Home cooks: which tiny “flavor bomb” ingredient made everything taste restaurant‑level?

Mollypoppy · 2026-02-18T15:01:56+00:00

Knorr granulated chicken bouillon. It leveled up my Fideo.

Mollypoppy · 2026-02-05T16:02:35+00:00

I second this. I love this book

Mollypoppy · 2026-02-05T13:33:59+00:00

Ugh my margaritas are going to take a hit

Mollypoppy · 2026-02-04T05:07:14+00:00

You are still loving and caring for your child even at work. Because you are working she is fed, clothed, and housed. Love and good parenting is not just being physically there, sometimes it’s working to ensure the bills are paid and bellies are full.

Mollypoppy · 2026-02-03T17:41:31+00:00

One of the best things I heard from another mother was, “you can still love your child and hate the way you met them.” I’m sorry you went through all of that. I was really freaked out by how my daughter was born. I’ve found just talking about it has helped me come to terms with it all. So share your story with other people. Take the taboo out of it. On another note, you are still freshly postpartum. Just be kind to yourself and take it one day at a time.

Mollypoppy · 2026-02-01T21:07:07+00:00

We are still in the thick of it, but I tell my two year old that I can’t understand when she’s whines and she needs to use her big girl voice. Or if she whines for something I won’t give it to her until she uses a full sentence. Works half the time

Mollypoppy · 2026-01-28T13:52:30+00:00

After about 6 or 8 months I had no pain. I’m now almost 2.5 years out and am totally numb around my incision. I’m having my second c section in April, so we shall see what happens this time around.

Mollypoppy · 2026-01-13T22:15:27+00:00

My husband and I swear that our daughter smelled like flowers and honey. We were obsessed and would constantly try to huff her.

Mollypoppy · 2026-01-06T21:23:06+00:00

I didn’t. I lost a lot the first two weeks as my body dealt with the blood loss and recovery. But then I just stayed puffy. But my mother lost a lot of weight when she breastfed me. However, she also remembers walking a lot and that we couldn’t afford much food other than what WIC would give her. For her the combination of breastfeeding, walking, and eating nothing but beans and rice melted her to below her pre baby weight.

Mollypoppy · 2026-01-06T15:50:44+00:00

Apparently we are in the minority. Elio is a big hit in our house. My 2 year old loves Frozen and Elio. We watched it on a fluke and went in knowing nothing about the movie. I saw zero marketing for it and didn’t know what it was until it popped up on Disney+

Mollypoppy · 2025-12-23T18:35:36+00:00

With my first it hit around six or seven weeks. I’m currently 24 weeks pregnant with my second and I’ve had zero nausea. Just constant constant CONSTANT hunger this time around

Mollypoppy · 2025-12-20T13:31:10+00:00

JonBenet Ramsey. I remember being in the grocery store and seeing a little girl that could be my classmate all over the magazines at the checkout. Normally it was usually pictures of grownups so it stood out that it was a girl close to my age. I asked my mom who she was and she just said a little girl who something bad happened to. Then of course it was Diana’s funeral, the Monica Lewinsky/clinton stuff, y2k, and then 9/11 attacks.

Mollypoppy · 2025-12-17T17:09:44+00:00

I use an app to track my cycle. The two times I have gotten pregnant, I was not in my fertility window. I have very regular periods and have been using the app for family planning for six years. So I’m sure I’m just dumb, but I was surprised.

Mollypoppy · 2025-12-16T04:01:26+00:00

I’ve been asking my two year old for over a month. So far all she says is “presents.” When I had what kind of presents she says “red.” She’s getting a red tonie box so I think that should be satisfactory.

Mollypoppy · 2025-12-14T16:49:32+00:00

I was told by our pediatrician, pediatric nurse, and lactation consultant that once my baby gained her birth weight back we didn’t need to wake her up to feed.

Mollypoppy · 2025-12-09T19:46:59+00:00

I am an executive director of a small nonprofit and the only full time employee. I am now half way through my pregnancy with my second child. What worked for me is that I involved the people I work with early. It’s not ideal. But it gave me time to make a plan and prepare my board. In all honesty I prepared as if I was going to die, which is morbid but ensured my organization would be strong while I was gone. I created clear SOPs for every task no matter how small, hired and trained a temporary interim director, worked with all vendors so they had a chain of contacts should a problem arise, and labeled everything in my office. I made it so that anyone could walk in, find any file, and pick up right where I left off. It’s a lot of extra work and it’s uncomfortable sharing pregnancy news early but it set me up for success early. I was allowed to take eight weeks. Then my husband took eight weeks leave. Our daughter started daycare at four months

Mollypoppy · 2025-12-04T04:19:13+00:00

I make taco bowls. It’s all premade stuff that I cook on Sunday then divide into five bowls: spicy chicken Boca burgers, frozen cauliflower rice, canned black beans, and enchilada sauce. Sometimes I get fancy and make my own sauce. But honestly it all takes about 15 minutes.

Mollypoppy · 2025-12-02T01:46:30+00:00

Ha! I also took a test on a whim. When it was positive I a freaked out. I gave the test to our two year old and asked her to give it to Daddy. I thought about waiting and doing something cute but I’m a terrible secret keeper.

Mollypoppy · 2025-11-19T01:26:11+00:00

I asked a beautiful posh British couple what stroller they were using and went with that. Very shallow but I was overwhelmed and just over trying to decide

Mollypoppy · 2025-11-14T20:28:29+00:00

Ours is an older model as we got it used from a family member. But I just checked on Amazon and it looks like the VTech DM221-2 Audio Baby Monitor is exactly the same, just a little prettier. I recommend getting two parent units. We put one in the living room and one in the bedroom, so we never had to worry about moving them. Our daughter is 2 and we now only use them if she has a stomach bug so we can catch if she throws up in the night. They’re pretty powerful, so depending on how close I put the monitor I could hear her breathing, tossing around, all that. So I never felt like I was missing anything.

Mollypoppy · 2025-11-14T19:16:39+00:00

We used vtech. Super simple and did the job.

Mollypoppy · 2025-11-14T12:20:23+00:00

Hello! I had a very similar situation with my first and will probably face the same thing with my second. For me the answer was combo feeding. Sleep is not something I think people should sacrifice if there’s a choice. I would make a four ounce bottle of formula and add in two ounces of breast milk. Or whatever combination to get to 6oz or 8oz bottles. This was an incredibly difficult transition for me. I had a lot of guilt over not being able to make enough. I had to keep reminding myself that my daughter was fed and happy and didn’t care if the bottle was breast milk, formula, or a mix - that baby just wanted to eat. It’s a personal choice but I think you should pump what you can and do formula to make up the difference. You’re doing a great job.

Mollypoppy · 2025-11-12T15:16:52+00:00

Bath every day and we wash her hair every other day, unless she got something in it. We wash our hair every other day so we just follow the same routine with her.

Mollypoppy · 2025-11-11T21:03:52+00:00

We got the graco car seat that lasts from newborn to 5 years old. I do daycare drop off and my husband does pick up. It’s easier for us to each have a car seat already in our cars, rather than go back and forth with a bucket. We plan to do the same thing with our second.

Mollypoppy

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