Everyone knows how to make a fruit smoothie, right? But do you know how to make the perfect fruit smoothie?

Here’s are my 5 tips for perfect smoothies:

1. Add the liquids first. This will help blend all the ingredients evenly. Milk, soy milk, almond milk, coconut water, juice, tea and even kombucha or kefir are great base liquids.

2. Fat is your friend. As much as we want to save calories, using nonfat yogurt is NOT the way to go. It leaves the smoothie tasting like you’ve tried to pulverize sand and it’ll be grainy. Use low-fat yogurt instead.

3. Use frozen fruit. Frozen fruit thickens and adds flavor without diluting your smoothie. In the off-season, frozen fruit usually has more flavor than what you’ll find in the market. In season, put your fruit in the freezer for a few hours before popping it into the blender. Always pulse the blender a few times because the fruit can refreeze!

4. For a creamier (and healthier) smoothie, add ripe avocados or bananas. Those darker bananas will be sweeter so don’t worry about a few freckles! Honey, chia and flax seeds are also great thickeners.

5. Add the ice last. If you still want some icy-coldness, make this the last thing you put in the blender. Ice will thicken the smoothie without adding any additional calories.

Oh… and here’s one more important tip: always use the Hamilton Beach® Wave~Action Blender® for the creamiest smoothie!

My good friends at Hamilton Beach® sent me one of these good-looking babies to try out and, I’ve got to tell you, this blender is my go-to for smoothies. The Wave~Action blades continuously force the ingredients from the bottom to the top in a wave, so everything blends perfectly.

If you’ve got a big family, you’ll love the big 48-ounce glass jar (which is dishwasher-safe, by the way). The spout on the dispensing lid makes pouring super easy, with minimal drips. It also comes with a stir-spoon for thicker foods and mixtures.

Here’s the delicious Raspberries and Cream Smoothie I whipped up in the Wave~Action Blender!

       Print this recipe.    

Have you ever spent hours and hours cooking something deliciously marvelous on the stove only to turn your back for ONE SECOND and find it’s burned? Stuck to the bottom of the pot burned? Two-day-soak burned?

Yep. That’s happened to me, too. Notice the past tense. HAPPENED. Never will again because I’ve got a Pauli Cookware stockpot.

“What,” you say. “a pot that keeps you from burning your food?” (I’m blaming the pot… did you catch that?)

Yes… that’s EXACTLY what I’m saying.

I met Paul Scioscio, the inventor of Pauli Cookware, at the Housewares Show earlier this year. I honestly didn’t believe what he told me: I could leave a pot on the stove for hours and never have to stir or worry that its contents would burn. He sent me one and I tried it out…

Now I believe.

Pauli Cookware has a patented 7-layer commercial grade stainless steel and aluminum bottom that wraps around a hermetically sealed oil chamber. The oil heats up and distributes the heat evenly, so your food cooks without burning.

Here’s a demo:

Because of the way the pot is made, you can’t cook on high heat… that means no frying or sautéing. I thought this might be an issue when searing meat for a stew, but the bottom of the pot still gets hot enough to deliver a nice brown color.

You have to wash the Pauli pot by hand, but I don’t put my cookware in the dishwasher anyway (you shouldn’t either!). Pauli Cookware comes in 3 generous sizes: 7 quarts, 11 quarts and 16 quarts. It works on all cooktops, including induction.

I’m always looking for help in the kitchen, and for ways to avoid “operator error”… like burning something. In that regard, my Pauli Pot’s got my back!

If you’d like to order your own Pauli Pot, click on the link on my sidebar! Tell them Mama sent you! I’ll have some really fabulous recipes using my Pauli Pot over the next few months.

A salad spinner is a wonderful kitchen gadget, but most of them take up too much space (which most kitchens don’t have).

Problem solved: The Dexas Turbo Fan Collapsible Salad Spinner.

This 4½-quart salad spinner is different because it collapses to just 5-inches. When you’re ready to use it… pop it into place. Think about the salad spinner you use now… big and bulky, right? Takes up a lot of valuable kitchen real estate, right?

Not this one.

This durable plastic salad spinner does an amazing job of drying greens, vegetables and berries because it uses a multi-blade fan and centrifugal force to spin out the water. There’s a push-button brake on top to stop the spinning.

The non-skid base keeps it from dancing all over the counter… which is always my issue when using salad spinners. (It couldn’t be me, could it?)

And, of course, I really love it because the bowl and basket are top-rack dishwasher safe. The top can easily be taken apart and cleaned.

My friends at Dexas International asked me to give Turbo Fan Collapsible Salad Spinner a whirl. I used it when I made my Roasted Potato and Kale Salad… great recipe made even easier with a great salad spinner!

Here’s a video so you can see it in action!

Lee asks: I got this at a Secret Santa exchange, but have no idea what it is!

You were gifted, Lee, with a “rolling dough docker,” a very common baking tool that’s like a rolling pin…but, in this case, with spikes. The process of “docking” makes dozens of little holes in the dough you’re working with, which allows steam to escape while baking.

The rolling dough docker is used on flatbreads, pizza dough, pie crusts (when blind baking) and pastry dough to keep the dough from bubbling up unevenly. That way your dough is flaky, crisp and flat, which is important if you’re topping or filling the baked dough with something.

Your rolling docker, also called a pastry pricker, is made of stainless steel and plastic, so it’s probably dishwasher safe.

A rolling dough docker is a kitchen gadget that’s great to have if you bake a lot… but a fork usually can get the job done just as well!