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Monday, May 23rd, 2011The warm weather seems to be here. Thanks to this, people across the country will be getting their grills ready for some BBQ fun. Last Thursday evening, I was invited by Price Chopper to attend their House of BBQ cooking event sponsored by Certified Angus Beef. This event was right after Price Chopper announced the new voices of their House of BBQ commercials to replace the much loved Melvin Sparks after he passed away. Allan Harris and Lynn Sterling, two nationally known musical artists, will now be seen in the ads like this one below.
That’s right, we were not cooking Thursday night, we were learning about grilling. So with the catchy tune in my head, I made my way to The Century House in Latham, NY for the House of BBQ fun. Oh an FYI, this was not a blogger event. This is one of the cooking classes that Price Chopper sponsors throughout the year for members of the community to attend.
At our seats, we were given a bag of goodies. The recipes being prepared, some tip sheets, and extras were inside for everyone in attendance.
When it was time to begin, we decided to use the hashtag #HouseofBBQ on Twitter to live Tweet what we were learning.
First up was Chef Mike Tracy from Price Chopper. Sorry about the photo quality, the lighting at The Century House was tricky to work with.
Chef Mike was filling in for Executive Chef Dave Hamlin. He prepared the following items:
- Grilled Carrots with a Maple Cumin Glaze
- Grilled Shrimp and Avocado Salad
- Grilled Corn on the Cob With Spring Herb Butter
- Chef Mike really helped to explain that you should not be afraid of grilling vegetables. He did admit that corn on the cob grilled is not his favorite since it does not look too great when finished.
Next was Chef Michael Ollier from Certified Angus Beef. Chef Michael was tossing jokes out the entire time and keeping everyone on their toes. He was fantastic to watch and listen to. He made learning about different cuts of meats fun and enjoyable. Even this girl, who can not buy Certified Angus Beef (not kosher), knows this meat is the real deal. While Chef Michael showed us different cuts of meat, we referenced the chart below. Then, he demonstrated some grilling techniques and took questions from the audience.
When it was time to try some of the foods that were prepared, I had my camera out snapping shots. Chef Michael joked and asked if I was a blogger or something. Of course, I told him I was and had been live Tweeting the event with my friends. Yes, we even got some of Chef Michael’s jokes in there. You can also read more about the different cuts of beef that he talked about on the #HouseofBBQ hashtag on Twitter.
The final person to present to the group was Chef David Robinson. Chef David is the brilliant man behind Eat Your Mistakes. He has a video cooking series that shows people how to cook and eat your mistakes in the process. Chef David was high energy and talked about his recent trip to Las Vegas where he took local supplies from the Capital District to cook for dignitaries. Yes, I am the blogger that was taking photos of photos.
Chef David was showing us how to prepare some delicious goodies to end a grilling feast. He made Mom’s Chocolate-Chip Oatmeal Cookies (YUM!) and Chocolate Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting. Both of these items were fantastic and will be made and utilized for different events. I will admit, I have been craving more of the cookies since this event. I have seen Chef David on television before, but now his blog is in my feed reader to catch when it is updated.
When all was said and done, we were able to go to the back of the room to make a plate and try all of the foods that were prepared. Here is my plate and later on when Chef David delivered cookies fresh from the oven. Yes, being at the end of the line paid off since they ran out of cookies – so gooey fresh ones were a short baking cycle away.
Have you been to a Price Chopper cooking class? Please let me know if you have. I would love to know more about your experience. For those not in the area, what do you love to grill in the summer?
Thank you again to Price Chopper, Certified Angus Beef, The Century House, Chef Mike Tracy, Chef Michael Ollier, Chef David Robinson, and my blogging buddies for an amazing evening. I know I am looking forward to hearing when the next cooking/baking/grilling event will be held.
Disclosure: Price Chopper invited me to be a part of this event. I did not pay for this, nor was I paid to go. I was not asked to blog about this, but wanted to share my experience with my readers. The opinions expressed in this are my own. I was not compensated, but did receive the items shown above and a coupon for Price Chopper cereal after completing a survey about the event.
The Neverland Pirate Party Cupcakes & Crafts
Monday, May 16th, 2011This weekend was JSL’s 4th birthday. As I have mentioned before, he is a BIG fan of Jake and the Neverland Pirates. Since he wanted that theme for his birthday, we had to improvise a bit. I bought the supplies and pretty much knew what I wanted to do with them.
Saturday afternoon, I baked the cupcakes in the Wilton pirate wrappers. They were nothing special to look at now, but soon they would change.
When I was preparing everything for the party Sunday morning, the first thing I wanted to get finished were the pirate cupcakes. I had my Wilton Dessert Decorator Plus, frosting, gold sugar crystal sprinkles, and pirate flags. Before I knew it, they were looking like this:
Yes, my little pirate was quite excited to see that his pirate cupcakes were finished.
After lunch, it was time to switch the table over to a Neverland Pirate Party theme. I had to take these items and make them look pretty on the table.
While I worked on this, the kids did some pirate arts and crafts. As you can see, we found some great items that worked well for several ages.
It did not take too long to get the table ready. The cupcake display with the doubloons around it was first. Then, it was time to put the Peter Pan Pirates in the front along with JSL’s cupcake and 4 candle. To tie in, we also had some cute pirate napkins to add a splash of color.
Yes, the props certainly helped to make it more of a Neverland Pirate Party feel.
After opening presents, JSL went over to have everyone sing his birthday song.
Yes, we pulled off a Neverland Pirate Party and the birthday boy seemed to have a wonderful time. More to come soon, but I wanted to share some yummy and crafty details now.
Ready For His Pirate Party
Sunday, May 15th, 2011When JSL woke up, the first thing he did was run out of bed to see his big brother. After that, he came into our room to announce that NHL was the first one to wish him a happy birthday. After this, we opened up his new VTech Kidizoom Plus camera and put the batteries in. Then, NHL gave him his present.
We got dressed and went to Nana and Papa’s house. Uncle I, Aunt M, and Cousins GG and BA were at their house. JSL was too excited to eat since he was running around the house taking photos of everything.
The kids played with the new pirate toys and watching some Jake and the Neverland Pirates. I have a feeling that JSL’s camera is likely filled with photos similar to this one:
While the kids played, I was busy in the kitchen making pirate cupcakes today. They will be decorated for the party early Sunday morning.
When we asked JSL where he wanted to have his birthday lunch, his answer did not shock me. He wanted to go to Cici’s for Mac and Cheese pizza. He was a very happy birthday boy.
Next, we went to Scoops for some ice cream. JSL had a blast taking photos of their cows and running around with Cousin SG. Of course, NHL was proud when he yelled that baby BA was trying to sneak into the cow area.
We tried to play at the park. A little running by the pond got in before the rain came to stop the fun. To try to stop JSL from being upset we got him to sing the pirate song. When we got back to Nana and Papa’s house he belted out a bunch of the only verse he really knows.
Then, Aunt M and I went to get some items for the party tomorrow. We happened to find a cake that was perfect to have on JSL’s actual birthday. We sang him his song and then it was time to blow out the candle.
Aunt M, Uncle I, and the kids wanted to give the birthday boy something on his birthday so he could use it at the Pirate Party. Here is JSL right about when he figured out what was inside.
Now check out why he has such a HUGE smile on his face:
Yes, Pirate JSL was quite thrilled with his new costume by Melissa & Doug. Eventually, we were able to get him to take it off so we could head home. I have a feeling we will be seeing a pirate show at his party at one point or another.
Lots to report from the party and more soon.
Lazy kind of weekend
Sunday, October 24th, 2010Sometimes, it is just nice to have a lazy weekend. No real need to go to a location, just sit at home and do things with your family. That was this weekend. I should feel energized, but I think it has allowed my mind to race a little too much about the events for this week.
Yesterday, TechyDad, NHL, JSL and I all stayed in our pajamas. Why yes, it was a glorious day of just doing things around the house and not getting dressed. We started the morning off with some warm, delicious biscuits for breakfast. After that, TechyDad had a bit of the cleaning bug. He organized the kitchen (had to be done for apple baking), cleaned the bathroom, and then helped me to move the couch to get some monster dust bunnies that had escaped.
After lunch, the boys played a new game that TechyDad received to review. There was a lot of laughing, giggling, and strategy going on. While they did that, I opted to get a head start on sorting, cutting, and bagging Box Tops for Education. As the coordinator in NHL’s school, the November 1st deadline is coming quickly. This is what sat in front of me.
A bit daunting at first. The nice part, I was able to listen to a lot of The Help on my MP3 player while I did this project.
So how many Box Tops do you think are here?
In the end, there were 620 in that pile alone. It all adds up and will go to good use at school. So, if you have any extra Box Tops for Education and do not have a school to donate them to, just let me know.
The boys also watched Disney’s Alice in Wonderland, then we had dinner and the kids went to sleep.
Today, NHL went to Hebrew School. TechyDad went with JSL to the grocery store to get some items for the week. Then he came home and put up a crock pot of applesauce. After lunch, I was upset about frogging a knitting project and did not feel too well. I took a nap while TechyDad made some apple muffins.
Sometimes, you just need a slow weekend at home to catch up on family time.
So what did you do this weekend before Halloween?
Charm City Cakes in NYC
Friday, August 13th, 2010Next weekend, we are having a birthday party for NHL. Once again, I need to find out what type of cake he would like me to make. I have made a giant volcano for dinosaurs to parade around and some simple Cars cupcake cones. We shall see what this year has in store.
Making cakes has become a BIG business and art form thanks to shows like Ace of Cakes on the Food Network. I’ll admit that I am a big fan of Duff Goldman. Watching the quirky antics of the staff in Charm City Cakes as they create masterpieces is inspiring.
Little did I know that last Saturday evening I would come face to face with a creation by Charm City Cakes.Take a look:
Sure enough, the Sparklecorn cake was made by the amazing people at Charm City Cakes. You should have seen people (me included) jumping up and down. We were in awe that there was a cake by Ace of Cakes in the building.
My question to you this week is inspired by the cake that we were lucky enough to try while at BlogHer10:
If you could have a cake made by Duff and crew from Charm City Cakes, what would the cake look like and what flavors would you like it to be?
A huge thank you to the amazing people that organized the Sparklecorn Party – what a fun, fun, fun night it was!
Winnie the Pooh 3rd Birthday Party
Thursday, May 20th, 2010As I have mentioned in the past, JSL is quite obsessed in love with Winnie the Pooh and friends. Since our trip to Disney in February, he has declared that he only wants to wear items with Tigger and Pooh, watch their movies/shows and play with those toys. Thanks to this, we knew exactly what theme would be in place for JSL’s third birthday party over the weekend.
Everyone arrived to the party as we were still preparing the food. During this time, we had a little fun and excitement that many of us could have lived without. When we took the pizza bagels out of the oven, I put them down onto a trivet. Mistake #1 – it was plastic and must have adhered itself to the bottom of the cookie sheet. Thanks to this, when TechyDad put the cookie sheet back into the over. . . the plastic trivet went in to bake.
Nobody noticed anything until the time was up and we were pulling the goodies out of the oven. At that point, TechyDad and I both saw flickering. Sure enough we had a fire. Both of us yelled to get attention of others to come and help. I immediately turned off the oven and made sure the kids were not coming into the room. Meanwhile, my father and TechyDad worked to make sure that the flame was going out. It was at this point that we figured out the culprit of the fire. Luckily it went out pretty quickly, but left a rather large mess. This is what the rack that had the trivet and cookie sheet looked like in the end:
When all was said and done, nobody was hurt, the oven appears to be ok and the food was fine. Here is the food that was served for lunch:
We had veggies and dip, whole grain white rice (testing it for a review), vegetarian "meatballs" with sweet and sour sauce, pizza bagels, Mac & Cheese (Toy Story shapes), and mini bread bowls filled with two types of toppings.
As some of the kids cleared out from the kitchen, Uncle M sat down with NHL, JSL and SG. They were too cute sitting there together and chatting together, so we had to take a photo.
As we transitioned from lunch to cupcake time, the kids were able to play and baby be held by lots of people. JSL and SG had a ton of fun with each other, while Mimi and Aunt T held baby BA.
Two weeks earlier, I asked people for suggestions on what kind of Winnie the Pooh cake I could make. In the end, I went with something I had done before and was suggested by Maryellen Hooper (you are such a Rock Star – love ya!). I made cute cupcakes wrapped in Winnie the Pooh and Tigger liners and had JSL’s characters parading around them on the table. Simple, practical and no real worries. I had wanted to make a giant cupcake, but was not sure how it would work with egg substitute (my niece is allergic to eggs). Since there was no time for a test run, we did regular cupcakes. Here are all of the goodies ready to be devoured:
Thanks to my handy dandy decorating tool and Aunt M for helping me with operation frost and sprinkle, the cupcakes came out really nicely. It was soon time for the little guy to be shy and have everyone sing Happy Birthday to him. After several attempts, he was finally able to get the 3 candle blown out with a little assistance (we were all a little fire phobic for a reason ya know).
JSL had asked for chocolate cake with chocolate frosting (not my kid), so we bought those to make. When it was time for him to eat his cupcake, he did not want it. Note him eating it with a spoon and not being too enthusiastic. Meanwhile big brother and cousin SG loved theirs.
Once the kids were cleaned up, it was present time. More on this tomorrow for my Aloha Friday topic/question of the week.
It really was a nice party. Aside from the fireworks from the oven, it went rather smoothly. One thing is for sure, thanks to that we will always remember JSL’s third birthday party.
3rd Birthday Wishes and Themes
Friday, May 14th, 2010It’s official, I am now the mother of a three year old again. Today is JSL’s third birthday and going to be an action packed day and weekend with family and friends. Yesterday, I blogged about the past year of memories with my little fellow – Goodbye to my last two year old.
This year, JSL is quite into Winnie the Pooh. My Wordless Wednesday this week, All things Winnie The Pooh, show cased all of the items that we have been trying to track down. Believe it or not, getting Winnie the Pooh toys/clothing/decorations is not the easiest thing in our area. Had he picked Toy Story it would have been a lot easier since Toy Story 3 is all over the place for the release of the movie this summer.
This made me think about all of the different themes we have had for past birthdays with the kids. Here they are:
- 1st NHL – Bear in the Big Blue House
- 2nd NHL – Finding Nemo
- 3rd NHL – Madagascar
- 4th NHL – Curious George
- 5th NHL – Dinosaurs
- 6th NHL – Cars
- 1st JSL – Sesame Street
- 2nd JSL – We were at Disney World
So my questions for you this week:
What was your favorite birthday party theme from when you were a child? Now be a kid again, what theme would you like for your next birthday?
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Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the MckLinky there if you are participating.
Aloha #99
Winnie the Pooh Birthday cake ideas needed
Tuesday, April 27th, 2010Yikes. . . my baby is going to be three in 16 days! Last year, we celebrated JSL’s second birthday at Walt Disney World. We actually had an extra special meal at The Crystal Palace where JSL began his love for Winne the Pooh, Tigger and friends.
During our first day at Animal Kingdom in February, JSL kept crying to see Pooh Bear. While we tried to go on rides, see animals and have fun with other things….he kept demanding to see Pooh, Tigger and company. After a while, we finally made our way to the area that had Pooh, Tigger, and Eeyore (my favorite).
Flash forward to the last month or so. JSL has been beyond attached to all things Winnie the Pooh. Thank goodness, I think we have all of his birthday presents set. Seems like it would be easy to find Winnie the Pooh things right? Well, we thought so until we started to look at stores and found next to nothing. Who knew that getting things having to do with Winnie the Pooh would be so difficult in our area? Of course, not having a Disney Store here does not help matters. Had we known this would be a dilemma, or seen JSL’s fascination continuing all this time, we probably would have bought a few special items while at Disney Social Media Moms Celebration. At the time, JSL bought a set of Pooh Bear characters that he loves and takes all over the place with us (another post on that coming soon – along with the items that we have found).
Later in the week, we have to go out and get a few birthday supplies. Once again, I plan on making JSL his birthday cake. This started with his first birthday and has continued with each subsequent celebration for the boys. Since we are obviously doing a Winnie the Pooh theme, I need to figure out a cake. I was thinking of taking the giant Wilton Cupcake pan and making it into a Honey Pot a la Winnie the Pooh style.
So my question: Do you have any other homemade cake ideas that would go along with a Winnie the Pooh theme. Remember, I am not trying to end up on Cake Wrecks here.
Thanks in advance for any suggstions.
Making things sweet with Splenda
Sunday, April 4th, 2010Making things healthier for our family is a major goal in our house. We do not bake sweets too often because of extra sugar in these items. In addition to this, my mother and TechyDad’s mother are diabetic. We try to watch things because we know diabetes is in our genes. I was recently asked by Mom Central to participate in a Splenda tour to receive a free sample of Granulated Splenda No Calorie Sweetner and the Splenda Tastebook. I agreed since it was a fabulous opporunity to have some recipes to try with my family and friends that are diabetic and/or trying to watch their sugar intake.
We had Splenda packets in the house before this, but had never really used it for anything beyond adding to drinks. Splenda recently teamed up with celebrity Mom chef, Katie Brown, to offer recipes and tips on how to use Splenda in more items than you can imagine. Brown offers recipes for cookies, cakes, breaks and even smoothies.
Our sample and cook book arrived just before Passover . We wanted to try something quick and easy that did not require baking. TechyDad mentioned that we had a lot of overly ripe bananas. I opened up the Splenda Tastebook and found the Banana Strawberry Shake. It was the perfect fit since we had strawberries in the freezer. Bananas, strawberries, Splenda and fat free milk was all we needed with our handy dandy blender.
If you are interested in the recipe you can find it here. One item that I especially liked was the nutritional information was included – big kuddos for that! As you an see below, both of my boys loved it. My little guy actually drank a lot and told us he now likes strawberries. We liked it SO much that TechyDad and the boys actually made three batches of this for the entire family for a snack. It was delicious!
When Passover is over, there are a bunch of other items that look really good including the Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bars. I will also be looking at other items to add to my online cookbook to make for my son’s party to bring special for the diabetic members of the family present. I know I have a lot of options with the online recipes and ones in my Tastebook thanks to Katie Brown who included not only drinks, desserts, but also side dishes, sauces, salads and salsas.
Have you used Splenda in any recipes that you liked? Please share, I would love to know.
Disclosure: I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Splenda and received products necessary to facilitate my candid review. In addition, a donation was made in my name to the Meals on Wheels organization to thank me for taking the time to participate.
Family birthday party – 6 yr August edition
Sunday, August 16th, 2009Last year at this time I was fussing over a volcano cake for NHL’s 5th birthday party. He wanted a dinosaur theme party for the entire family. The problem was there were no decent cakes out there. I opted to make one for him. The end product was using my giant cupcake pan and sculpting the following:
It was not the best, but it was decent. This year we tossed together a quick party for family (still debating a friends party later on). His birthday kind of snuck up on us. Today is the day. NHL opted to have a Disney Car’s birthday theme. When we talked about different cakes he had several options: giant cupcake, regular cake, or cupcake cones. Care to guess which one he selected?
Last night we made the ones that he selected , and they (hint, hint) will be decorated after transport to Nana and Papa’s house. Here is what last year’s party looked like. Time to get ready to head out soon. More photos to come soon.
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