It’s by no means comprehensive.  What list of 10 things can be? Nor will it work for everyone.  It’s just a few of the things I pass along when my friends ask.

So here there are – in no particular order… aside from that last one.

10 Tips

1) Don’t ever, ever count on making it to more than 2 events/parties/dinners per night — you can RSVP for any & everything because there will be so much you will want to make it to – and who knows? You might be the one to make it to 8 events in 3 hours.  (I know people do, but I just set my limit at 2… that way if I make it to 3 or 4? I’m really rockin’ it!!)  But remember that going with the flow is more important. If you let it happen? You’ll end up being where you’re supposed to be. Which is hopefully not hoofing it half-way across Austin to wait in an hour-long  line to get into the shoulder-to-shoulder, screaming-volume-only, uber-High-Profile event when a lot of the most amazing folks are someplace else in small groups talking and being happy they are where they are and who they are with.

2) Bring REALLY good shoes – the average person walks at least 10 miles a day during SXSW, sometimes more.  If it weren’t for George Smith saving my feet with cute non-traditional Crocs (last year when he was doing social media for them)? I would’ve been down for the count by day 2.  Everything is “just a couple of blocks from here” even if that means it’s really 3 miles and you’ll be walking the whole way because the cabs are full. The one night I sacrificed sensibility for fashion in the name of ‘cute shoes’ was the night I got blisters.

3) Stick the following in your laptop bag/purse/whatever:

- A couple of BandAid Advanced Healing Blister Ampoules (if you need these? You’ll NEED these.  If not, be someone’s hero)
- Small bottle of hand sanitizer
- A couple of pens & business cards (even if you have them somewhere else) – lojack is sometimes faster
- A bottle or 2 of 5 Hour Energy – you can’t always find coffee when you need it. This will get you through w/o dying by 3pm.
- Chapstick
- Excedrine/Tylenol/Advil… something for headaches
- Colgate Wisp toothbrush, gum, mints – something that keeps your breath from being toxic 1/2 way through the day… trust me, you won’t get a chance to go back to brush your teeth.

4) Bring your powercords everywhere you go before 6pm — because you will never really get back to them once you are out for the day and nothing sucks more than dead laptop/phone syndrome. But you’ll probably want to ditch them before heading out for the night.  If your hotel is too far away, see if you can drop them in a friend’s room that you’ll be out with.

5) If you use an iPhone? Make one specific page for your Twitter client, Foursquare, Whrrl, Gowalla, Flickr and whatever everyone else tells you on Day 2 that they are using — but don’t count on getting ANY reception from AT&T inside the convention center – it’s major hit or miss there.   Last year they had to upgrade their hardware mid-conference and still most of us could only get reception on 5th floor or higher of our hotels.

6) After you check in, find a place in your hotel room that you can hang your badge (easily visible!) The minute you walk in – take it off and hang it up. And put it on the minute you walk out. Pretty much everything you want to get into day or night will require your badge. You might as well just wear it all the time when you’re out and take it off when in. Nothing worse than missing something because you can’t find your badge.

7) Speaking of badges? Plan on getting your badge on Thursday night if you get in early. The line will still take 30m-1h, but that’s better than the 3 hour wait on Friday or Saturday!! :\

Make a point of going to the Techset Blogger Lounge at least once (room 19a this year.) It’s where you will see people you never manage to run into the rest of the conference and it’s a good place to get caught up on email and whatnot while still networking – if you get there first thing in the morning instead of afternoon? You’ll get a better spot to plug in. Also, make sure to thank your hosts Steph Agresta & Brian Solis if you see them. TechSet & Microsoft Phone makes an oasis that you will really appreciate.

9) If there’s someone you really want to see/meet/hang out with? Make a concrete plan. With 30k people in attendance, you may not ever see them otherwise. Even if the plan is “we’ll both for sure be at TechKaraoke” – make a rough time and location like “meet you at the bar furthest from the singing on the first floor around 9p?” And then of course, ask your friends if they are on any panels or core convos. You can always meet up at a session and then head out for coffee or cocktails afterward.

10) Don’t forget to experience SXSW. If you’re a geek? You’re probably trying to twitter, check-in someplace, post a pic, make a video, write a blogpost, check your email… It’s easy to get TOO wired and to forget that you really should take this time to get some quality realspace interaction on. Scale back the social media and get with the social. Next week you can go back to interacting only online.

10 1/2) Come to this because you love me – even though it’s right smack-dab in the middle of All Hat No Cattle 2…   Okay, seriously, don’t YOU want to know what I’m going to tell you to ditch? Sure ya do.  I’ll see you there.

Did I forget to mention bring duct tape? You never know when you’ll need duct tape.  And have fun. Seriously. HAVE. FUN.

During the trip though, we were also treated to an experience at  Ice Bar Orlando and boy did I get asked a lot of questions about that experience!

Since a number of folks asked what it was like to go to an Ice Bar and since it was my first experience, I promised back in January (and February and probably March… sheesh!) that I would post some pictures and a recounting of the outing!

Like any true geek, the moment I found out we were going, I went to their website and started looking up every little detail I could.  Fortunately, Ice Bar Orlando has a slick website that is also informative… so before going I had even looked up a map of the floorplan that let me know that local twitter friends could meet us in the Chill Lounge after we had experienced the ICEBAR section – so we had a small tweetup* there as well.

Step By Step

Dinner ran late that night – so we were a bit later to Ice Bar Orlando than expected.  Having missed our reservation window, we had to wait for the previous group to finish up their time. So we were given little glowing badges and spent a few minutes playing around in the Chill Lounge.  Ashley Edwards from Izea, Julia Roy and I couldn’t resist playing around in a ball-bearing chain curtain that hung near the window.

I really wanted to keep the glowing badge – but apparently that wasn’t part of the deal.  Still, I got to suit up and go into a bar completely carved out of ice, so I guess I can live without the flashy jewelry.

The ICEBAR itself is pretty awesome.   Kept at 27° F, the entire thing (except for the floor, thankfully for those of us capable of falling at the mere thought of ice on the ground) is made out of ice.  The furniture is carved out of ice, the walls are ice bricks, there are elaborate ice sculptures around the room.  Even the glasses are made out of ice.

Because of the overwhelming “iciness” of the bar, suitable attire is required… Fortunately since no one tends to stock winter clothing in Florida, the bar provides heavily lined ponchos and gloves.  As modeled by my friend Ashley.

So we donned our ponchos and gloves and entered the ICEBAR after surrendering our flashy badges.  (Can you tell I really wanted a flashy badge? Yeah, sigh.)

It was the nicest feeling after hours spent in the Florida heat.  This Colorado gal was happy to be in the chilled air of ‘normal winter’ instead of humid and hot.  While I often find myself dreaming of sunny climes on days like today (current outside temperature? 23°F) it turns out that I’m more of a cold weather girl after all.  So the chill was refreshing and welcome. We bellied up to the bar where our drinks were served in glasses made of ice (seriously cool! Keeps the drink nice and cold without ice cubes!) And began lounging about on the fur-covered ice couches.  I finally had a chance to chill out (yeah, I know) and chat with friends like Carri Bright from Izea (pictured left).

Any rumors that half way through I got fed up with the poncho and removed it are completely true.

Of course, I don’t recommend that for most people – but I was approached by a fellow sojourner from Finland who had removed his as well and we basked in the chilly goodness amidst shock from our warmer climate friends.

We sat around drinking and chatting and taking pictures of everything and anything we could… until the toes on all of our feet started feeling a bit numb – then took a last round of pics (my favorite is this one of Ted Murphy, Izea’s CEO lounging on the Ice Throne…) and headed out into the Chill Lounge to meet some more Twitterpals and regain feeling in our extremities.

A few hours later, we rolled out with the general consensus that Ice Bar Orlando is a must see experience.  I know it will be on my agenda next time I’m in Orlando.  I can’t wait to show it to GeekDaddy and anyone else I can drag along!

So if you’re in Orlando for a family trip and can steal away from the kids? I highly recommend checking it out.  Don’t forget to bring your camera – and if you think of it? Socks are good.

Administrative Note: This post is completely unsolocited by either Izea or Ice Bar Orlando.  Requests to post details of my adventure there came from friends and readers.  This post is uncompensated in any form.  I shouldn’t have to post that, but I wanted to make it clear – this review is 100% the opinion of the author.

*tweetup: meetup of folks who use twitter

What’s better than picking out just the right presents for your family members, friends, and loved ones?  Getting them for free, of course!!

It’s December – and for those of us not done with our shopping in July – that means it’s time to get the Holiday Shopping in high gear and get done before it’s too late!  But our economy is making things a bit tougher this year than in the past and so we’re all looking for ways to save money while still living well.

That’s why I’m all aglow because Nickelodeon has teamed up with the Walmart ElevenMoms to throw a Holiday Money Saving Tips Contest. One of you lucky readers will be getting a $500 Walmart Gift Card!

That’s right.  You have a chance to win a $500 Walmart Gift Card just in time for the holidays.  In fact, you can earn up to 3 entries into this contest, just by following these instructions carefully:

1. Leave a comment sharing your best Holiday Money Saving Tip.  Please make sure to put a valid email address on your comment so I can contact the winner!

2. Subscribe to my feed via RSS or email and leave a separate comment letting me know you have done so along with a DIFFERENT money-saving tip. If you’re already a subscriber, simply leave a separate comment letting me know you’re already subscribed along with another money-saving tip.

3. Share the Love!! Spread the word about this contest in some manner and come back and leave a link in a separate comment. If you twitter a tip? Just tag it with #Nick11 and paste the link in your comment.  If you blog about it? You can leave the tip in your post and just link it here.  If you digg it, stumble it, kirtsy it? Just put your Third Money Saving Tip in the comment with your link. However you do it, just come leave me a link so I know that you did!!  I know, I know, it’s hard to let other people know when you want to win… but that’s why you get another entry for it!

The other important bits

• This contest ends December 15th, 2008 at NOON (12:00 pm) Pacific Time. Any entries received after that time cannot be counted toward the winning tip.

• Any entries not including all of the required elements (One Money Saving Tip, valid email address, any relevant links) will be disqualified and deleted from the comments list. PLEASE make sure to include all elements as I do not have the time to notify those who do not.

• The winner will be chosen at random (using random.org) out of the all the valid entries (see above.)

• You can enter up to 3 Money Saving Tips according to the methods above – try to make them good tho, as the winning tips may end up on Walmart.com!

You can enter to win a $500 Walmart gift card not only here at GeekMommy.net but at most of the ElevenMoms’ sites. You can only win once, but you can enter to win at each site. Each contest may have slightly different rules, so make sure you read carefully!

I’m looking forward to seeing the tips you guys come up with!! Thanks for making my holiday season more fun (and frugal!) as well!

note: this author of this post was not compensated by either Walmart or Nickelodeon in any way regarding the posting or promotion of this contest. Please see the Disclosure Policy for further information.

What is that? Well… if you follow the link – you’ll find a site where you can get a free sample of the “Mystery Shampoo & Conditioner” that we 11moms got to try out in Bentonville.  You can also see some videos of some of my gorgeous fellow 11moms getting makeovers with this Mystery shampoo & conditioner.

I will tell you that we ALL loved it.

And we’re waiting anxiously for the reveal ourselves so we can find out what it is and go buy it. (Yep, you heard me right, we don’t know what it is either!)

So go click – get a free sample – see what you think.  And if you don’t love it, I’ll be surprised.  But comment back here and tell me why if you don’t, okay?

Yay!! Free stuff!

Wouldn’t it have been great then if we could’ve convinced her not to grip her pen/pencil/crayon like it was a drumstick?  Her writing might’ve been a little less cavegirl-esque early on!  Granted, she would’ve still occasionally written stuff “mirror-backwards” (she gets that from me, unfortunately) but it would’ve been mostly legible!

Over the weekend, GeekDaddy tried to start helping Buttercup with some “handwriting homework” – mostly writing her name in proper Title Case along with those lower-case letters.  He tried to get her to hold her pencil correctly only to have a melt-down battle.  I tried next and got her to hold it somewhat like one is supposed to, but couldn’t convince her that it would be easier if the eraser pointed toward her rather than away.

We got through the homework, but GeekDaddy and I decided we’d need to talk to her teacher – Mrs. J – and let her know that we needed to work on this both at home and at school.

Imagine my surprise then when Buttercup was writing a letter to a family member of ours this afternoon after school and holding the pencil correctly!

I was stunned.

The difference was night and day – really.  Here I was thinking “wow! I must’ve really made an impression! I can’t believe how far she’s gotten in just 2 days!”

Then GeekDaddy came home and put one of these in my hand.  It’s called a Stetro pencil grip. I’ve never heard of such a thing.  I couldn’t even figure out what it did at first.  Then he told me that Mrs. J had given him ‘a couple extra to take home.’

It seems this morning, just as Buttercup sat down to work in her notebook, GeekDaddy was in the midst of talking to Mrs. J about the handwriting thing and before he could get to it she said “Oh! I have something for Buttercup!” and got one of these out and put it on her pencil.  There’s a little arrow that goes right between the finger and thumb and points downward to the paper.  After that? the fingers just fall into place.  Within moments, Buttercup was writing with a properly positioned pencil as if she’d been doing it that way all of her life.

And as soon as GeekDaddy put one of the ones on her pens at home? The same thing.  So basically? It wasn’t 2 days and a wonder-Mom.  It was a few hours and a gadget.  Having tried it myself, I can say that I think it would work for just about anyone – even doctors with lousy handwriting!

Buttercup's Hand

Dang. I wish I had invented this.

As it is? GeekDaddy and I have discovered that you can buy them in bulk.  So we’re going to be buying a couple of dozen to donate to the pre-school where Buttercup went last year.  And a couple dozen more to give to any parents of pre-schoolers/kindergartners we know.  Because seriously – even without it this afternoon – she was holding the pencil correctly.  Makes me wish we’d had it when I was 5.

(This is a completely unsolicited and uncompensated review/endorsement of this product. All opinions expressed are those of the author of this blog.)

But I was trying to figure out what I could post that might help someone else thinking about all of this and then I remembered that GeekDaddy & I make a recipe that goes over big with our friends and they always wish we’d told them about it sooner… so I thought I’d share it.

Several years back, we tried one of those “highly restrictive professional diets” – there are a lot of them out there and you probably see them advertised on TV and in your local paper.  This one actually happens to work – I lost over 25 lbs on it, and GeekDaddy lost 35 and hit his target weight – which is part of what proved our downfall.  It was so much easier and faster for him that I got disillusioned when I was only 1/2 way to my goal and he was done and ready for “maintenance.”  The other part of the failure equation was that the diet itself was so crazy restrictive that when I lost it and took “one weekend off to eat like a normal person” and he joined me, 3 months later we were both right back where we started.

One really good thing came out of it though and that was that the extreme lack of anything resembling a simple carbohydrate made us get creative.  We came up with ‘Mockos’ (the name is a play on words of course, mock tacos -> mockos) because we were hard pressed to find meals that weren’t boring and bland… given that salt was verboten and most food was really generally unappetizing after a few weeks.

butter lettuce

What you need

~ 1 head of Butter Lettuce
~ 1 lb of lean ground beef or 99% fat-free ground turkey (the other kind is gross, thanks)
~ 1 can of either black beans or pinto beans
~ 1 bag of 2% shredded cheese
~ Taco seasonings (can either be a packet from the store or do like we do and put chili powder, garlic, onion powder and tabasco sauce in w/ the meat instead)

Brown the meat in a frying pan, season with taco seasoning, drain off any excess fat/grease.  Zap the beans in the microwave. Set aside about 1/4 cup of 2% shredded cheese for each person.  Use the individual butter lettuce leaves like you would a tortilla – so like a mini burrito or soft taco -  you are going to put about 1/2 beans and 1/2 meat into a leaf, sprinkle on some cheese and roll it up and eat as you go.  GeekDaddy adds salsa to his, I don’t. To each her own.

It serves about 2-3 people.  You may find you have “stuff” left over.  Just put it in the fridge and make it into a nice taco salad the next day.

Seriously – it’s tons healthier and really easy.  Plus you can kind of play with the seasoning until you get it where you want it.  We’ve done it with lean beef, ground turkey, ground buffalo, and even chicken.  It’s fun and fast.

Yeah, not much of a recipe, but seriously. Yum.

Tell me if you try it what you think and how you make it your own!

A simple way to save money on both your heating and cooling bills is to remember that you don’t need to heat or cool the *whole* house.

In our house, along with the 6 month changing of the furnace filter we do a 6 month “changing of the guard” on our air/heating vents.

In cooler months, we close the upstairs vents and open those on the first floor – because heat rises.  Likewise, in warmer times, we open the vents on the top floor and close those on the first floor, because colder air inevitably drifts downward.  If you’re keeping all your vents open, your heating & cooling systems have to do twice the work.  That’s twice the electricity.

It’s a small effort twice a year, but believe me, it saves you bigtime on the energy bill!!

Have a great Monday!

So I thought about it and decided to start big in a different way.

Most money-saving tips center around little increments that add up to big savings. But sometimes we have to make big purchases – like houses, cars, appliances – and there’s no reason not to save there as well.

Today’s tip is about Edmunds.com and is for those of you considering the purchase of a car in the U.S.
Whether used or new, before you sign on the dotted line, you should have done your homework on Edmunds.com first.

Yes, I know. You’re the sort of person who has gone to the trouble of looking up the Blue Book value of the car and think that you’re fairly successful at getting that salesguy down to the best price.

But take it from me, spending a little time and effort on Edmunds.com can save you hundreds to thousands of dollars in both price, and problems down the line.

I know, because I used it to buy my last car.

Features

One of the most important features at Edmunds.com is the ability to find out what a car, new or used, is really going for in your neck of the woods. As it says at the top of Edmunds.com they “provide(s) True Market Value^SM pricing, unbiased car reviews, ratings, and expert advice to help you get a fair deal.”

What does that mean? Well, it means that you can find out what the value of a car is in your area, with the options you want, based on real sales. Trust me – that can be huge. If you know that cars in your area are going below dealer invoice, you can save a lot when it comes down to negotiating a price.

The feature I like most though is the ability to compare cars of a certain type from different manufacturers.
When it came time to buy our last car, I knew I wanted a smaller-sized SUV. I didn’t want to pay over $25k. I wanted certain features.

I went to Edmunds.com and put in SUV, under $25k – then sorted by User ratings above 8. (You can sort by editorial ratings or user ratings which occasionally differ. I trust the folks who bought the car.) Then I went thru and selected my top choice and got to see what different “variations” that came in.

Since everything comes in mysterious LX, EX, ES, and other acronymic styles – it can get a bit confusing when you’re trying to figure out what the difference is. But here, you can just roll over the different styles and find out what they really mean and what the base price of each is. Don’t want to pay $4k more for leather seats and a sunroof? Then you know which one to select.

After you’ve chosen options – you can then add up to 4 other make/model cars to compare it to – selecting the ’styles’ the same way you did before – so you’re not necessarily comparing apples and oranges.

The comparison feature is huge. Pretty much every category you can think of – and some that wouldn’t occur to you – are shown.

After you’ve spent several hours putting in different combinations (trust me, it’s kind of addictive) you can narrow down your list. Then armed with the True Market Value price supplied by Edmunds.com in a printable form – you can head off for your test drives 10 times more informed than the sales guy as to how it stacks up against the competition.

My Experience

When I shopped, I had the top 5 make/models in the class I wanted. I knew the differences between them. I went to each dealership and test drove them, explaining to the salesguys that I wouldn’t be buying at that point, but would come back and buy the car I selected 2 days later, and if I did so, I promised to buy from them. Only one guy had an issue with that and kept trying to give me a hardsell. Eventually switching to GeekDaddy trying to pressure him into ‘helping the little lady decide.’ (Yeah, GeekDaddy laughed directly at him and said ‘you’re pitching to the wrong guy… try the lady behind you with all of the printouts. She’s buying the car.’)

In the end, I did buy the car I wanted, from the same salesguy I test drove it with, for $3k less than I would’ve if I hadn’t done my research at Edmunds.com. Their tips on negotiating, the TMV printout, and the confidence that comes from knowing I was fully-informed enabled me to bargain in a way I wouldn’t have before that.

If you do end up using Edmunds.com at some point? Let me know what you think. I’ve referred several friends there and every one of them has told me it saved them money. I hope if you’re in the market for a car in the near future, it does the same for you!

What does this mean? Well to me, it means I get to use a Flip video camera to help vlog* about money-saving tips & advice that might help other folks (Moms, Dads, and Everyone who cares about $aving a little) using YouTube and my blog to get the word out. To you it means that you are among the first to know about this project and to be able to follow my posts about it (as well as the other 10 Moms who will be doing their best to do the same.) Down the road a bit it may have even better perks for you, dear reader, but we’ll get to that!

The project is still in its initial phases, but we Moms just couldn’t wait to share it with you, so that you could go along with us on this trip! We’ll be blogging, vlogging, learning from each other and sharing. We even get to meet each other in October at WalMart’s Home in Bentonville, Arkansas!! (Yes, I’ll be Twittering it too!)

Throughout the month of August, I will be uploading videos periodically on my YouTube Channel in anticipation of the September launch of Walmart’s official YouTube channel. To stay up to date with my videos I would highly suggest subscribing to my YouTube feed or here at my blog. And if you’re up to it, check out the list of the sites below that make up the Eleven Moms – I know I am subscribing to them all! These ladies rock and I’m honored to be included in this project with them.

The List of Eleven (in no particular order)

~ The Domestic Diva
~ Jessica Knows
~ MomAdvice
~ Classy Mommy
~ Being Frugal
~ Deal Seeking Mom
~ Frugal Upstate
~ Keeping the Kingdom First
~ Coupon Cravings
~ The “Cent”sible Sawyer
~ GeekMommy’s WebLife

So join me if you will in celebrating a bit because you get to go along with me… and I’m raring and ready to go!!

~ Lucretia (aka GeekMommy)

*vlog is a term that means ‘video blog’ – I’ll be using a Flip Mino video camera provided by the amazing folks over at Pure Digital Technologies who totally rockfor helping us out with this!

At this point, you guys are friends, right?

I will note that nothing I’ve reviewed on this site so far, including what I’m about to talk about has been pitched to me, nor have I been remunerated in any way by any of the companies whose sites or products I have reviewed.  If that were ever to happen, you’d better believe I’d be up front about it.  But in the case of the stuff I’ve reviewed so far, it’s just UberCool stuff I thought I should share.

Okay, that out of the way.  Let’s talk about two UberCool products that I’m all about today.

The first one is Downy Wrinkle Releaser.

Now this little bottle has a magic potion in it. Seriously.  I went out and bought a new bottle today to take with me to San Francisco this week.  Because when it comes down to it? I loathe ironing.

I first heard about this product last year before going on a cruise.  The folks over on the DisBoards were all raving about how wonderful it was – especially since you can’t take irons on-board a cruise ship – not even travel irons.

I got my first bottle thinking “yeah, well, at worst it will work as well as a spray bottle filled with water – but if it does work better, cool!”

Now? My husband has to convince me not to use it on everything.  Yeah, seriously, it’s cheaper to iron.  But it’s faster and easier to spritz something with this, tug a bit, and Voila! you have a garment that looks better than it does after most ironing jobs.

And if you really want to be rocking it? you can use this as a spray before ironing.  It gets the wrinkles out faster and easier and leaves a nice clean scent too.

Before someone posts to tell me how “Product X” works pretty much the same or that you could do the same thing more cheaply by just hanging suitcase-creased clothes in a steamy bathroom – let me just tell you – if you had tried this, you wouldn’t say that.  It’s kind of creepy how well it works.  Especially on those “little girl dresses” that look so pristine in the store, on the hanger, but the first time they come out of the dryer are a mass of wrinkles that defy any normal-sized iron…

I honestly recommend this product to everyone & anyone who will listen to me.  The do have a nifty 3 oz. Travel Size option for those business travelers doing the carry-on routine – but I’ve never seen it in the stores.  But, once you are hooked, you can always by them in bulk here.  I meant to do that before this trip but time slipped away, so I’ll be lugging enough for a dozen other BlogHer friends to de-wrinkle-ify themselves too.

Still, if I were traveling as much for business as some of my friends, believe me, I’d be knee-deep in these carry-on size ones.  Faster, easier, and better results than the hotel iron.

Trust me, LazyMommies always find the easiest way to do something!

Speaking of which, today while I was at the store buying the bottle of liquid de-wrinkling magic known as Downie Wrinkle Releaser, I sort of stumbled into another completely unrelated product that will now be going on my list of must-haves.

Duncan Hines Oven Ready! Homestyle Brownies

Oh. My. Gosh.

Buttercup, ever the eagle-eyed dessert connoisseur, saw these when we were standing in the Frozen Desserts section while I was perusing the 100-calorie-won’t-make-you-feel-guilty frozen offerings.

“Mommy! Brownies!” she squealed, looking at the conveniently placed at a 5-yr-old’s eye-level box you see here.

Granted, she’s been teaching herself how to read for the past few weeks – but who needs reading skills when there’s a picture like that on the box?

Since I succumb willingly to MommyGuilt on a regular basis, and since I’m leaving tomorrow and won’t get to see her until Sunday, and since I personally love a good brownie and plan on excising them from my diet when I get back next week, I took the box out and looked it over.

Did I mention it was the last box left in the freezer?  Surrounded by dozens of other tempting treats that were all fully stocked, this one lone little box was sitting there looking like it might disappear if I waited too long.  (Yes, yes, I know – but I’m good at rationalizing stuff to myself!)

So. The box said that I could take out the little tray that the batter is in straight from the freezer, peel off the plastic, put it into a 350 oven for 25-27 minutes and *Poof!* perfectly baked “Homestyle Brownies” in a disposable tray.  No mixing, no mess, no cleanup.

How could I resist?

Well you know I couldn’t, so I didn’t.  We got home, pre-heated the oven, opened the box, peeled the plastic, threw the little trayful of frozen brownie batter on a cookie sheet, popped it in the oven and waited 27 minutes.

Annnnnd then we waited another half hour because GeekMommy is evil & mean & cruel and forgot that she was waiting for them to cool down until a forlorn Buttercup reminded her with “can we have a brownie now Mommy??!!?”

Okay, granted, these only taste “homestyle” if the only kind of brownies you’ve ever made in your home come from a box. But if the only brownies you’ve ever made come from a box? These are bound to be better.

Maybe it’s that the industrial mixing & measuring that occurs long before it exits the Duncan Hines factory – which is surely more efficient than what we can do in our little home kitchens – but these are darn near perfect brownies.

Just ask Buttercup.  She snarfed hers down quickly and asked for another one. (No, not until after dinner! I’m lazy, but I’m not really that bad of a Mom.)  Okay, yeah, 5-year-old-palates may not be that discerning when it comes to brownies – but mine disappeared just as quickly.  Yeah, I wanted another one too.  But I’m trying to save the rest for when GeekDaddy gets home and we’re done with dinner.  Given that you get about 8 decent sized brownies out of the tray, that means 2 more for each of us.

Shh! He doesn’t have to know that Buttercup & I already snarfed one each, does he?

Meanwhile, I’ll be putting a couple of these in my freezer for those times when I need to look like UberMom by “actually baking” without really having to do anything much.  I highly recommend it for anyone needing to take brownies to a ‘function’ as well – I mean, the tray is disposable.  Cool.   So Duncan Hines Oven Ready! Homestyle Brownies get a huge thumbs up!

Okay, now I’m going to go play with Buttercup given how much brownie-fueled energy we both have!! See ya!