Product Review
I was recently given a 9 inch square Fillables cake pan to review. I’ll be honest, I don’t consider myself a baker so this project made me a little nervous. The first thing I did was take out the instruction booklet to see what I was in for. The instructions certainly looked easy enough and I must say all the pictures of the filled cakes looked amazing, but…what is it really going to look like and is it really just six simple steps? Let’s review the 6 steps as it really does sound easy.
step 1- fill both pans 3/4 of the way with batter
Step 2- bake until cakes cooked through
Step 3- flip pans over to remove cake from the pan
Step 4- fill the pockets with any treat you like
Step 5- spread a layer of icing over the filled cake
Step 6- top with the second cake and ice the rest of the cake.
Use the scalloped edges as a guide when cutting.
Sounds easy enough right? I can tell you this cake was really just that simple! I was so excited with this cake pan! I made a chocolate cake and I filled the inside with three types of crumbled cookies, but that’s not all, I frosted the cake with whipped chocolate frosting! This cake was so fun to make and delicious! It was death by chocolate! The instruction booklet gives you recipes and ideas!
There are so many possibilities for this cake pan, this would be the perfect pan for a baby gender reveal or how about a summer cake filled with fresh fruit? So many choices! I will be using this pan over and over again! Do you want to know where you can get one? You have lots of places to buy them!
Amazon, Bed Bath & Beyond, Kohl’s, Target and Walmart to name a few. May be available either at their stores or on their websites listed below.
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Fillables+cake+pans
https://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/store/s/fillables-cake-pans?ta=typeahead&_requestid=1736210
http://www.kohls.com/search.jsp?search=Fillables+Cake+Pans&submit-search=web-regular
http://www.target.com/s?searchTerm=Fillables%20cake%20pans
https://www.walmart.com/search/?query=fillables%20cake%20pans
Baking Advantage Fillables pans come in many different shapes. Mine was the 9 inch square, but they also have a heart fluted pan, cupcake cone pan, mini-heart pan, round cake pan to just name a few. They have a pan for all your special occasions. Although I was given this pan all opinions are my own and I am not getting any other compensation for this review.
Enjoy!
I’m not sure too many of my East Coast friends have heard of Ilvento’s Sauce. I know I had not heard of it until recently! This product has not only been featured on Good Morning America it was also one of Oprah’s favorite things this past holiday season! I don’t follow Oprah, but I will confess I do check out her favorite thing’s list each season!
Ilvento’s started in 1933 and is still going strong. The sauce is made in southern California with no additives or preservatives and is all natural. I like this product already!
Let’s talk about their different sauces. It’s not just one sauce, but they have four different sauces. The first sauce is the Original Sugo Marinara that is described as sweet with garlic and basil. They also have an Arrabbiata sauce that they describe as their spiciest sauce of all. Next is the Dal Pietro sauce that is savory and rich that would go well with lamb or with your favorite lasagna recipe. Any mushroom fans out there? The last sauce is a mushroom Boscariolo that is made with whole mushrooms and that is popular with the vegans of the world!
Now that you know a little bit about the product, are you wondering how it tasted? I tried the Dal Pietro and it was exactly the way as they described it…rich and savory! I have to say the second I opened the jar the smell was just incredible of the herbs and spices flowing from the jar. I have never experienced this with any other jarred sauce. I have to say at that point I was getting a little excited about tasting the sauce! I served this over pasta with pork sausage (my boys like a hearty dinner). After the sausage had browned I added the sauce and brought it to a simmer. We all sat down for dinner and Jim asked if this was going on the blog. I said “yes it is” then he asked “what’s in the sauce”. I told him it was from a jar, he said “no way, that is not from a jar”. I said “it is” and he continued on and on with me until I finally took the jar out of the recycling bin to prove it to him! The sauce truly was that good! Full of flavor, bold seasoning and not the super sweet you typically get from jarred sauces. The last time I had a sauce this good was at a restaurant in the north end of Boston!
With all of that being said and the most amazing flavor I have ever tasted out of a jar I have to tell you…the price is not cheap! This can been purchased from their website with various combinations or single jars. A combination pack with one of each flavor is $36.95 plus shipping. It would be about ten dollars a jar, that is definitely much more than I spend on any sauce and not an amount I would spend all the time but I have to say it was good enough to bring me back for more
www.ilventos.com
Enjoy!
Until recently we had not had any snow…it was a green Christmas! This does not happen often but in New England we can go from wearing shorts to snow boots in the matter of a day and that is exactly what we did this year! Crazy! One of the things I love to do when we are expecting a storm and know that we will be in the house for a day or two is to make a delicious pot of chili and some appetizers and when I was at the grocery store this week I came across this frozen bag of coconut shrimp ($6.99 a bag) and could not resist giving it a try! 
The shrimp was really easy to make, simply put them on a baking sheet and bake for six minutes. Turn the shrimp over and cook for six more minutes. Warm the sauce in warm water and you are ready! No sooner were these about to come out of the oven when the phone rang and Jim and Robby were off to rescue a stranded neighbor! They were happy when they returned a short time later as the shrimp were very good, crispy, lots of coconut flavor and the sauce had some heat that we all really enjoyed! The only downfall is that there are not a lot of shrimp in the bag, what you see in that picture is exactly what you get! I will have to buy two bags next time as these disappeared quick!
Enjoy!
As I mentioned in yesterday’s post we have been doing a lot of stir fry, enjoying all the fresh vegetables. One of the things I will sometimes do when I am planning on stir frying is going to the salad bar and getting all of the vegetables from there as they are all washed and trimmed ready to go! I did not make this dinner. Robby and his friend, Autumn, made dinner for Jim and I! I enjoy having kids in the kitchen and this was a great recipe for them to make. Robby made the rice and Autumn made the stir fry. They did an excellent job! I was curious how the sauce, made by Chili’s, was going to be and I can say we were pleasantly surprised. It was very good. We all enjoyed the flavors. It was on the sweeter side but very good overall. I would definitely buy it again!
INGREDIENTS
1 package Chili’s citrus mango chicken stir fry sauce
3 chicken breasts, cut into bite size pieces
Assorted vegetables of your choice
White rice cooked according to package directions
1 Tablespoon canola oil
DIRECTIONS
Heat the wok on high, add the canola oil. When the wok is hot add the chicken pieces browning on both sides. When the chicken is almost cooked through add your vegetables and the sauce. Turn the heat down to medium and continue cooking until the chicken is cooked through. When the chicken is cooked through serve chicken and vegetable over cooked rice.
Enjoy!
One of my favorite things to do over the holidays is to dry brine my turkey, so when our good friend Tim came over with this Williams Sonoma Herbes De Provence brine for us to try, I couldn’t wait! Tim said he, and his sweet wife Maureen, have been using it all summer. They like to use the dry brine and roast chicken on the grill using their rotisserie. When he brought this over, I had boneless skinless chicken breasts in the fridge so that is what I used! The directions could not have been more simple. Just add some of the mix to your chicken or turkey, let brine in the fridge for two to four hours, rinse off the brine and cook the meat. We took Tim’s advice and grilled our chicken and let me tell you we were thrilled with the amount of flavor. Absolutely delicious !! This is a product I will definitely be using!! This is a product I know you will enjoy, go ahead and give it a try!
Brine can be purchased online www.williams-sonoma.com or at the Rockingham Mall in Salem, NH or at the Maine Mall in Portland, Maine.
Enjoy!
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