Wine Pearls Chilling Wine in Style!

Wine Pearls

Let's review a popular gift idea for wine drinkers - wine pearls, chilling wine beautifully and looking good at the same time!  They really are a great gift idea, but do they work?  Well I just had to try them out for myself.

The first brand I tried were the ones pictured which, as you can see came in a beautiful looking box making them a great gift idea.

I placed the four 'pearls' in the freezer before going to bed one night and decided to try them out the following evening.  I should add the manufacturers say you only need to chill them for four hours while some reviewers have indicated 2 hours are sufficient.

The next evening was a Friday and after a long week at work I thought a nice chilled glass of moscato would go down nicely!

I got the wine pearls out and the one I placed in my glass of wine was so cold to touch I just knew it was going to work beautifully!   This gorgeous wine cooling pearl kept my wine at a perfect temperature and even when I'd finished the glass it was still lovely and cold.

My daughter asked if she could hold it and was surprised at how cold it was remarking, "it's like an ice pack for your wine" which sums it up pretty well.

Wine Pearls - https://t.co/rBjbFQH4Jh - like an ice pack for your wine! #winelover #giftideas pic.twitter.com/Yb1nDL5Jgi

— lou16 (@lou16) February 17, 2017

Why Do You Need Wine Pearls?

The idea behind the wine cooling pearls is great - keep your wine cool without altering the taste - there's nothing worse than having ice cubes in your favorite moscato or chardonnay (although I do know people who have committed this crime!)

There was a suggestion a few years ago of adding frozen grapes to your favorite glass of vino.   I liked this suggestion, but that was more for the excuse to freeze grapes (have you tasted a frozen grape, they're like little pops of ice cream - yum!).

The only drawback is that different grapes have different levels of sweetness and flavor that can be at odds with some wines.   Personally I find them fine, but I'm not a wine expert by any stretch of the imagination!  I just enjoy a nice moscato or a certain dolcetto & syrah blend in the summer heat.

These wine pearls are made from food grade stainless steel and have a non-toxic freezable gel core, I was very hesitant about trying them as I thought they could add a metallic taste to the wine.   Luckily that thought was unwarranted.  The wine pearls just kept the wine cool without altering any of it's flavor - just perfect!

What if You Don't Drink Wine?

These wine pearls aren't just for wine you can forget about whiskey stones and use wine pearls in your whiskey and scotch as well - they even look sophisticated enough to pop into a martini, shaken or stirred!

If you're a non-drinker that's okay, pop one of these wine pearls into a mocktail or soda for a refreshingly cool drink.

Note: The author may receive a commission from purchases made using links found in this article. “As an Amazon Associate, Ebay (EPN), Esty (Awin), and/or Zazzle Affiliate, I (we) earn from qualifying purchases.”

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Reviewing Prime Reading

Free Access to Books, Magazines, and More With Your Amazon Prime Membership

Prime Reading is a Feature of Amazon Prime
that you won't want to miss.

If you're an Amazon Prime customer, you probably already take advantage of free two-day shipping and several of the other discounts and freebies available with Prime. But there's one advantage that you might not be aware of. It's called Prime Reading and if you love to read, it's a feature that you won’t want to miss. Here's how it works.

With Prime Reading, automatically included with your Prime membership, you get access to a library of over a thousand books, magazines, and Audible narration recordings, all at no additional cost. While 1000+ books and magazines doesn't sound like much in the big scheme of the Amazon bookstore, the selection is good and, personally, I've saved quite a bit of money borrowing books and magazines from Prime Reading as opposed to buying them. I think it's a great deal!

Do I Need a Kindle To Use Prime Reading?

You might be wondering if you need a Kindle reader to take advantage of this program and the answer is "no," you do not. As with all e-books in the huge Amazon library, each can be read from your phone, your iPad, or your other Android or iOS device using Amazon's free reading app which is simple to download to your device. If you don't own a Kindle reader or Fire tablet, simply look for the "Read with Our Free App" link below the Kindle format of any book to get started. (To learn more, check out my review of "The Three Best Ways to Read Kindle Books.")

What Types of Books Are Available for Prime Reading?  

The Prime Reading library consists of books in many genres from nonfiction to romance to business and money and more. Titles include current bestsellers, classics, and likely books by quite a few authors that you haven't read yet. What a great opportunity to explore new titles when you're on a budget (I'm always on a budget!).

The magazines that are available are current issues of many of the bestsellers on the Kindle Newsstand. While e-magazine subscriptions are very reasonably priced, as far as I'm concerned you can't beat "free" for the cost of a magazine. I'll admit, I'd rather borrow HGTV Magazine or Birds & Blooms or Real Simple and read them for free than pay for a subscription. Borrow it, read it, save it for a while then exchange it for something else, all from the comfort of your own computer. It's even "greener" than recycling, don't you agree?

Where Do I Find Prime Reading?

When you're logged in to your Amazon account, visit the Prime Reading page to see the catalog of what's available and view your personal library. You can always access a link to Prime Reading Eligible items in the left margin of the Kindle store, as shown in the photo.

If you're not an Amazon Prime member yet, this is another great reason to join. Currently the price is just $99 a year, very worth it, especially when you take advantage of all the features of the program that you may not even know exist, including Prime Reading. To see the list of what's included or to join Amazon Prime, just follow the link.

So tell me, if you're a member of Amazon Prime, did you already know about Prime Reading or did you learn something new today? I love to save money on books and magazines and hopefully this information will help you save a few dollars here and there, too. Happy reading!

~Susan
Read more of my reviews.

Posted by Susan Deppner

About the Author

Susan Deppner is a baby boomer, a cancer survivor, and a Southerner who believes in the Golden Rule. She enjoys writing about food, faith, and fitness; health, home, and holidays; people, places, pets, and patriotism, and more. Follow Susan on Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest.

Note: The author may receive a commission from purchases made using links found in this article. “As an Amazon Associate, Ebay (EPN), Esty (Awin), and/or Zazzle Affiliate, I (we) earn from qualifying purchases.”

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Personal Review of My Favorite Vegetable Peeler: The Zyliss Potato Peeler

It Took Me 45 Years to Discover the Best Vegetable Peeler

In my opinion, it's the Zyliss Potato Peeler. It's the best solution I've found for peeling celery -- the ultimate test of a peeler for me. I've pictured it next to some celery to be peeled for a soup I was making. I peeled it after I took this picture.

Here's what led to my decision to buy it. If you need an excellent peeler right now and don't need the review, take the shortcut below. 

Go straight to the Zyliss Potato Peeler on Amazon and skip the rest of this review. 

My Early Experience with Vegetable Peelers

Some of my most frustrating kitchen experiences have been while peeling vegetables -- especially celery. When I still lived with my parents, Mom often assigned the job of peeling the vegetables to me. I was the one who peeled the potatoes for the holiday mashed potatoes. I also got to peel the rutabagas to cook, and the carrots and celery for the hors d'oeuvres tray before dinner. It was a job I hated. Mom's peeler was the best to be found for the job in the 1950's. It looked a lot like this Miracle Peeler. I think it was a Miracle Peeler. It was much better than others I had used. Even so, peeling wasn't my favorite kitchen chore. 

Feemster's Miracle Peeler Vegetable Fruit Potato - Kitchen Tools & Gadgets

The Miracle Peeler's handle was fairly easy to control, and I could cut bad spots out with the sharp curved attachment at the end. When I got married and bought my own peeler, I bought the Miracle Peeler. It was the best I could find 53 years ago.

My mother-in-law was using an old stainless steel paring knife she brought with her from Europe. I could not find one like it online, though I did check eBay. This is what it looked like. It's upside down. There is a peeling blade on the other side of the depression in the blade. When Paula handed this to me to peel something, I didn't know what to do with it. I'd never seen anything like it. I didn't do a very good job. When we next visited my husband's parents, I brought Paula a Miracle Peeler like mine so I could at least function if she asked me to peel something.

A Vintage Paring Knife My Mother-in-Law Used to Peel Vegetables

Why I Wanted to Replace My Miracle Peeler

Over the years my original Miracle Peeler stopped working as well. I decided to get a new one. The replacement I bought looked like the old one but didn't seem to be made as well. I picked it up at a grocery store and didn't pay too much attention to the brand name. Perhaps it was a cheaper knock-off. In any case, it didn't work very well -- especially on celery. If the celery was the least bit limp, it was almost impossible to peel. Not only that, the new one did not seem to fit my hand as well, and it hurt to use it. I decided to try to find a better one.

I Bought a Zyliss Potato Peeler

The Zyliss peeler works very well on celery and on the other veggies I peel with it. I have been using it now for about five years and it's the best I've ever used.

I've even used it to strip brown spots off the back of romaine lettuce ribs to make them look nicer. The blade is very flexible and the celery strings don't catch in it as much as in other peelers I have used. If strings do linger long enough to interfere with peeling, I rinse the strings off the blade easily under the faucet. On other peelers, I've often had to use a brush.  If I find a bad spot in the vegetable I'm peeling, I use the sharp cutting end of the Zyliss peeler to get it out easily.

The Zyliss peeler handle is more comfortable in my hand than other peelers have been. It's easy to grip and unlike the Miracle Peeler, my fingers don't have to bend to fit around a small thin metal handle that sometimes presses against my skin in a painful way. I also tried using the Zyliss to peel a stalk of celery with my left hand.  I proved to myself that left-handed people can also use the Zyliss Peeler, since the blade flips both ways.

If you need to replace your vegetable peeler, I highly recommend the Zyliss Potato Peeler. I believe you will be very happy with it, as I have been.

ZYLISS Smoothglide Potato Peeler, Green

You may also want to check out my review of another small but essential kitchen tool: Rescued by a Brix Jar Key: A Review

***

Note: The author may receive a commission from purchases made using links found in this article. “As an Amazon Associate, Ebay (EPN), Esty (Awin), and/or Zazzle Affiliate, I (we) earn from qualifying purchases.”

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Lego Big Bang Theory Reviewed

Fun Legos Set For Grown-ups and Kids

Close-up of Lego Big Bang Theory Box

I just treated myself to the Lego Big Bang Theory set. No, I didn't buy it for the grandkids, I bought it for myself! I am a huge fan of the TV series The Big Bang Theory and I have loved Legos since my kids were little and we played with the plastic bricks together. When my girls were small there were no sets of Legos like there are now. We had to use our own creativity to make things. Once the grandchildren came along, Legos got even more interesting with the wonderful sets to complete. Trust me, this Grandma has purchased loads of those sets for the granddaughters! Suffice it to say, Grandma had just as much fun with the building as the girls did!

As I mentioned before, I am an avid fan of The Big Bang Theory on television. Just about every night in the hour before prime time viewing begins; my husband and I watch the syndicated reruns of the show. I started noticing that they were doing promos using Lego characters to promote the Lego Batman movie and one evening I said to my hubby, "I wish they had a real set for the Big Bang Theory." My husband replied in his logical way with, "Well, they must have one because they are showing them like they do." After rolling my eyes just a tad, I picked up my cell phone and looked it up on Amazon. Much to my delight, there is one! Ask me how long it took to hit the "buy" button! If you said, "No longer than it takes to log in." ... you would be correct!

Just opened Lego Big Bang Theory box

So, it came yesterday and of course I had to build it! The picture on the right is right after I opened the box and was ready to start building. If you haven't purchased a Legos set before, you might not know that the pieces are in numbered bags and you get an instruction book to follow. The instructions are simple for a child to follow. Basically pictures with no text are provided on each page. The page shows you a picture of the pieces that you will need for that step and then how to place them together. 

The fun thing about the instruction book for the Lego Big Bang Theory set is that there is a page that tells about the television series and a page that identifies each of the main characters of the sitcom with a picture and a short little bio. As I began building and went from page to page; I was tickled to see that every once in a while there was a small image of one of the characters with a quote from one of the episodes of the series. That was a fun little surprise!

It took me about 2 1/2 hours to completely build the set. There are a lot of little pieces to sort through but it was easy to follow the directions on each page. My only disappointment in the set is that it isn't very big and there are so many little things to build and place that it looks cramped. Because it is so small, it is really kind of hard to see everything. Then again, that is kind of fun because you have to take your time to find all of the hidden little treasures.

Lego Big Bang Theory Set

I think it is fun that they included all of the main characters in the set. There is Sheldon, Leonard, Howard, Raj, Penny, Bernadette and Amy along with Raj's little dog. All in all it was a fun set to build and it is fun to have it setting out as a conversation piece in our home.

This would make a wonderful gift for the Lego fan on your gift list, especially if they also happen to be a fan of the show The Big Bang Theory. In fact, I plan to order another one to give to my son-in-law for his birthday this year. I know he will get a real kick out of it!

View of my completed set

I thought you might enjoy seeing a view of my set on display in our living room. As you can see there is a lot of detail in this little set.

Note: The author may receive a commission from purchases made using links found in this article. “As an Amazon Associate, Ebay (EPN), Esty (Awin), and/or Zazzle Affiliate, I (we) earn from qualifying purchases.”

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Slipper Socks Review

Crocheted slipper socks are amazing. I have crocheted many pairs of slipper socks over the years, customizing the colors for friends and family. This year I bought yarn with the intention of again making slipper socks as gifts. Sadly, I have not yet found the time to crochet those gifts. But fortunately, I have found my beloved slippers socks for sale on Etsy and will review the reasons these are a favorite item with people I know.

Crocheted Slipper Socks

I have made these slipper socks off and on for many years. And I have a few friends who hint at wanting a new pair in a new color every time we see a scrap of yarn anywhere. 

Today I was looking for the online pattern as I may have some time to do some crochet work.  It was during that search that I found the finished slippers for sale in Etsy shops!  

Why These Slipper Socks Are Recommended

I have made these slippers for a woman who often gives handmade things to her friends and family as gifts. It was intimidating to make a handmade gift for her, but I did. I gifted her with a pair of these slipper socks that I had made, and she loved them. She wore them daily and is the only person I know of that has worn a pair threadbare.  She told me that was only because she wore them daily - including the daily walk down her paved driveway and to her mailbox! That is a high review if I've ever heard one. 

Blue Green Slipper Socks

I am able to recommend the slippers in this Etsy shop because I am familiar with the pattern. It is an excellent pattern - one that fits well. WiseAcreBoutique also offers customized sizes with your foot measurements. I am aware that this pattern is easy to adjust to unusually long, narrow, or wide fit because of the ease of adjusting the pattern. 

A few reasons these slippers are socks are recommended and requested by friends: 

• they are made with worsted weight acrylic yarn
• made with two strands of yarn - increasing warmth and softness
• I have always tossed mine into the washer and dryer with no problems
• the pattern creates a "heel" that is not bulky, fits well, and keeps the slipper sock in place
• it seems the ridges under the heel would be uncomfortable when in fact, they provide cushioning
• easy to pack in a suitcase for travel
• can be made in solid and variegated yarns 
• the "cuff" can remain upright or be folded down - I like to fold mine down. My friends keep theirs up for added coverage
• the fit is reliable - in similar size ranges as socks. 
• the pattern can be adjusted to fit a variety of feet 

Slipper Socks at WiseAcreBoutique 

There is a good chance I will soon make the time to crochet the gifts I've been planning for my friends. Those same friends who have hinted and outright asked for a new pair. The yarn is already purchased and waiting in my closet. But it is still unlikely that I will make the time to crochet a pair for myself. Because of this, it is good to know where I can purchase a pair of these awesome slipper socks for myself. 

Note: The author may receive a commission from purchases made using links found in this article. “As an Amazon Associate, Ebay (EPN), Esty (Awin), and/or Zazzle Affiliate, I (we) earn from qualifying purchases.”

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