If you’re the planner in your house, summer can be stressful with extra meals to cook and parties to organize. Make summer easy this year by letting your appliances do most of the work on three typical occasions.
#1 No fuss party planning
You don’t have to spend all your time planning summer parties if you have the right appliances to help. While a lot of cooking is done on the grill, plan so it isn’t the only thing you use—otherwise the grill gets backed up, and guests are left waiting.
To ease up the demand at the grill, make some dishes in the kitchen to keep guests satisfied. Take advantage of the large capacity of your blender and/or food processor to make dips and spreads. For easy drinks, see this month’s article on becoming a bender master.
#2 Home lunches for kids made easy
When the kids are home from school during the summer, adding an extra meal to prepare can be a challenge. Your appliances make summer lunches easy by taking the hassle out of creating lunch.
Use the one-touch functions on your digital countertop oven to make kid-favorite frozen food like chicken nuggets and pizza bites. Then, use the one-touch cookies function for dessert, too.
If you have more time, get the kids involved and use your toaster for easy customizable sandwiches. The kids can pick their own ingredients and put their sandwiches together. All you need to do is toast some bread, and the kids do the rest of the work.
#3 Picnic prep in a snap
Make your summer picnic memorable by prepping the food at home. Pack the components separately, then put the food together once outside.
Use the appliances at home for picnic prepping. Liven up your sandwiches by baking fresh bread in your bread maker then slice it. Then use your food processor to pre-slice ingredients, so everything is prepped and ready to serve.
You can also use your food processor to make popular chopped salads, like a fresh Cobb. For snacks, use your processor, chopper or blender to make salsa. Just put all the ingredients in, press the button and you’re ready to pack up.
Big life changes can mean added stress in the home. Whether it’s a new baby or blending lives with a wedding, it’s important to get your house in order to meet new needs—and one of the biggest challenges comes in the kitchen. To make the transition a total success, it’s key to plan so you don’t add chaos to already changing lifestyles.
Making the Change to Married Life
For new couples without kids, the key to a happy kitchen is to find easy two-person serving solutions. Look for lower serving numbers in prepackaged foods and hunt for online resources and recipe books that cater to 2-person households. (more…)
You want your kids to eat right even when they’re at school, but how do you make sure they’re getting a good, hot meal when they’re out of your house? With just a little creativity and your Black & Decker appliances, you can make phenomenal school lunches in a snap. (more…)
Looking to bring a little Cinco de Mayo celebration to your home next week? Look no further than your Black & Decker blender!
Cinco de Mayo is next Thursday, so you may not have the energy or inclination to go out during your busy week. Even so, you can still bring a little Latin spice to your day with these easy ideas and your multi-speed blender. (more…)
Running out of room on your kitchen counters? For most people, countertop clutter is a big issue, because you just never seem to have enough space to do everything you need.
Whether it’s because your kitchen is small or simply that you have too many appliances, using combo products can give you all-in-one solutions that let you keep your kitchen versatility without cluttering your counters with multiple appliances. (more…)
Feeding baby the right food is a big challenge in any mom’s life. You want to make sure your baby is getting the best, most nutritious food possible to ensure a good start on a healthy lifestyle. You also want to give them a wide variety of food to expand their growing palate and catch any potential allergies early.
Making baby food at home lets you do all of this and more, because you’re in total control of what your baby is eating. Still, many moms shy away from doing baby food at home, because they’re concerned about not doing it correctly.
In truth, making your baby’s food at home is fast, easy and intensely rewarding as you introduce them to a whole world of tastes and flavors. Black & Decker wants to help with
this easy guide on getting the best baby food at home.
(more…)
If you’re going to invest the counter space for a toaster oven over a toaster, you want an oven that does as much as possible to maximize the use of your space. With that idea in mind, Black & Decker created our Digital Advantage® Toaster Oven (CTO6301)—the toaster oven that does all the work of your big oven in less space and with less fuss.
It does everything you’d expect from a toaster oven, including toasting up to 6 slices of toast or bagels and a 12” pizza. Beyond that though, it also lets you bake, broil and even make all your oven favorites at the touch of a button.
Not sure of the cooking time and temperature to get perfect baked potatoes? Just press the one-touch Potato button and the oven does the programming for you. It also features similar one-touch functions for Cookies, Frozen Snacks and Pizza.
For the baking function, we wanted to make sure you could get the same results from your counter as what you would from your conventional oven. The convection cooking technology allows you to do this by circulating air around the food as it bakes for better results.
With handy features like a 120-minute countdown timer and 4 positions for the wire rack, you can also cook your favorite family casseroles and roasts with great results— for family meals in less time, since you’re not spending the preheat time to get your full-sized oven ready.
Once you’re done cooking, all the accessories (including a bake pan and pizza pan) and removable parts of the oven (including the crumb tray) are dishwasher-safe to minimize your time spent cleaning up. The interior is also nonstick, to make more thorough cleaning easier, too.
Whether you see it as simply a necessity or a satisfying ritual, spring cleaning is something both you and your home need after the long, closed-in months of winter.
As warm weather comes in and plants begin to bloom, you open the windows, set aside a day or two and get down to give your home a good cleaning. The task is big, but with the right tools and a few tricks, you can simplify the job and have your home ready in no time.
Pack away winter with care
As you start your spring cleaning, you want to pack away all your winter clothes, bedding and linens with care. By cleaning and pressing everything before you pack it away or move it to the back of your closet you’ll save time next fall, because everything will be clean and ready for use.
As your packing, steam thicker winter bedding like quilts and duvets to get out any smells from the season of use, to have them fresh and ready when cold weather comes again.
Steaming drapes & bedding
With a winter’s worth of trying to keep out as much cold as possible, drapes and bedding can get a little stale smelling. Like your clothes, though, your vertical steam iron can help you freshen up these fabrics.
Drapes can actually be steamed where they are hanging. Just select the appropriate fabric setting, hold the fabric out with one hand and hold your iron vertically in front of it. Pump the steam button as you move over the fabric.
If you have a place to hang bedding, you can use vertical steam as well or you can check the tag to see what ironing indications it has. Most bedding uses medium temperature settings for flat ironing and allows for direct steam if you need to remove any wrinkles.
Cleaning in the kitchen
Your kitchen also typically requires some attention in your spring cleaning regimen.
When you’re cleaning appliance exteriors for spring, always remember they typically only need a damp cloth to wipe off any dust or even stains—harsh cleansers can actually damage the exterior coating, so if a damp cloth isn’t enough, use regular soap or a mild cleanser.
If you have limited counter space, you may need to rearrange your appliances as well. The appliances you use most in cold weather may not be the same as what you’ll use most once it’s warm. Spring cleaning is the perfect time to consider your kitchen setup and see if you can change it to fit new menus. If appliances have been stored away in cabinets, you may need to wash the removable parts in the dishwasher and wipe the appliance down to get it ready for use.
Get table linens ready for events
Spring and summer have a fair number of holidays and special events—everything from graduations to family reunions. As you get your home ready for spring, also think about getting ahead in the prep for all those parties by freshening and pressing out any party table linens, placements and napkins with a good steam pressing as well.
Warm weather is on its way and it’s time to start pulling out your spring and summer wardrobes to get them ready to wear. After months at the back of the closet or stored away, your clothes may need a little special touch to freshen them up.
To get your clothes fresh, pressed and ready for dress, just use your Black & Decker® steam iron and these handy tips.
1) Take stock of everything you have and what it needs.
If you washed and hung everything in the back of your closet, your clothes may only need a light vertical steaming to get out any wrinkles. Clothes that were packed away may require an ironing board and a little more love to get them ready.
2) Divide and conquer.
Once you’ve taken stock, you can divide your warm weather wardrobe into more manageable groups. Amount of work needed, type of care/fabric—however you divide the job, organizing your collection into smaller groups will give you a plan to get all your clothes looking their best.
3) Steam the small stuff.
For clothes that just need a little touch up, a vertical steam feature on your iron will cut down your care time by allowing you to skip the ironing board and steam the clothes on the hanger.
4) Let your iron do the work at the board.
When you’re talking about an entire seasonal wardrobe, the task can seem a little daunting. By letting your iron do the work, though, you can save time and make the task easier.
If you have a Smart Steam iron, you can pick the amount of steam you need simply by picking your fabric setting, since the steam level adjusts automatically along with the temperature. With variable steam, you get more control to determine how much steam you need for each job, so read all indications on each tag if you’re unsure.
For tough wrinkles, use the steam button to give you an extra powerful burst over your normal steam setting. For all-out creases, you should use the spray button to dampen the area so you can remove the fold.
You can also make ironing around buttons and zippers easier by allowing them to go over the edge of the soleplate—the metal plate of the iron that presses the fabric. Any iron with a slim soleplate or special button groove allows you to do this without loosening buttons or bending zippers out of shape.
It’s President’s Day today and it’s the perfect time to bring your family together for a great meal that celebrates our country’s heritage!
If you’re looking for an easy way to share the holiday with your kids and maybe even get a little history and education in, there’s no better way than with a family-style dinner that celebrates classic American tastes. Black & Decker can help with easy-to-make recipes that bring all the classic flavors of Americana home. (more…)
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