Good Earth Giveaway

I've returned! LOL Anyone notice I was gone? Well not gone but crazy busy and no energy to snap pix and blog. Well I've missed you and ready to kick off my summer vacay with a GIVEAWAY!

The generous people at MyBlogSpark and Good Earth sent me this fun package. A reusable grocery bag, a bamboo cutting board, 2 sets bamboo flatware and two small plates and a box of Good Earth of Mediterranean Chicken with Angel Hair Pasta to try out. I love the bamboo! So cute. Made with 100% whole grain, no trans fat, no artificial flavors, no artificial preservatives, no MSG. Gotta love that!

I gave the package dinner a try one night when I wasn't in the mood to coordinate a full dinner. All I had to do was add my own chicken and all the sauce, seasonings and pasta was provided. Dinner in a snap. Very tasty too! I am sad that I didn't get more flavors to try to compare because sadly Good Earth has not shown up in our stores yet.

Do I pass? Does it look like the picture on the box? Well perhaps it would have if there wasn't a random clump of 'something' in the front there. Oh well. I am by far the pro photog!

I know the 4th of July holiday weekend is coming up and perhaps you want an easy meal to prepare after all your hard work from your holiday prep! Won't you put in a comment how you are a package dinner queen or what you'd like to do with your new bamboo products or just a quick comment about how much you missed me!

Just in case you are going away this giveaway will be held for one week! Give you plenty of time to enter.....

Thanks again MyBlogSpark and Good Earth!

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED! THANKS FOR STOPPING BY.

Enjoy!

Cascadian Farm Giveaway Winner!

YAY!

Congrats to Jane Valentine!

She is the lucky winner of a boatload of organic cereal from Cascadian Farm and MyBlogSpark!

I appreciate all the entries and your sharing of the 'green' things you do to make our earth a better place.

Since I required it for entry it is only fair that I tell you how we attempt to be greener.....

1. We reduce the amount of trash by recycling. Our city takes quite a bit of everything, most plastic (including lids), phonebooks, disposable pie pans, rinsed aluminum foil (to name a few)

2. I use (and getting quite a collection it seems) of the reuseable grocery bags. I just got a new one yesterday for trading in some of my plastic grocery bags for a cloth one (our city incentive to stop using plastic)

3. I grow as many vegetables as my little garden can fit. This year we have tomatoes, zucchini, green peppers, yellow peppers and jalapenos. I have every herb imaginable hanging off my deck railing.

4. Starting yesterday and every Sunday I save all my produce shopping for our local farmer's market. It is good to support your local farmers. Bring cash. When you doing something like buying asparagus 5.00 per pound and the scales tip to 5.10, if the farmer says 5.00 pay them what you owe. I told the farmer...."oh no, those dimes makes dollars. You get the full amount, don't cheat yourself."

5. We unplug most of all electrical items not in use, you know the fridge, stove and a few other big items we can't reach behind...they stay plugged in.

6. We wash only in cold water and use the RECOMMENDED amount of concentrated laundry soap!

7. We shower by getting wet, turn off the water, soap up/shampoo, turn the water back on to rinse off.

8. When it is just the two of us in the house....we follow the 'if it's yellow, let it mellow, if it's brown flush it down' policy. This policy is waived when guests are around....LOL.

I know we could do more. I toy with the composting thing. Since I've seen raccoons eating the bread I put out for the birds....I am fearful of the compost bin being 'ransacked' by that masked varmit. But as I said....it's the little things that if we all did it together it would start to make an impact.

Thanks again Cascadian Farm and MyBlogSpark and Jane....stock up on that milk GIRL!

Enjoy!

Only two days left....

Who wants some wonderful crunchy organic cereals for their shelves?

You have until Sunday to comment on here what you do to help the environment or being "green"....nothing major....just one will suffice and POOF, you've entered the giveway from Cascadian Farms and MyBlogSpark.

Add yourself to my Facebook Fanpage and PING, you've entered a second chance.

Just think of all the breakfasts, streusel toppings for muffins, haystacks, granola bars...you can make.....

Giveaway is NOW CLOSED! Thanks for visiting!

Enjoy!

Cascadian Farm Giveaway

What did you do to on Earth Day? Hopefully you aren't one of those people who only do something "GREEN" on Earth Day.

Everyday should be Earth Day!

I am not sure when I first heard the term of "green" (not being a color) but it seems that I've always known that I need to conserve energy and preserve Mother Earth.

Rookies of 'being green' can start with recycling, reusing and reducing with many little things and working their way up. No one expects you to live in a grass hut and eat 100% organic from your own yard as a lifestyle but if everyone just did some little things, everywhere....it could make a HUGE difference.

So to encourage you to think outside the box and keep treating each day as Earth Day, let's keep the 40th anniversary going...

I am hosting a "Live Green Together" prize pack from Cascadian Farm provided by MyBlogSpark! It has cereals and granola bars, including: Fruitful O´s cereal, Cinnamon Crunch cereal, Chocolate Chip Chewy granola bars, Dark Chocolate Almond Granola, Dark Chocolate Almond granola bars, Oats & Honey granola, and an eco-friendly grocery bag.

How do I enter, you are asking?

First- I'd like you to go to Cascadian Farm page on Facebook. Choose from eight different pledges, ranging from reusing clothes to reducing your speed while driving on the highway, and find the one that fits your lifestyle. For each person that signs a pledge now through May 31, 2010, Cascadian Farm will donate $1, up to $40,000, to the Organic Farming Research Foundation, which fosters the improvement and widespread adoption of organic farming systems.

Second, leave a comment here telling me what you are doing to be GREEN to enter for the GINORMOUS prize pack. I was lucky enough to get one as well....oh my....we gots FIBER for months here! WOW. K-man already snagged the two boxes of granola bars to take on his bike rides!

BUT WAIT....you can have a second ENTRY for this giveaway!!! Become a Fan of JennyMac's Lipsmack Facebook page and leave a comment there about being a new fan and you have a second chance!

Winners will be announced next Sunday May 2 (the first day of our local Farmer's Market- yay support your local farmers!!!) I will contacting you for your address to send to MyBlogSpark so they can send off your HUGE box of organic goodness!

Huge Thank you to Cascadian Farm and MyBlogSpark for these wonderful products for my family and my fans to devour!!!

Giveaway is NOW CLOSED! Thanks for visiting!

It can be easy being Green,

JennyMac being Cheesy....again and a Giveaway.

Although I like many types of macaroni and cheese, I don't have it so easy. K-man runs very hot and cold about it. My stats run 1-4 on him liking the M&C recipes I've made. He says he can't explain it why Mac and Cheese is just something that he doesn't HATE but just isn't fond of. WHAT? ARE YOU NUTS? Sometimes he likes it, sometimes not. Once I find the recipe he likes I am DONE. No more trying new M&C recipes.

I found a new recipe on Baker's Banter (King Arthur's Flour) for Garlic-Herb Mac and Cheese and wanted to give it a try. They use a powdered white cheese powder which I already had. But I was a little apprehensive since the powder was now a BLOCK.....I had to run a hunk through food pro to measure out a 1/2 cup. Doesn't look promising. I made it and thought I am really not using this perhaps I should just toss it out after this recipe....Stay tuned for what happens after I made this.....

Garlic-Herb Mac and Cheese
adapted from "The Big Cheese-y" by King Arthur's Flour

8 ounces (about 2 cups) uncooked tube-type pasta (you gotta have something to hold the sauce!)
1/4 cup cake flour (they used on of their special mixes, they said you could sub flour)
2 -3/4 cups milk
1/2 cup Vermont cheese powder (see above-you can substitute a packet from any white cheddar mac and cheese box)
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (I used Cabot's 70% reduced fat white cheddar)
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground mustard powder
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon salt, to taste

Topping

4 tablespoons butter
2 teaspoons garlic oil, optional
2 teaspoons Pizza Seasoning or rosemary and thyme
1 -1/2 cups Japanese panko (coarse bread crumbs)

Directions

1) Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 2-quart baking dish.

2) Cook the pasta in boiling salted water until al dente (slightly firmer than you would normally eat it). Drain and rinse with cool water. Set aside.

3) In a large saucepan set over medium heat, whisk together the flour, milk, and cheese powder. Bring to a boil.

4) Remove from the heat and stir in the cheese and seasonings. Stir occasionally, until cheese is completely melted.

5) Stir the pasta into the cheese sauce. Spoon it into the baking dish.

6) Melt the butter and garlic oil together, then stir in the pizza seasoning and panko bread crumbs. Sprinkle a thick layer over the pasta and cheese.

7) Bake the casserole for 25 to 35 minutes, until bubbly and browned. Remove from the oven, and serve hot.

Yield: 5 1/2 cups, about 4 servings.

Notes:
The crumb topping was delicious and crunchy. But, as for the cheesy noodles, I am not sure if my powder had something to do with it, but something about this was off. It was creamy not gritty but I think the powder was past it's prime. I will want to make this again. WHY, you ask?

Because my mom walked in the door for dinner with a bag of 3 NEW bags of white cheese powder. Oh lord. I had a hard enough time using up ONE bag, now I have 3 new ones? GEEZ.

The Giveaway:
So, I will keep one and I want to giveaway the TWO others for those who would like to try out this white cheese powder for themselves. You certainly can just can use it just like your standard mac and cheese directions with 1/4 cup butter and 1/2 cup milk with probably 2-3 Tbsp of the powder with their cooked macaroni OR use it to follow this recipe.

SO, if you have never used cheese powder and want to play around with it or use it to try and make your own copycat cheese nips like I did, drop a comment and I will determine a winner in the next few days.


Post Script NOTE: So I used one of the new bags of Cheese using the same cheese sauce recipe for some broccoli and it ROCKED. Yum! Therefore, I am concluding that the M&C I made and said it was 'off' I was right. It WAS the cheese powder...past it's prime. Those of you hesitant to enter thinking this cheese powder isn't good. Not true!

Cheese and

Did you forget something?

No, I didn't get a new haircut. No, this is not a new recipe post. No, the trash doesn't need taking out....

It's my blogversary! I guess you don't scroll waayyyyyyyyyy down on the right margin of my blog to read my blogversary countdown badge. LOL. It's ok, if you have one, I wouldn't know where to find yours either.

Hard to believe that on New Year's Eve I made a such big decision and it STUCK. Think of all those diets, exercise routines, fads, promises that we've never stuck to or lost interest in....

My blog was a great decision. I love it. Wow, the time FLEW by and over the past 365 days I've posted over 250 times. I think if I was ever asked by a boss or professor to write that much due to THEIR request/demand in one year....I would have passed out or quit. I guess when you truly love doing something...it comes easy and it hits all my creative buttons.

Well since I don't have any food companies banging my door down (I don't know how some of you bloggers get so many of these companies to send you free stuff!) so I will go out on my own and have a giveaway that I will purchase with my own hard earned teacher's salary.

Knowing this blogversary was coming up I've been thinking long and hard to what I wanted to GIVEAWAY......hmmmmm. I thought since many of the blogs I've been reading was what influenced me to start a food blog. THAT would be my giveaway. Whatever blogger's cookbook you'd like...I'd send you. I have many bloggers cookbooks but NOT all of them. There are some other books that have stories with recipes that I also like perhaps you'd like to try one of them....

Here's the gist of my GIVEAWAY:

Write a comment and tell me which of the books that I suggested down below that YOU WOULD WANT for your collection. If you'd like to suggest a new book that YOU have and think I should get to add to my collection do comment about it.... and then add to your commentWHAT BOOK you WOULD like that Santa didn't bring you this year!

Here's my list of goodies I think everyone should get:

One of the first food blogs my cousin Sue referred to me was Orangette. I became a fan and soon enough during my first year of blogging Molly Wizenburg published her first cookbook. Her book is based on her food influences that turned her gift of writing into a passion of writing about food. She is currently crazy busy running a newly opened restaurant with her husband. Things are settling down and she is slowly returning to blogging more. Would you like her book? Here is one of my posts about one of her recipes.








Now, this author is NOT a food blogger but I've been a fan of two Culinary Murder Mystery writers. This is Joann's Fluke's most recent book. She has 12 total, a new one arriving in Feb 2010. I have used many of her recipes and I am very excited about her new cookbook that encompasses ALL her recipes from her books being published in Oct 2011. Here is one of my posts using one of her recipes.








The other Culinary Mystery Writer who was my first is Diane Mott Davidson. Here is my post about her books. Her latest came out this summer called Fatally Flaky. DO know that her books ARE a series.






Dorie Greenspan's book was probably one of my second blogger books. Her blog is about a group of food bloggers who pick a recipe to cook each week and blog about it. A very tough group to join but personally when it was open to me....I decided I couldn't handle that type of pressure to produce. Kudos to many of my friends who do follow the Tuesday with Dorie clan plan. Here is my post of the first recipe I made when I needed to 'break in' my new birthday KA mixer!







I have all these books by David Zinczenko. After I pour through them....I mainly use them in my classroom with my students. Some scary food truths in them. Here is my post about this book. Cook this, Not that is now HOT out in the stores on 12/29. What is cool about this new book is that recipes are included now. Finally. I can see some future posts in it already. Shall I pick you up a copy?






I found this book cross referenced through Amazon.com since they keep track of the many things you order and make suggestions. Baking Boot Camp is writer being assigned to attend the CIA for their baking training and write about it. Of course many recipes are included and they are top culinary school level!










Of course I like the baking boot camp book so much that I went and got the culinary school boot camp one as well. This book was written first and done by a different author both were interesting, especially if you think you'd like to enroll to in any of these CIA classes. I did....notice the past tense.









I love this book! Jeff Hertzbery (one of the authors) even commented on my post from recipe I made from this book. He must have one of those 'robo-search tools' that finds sites who cross reference his book. Ironically, I was also having my first giveaway of ANOTHER book, not his. I know stupid rookie blogger move. But I won't go into the stupid food porn picture site reasons why I wasn't thinking straight. Live and learn. Anyhow, I've made a few recipes and LOVE how easy the dough is to use. Here is my post about the sticky buns I made!

Jeff, if you are reading again. I'd love to try your Healthy Breads in 5 five minutes cookbooks to review and another of for future giveaway! Sorry about my food blogger faux pas! I've learned.




Confections of a Closet Master Baker I saw reviewed on another blog.
Honestly when I found out it was written by Sandra Bullock's sister (former resident of Arlington VA, like me) I was curious. Since it was a memoir and had recipes in it, I got it. It was a fun read. Sorry no post yet.








Not sure how I got into Ruth's books. I guess since I love reading biographies/memoirs, when I found out these were the memoirs of a food critic and recipes my curiousity was piqued. I tested out her first one Tender to the Bone to see how I liked it. Really wondering how she became fell upon such a prized job as a food critic. OMG. You GOT to read these....you will be amazed over the stories about her mother's horrible cooking and wonder how she developed such a fine palate. The second book is Comfort me with Apples and Garlic and Sapphires is the last. Wonderful memoirs! Here is my post from the G & S book.






Too many Cooks was one of the those books I grabbed to take on vacation with me. When I was going through the shelves the looking for more reading material....it caught my interest....again I love the storytelling fused recipes thing. This is a story about a stay at home mom who has 4 kids and how she struggles to expose her kids to food preparation and a variety of foods. Sorry no post from her book yet.









Oh Hungry Girl cookbooks are so fun! I subscribe to her site to my email where I get sent very informative things about lower calories foods and how to tweak recipes to make them less evil. I am working through her cookbook like a mad woman. Like here and here and here. Love HER!







Speaking of Love, I also LOVE PW. Pioneer Woman Cooks food blog came into my life shortly after I found Orangette. Ree Drumond is soooooo funny and a hellacious great cook. No way she has the figure she does and eats the amazingly evil food she cooks too! She must eat only like ONE spoonful and then eat a salad! Sheesh I've posted so many of her stuff....like this. She also now has an AMAZING recipe sharing site called Tasty Kitchen. Sorry you are going to have to go around and find more of the stuff I've posted of her because at this point in this post...I am wiped. All these reviews are making me tired and hungry for dinner.



So there you have it! My suggestions. I know that there are many other wonderful and fun books that I do not have. I haven't had the chance to peruse through Steamy Kitchen yet. I have the new Cake Wrecks book but she isn't about recipes just funny pictures yet I adore her site.

OK my friends and FANS....comment and tell me what BOOK YOU'D LIKE to win for my BLOGVERSARY GIVEAWAY! YOU PICK AND I WILL SEND YOU THE BOOK YOUR HEART DESIRES....sorry, I was screaming I get excited like that sometimes....

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED....CONGRATS TO NORAOLSON
Tick Tock!