Archive for Category: For the Love of Food
The S’more, The Merrier!
“This summer, the Hershey Company is encouraging families to create their own S’mores memories with the Say S’mores campaign. Starting June 15, families are invited to capture and share their favorite S’mores moments on the Hershey’s brand Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/hersheys for a chance to win S’mores-themed prizes. The grand-prize is a Canon Rebel Camera, a slate marble outdoor firebowl, $250 SnapFish gift card, roasting skewers set and all of the ingredients needed to make S’mores, including Hershey’s Milk Chocolate bars. Families who visit the Hershey’s brand Facebook page on or after June 15 can download the Say S’mores application to participate in monthly photo contests and receive a $1 coupon good toward the purchase of any two Hershey’s Milk Chocolate bar 6-packs.”
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Last week, our friend Pasha was visiting. Pasha is an exchange student from Ukraine, and he’s due to go home soon. We’ve had a great time bonding with him, and I thought it was a perfect night to introduce him to S’mores. We couldn’t have a bonfire to roast marshmallows, so in a pinch I decided to try making them in the microwave. I was skeptical, but —oh my gosh— it worked!
For dinner that night we had gone to Moe’s (can’t beat Kids Eat Free night!) Pasha said he was too full to have dessert, but I still made them. He liked them so much that he ate TWO!
Here’s some video I took of the merry S’more munching:
The kids were so happy, and now that the cat’s out of the bag—what with making delicious S’mores in the microwave—I’ll have to make S’mores for them as a treat more often. One of them even said, “This means we can have S’mores any time we want now!”
And, that’s what happened just one night later when The Bigs stayed up late to watch a movie together.
Now you totally want some S’mores, right?
Well, good, because one reader will win a S’Mores Prize Pack!
The Prize Pack includes:
- a 6-Pack of Hershey’s Chocolate Bars
- a box of graham crackers
- a package of marshmallows
TO ENTER: Leave me a comment telling me about your favorite S’mores memory!
Extra Entries: Tweet or Facebook this giveaway! Make sure you let me know, so I can count your entr(ies).
Eligibility: I’m sorry friends in other countries, but this giveaway is only open to US residents.
[This post is part of my participation in the Hershey’s “Say S’mores” Promotion with The Motherhood. All opinions and sentiments expressed are my own.]
{Sweet} Traditions
Thank you to Log Cabin for sponsoring my post about updated traditions in my household.
To learn more about Log Cabin Syrups (which are all free of High Fructose Corn Syrup), breakfast for dinner, and other new ways to update traditions in your home, click here.
I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective, which endorses Blog With Integrity, as I do.
Growing up in a Macedonian family we followed many traditions. Over the years, as I have grown as a mother, I have realized how important it is to keep traditions alive. While they might not be exactly the same as they were when I was a child, keeping family traditions is very much a goal of mine as the matriarch of our little-big family.
Most recently I adapted the Orthodox New Year’s tradition of hiding a coin in a strudel to hiding it in our family favorite…cornbread! I’m sure I could probably give a go at making the cheese strudel like my mother and grandmother do, but, over the years, we have come to love cornbread so much that it was a natural evolution of the tradition.
Before I met Michael I had never even tried cornbread. However, becoming the wife of a man who was born and raised in the south, and eventually living in the south, has really broadened—not only—my taste buds, it has also supplemented my tradition bank. Now I have Macedonian traditions to draw from, and southern traditions too!
One of my favorite traditions is the one that involves eating Red Beans and Rice on Mondays. When we lived in New Orleans we found ourselves eating out a lot (I mean, it is dubbed the “Fat City”), and one I enjoyed the most was eating our traditional Monday meal, in the French Quarter, on a balcony like the one at Bourbon Vieux or Cajun Cabin.
Making Red Beans and Rice, at home, is super simple, though. And, when we make a big pot of them we always make a big pan of cornbread. There’s nothing like mixing it all up, dousing it with Louisiana hot sauce, and gobbling it up till your belly hurts. The sausage, the beans, the rice, the cornbread, the flavor—it’s definitely one of my favorite comfort foods.
The best thing about making meals with cornbread, though, is having leftovers for breakfast. The kids love it so much. They pop their leftover piece in the microwave, for a few seconds, and top it with our *family’s favorite syrup. Adding milk and fruit makes it one of the best breakfasts ever.
It really is funny how so many traditions revolve around the dinner table. Food brings family together, and traditions bind us to our past. I hope that our children continue them, and pass them on to their children someday.
Every tradition grows ever more venerable – the more remote its origin, the more confused that origin is. The reverence due to it increases from generation to generation. The tradition finally becomes holy and inspires awe. —Friedrich Nietzsche
*Our family’s favorite syrup is Log Cabin, and it has everything to do with the fact that it is free of high fructose corn syrup. Good syrup doesn’t need to have any of that stuff in it, and I am happy that Log Cabin realizes that! While this is a sponsored post from Log Cabin Syrup, I am emphatic about foods that are free of HFCS, and hope that others do their best to eliminate it from our daily diets.
Cooking With Friends
I’m co-hosting an upcoming class in the Web’s first-ever virtual cooking school, Cooking Connections, and I would love for all of you to participate! Here’s what you need to know:
When: Wednesday, March 16, at 8 p.m. ET
Where: The Motherhood
What: The class I’m co-hosting is called “Cooking with Dad,” and it is hosted by my friends Jim and Shannon. Seriously, you have to join us for guaranteed fun and laughter, you know, along with all the insight and wisdom. Jim and Shannon will be chatting, via live video feed, and the rest of us will be sharing anecdotes and tips for having fun in the kitchen with Dad (and/or the other non-cooks of the family) in the text-based comments below the video! It’s always been my dream to cook with these two, and now I (kinda-sorta) have my chance. Don’t miss out on the party!
The class is sponsored by ConAgra and hosted by The Motherhood.
The other fabulous co-hosts are:
Julie, Angry Julie Monday, http://www.angryjuliemonday.com | Ashley Evans, Schadenfreudette, http://www.schadenfreudette.com | Tanis Miller, Attack of the Redneck Mommy, http://www.theredneckmommy.com | Dan Deguia, Deguia.net, http://www.deguia.net | Lotus Carroll, Sarcastic Mom/iamlot.us, http://www.sarcasticmom.com | Melanie Sheridan; Mel, a Dramatic Mommy, http://www.meladramaticmommy.com |PJ Mullen, Real Men Drive Minivans, http://realmendriveminivans.com | Diane, Momo Fali, http://www.momofali.com | Robin Sue Joss, Big Red Kitchen, http://www.bigredkitchen.com | Eddie Carroll; Life, One Pixel at a Time, http://onepixelatatime.posterous.com/
We hope to see you there!
Happy Mardi Gras
“A king cake (sometimes rendered as kingcake, kings’ cake, king’s cake, or three kings cake) is a type of cake associated with the festival of Epiphany in the Christmas season in a number of countries, and in other places with the pre-Lenten celebrations of Mardi Gras/Carnival [...] In the United States, which celebrates Carnival mainly in the Southeastern region (Louisiana and New Orleans in particular), it is associated with Mardi Gras traditions. The cake has a small trinket (often a small plastic baby, sometimes said to represent Baby Jesus) inside, and the person who gets the piece of cake with the trinket has various privileges and obligations (such as buying the cake for the next celebration).” [via Wikipedia]
We got our King Cake from Kroger, a little while ago, and the kids are anxiously awaiting the moment we cut into it. Davey’s actually right here chirping about “can we cut the cake now, Mama”, and “who’s gonna get the baby, Mama”, and “is it time to have the cake now, Mama?” It’s annoyingly cute, especially when he’s wearing an over-sized gold necklace that was thrown to me, at one of the parades, in 1996. I can’t wait to go back to New Orleans for Mardi Gras. Someday…
Not only is it Mardi Gras, but it’s International Women’s Day, too. So, to all the women out there, happy day!
No More Pre-Packaged Cookies Here
Part of my new year’s resolution is to make things from scratch. My goal is to eliminate all processed foods from our family’s diet. That means no more boxes of ‘just add water’ pancake mix. No more boxed cake mix or canned frosting (I’ve already mastered this one.) I’m even going to attempt making my own biscuits this week. I’m sure it’s really easy, and probably way more satisfying. And, it’s so fun to photograph food!
This past weekend I wanted to make the family some kind of treat. They wanted Hello Dollies, but I wanted to make some good, old-fashioned cookies. I settled on making Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies from my new favorite foodie blog find, The Brown Eyed Baker.
Verdict: THE. BEST. COOKIES. EVER.
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