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Tennessee Trip
So, this is a few weeks late, but we took a trip to Tennessee for Easter this year. At first, I was like ummm… how are we going to make this work? An 8 hour drive with two little ones under two! Yet, to my surprise it went extremely well. The girls were absolutely great the whole drive and we had no major meltdowns. Even though it took more like 10 and a half hours!! It was well worth it. We got to have the family all together for Easter and my mom’s birthday and we really got to do a lot in our short time there. I want to share with you…
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Michelle Bernstein Dinner
I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to cook alongside an amazing chef. Chef Michelle Bernstein is a James Beard Award winning chef with many years of experience in and around this industry. She is a master at what she does and she is one of the most humble and kind chefs that I have ever had the pleasure of working with. A few years back we did an MCC demo with her and that is when I met her for the first time. She was amazingly gracious and warm then as well. I was very excited when I learned that we would have the opportunity to execute a private wine dinner…
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Flower Show Demo
I always have the pleasure of hosting a cooking demo during our flower show at work. I love doing live cooking demos and as much as I love setting them all up and working with other chefs, it is super fun for me to get to demo my own food. This year our flower theme was Journey To Paradisos. It was an outer space, cosmic, galaxy type theme. Each year they go above and beyond to create these amazing themes and then the flowers tell a story of the theme. Well, with the cooking demos, they ask us to tie the theme into the demo. I wanted to keep this super fun and make…
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Mom’s Birthday Cake
In our family, one Friday a month we all try and get together and catch up and see each other and hang out. My aunt started this and it is called Family Friday and we love it. It keeps us in touch with everyone and we get to see them a lot more often than we normally would. On these Family Fridays, we celebrate all of the birthdays happening that month. We just had our April Family Friday and we celebrated my mom’s birthday for April. My aunt asked me if I wanted to bring the cake as it was for my mom. I was excited to do so as I know my…
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Bosses Farewell Dinner
This past week we had our annual meeting for all of our Regional Chefs, Area directors and any other leader that is high up in our foods division. Unfortunately, we found out about a week ago that our fearless leader, (our VP for over 20 plus years), is going to be basically force retired. It is a shame that he will not go out on his own terms, but I am sure he is ready for the next chapter to begin. Me and my team were asked to host a dinner to honor him and his years of service and send him off with a bang. I was asked to create a menu…
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Ayesha Curry Demo
One of the fun parts of my job is that I get to work with some amazingly talented people and chefs. We have a culinary council of chefs and celebrities that are working in the field everyday. They are creating new cookbooks, new cookware lines, new blogs and new restaurants. I have the pleasure of working with this council of people and helping them present demos, dinners and book signings. We had the opportunity last week to work with Ayesha Curry. Ayesha was working with the council to present recipes from her new cookbook and promote her book and her cookware line that we sell in our stores. It was an absolute pleasure…
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Mmmm… Noodle soup…!?!
If you know me, you know that I am a huge Friends fan!! I feel that almost everything in life can be related back to some quote from that show! And when I think of soup I always think of the episode where Joey and Ben,(Ross’ son), are both up for a commercial audition and Joey doesn’t get it because he cannot say the correct line which is, “Mmmm, soup!” and instead he keeps saying, “Mmmm, noodle soup!!”. I forever love Friends!! With all of that said, I also love soup too and it is still the perfect soup weather in Chicago! I could give you about 100 different soup recipes and I…
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Oven Roasted Cauliflower
This is my favorite way to eat cauliflower and it is definitely quickly become a family favorite! My 18 month old daughter eats this up and my hubby loves it too. I hope you and your family will love this as much as we do. [lt_recipe name=”Oven Roasted Cauliflower” summary=”This cauliflower will be gone fast and even the kiddos will love it!” total_time=”25M” print=”yes” ingredients=”1 head cauliflower (about 2 pounds), cut into bite-size florets (about 8 cups);1/4 cup olive oil;3 cloves garlic, minced;2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese;Kosher salt to taste;Freshly cracked black pepper to taste” ]Preheat your oven to 425 degrees;;Toss the cauliflower with the olive oil, garlic, and Parmesan cheese together in a…
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Olive Oil Mashed Potatoes
Here is an awesome twist on classic mashed potatoes. It helps cut down on the cholesterol, while taking absolutely nothing away from the flavor! [lt_recipe name=”Olive oil Mashed Potatoes” summary=”I love this twist on classic mashed potatoes. You will not miss the cream and butter at all. These pack so much flavor!” servings=”4-6 servings” total_time=”25M” print=”yes” ingredients=”2 pounds Yukon gold potatoes;4 garlic cloves, peeled and minced;Kosher Salt, to taste;1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil” ]Peel and large dice the potatoes. Add them to a large pot with cold water and the minced garlic and bring them to a boil. Cook until the potatoes are fork tender.;;Drain potatoes and garlic, reserving 1/2 cup of cooking…
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Winter Pork Tenderloin
In keeping with meals to warm you up, a really nice roast of any kind is perfect for this. You can do a beef roast or a pork roast and I love roasting the whole pork tenderloin. This is a super simple roast pork tenderloin recipe. I love serving roasts with a cream side and another roasted side, So, I did this pork tenderloin roast with olive oil mashed potatoes and roasted cauliflower. Roasting cauliflower is my absolute favorite way to eat it and it is super simple. You can find both side recipes in the recipe section and below is the pork loin recipe. I love this because there are some make…