lot of weight in college, smallest I ever was - so want to go back.

STYLE-LESS - I've already begun working on this one. I needed new clothes for a new job recently so I looked at those style things on Pinterest and tried to come up with a "look" but I feel like shlub is my default. I like comfort and for some reason comfort always seems to equal my pajama top and some sweat pants. Pinterest and the need to go to work looking like a professional adult should help with this.

MESSY - So my apartment is almost never clean. It also nothing that can be called "decor" in it. This I have no idea how I'm going to deal with.



I will start talking about the serious stuff (but hopefully in a fun and interesting way):

Like the title says this is a project. In order to be the me I want to be I have to do the heavy lifting and heal the old me. If I'm going to get to where I want to be I have some hurdles to go over and I want to do it with you. I plan on mustering up the courage to be open about some of my demons and I hope you will share how you deal with or have dealt with yours. This one frightens me. There is potential for chickening out.

So do I expect my life to be perfect by my 40th? No. But I do expect me to be a better me and I don't want to go on this journey alone.

Avengers Manicure

This isn't really a tutorial just a quick manicure idea. In October I went to New York Comic Con and did an Avengers manicure for the event, so I snapped a few quick pictures with my phone.

SUPPLIES:

Base coat

White (or whatever background color you like) polish

Comic Books

Scissors

Nail Clippers

Nail Glue

Top Coat

Start with neat, clean, shaped nails.

Add a clear base coat.

When base coat is dry polish your nails with your background color. I chose white.

Once your background color is dry, cut the images you want to use out of the comic book. Be sure that you have selected a book with images small enough to fit on your nails.

The comic book I used had thick glossy pages, so to get them to stick to the nail I first placed a thin line of glue down the center back of the image. Then stuck it to the nail. Be sure that the image isn't covering your cuticle. If it hangs over the edge of your nail it can be trimmed later.

Once the center of the image is stuck, squeeze a small bit of glue under one side and push it down along the side of the nail. Once dry do the same on the opposite side.

Trim any excess paper over hanging the edge of the nail.

Put on a layer of top coat being sure to cover the edge of the nail thoroughly to fully seal.

VOILA! COMIC BOOK NAILS.

HAVE FUN BOOS

Boxty (Irish Potato Cakes) using leftover mashed potatoes

Now that Thanksgiving is over, if your house is anything like mine your fridge is bursting with holiday leftovers. I enjoy them at first but after awhile I just can't face into another "Thanksgiving" plate or sandwich. I also don't want to just throw the leftovers out. I hate being wasteful. So I am always looking for new ways to turn leftovers into appealing meals that we look forward to eating. One of my favorites is BOXTY (Irish Potato Cakes); they are warm, buttery, crispy, and creamy all at the same time. They can be topped with almost anything and are so easy to make. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup leftover mashed potatoes

2 tbsp. melted butter

1/4 cup flour

pinch of salt

additionally you will need:

1 tbsp. butter for frying

flour for dusting

STEP 1:

Place potato, melted butter, flour, and salt in a bowl.

STEP 2:

Mix until the ingredients form a sticky dough. It will still feel like mash potato, but be more pliable like play-doh.

STEP 3:

Divide the dough into four equal parts.

STEP 4:

flatten each dough quarter into a cake about 1/4" thick.

STEP 5:

Dust each side of cake with some flour.

STEP 6:

Heat a frying pan on medium heat with 1 tbsp. of butter. *This is all I need in my cast iron. It is a really reliable pan and nothing sticks to it, but if you don't have a pan as reliable as mine you might want to use some cooking spray on yours so the boxty doesn't stick. Still add the butter for flavor though.

Once the butter is melted and bubbling add your cakes to the pan.

(There are no pictures of this part because my kitchen is too dark to shoot in)

STEP 7:

Fry for 5 minutes on each side, until golden and crispy brown.

(The really dark crispy bits are THE BEST. Ideally you want your whole boxty to be that color, but the large burner on my stove is broken so my pans don't heat evenly)

You can serve boxty a variety of ways. Our favorite way to eat it is with smoked salmon and a little bit of sour cream, but it is also good hot with just a little butter melted on it, or along side bacon and eggs like hash browns. 

In these pictures I served the boxty topped with some of my husband's Coronation Turkey Salad made from our left over turkey.

What is Coronation Turkey? I'll leave that recipe to my husband -

Coronation Chicken is my go-to option for handling leftover chicken. As far as I know, it gets it's name from being created for Elizabeth II's Coronation banquet (wiki it if you're seriously interested).

The proportions of the ingredients are really to taste, but here's my basic recipe:

Cooked, cold chicken or turkey

Jar of Mayo (I use the light stuff, you can't tell the difference in the end)

Your favorite curry powder (right now I use McDonnells)

Sliced almonds

Stick of celery, chopped

Onion, finely chopped

Sultanas (golden raisins)

STEP 1:

Take a handful of the sultanas and add to a small bowl. Pour some hot, not boiling, water over them and let sit as long as possible to plump.

STEP 2:

Scoop a generous helping of the mayo into a big mixing bowl. Blend in the curry to taste. Bear in mind that the curry will "wake up" as time goes by, so go by color rather then taste at this point- you're looking for a mocha color. This is the one point where your personal preference counts.

STEP 3:

Slowly add the meat to the mayo/curry. I like a moist mix, so tend to make a lot of step two.

STEP 4:

Drain the Sultanas and add everything left to the mix.

STEP 5:

Add to a sealable container or cover with foil and leave it in the fridge preferably overnight.

THANKS BABE! 

Hope you all enjoy.