How To Be The Best Grandma Ever!

     Do you see these happy faces? What brought on all those smiles? Just tell your little ones that they get to take part in a taste test...for what they think is ICE CREAM! When I found out that the wonderful folks at Roba Dolce were going to send me some of their Gelato or Sorbetto to sample, I expected to receive one or two single serving size containers. My face looked just like the kids when my box arrived on Friday and I opened it to find all of these wonderful flavors inside. It arrived frozen solid, packed in dry ice and I was tempted to just have a party all by myself.

     Roba Dolce started in Providence, Rhode Island and wanted to bring authentic Italian Gelato and Sorbetto to the New World. Being so successful in their shops has led them to package the product and make it available in grocery stores all over the country.

     After dinner, I got out all the flavors and opened them on the counter. You should have seen my little grandson's faces! I thought it would be fun to do a Gelato/Sorbetto tasting because we had 3 generations in our house and I wondered how different our opinions would be.

     I made little sample cups of each flavor and the tasting began. The Gelato flavors of coconut, chocolate and pistachio were rich, creamy and tasted almost sinful. My husband doesn't like coconut and yet he thought this was delicious. He commented that he even loved the flavors that he normally doesn't like. The Sorbetto flavors of mango and lemon were tart, refreshing and good for you! So, did we agree on a "winner"? Nope, we all had our favorites. My 2-year-old grandson loved the mango, liked all the other flavors except the pistachio. I wish you could have seen his face when he tried it! My 4-year-old grandson liked all the flavors, but the lemon sorbetto was his favorite. He said it tasted "like lemonade". My son, at 28, liked the mango sorbetto the best and also loved the lemon. He liked the texture of sorbetto better than that of gelato, but truthfully loved all the flavors. My husband (who is a very picky eater) liked the lemon sorbetto and the pistachio gelato the best, but he even liked the chocolate and coconut, two flavors he never eats.

     I loved them all. I have found myself over the weekend going to the freezer for dips of coconut and pistachio, so I guess those are my favorites but the mango is delicious and the chocolate is a rich, dark chocolate with chunks of chocolate in it. There will be days when I may sit down with that carton and a spoon! The lemon was a bit tart for my taste, but as you can see...it was a favorite with others in my family.

     This was a really generous opportunity to try a product that will now be a favorite at our house. It also became a fun event that had us all feeling like little kids and certainly impressed my grandsons. For more information on Roba Dolce Gelato and Sorbetto,

click here for their website.

*I was provided samples from Roba Dolce. I was not instructed on what to say, the opinions expressed are my own and that of my family.

I am joining Mary @ Little Red House for Mosaic Monday.



A Little Christmas Magic-Met Monday

     Like most of you, I spent much of the past few days bringing a little Christmas cheer to my house. Today I'm going to show you the front porch. It was inspired by a Pottery Barn photo, of course my house doesn't look like the Pottery Barn house and I also wanted to use things I already had. I wasn't asking for too much do you think? Before we started decorating, we made a much needed change to our house numbers. The numbers that were on the house were here when we bought the house 7 years ago. They blended too much with the brick and as you will see, they looked ugly. I added the Christmas sticker to avoid posting the full number.

     Imagine how excited I was when CSNstores.com asked me to review a product and I got to pick out new house numbers! I absolutely love them. It was one of those simple changes that really made a difference to the front of my house. They are quality made and my husband had no trouble at all putting them on the house. I wish we had made this simple change sooner. I have been really happy with everything I've gotten from CSN and I'll be having a giveaway from them in the near future...maybe you can change your house numbers!

     Now, for the rest of the porch. When I was looking through my Pottery Barn catalog, I loved the look of one of the pictures. I knew that without buying several new things, I couldn't quite match that look...but, I did use it as my inspiration for using some things I already had. So, we took the porch from this...

To this...

I am joining Susan @ Between Naps on the Porch today for

Met Monday Please stop for a visit and

see all the creative posts this week.

Don't forget to sign up for my GIVEAWAY!

Click Here!

Progresso Soup Review and Giveaway!

     Several weeks ago I received my first opportunity from MyBlogSpark to review a product. They provided me with a package that included two cans of Progresso Reduced Sodium soup, a Progresso soup mug, and a fitness ball and DVD.

     I am not new to Progresso Soup. We love soup at our house and while I love homemade soups, sometimes it is so easy to just pop open a can for a quick lunch. I started buying Progresso Soups when I did Weight Watchers for a few months many years ago. The taste was good, it was easy to prepare and you could eat an entire can for very few points! I was new to Reduced Sodium Progresso soups. In reading the information provided to me, I found out that there are more than 100 million adults suffering from high cholesterol and that eating Progresso® Reduced Sodium soups may help lower cholesterol when eaten with other heart healthy, soluble fiber containing foods.  

     The "May Help Lower Cholesterol" banner and the Heart Healthy logo can be found on certain varieties of Progresso Reduced Sodium soups, making it easy to find them on your grocer's shelf. Five Progresso Reduced Sodium favorites - Italian Style Wedding, Minestrone, Garden Vegetable, Beef and Vegetable, and Chicken Gumbo - contain hearty vegetables and legumes to provide 1g of heart healthy soluble fiber in every bowl.

     Of course the important question is, how does it taste? I was pleased to see when I opened the can of Chicken Gumbo, that it was loaded with rice, veggies, beans and chicken. I like substance in my soups. It was nicely seasoned, in fact it had a bit of a "bite" to it. Did I miss the salt? I will admit that I'm used to "regular" canned soup which is loaded with sodium, so I could tell immediately that these soups had less salt in them. It was something I got used to after the first couple of bites. What I found was that Progresso has been able to make a healthy line of soups without sacrificing the quality I am used to with their products. If you would like to learn more about Progresso Reduced Sodium Soups (or their other products) you can visit their webpage or join them on Facebook.

     MyBlogSpark and Progresso have generously offered to send a prize package to one of my readers. You will receive the same package I got to review; a large Progresso mug, two cans of soup and an exercise ball and video. This is open to my U.S. readers only.

     Let's keep this simple.

     1. Leave a comment on this post sharing anything you might do to help lower your cholesterol using your food choices. I would love it if you decided to follow my blog, but you don't have to be a follower to be entered.

You have through Tuesday, Nov. 30th to enter

Met Monday (Sort of a stretch) and a Review

     Met Monday with Susan @ Between Naps on the Porch is a fun meme where we can show something we have turned into something else. In most cases it might be an old piece of furniture, an outdated craft turned cool again or a room redo. I didn't have any of that today...but, I did have something I wanted to share. I didn't exactly do the metamorphosis on my "item", someone else did.

It started with the cutest beagle pup,

who looked like this back in 1996.

Today, she looks like this...and she didn't

want to stop eating that biscuit to pose for me.

Most of you saw the picture where the spoiled

brat hid from us, under the throw pillows on our bed.

She didn't win Fifi Flowers contest with this picture...

She is, however, feeling a bit like a rock star

after receiving her portrait painted by Ms. Fifi this week.

I just don't know how we are supposed to put up with her now!

I'm also joining Mary @ Little Red House for Mosaic Monday

If your want your pup to feel like a rock star too...visit Fifi Flowers by clicking here!

*I wasn't compensated for showing off my pup's picture today. I bought mine!

     I also wanted to share today a review of a few items I recently received from CSNstores.com. They did provide me with the merchandise and my only expense was a few dollars for shipping. What I received was the 9" Square Baking Dish with Bonus 5" Baking Dish in Caribbean and an 18-Ounce Small Oval Serving Bowl in Caribbean from Le Creuset. They are from the cookware.com store at csnstores.com. CSN has over 200 stores and as most bloggers know, they carry everything!

     These were my first pieces of Le Creuset and I was very excited to try them. I have nothing but good things to say about the ordering process and the items I received. Ordering was very easy and my order shipped within 2 days. I had my items within a week and everything was in packaged perfectly. I wanted to actually use the items before writing about them. I decided to bake an apple cake in the 9" baker. The cake wasn't blog worthy (it isn't the one I posted Friday) but it baked beautifully in the pan. It was also very easy to clean after the cake was gone.

     The bowl is cute. It is the perfect size for the homemade applesauce that I put in it, or any other small side dish. I also used the 5" baker for leftovers. It is a great size for a single serving piece of lasagne or leftover casserole to heat the next day.

     I appreciate the fact that I've been able to host a few giveaways from csnstores.com and now I've had to opportunity to review some of their products. Take a moment to visit their website, you will not be disappointed.