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Closing the Door on 2011 and Looking Forward in 2012

Shaina — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 15:35:18 +0000

A brief overview of 2011 here on Food for My Family, as well as a look forward into what 2012 has in store for us.

As we head into the New Year, I thought I’d take a moment to look back on 2011. I’m always introspective at the start of a new year. I view January, with its blanket of snow and cold temperatures that cleanse and render the world immobile, like a blank canvas waiting for the artist to create a new world from raw materials. I’m excited to see what this year has in store for me as I make my way into previously uncharted waters and this space here transforms and melds as we go.

So, here are a few of the most popular posts from last year as I consider what color I’ll use for the base of the 2012 artwork that is yet to be. Welcome, 2012. It’s nice to see you.

It’s been quite the year. I wrote a cookbook (due out this spring from Harvard Common Press, so you’re bound to hear more about it in a few months), which kind of set the tone for the last half of the year, occupying my brain and my every waking moment for a while.

In March we talked crêpes and my lack of world traveling. The crêpes, however, stole the show. I can make them with or without the “proper” pan, and they’re worth the effort, every time.

How to Make Crêpes Without a Crêperie
We also welcome in a new addition to my friend Amanda‘s family. Baby Eddie was showered virtually from afar, and these macarons were my contribution to the showering.
Baby Shower Macarons for i am baker
Magnus got in on the action. He knows how it feels to be the youngest man in a family of four, so he wanted to make sure Eddie had some basic survival skills in place.

The summer saw the kids enjoying plenty of sunshine, fresh fruits and vegetables from the garden and a bit of watermelon sorbet for dessert, too.
Watermelon Lime Sorbet Slices

While I’d like to think you’re all crazy for my salsa, I have a feeling this post did well based on the story more than anything else. Thank you all so much for your care and concern as we find a new normal with Kjell. It’s been such a blessing to us.
Roasted Tomato Salsa and Moving Forward
Finally, a pear pie I made for my husband wraps up some of the most popular posts for the year. This one was close to my heart, and I’m glad you all loved it as well.
Buttermilk Custard Pear Pie and Pie Crust Crimping
I’m looking forward to what changes 2012 has in store for us. I’m planning on a few more interactive posts with the kids, plenty of recipes, the continuation of the Eat Well, Spend Less series and food. Of course there will be food.

Thank you all so much for continuing to read and be supportive here in my little corner of the internet. Without you, this is just a glorified journal of my experience with food. With you, it’s a community of people I couldn’t be happier to be associated with.

Here’s to a fantastic 2012. May it bring you continued happiness and joy.

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…and a Happy New Year!

Shaina — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 18:32:10 +0000

Wishing you a Happy New Year, plus a NeatDesk Desktop Scanner & Digital Filing System giveaway to keep you organized going into 2012!

We had a highly disorganized, hectic, fun-filled Christmas weekend this year. We ran from one place to the next starting Christmas Eve morning, baked cookies in between, showed up late once because Ole decided the odd warm weather required a Christmas Day motorcycle ride (worth it) and stuffed ourselves silly on prime rib, shrimp dip, Christmas cookies and more. Then we collapsed on Monday morning after midnight when we returned home.

I woke up Monday and looked at the carnage that was left in the wake of Christmas. In the midst of trying to declutter, organize and make my house feel like a home again, I keep thinking about all the paper that we store. Receipts for goods purchased, school forms for the kids, recipes printed off and shoved into binders or, more often, between the pages of other cookbooks that I am using simultaneously.

Enter the NeatDesk. I finally opened my NeatDesk after months of looking at it in its box. Stupid of me to not have done it sooner, really. I have the ability to scan and store receipts, doing away with the clumsy piles that so often occupied my desk. I can do the same with teacher correspondence, recipes I cut from magazines and more.

By far the most fun piece of the NeatDesk High Speed Scanner is its ability to extract information from my scanned in information and put it into a digital format, making filing easy and gathering information later on more than simple.

The Neat Company is letting me give away a NeatDesk High Speed Scanner & Digital Filing System to one of my readers to help you get organized in the New Year, too! It means less time cleaning and fretting and organizing and decluttering and more time spend with your family, enjoying them. Here’s to a year filled with special moments and a simpler life.

THE PRIZE

One lucky reader will win a NeatDesk Desktop Scanner and Digital Filing System!

HOW TO ENTER TO WIN

1. Leave a comment. What is one of your goals for 2012?

2. Follow @FoodforMyFamily and @NeatCompany on Twitter and tweet the following, and come back and let me know you did:

Get organized for the New Year. Enter to win a @NeatDesk Scanner (ARV$499) from @FoodforMyFamily http://su.pr/27A6jC #giveaway

3. Join the Food for My Family community on Facebook. Come back and leave a comment letting me know you did so. If you already do, THANK YOU. Just let me know.

4. Join the The Neat Company community on Facebook. Come back and leave a comment letting me know you did so.

THE RULES:

This giveaway will run until Sunday, January 1st at 11:59 p.m. ET and is open to all U.S. residents. A winner will be chosen at random using Random.org from all eligible entries. Each reader has 4 chances to win by completing the above tasks and leaving a separate comment for each entry method completed. Chosen winner must respond within 48 hours of notification to claim their prize. Good luck!

This giveaway is sponsored by The Neat Company. Tips, opinions and random thoughts are 100% mine.

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Keep Your Hands Free for Holiday Baking: A Giveaway

Shaina — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 23:57:14 +0000

A little something to keep your hands free and clear for baking up holiday treats this season. A VTech Multi-Tasking Phone System giveaway for you.

I consider myself to be a fairly adept at multitasking. I do it often, for otherwise I may never accomplish the things that need to be done on a daily basis. In fact, often I still fail.

Right now I am babysitting a cake in the oven, cookies need to be photographed, I have writing deadlines breathing down my back. If I turn slightly to my left, I see my 3-year-old pushing wooden trains around tracks I built, tracks he will break just so that I will come and build them again. Soon, he’ll be whisked off to dreamland so that I can attempt to both manage a conference call for a creative team I’m working with and juggle the cookies and cake. At 3:30p my house will fill with the sounds of children. Backpacks will be tossed on the floor, no matter how many times I ask them to use the hooks that were drilled into plaster walls just for that purpose. Folders, sheets of paper and books will be shuffled on the dining room table, as dinner is prepared and dishes done.

My hands are often full, my mind racing, split in two and working on more than what’s in front of me. While this is the norm for me, Christmas always means a slight increase in the crazy everyday, and so while I chat with my sister about the gifts for my mom and field yet another question from my mom and aunts as they’re out shopping, I find it more important to keep my hands busy while I talk.

In that same vein and in keeping with the holidays, I imagine that we could all use a phone that leaves hands free to mix, roll and bake as we manage to catch up with loved ones, plan holiday parties and Christmas potlucks.

THE PRIZE

One lucky reader will win a VTech Multi-Tasking Phone System! You can answer the phone while baking, cleaning, decorating or anything else on your to-do list with the simple press of a button. Better yet is the audible caller ID, which makes it easy to know who is trying to reach you and allows you to keep doing what you’re doing if it’s a telemarketer. (I’m on the “do not call list.” They still call.)

So, rather than stress about doing this and that and everything else all at the same time, let your phone do a bit of work for you, whether it’ sanswering your calls, letting you know who called or just being ready to go whenever you are.

HOW TO ENTER TO WIN

1. Leave a comment. How can a hands-free phone system help you multitask?

2. Follow @FoodforMyFamily and @VTech411 on Twitter and tweet the following, and come back and let me know you did:

Enter to win a @VTech411 Multi-Tasking Phone System from @FoodforMyFamily http://su.pr/2MNhoT #giveaway

3. Join the Food for My Family community on Facebook. Come back and leave a comment letting me know you did so. If you already do, THANK YOU. Just let me know.

4. Join the Vtech community on Facebook. Come back and leave a comment letting me know you did so.

THE RULES:

This giveaway will run until Thursday, December 15th at 11:59 p.m. ET and is open to all U.S. residents. A winner will be chosen at random using Random.org from all eligible entries. Each reader has 4 chances to win by completing the above tasks and leaving a separate comment for each entry method completed. Chosen winner must respond within 48 hours of notification to claim their prize. Good luck!

This giveaway is sponsored by VTech. Tips, opinions and random thoughts are 100% mine.

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Hey, Babycakes! A Weekend Giveaway.

Shaina — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 03:00:26 +0000

Enter to win a Babycakes Cupcake Maker and cookbook that makes more than just cupcakes. It can make your entire meal in minutes.

My kids are generally pretty excited in the kitchen, especially that pink-apron-wearing one up there. If I so much as walk towards the kitchen she is asking if we can make something. The mere mention of a mixing bowl has her pulling out aprons left and right.

The kids’ enthusiasm in the kitchen makes me smile, and while sometimes I am less then thrilled about having them underfoot, I want to encourage them to love the act of cooking, creating and eating. It doesn’t have to be a profession they hope to go into later in life, but everyone must eat. I view teaching them how to feed themselves as an essential life skill, just like tying their shoes or washing their own laundry.

While I admit to being skeptical about adding another appliance to my collection, especially one that makes cupcakes, I was pleasantly surprised when a quick glance through the Babycakes cookbook revealed that the possibilities with the cupcake maker were endless, and when my four children then adopted it as their own personal oven and way to make desserts, breakfasts, lunches and dinners, well, I won’t be giving it back anytime soon.

The Babycakes Cupcake Maker is an EasyBake Oven for real food. The kids have made cupcakes baked from scratch, brownies from our favorite recipe, mini quiches as appetizers, sandwiches, pies and even baked eggs with Parmesan and herbs all with little to no assistance. For my younger kids who aren’t quite ready to use the oven on their own, it’s given them the ability to have more control over what they can create in the kitchen. Making their own snack can be a half-hour activity that produces eight mini Dijon and chive quiches (quite tasty) from leftover pie dough, an egg and a bit of milk.

The cookbook is great for giving you recipes for cheesecakes, cupcakes, pies, quiches and more, and it has served well at sparking our own creativity when using it. Plus, the freedom in having the kids make their own eggs for breakfast on a Saturday morning? Those last few minutes of sleep are precious.

THE PRIZE

One lucky reader will win a Babycakes Cupcake Maker and a copy of the 175 Best Babycakes Cookbook!

HOW TO ENTER TO WIN

1. Leave a comment. When did you start playing in the kitchen?

2. Follow @FoodforMyFamily on Twitter and tweet the following, and come back and let me know you did:

Enter to win a a Babycakes Cupcake Maker from @FoodforMyFamily http://su.pr/2mck08 #giveaway

3. Join the Food for My Family community on Facebook. Come back and leave a comment letting me know you did so. If you already do, THANK YOU. Just let me know.

4. Join the Plugged into Cooking community on Facebook. Come back and leave a comment letting me know you did so.

THE RULES:

This giveaway will run until Wednesday, November 23rd at 11:59 p.m. ET and is open to all U.S. residents. A winner will be chosen at random using Random.org from all eligible entries. Each reader has 4 chances to win by completing the above tasks and leaving a separate comment for each entry method completed. Chosen winner must respond within 48 hours of notification to claim their prize. Good luck!

This giveaway is sponsored by Babycakes. Tips, opinions and random thoughts are 100% mine.

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A Tailgating Tip Trio and Takeaway

Shaina — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 05:05:14 +0000

I’ve partnered up with Bush’s Beans again to talk about tailgating tips and give you a little takeaway, too! It’s right in the middle of football season, so let’s get our tailgate on!

If you’re a football fan and live in the vicinity of an NFL or NCAA stadium, chances are good you may have at least seen fans tailgating, even if you didn’t partake yourself. If you didn’t partake, well, let me tell you, you’re missing out.

As the wife of a Gamecock, I promise you that good times can be had at a tailgate. (And tailgating isn’t just for football fans, either. Tailgating the minor league baseball team is perfectly acceptable and even encouraged. Go Saints!)

Not near a stadium? Well, you’re in luck. It turns out you can tailgate in your living room, your backyard, the driveway, wherever you happen to have space for a chair and a plate.

Tailgating Tips

1. Prepare your food ahead. I’m not necessarily talking about cooking your food ahead, but the prep part only. Pat out burgers and separate them with pieces of parchment. Make foil boats to fill with side dishes, chop any vegetables you need and be sure you have a can opener…

2. Put together a tailgate kit. We have one of these for camping that can also sub in for tailgating. It contains odds and ends that you will most definitely need when preparing food and eating in the middle of the parking lot (or the wilderness). Include:

Paper towels for spills, mishaps and your face.
Aluminum foil to cook off and wrap leftover food with.
Matches for those times when the grill can’t get going fast enough
A can opener for you and everyone the cans of all your friends who will inevitably not have a can opener.
Garbage bags for bits of food, paper towels and other mess you’ll be making, as well as one for recycling.
Weights or something else suitable to hold napkins and the like down.
Rain ponchos for both yourself and your food in case the skies open up while you’re enjoying yourself.

3. Be visible. Whether you are looking to attract other fans, get your friends to find you or just avoid getting run over, you’ll want to be visible.
Bush’s sent over a gorgeous tailgating kit for our day of food, family, friends and football. Plus, we get to give one away to our readers!

THE PRIZE

One Bush’s Baked Beans Tailgating Kit that includes:

A Bush’s Cooler
Two Folding Chairs
A Burger Press
Hot Dog and Brat Griller
Coupons for Bush’s Baked Beans

HOW TO ENTER TO WIN

1. Leave a comment. What football team do you cheer for?

2. Follow @BushsBeans and @FoodforMyFamily on Twitter and tweet the following, and come back and let me know you did:

Enter to win a tailgate set from @BushsBeans on @FoodforMyFamily http://su.pr/1k57HV

3. Join the Food for My Family community on Facebook. Come back and leave a comment letting me know you did so. If you already do, THANK YOU. Just let me know.

4. Join the Bush’s Beans community on Facebook. Come back and leave a comment letting me know you did so.

THE RULES:

This giveaway will run until Monday, November 14that 11:59 p.m. ET and is open to all U.S. residents. A winner will be chosen at random using Random.org from all eligible entries. Each reader has 4 chances to win by completing the above tasks and leaving a separate comment for each entry method completed. Chosen winner must respond within 48 hours of notification to claim their prize. Good luck!

This post is sponsored by Bush’s. Tips, opinions and random thoughts are 100% mine. You’re welcome.

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A Bit of Mushroom Nutrition and Something for You

Shaina — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 04:00:31 +0000

The Mushroom Council is reaching out this month to support of City of Hope and Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Did you know mushrooms are a fabulous meat substitute and high in vitamins? Plus, a little giveaway for you, too!

I never really considered the nutritional benefits of mushrooms. I knew they didn’t contain any fat, and because I enjoyed eating them I happily popped them into meals and pasta sauces without a second thought. Little did I know, I was loading up on vitamin D, vitamin B and antioxidants for very few calories and plenty of flavor.

Just this summer I shared my new favorite burger recipe that contains absolutely no meat at all, instead using halloumi cheese and portabella mushrooms as a substitute for burger and bun. Turns out heaven on a bun is really fresh basil leaves and halloumi tucked inside two mushrooms. Gluten free and good for you.

In my family there is one mushroom holdout. He’s a smart lad despite his mushroom-hating tendencies and the only one of my children with the same eye color as me. (I always thought I’d have more than one brown-eyed monster, but instead the rest are all steely grey.) Still, he’s become quite adventurous at trying his mushrooms on for size, even when he doesn’t think he’ll like them, which is often half the battle.

To get Kjell interested in mushrooms, we love switching up how we serve them, and he’s found that he actually likes them prepared several different ways, including on homemade pizzas. Here are just a handful of ways to try mushrooms on for size:
::Beef Tenderloin with Red Wine Balsamic Mushrooms
::Potabella and Halloumi “Burgers”
::Spicy Mushroom Miso Ramen
::Portabella Mushroom Fajitas
::Roasted Mushrooms with Herbs

For National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, retailers across the country will be selling mushrooms in pink containers to raise awareness. The Mushroom Council has supported leading research and treatment facility City of hope since 2002 with $750,000 in grants towards their research and will be donating another $50,000 this fall. To find out more about City of Hope’s research into mushrooms slowing breast cancer cells, join us for the Mushroom Council #gno Twitter party on Tuesday, October 4 from 9-11p ET.

HOW TO ENTER TO WIN a Mushroom Council Prize Pack that includes:

Mushroom slicer
Cuisinart Chef’s Classic Stainless Saute Pan with Cover (5 Quart)
Book: MyPlate for Moms, How to Feed Yourself & Your Family Better

1. Leave a comment letting me know how you support National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

2. Follow @FoodforMyFamily and @MushroomChannel on Twitter and tweet the following, and come back and let me know you did:

Win a @MushroomChannel Prize Pack from @FoodforMyFamily http://su.pr/22V58N #giveaway

3. Join the Food for My Family community on Facebook. Come back and leave a comment letting me know you did.

4. Join the Mushroom Channel community on Facebook. Come back and leave a comment letting me know you did so.

THE RULES:

This giveaway will run until Sunday, October 9th at 11:59 p.m. EDT and is open to all U.S. residents. A winner will be chosen at random using Random.org from all eligible entries. Each reader has 4 chances to win by completing the above tasks and leaving a separate comment for each entry method completed. Chosen winner must respond within 48 hours of notification to claim their prize. Good luck!

This post was sponsored by the Mushroom Council and Mom It Forward. The opinions are my own. I really do like mushrooms, and I’d rather have them for buns to my “cheese” burger than the alternative.

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Bloggers without Borders and A Fund for Jennie

Shaina — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 21:41:16 +0000

Nearly a year ago now (9 months is close to a year, no?) Kjell was in the hospital. I sat next to him. It meant time away from my family, time away from work, time away from my house and my three other kids. The implications on a mom who runs their own business were huge. It was terrifyingly hard as a mom. It was stressful as a freelancer.

When we left the hospital we faced weeks and months of returning there for tests, which was heartbreaking as a parent, not to mention time consuming, which meant more time running and less time being where my family needed me and where my work needed me.

It was during this time that a group of friends got together and collected a fund, a fund to take some of the stress and burden off my shoulders as mom, freelance writer and homemaker. While the dollar amount wasn’t huge, the outcome was phenomenal. The domestic duties taken care of, rather than worry about how long it had been since I scrubbed my floors, the jam that splattered up and down the wall when it was dropped or how many times my boys had missed the mark in the bathroom, I could focus on family time, homework and my own work deadlines.

I was so very grateful at that moment to be a part of this community, to have these friends who reached out to care for me and my family when we were feeling the affects of a difficult time. I felt loved and taken care of. Somehow those people, the same ones who helped me and reached out to me during a time when I was down, have turned that compassion and community into a nonprofit organization called Bloggers without Borders.

The first official project of this new venture is to reach out to one of us in need. Someone who taught us all the meaning of cherishing every minute. Someone who is in need herself right now.

If you’re a regular reader or another blogger, I’m sure you’ve heard Jennifer’s story by now, her husband Mikey getting whisked away from this world far too early, leaving behind Jennie and her girls.

As you can imagine, going from a two-person income and family life to that of a single parent is going to be hard and take quite a toll on the family, who is still trying to grieve and recover from the loss of their best friend, husband and father. Bloggers without Borders has taken on A Fund for Jennie as their first official project, asking bloggers to auction off goods and services to help raise money to get Jennie’s immediate needs taken care of, needs like health insurance and mortgage payments and the water damage done to her Brooklyn residence as a result of Hurricane Irene.

I wanted to share a few of my favorite auctions with you and urge you to help a family in need. Check out the list of auctions, and perhaps something you wanted to do or purchase anyway could become a helpful bit of money for a family who is hurting right now. You can view the full list of auctions on the Bloggers without Borders website.

Mike from Verses from My Kitchen asked for cookbook donations from all across the internet and the country to make a huge cookbook auction, and he succeeded. This auction is for 60 cookbooks and a few magazine subscriptions. It would make a fantastic collection, but it could probably take care of a great deal of Christmas and birthday presents for the next year.
Photographers will want to jump at the chance to spend a day shooting with National Geographic and Saveur photographer Penny de los Santos. If you need convincing, just head to Penny’s site for evidence of how emotionally connected she is to her work.
Jen from My Kitchen Addiction is auctioning off a basket full of goodies, and you get to pick what’s included! I can personally vouch for the beauty and deliciousness of Jen’s cooking and her baking skills, so definitely check this one out.
Simple Bites is having a giveaway instead of an auction. If you make a $5 donation, you can enter to win a Tri-Ply Stainless Steel 8-Piece Cookware Set from Le Creuset worth $450!
The group at The Kitchen Generation is each throwing in a little something special. There are photo prints, maple syrup, homemade jam and chutney, a microplane, spatula and notecards. These are mighty talented young persons giving of themselves.

Thanks so much for reading and spreading the word! Several of these auctions are ending tonight or tomorrow night. Thank you so much for checking them out and considering a bid to help a family in need.

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