The Intersection of Design & Motherhood
Yesterday we celebrated Ben Blair’s birthday. We ate paninis — made on his very own, brand new panini press. Can you believe this was his birthday request? Ben Blair is the very best. Are you a panini fan too?
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New to Design Mom? Here are 10 posts to get you started:
What to Wear To Middle School
Napoleon Dynamite
Our Birth Announcements
Potato Print Clothing
Having Another Child
Young Einstein Birthday Party
Little Red LightHouse Outing
Porch Makeover
Waving Goodbye To The Atlantic Ocean
Build Two Toddler Beds for $75
Pimp My Ride: Family Edition
We love coming up with fun valentines to make and give. Here are some of our favorites (many are candy free!):
3-D Lollipop Valentines - Easy! And a big hit. Try it with crazy straws or pencils too.
Fortune Teller Valentines - with free printable!
You Blow Me Away, Valentine! - Everyone loves party blowers. : )
Wild Animal Valentines - Family Fun Magazine requested my idea for their latest issue.
Mad Lib Valentines - Family Fun requested this idea too!
Friendship Bracelet Valentines
And here are a few more ideas I've featured over the years that I bet you'll love:
- Fresh Fruit Valentines
- Color Theory Valentines
- DIY Scratch Off Valentines
- Shaving Cream Valentines
- Mini Valentine Boxes
Here's something fun. Our family was featured in an episode of House Hunters International! Spoiler: we choose the gorgeous French Farmhouse. It's called La Cressonnière and we take pictures of it all the time. If you're curious, try these links:
The Kitchen
Summer at La Cressonnière
The Halfbath
The Stairwell
The Neighbors
Ralph's Bedroom
The Studio
Springtime at La Cressonnière
The Living Room
Maude's Bedroom
The Artists
Oscar & Betty's Bedroom
The Exterior
The Floors
Olive's Bedroom
The Treehouse
The House: La Cressonnière
I hope you enjoy the house tour! Oh. And if you'd like to see the episode, you can find it on Youtube here (it's in four parts).
I write a weekly column called Inspiration Scout on Cafémom. Find new posts on Thursdays.
I write a daily post (Monday through Friday) for Babble's Family Style blog.
{ 43 comments… read them below or add one }
Absolutely! What an awesome gift. My sister bought me one a few years ago and we use it ALL the time. Lucky Ben Blair!
Yum! I love them. But we use a George Foreman grill for them since we are poor :)
I love paninis! I just use my George Foreman grill press, I mean it's basically the same thing.
I love that panini grill! I worked at Williams-Sonoma last year, and we made paninis at the store after we closed on Christmas eve. So delicious!
Paninis are the BEST! I need to get myself one of those machines!
what an awesome gift!!!
yes… we LOVE paninis!!! they are so yummy and delectable and it is so easy to make 'individual' requests with paninis too. my grandmother so lovingly bought us one for christmas a few years back! enjoy it!
(i especially love goat cheese in mine!!!)
by any chance, do you have a particular cookbook or website that has good panini recipes/suggestions?
many thanks.
I love panini but don't make them often enough. Now you have me craving a tomato, creamy pest, mozzarella and basil panini!
i can believe it…but only because our husbands are apparently kindred spirits.
bryan asked for a panini maker too ;-)
that is the exact panini press I"VE been wanting! hooray for him!
Yes, birdies in our nest love that panini grill too. Grilled sammies are far superior to cold, no?
We also use it for meat, but it's a pain in the bottom to clean so that happens rarely, if at all, anymore. Sigh.
I had one on my Christmas list last year. Didn't get one yet but I'm still holding out hope. I LOVE them – you can even make "sweet" paninis with nutella and bananas – to die for!
i love me a good panini. what a great birthday request!
Panini are one of my favorite meals – just yesterday I made honey ham, brie, and apple panini for lunch… delish! We use the Cuisinart Griddler and love it!
Oh yeah. My husband LOVES sandwiches (his twitter handle is mistersandwich) and we have panini's almost every weekend for lunch. They are divine.
ps – I discovered rosemary olive oil bread at our whole foods and what they do to our panini's is absolutely heavenly. Trust me.
I have this same one~ I love it!
How cute is little Ben Blair?!
My dad loves paninis (as he calls them, "grilled sandwiches") so much that he had a sandwich grill built into the kitchen island when they built their house in Florida. (They have not included it in future homes – my mom thought it was a pain to clean.) But it was AWESOME in high school! Never without a snack as long we had bread and something to squash.
Our panini grill gets used almost daily! It's great for grilled cheese, warming tortillas, and makes a nice and toasty quesadilla that you don't have to flip! I'm tempted to try french toast next.
Oh, my husband would love it if I made those EVERY day. If only we had room for a new appliance.
I could eat a panini a day.
We have this exact one! We got it as a house warming gift, and we love it. Our fav thing to make is a panini that has pastrami, sauerkraut, hot mustard and mozzarella. It's a simple one to make, but there is so much you can do with it.
Love paninis. They remind me of living in NY. Hard with a big family. We would probably need 2.
this is what my husband wanted one year for Christmas–so happy to indulge that request!
oh–and we have (and love) the cookbook "Panini Express."
Sorry to be such a nitpicker, but please stop saying paninis! In Italian, panino is the singular form of sandwich, and panini is plural. Also, not sure when panini = pressed sandwiches. I don't remember it being that way in Italy.
Oh heck yes! I make mine on my George Foreman Grill. But they would taste better if they were made in a Panini press- I just know it.
You could say I'm a panini fan – I've got a whole blog dedicated to them! Eighty different sandwiches and counting… :-)
Ben Blair has excellent taste in birthday gifts (and wives). I am a HUGE panini fan! I devoted a post to them here:
http://eatingthedaisies.blogspot.com/2009/10/quickie.html
My favorite combos: proscuitto and fontina with basil. happy toasting!
I am!!!
yes… a panini fan. yet i use my grill pan and a heavy pan to press. my son just requested a ham & cheese one last night. great gift for my hubby too!
LOVE Paninis!
So fun to know how many fellow fans there are! We need to get together and have a panini party.
Love them!! They are standard Sunday afternoon fare at our home. Somehow, even when we are all tired and needing a nap, we can still muster the energy to make hot paninis!
I won one of those bad boys at family Christmas bingo! (it was the grand prize) We love it.
I LOVE PANINIS. I use my George Foreman grill fore everything!!
I have this same one and can you believe I let it sit unopened for months?!?!? We used it this Sunday and made panini with steak/chicken, carmelized onions and herbed goat chesse…It was delicious
Oh my! I got a panini maker for my last birthday. BEWARE! Almost everything tastes great on a panini (like nutella, PB, banana). I can officially blame a few extra pounds on ours…salad just doesn't grill well!
Doesn't just the word "panini" make a plain grilled cheese sound so fancy and delicious? We LOVE them.
I love this. I have had it for a year. We have SUPER SANDWICH SUNDAY after church each week. I also cook chicken breasts and pork chops on it…super fast.
I love this. I have had it for a year. We have SUPER SANDWICH SUNDAY after church each week. I also cook chicken breasts and pork chops on it…super fast.
oooohhh, we love panini's! in fact, it is our traditional sunday-afternoon meal after church. we really like the panini spreads you can find at williams-sonoma, if you haven't had them, you gotta check them out!
oooohhh, we love panini's! in fact, it is our traditional sunday-afternoon meal after church. we really like the panini spreads you can find at williams-sonoma, if you haven't had them, you gotta check them out!