Category: fab faves

1. Monday, August 30

   Freezer Jam ROCKS

   

   I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again…freezer jam is the best, for two important reasons:

   • It tastes amazing, fresh, delicious, wonderful…did I mention fresh and amazing?
   • It’s so easy to make. I mean EASY. And it’s easy to store, too. No canning necessary, just pop in a tupperware or jar or whatever you have and stick it in the freezer.

   

   If you haven’t made freezer jam before, please give it a try! There are all kinds of yummy fruits just begging to be preserved this time of year, so go ahead and make their dreams come true.

   A few quick tips:

   • I don’t have a recipe to share because I just follow the directions inside the pectin box and everything comes out just lovely.
   • Follow the directions to a T! One time I put the fruit in a food processor instead of mashing with a potato masher like the directions said – the jam barely gelled. Another time  I put the wrong amount of fruit in (apparently because I can’t read) and it didn’t gel at all. Just do what the instructions say and everything will work. Promise!
   • To figure out how much fruit you need, buy the pectin, open the package and look at the instructions for freezer jam. Do that ahead of time so you get the right amount of fruit. You can generally find pectin in the baking aisle at the grocery store – go with the powdered pectin, I’ve had better results.
   • Even though freezer jam is fast and easy to make, if you DO end up having fruit you want to make jam out of and just don’t have time, mash or chop the fruit up as per the directions, put in a ziploc bag and freeze the fruit…then make the jam later when you get a free minute. I’ve done this several times, with good results. That way you can take advantage of the in-season fruits, even if you’re not ready to make your jam.
   • If you really want to know everything I have ever said about freezer jam in addition to this post, click here.

   My favorite flavor by a long shot is RASPBERRY. But peach is pretty amazing. Who am I kidding, the strawberry is pretty darn good, too. Happy jamming!

   Posted by Jane Maynard at 9:42 am   24 Comments
   Categories: fab faves

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2. Thursday, August 19

   The Avery SocialLuxe Lounge and an amazing weekend in NYC!

   

   I’m finally sitting down to write about the 2010 Avery SocialLuxe Lounge. Ah, SocialLuxe. Even now, two weeks later, I don’t know where to begin! The party was a-maaaaaay-zing. Our sponsors were wonderful, the location was off the HOOK, and throwing the party with Allison Czarnecki and Marie LeBaron was by far and away the best part of it all. I simply feel grateful for the chance to be a part of it.

   Allison, Me, Marie – The Dream Team

   Warning: this is a long post. But it’s FUN and represents a year of my life, so I just gotta make it a big ole monster post of SocialLuxe fabulousness. (If, after all of this, you are still dying to see and read more about SocialLuxe, we have a pretty sweet Flickr page here, and we’re collecting posts about the party here.)

   Pre-party preparations

   The Avery SocialLuxe Lounge took place on August 5 in New York City at Arena, near Bryant Park. We had 350 wonderful bloggers in attendance, including this unbelievable list of VIPs. UNBELIEVABLE, right?

   The Bloggess (Funniest BlogLuxe Award Winner, 2009 VIP), Megan Jordan (Velveteen Mind), Christine Koh (Boston Mamas)

   This year Avery was our title sponsor for the event. They were wonderful. Their conference survival kits for each guest were adorable and totally useful to boot. We absolutely adored working with Avery.

   

   In addition to Avery, we had a whole slew of amazing sponsors. Frito-Lay, International Delight, Stride Rite and Ghirardelli were all at the party, providing their own unique and fun twists. Celebrity designer Heather Thomson was also there helping women to feel yummy with her Yummie Tummie line. (These waiters were also wearing Yummie Tummie products…which they admitted to loving.)

   

   This year we featured a very special non-profit organization, Drop In and Decorate. They were at the party to meet bloggers, educate them about what the organization does, and gave guests the chance to design cookies to benefit the Center Against Domestic Violence of New York. Drop In and Decorate is definitely worth checking out, so click on over to their site!

   

   SocialLuxe is all about the pampering. Hair, makeup, henna, manicures by OPI and the most fantabulous aromatherapy massages by Aveda really rounded out the evening. I could have sat in that massage chair for hours.

   

   The swag was sweet, too. It was SO fun giving each guest a giant bag full of wonderful goodies. From totally delicious smelling Scentsy products to totally classy gifts from Cambria Cove to totally awesome face cream from StriVectin to totally rockin’ headphones from Skullcandy…and so much more. It was nuts!

   This is what stuffing 350 bags looks like

   Shabby Apple provided the three hostesses (including myself) dresses for the weekend. I can’t even tell you how many compliments I got on my Frida K dress. I sure was glad I was wearing it that night…made me feel all confident and stuff. And, confession time, I wore it again two nights later.

   

   SocialLuxe was a TON of work, but it was worth it, for so many reasons. Oh, and I won the Tastiest BlogLuxe award with dear sweet Ree, The Pioneer Woman! Yippee! (Don’t miss the list of all the winners here.)

   

   The weekend didn’t stop there. The BlogHer conference was just as overwhelming as ever, with over 2000 bloggers in attendance. The highlights of the weekend for me were two more parties.

   Ree (The Pioneer Woman), Jaden (Steamy Kitchen) and Elise (Simply Recipes) held a cocktail party on Friday night, where I finally met Matt Armendariz from Matt Bites and got to hang out with the David Lebovitz. And I’m officially in love with both of them.

   Some of my closest and favorite blogging friends, at Ree’s party…Kristen, Me, Allison, Rachael, Marie and Kami (Photo from Justin Hackworth)

   And on Saturday night I had the chance to attend another cocktail party hosted by NATE BERKUS. He was super sweet and I love him now even more than I did before. I honestly can’t wait to see his new show in a few weeks.

   

   Oh, and then I danced the night away at Sparklecorn, one of the official BlogHer parties. I haven’t danced like that since college. It was a BLAST. (And I make a brief appearance in this video, thankfully hidden behind some crazier girls than I…)

   

   I’ve gotta say, New York City treated me well.

   Oh! I almost forgot. Not only did I get wined and dined in NYC, but I also became an official minivan mom. That’s right, I had me a Swagger Wagon for my East Coast trip this summer. Toyota provided me with a Sienna to use the whole two weeks I was out East. It was fabulous having it on our family vacation on Cape Cod and, surprisingly, it was even more fabulous to have it in New York City for SocialLuxe. It hauled people and boxes of stuff equally as well and I don’t know what we would have done without it. And, once ‘Jersey Jane’ kicked in, I could handle driving that van in the city as well as any cab driver.

   

   Cate and Anna loved having the van…they sat in the way back the whole time we had it and Cate was enamored with the sliding doors. And, because they look too cute (and hardcore!) in Skullcandy headphones, we of course had to do a rap album cover photo shoot.

   After all, this is a swagger wagon…and my girls know how to swagger. No diggity, no doubt.

   

   Posted by Jane Maynard at 12:55 am   29 Comments
   Categories: travels

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3. Tuesday, August 17

   Jelly Belly Factory Fun!

   

   Today the girls and I trekked north 1 1/2 hours to visit the Jelly Belly factory and go on their free tour. If you live in or visit Northern California, this is definitely a fun thing to do with the kids! And, come to think of it, it’s fun for all ages! My favorite part of the tour was watching the children peer through the windows down at the factory floor. I’m certain they could have sat their quietly for hours on end. (Sadly, no photography inside the factory itself…which was KILLING me. If only, if only…)

   

   Want to know the trick to a successful Jelly Belly Factory Tour visit? Get there right when it opens! We didn’t wait at all….and when we finished our tour an hour or so after we arrived, the line was INSANE. Don’t go late! Don’t do it! No sleeping in! And definitely go on a weekday, when the factory is going strong! It’s just too fun watching all those jelly beans jumping around on the conveyor belts.

   

   When I asked Cate a few hours after we got home what she thinks of the factory, she simply replied, “I love it!” She and I decided that the Jelly Belly factory is one of the happiest places on earth. The factory workers on the floor would look up and wave and smile at the kids over and over. I think making pretty colored candy all day must put you in a good mood.

   Look. Even the french fries are happy.

   

   Maybe it’s the hats.

   

   Or the jelly bean art.

   

   Honestly, I think the source of all the happiness is the kids, longingly observing the wonder that is millions of jelly beans all in one place.

   

   Posted by Jane Maynard at 9:06 pm   11 Comments
   Categories: travels

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4. Friday, July 30

   Ice Cream and the Cape

   Cape Cod and ice cream go hand in hand. I think every town on the Cape has an ice cream shop, most often selling homemade ice cream and with a loyal following claiming that that particular ice cream shop is the best on the Cape.

   

   Our family visits Ice Cream Sandwich in Sandwich, MA every year. Usually we plan an ice cream night and go just once. This year? Um, yeah, we’ve been eating a lot of ice cream. Let’s not count the visits. No, really. No counting allowed.

   

   By the way, I have created the perfect ice cream cone. Homemade waffle cone with homemade black raspberry ice cream topped with chocolate jimmies.* Heaven, people. Heaven.

   *When I’m not in the northeast, I call sprinkles ‘sprinkles.’ When I’m here, I do as the Romans do and sprinkles suddenly become ‘jimmies.’ I think that’s because if I say ‘sprinkles,’ suddenly everyone within a 5-mile radius is looking at me like I have lobsters crawling out of my ears. Locally caught lobster, of course.

   In case you were wondering about the rumor that the phrase jimmies is racist in origin, it’s not true. No guilt necessary when ordering your ice cream!

   As I was researching all of this very important information, I discovered sprinkles/jimmies are also called “hundreds and thousands.” Romans or not, THAT is a mouthful. I am decidedly too lazy to ever use that particular phrase!

   Posted by Jane Maynard at 8:23 am   16 Comments
   Categories: travels

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5. Thursday, July 1

   Evo ’10 – A Truly Amazing Experience

   Last week I attended The Evolution of Women in Social Media conference (Evo ’10) in Park City, hosted by two of my dearest blogging friends, Rachael Herrscher from Today’s Mama and Jyl Johnson Pattee from MomItForward. Before I say anything else, I have to recognize Rachael and Jyl for the amazing women that they are. It was the inaugural Evo conference, but the streamlined organization and utter classiness of this event made it seem like the twentieth. The speakers were phenomenal. The sessions were actionable and enriching. And the food….oh, the food I ate this weekend….mmmmmmmm….

   

   I was honored to be asked to participate in the Food Blogging workshop. The workshop was unreal and I am so grateful to have been a part of it. The Canyons hosted our afternoon at The Alpine House, a beautiful restaurant at the resort. They served us gorgeous food that tasted just as good as it looked.

   Then the chefs taught us how to make that food.

   

   Then food photography extraordinaire Helene Dujardin from Tartelette taught a photo class.

   

   Then I had the choice opportunity to sit on a panel with Helen Jane Hearn (a lovely food blogger) and Stephanie Robinett from AllRecipes.com, where we discussed everything from how we got into blogging, to how to maintain content year after year, to how to work with companies and sponsors, to how to develop content for various demographics while maintaining your unique voice. I know, awesome, right?

   This photo that makes me look all smart and stuff belongs to Helene Dujardin of Tartelette – she gave me permission to use it because she’s nice like that.

   One of the most fun parts of the food workshop were all the cameras. Get a bunch of food bloggers together and it suddenly feels like your camping outside Britney Spears house…cameras everywhere.

   Pictured: Katie Goodman, Kristen Doyle and Maria Lichty

   As if the totally rockin’ food workshop wasn’t enough, the entire weekend was packed with amazing classes, sessions, networking and unbelievable keynote talks. I mean unbelievable. Each of the five keynotes on their very own would have been worth the trip. We heard from truly inspiring bloggers who shared their unique and touching stories, from Rachael and Jyl discussing their geekiness, from the CEO of Make-A-Wish Utah (who’s presentation made me bawl like a baby…along with everyone in the room), from two of Oprah’s peeps talking about how they work with social media, and, finally, from two beautiful and inspiring women who closed the conference in the most perfect way possible.

   Oh, and someone at the Waldorf Astoria was tricked into thinking I was a VIP and invited me to an amazing dinner on Friday night. Of course that super fancy dancy restaurant had dark lighting and whatnot and my little Canon Rebel just couldn’t handle it. Believe me, it was awesome. Oh, and you’re all invited to join me in the Presidential Suite at the Waldorf for Thanksgiving this year. It will be just lovely. Only one caveat, I have to make my billions before then. I’ll keep you posted.

   One of the best parts of the weekend was the closing party at the Park City resort. Families were welcome to attend and my girls had a BLAST. (Poor Nate was stuck in California working.)

   

   I hardly picked up my camera the entire weekend. But some of my food blogging friends did a great job documenting the event, so you should go check out their posts (listed below). And, if you really want to read more about the conference, Evo is compiling everyone’s posts about the weekend here.

   • Helene from Tartelette shares a beautiful photo essay about the weekend here.
   • Katie from Good Life Eats writes about Evo here
   • Kristen from Dine and Dish shares thoughts I totally relate to here
   • Sandy from The Reluctant Entertainer wrote a great recap of the food workshop here

   Thank you to everyone who made Evo ’10 the fantastic weekend it was. I’m still floating on Cloud Nine.

   Posted by Jane Maynard at 11:04 am   10 Comments
   Categories: travels

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6. Wednesday, June 30

   Bruges Waffles and Frites (and we’re home!)

   Because this is a food blog and I need to desperately talk about some food…first things first. My last night in Salt Lake we dropped by Bruges Waffles and Frites for “dinner” (yes, we had dessert for dinner). These Liège waffles were seriously to die for. They have these big old sugar crystals throughout and the dough must be yeast-based – the texture is really fantastic. And that big blob of delicious whiteness you see there? That’s a sweetened crème fraiche that I will definitely be trying to replicate here at home.

   

   The frites (fries) portion of our nutritious dinner was mighty tasty as well. Yippee for Belgian frites with a bunch of different sauces to choose from (the Curry Ketchup Mayo – YUM). Thanks to the lovely Melissa Esplin for insisting that I meet her at Bruges for a quick bite.

   

   I drove home from Utah with the girls yesterday (p.s. still loving the Lincoln MKT that was lent to me by Ford). We survived. Barely. Got in around 11:30 last night and felt completely exhausted as well as totally hyped up (may have had something to do with the 5-hour Energy Drink I downed around 6 pm!). I have SO many posts in the works I can’t wait to share with you…but first I must unpack.

   Posted by Jane Maynard at 11:09 am   12 Comments
   Categories: travels

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7. Wednesday, June 23

   Cucumber Water…A Perfect Summer Drink!

   I recently attended a family reunion where my cousin Jamie served cucumber water. I don’t think I actually drank any…I don’t know why…but when I threw my party a few week ago, I decided to give the cucumber water a whirl. I don’t know what my guests thought, but I loved it. It was very refreshing and a really nice beverage on a warm, summery day.

   

   Tell me this picture doesn’t make you thirsty. I dare you.

   

   And since I know someone is going to ask about the beverage dispenser pictured, I borrowed it from my friend Ana. She got it at Costco. It’s perfect and I’m jealous and I don’t know if they have it anymore. There are a bunch of beverage dispensers on Amazon - this one comes closest to Ana’s in shape, but this hexagonal dispenser is pretty cool, too.

   Posted by Jane Maynard at 6:00 am   10 Comments
   Categories: fab faves

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8. Tuesday, June 22

   Salt & Pepper

   I’m feeling pretty passionate about my salt and pepper lately. So I think I need to tell you about it.

   

   First, I’m loving kosher salt. I love the coarser texture it has versus table salt and, unlike a salt grinder, I don’t break my hand getting enough to use in recipes. I’ve been using it in almost everything I’ve been cooking lately.

   Second, and you need to listen carefully, Penzey’s Freshly Ground Pepper rocks the spice world. Seriously. I haven’t used my pepper grinder since I got this stuff. Sounds crazy, right? Maybe…but the flavor is just so good.

   That’s all for today. Happy seasoning!

   Posted by Jane Maynard at 6:00 am   8 Comments
   Categories: the goods

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9. Thursday, May 27

   French Butter Crock

   Last week someone commented on here asking if I have a french butter crock (a comment which seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth, by the way), to which I answered that I had a friend who used one and always thought I might get one but never had. Literally the next day I saw a Butter Bell on sale at Sur La Table. Of course I snagged it and I love it!

   

   French butter crocks keep butter fresh by sealing it away from oxygen. And the crock keeps butter at a perfectly spreadable consistency – not too hard, not too soft. It’s like magic. You just fill the pot about 1/3 with cold water and then invert the cup of butter into the water, changing out the water every three days or so. I plan to change out my water whenever I run the dishwasher so I don’t forget!

   

   I have a Butter Bell brand crock. I’m very happy with it. The red color is really cute, and it comes in lots of other colors, too. Le Creuset makes butter crocks as well, and their version holds 1 1/2 sticks of butter, as opposed to mine that only holds 1 stick of butter. I also love how the Le Creuset crock looks (just like how I love how everything they make looks).  I’m sure you can find other brands out there, too, if you like shopping around!

   I will never go back to our old butter dish. I’m completely sold.

   Posted by Jane Maynard at 11:41 am   19 Comments
   Categories: the goods

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10. Wednesday, May 19

    A Sweet Ride for a Sweet Tooth

    As you know, I took a roadtrip last week. I drove alone with the girls to Utah. That wasn’t the original plan, and thankfully Nate was able to join us on the ride back…needless to say it was quite the adventure! We had a great trip, spent time with family, and ate lots of goodies.

    

    GM provided us with a brand spanking new 2010 Terrain to use for the trip. When we got the car it only had 400 miles on it! It was definitely a SWEET ride. I’ll tell you all the reasons I loved driving the Terrain (and a few of the things I didn’t love) in a bit…but first, let’s have some dessert, shall we?

    My uber sweet tooth was able to track down plenty of yummy desserts while we were in Utah. We were in Provo for only one night and were able to spend $50 on all things bad for you and enjoyed every bite. I have concluded that Provo, UT is to dessert what Dublin is to beer.

    For the 2010 This Week for Dinner Provo Dessert Tour we hit three places: The Sweet Tooth Fairy, Gloria’s Little Italy and Shirley’s Homemades Bakery.

    

    The Sweet Tooth Fairy is a relatively new bake shop in Utah (locations in Provo and Draper) with delicious baked goods of all kinds, and the shop itself is adorable. Their cakebites were featured on Rachael Ray’s show…and you can order them to be delivered anywhere in the country! We arrived just before closing, so they were almost out of everything…but we were able to get our hands on some delicious cupcakes and the famous cakebites (coconut was our favorite flavor!).

    

    Gloria’s Little Italy is a great Italian restaurant in Provo…yes, apparently you can find good Italian food in the middle of the Rocky Mountains! I’ve eaten dinner there before, but for this trip we focused on dessert. I ordered a tasty and freshly filled cannoli because we all know I simply cannot resist that dangerously rich dessert. We also ordered two slices of cake, which were heavenly. That cream filling you see there? Oh what goodness.

    

    For breakfast we had chocolate eclairs and a variety pack of sweet rolls from Shirley’s Homemades Bakery. Yes, I have a serious sweet tooth, but I swear to you I only eat eclairs for breakfast on special occasions (and yes, I do believe kicking Nate’s butt on drums playing Rock Band is a special occasion). The sweet rolls are great, with the perfect amount of icing. Orange and cinnamon tie for first place in my book.

    

    Just when I thought the desserts were over, we decided to have dinner at The Dodo our last night in Salt Lake. (P.S. The BBQ dip turkey sandwich with salad and house dressing is one good meal. I had it twice while I was in town!) The Dodo is also famous for their amazing desserts. We ordered FIVE different kinds of pie (hey, there were 7 adults to feed!) and they were all mighty tasty. Everyone’s favorite was the Banana Cream Cheese Pie. In fact, I’m going to try to recreate that one at home. My second favorite pie was the Avocado Lime Cream Cheese. The flavor was pretty amazing.

    

    

    So how did this sweet tooth like her sweet ride? I really liked driving the Terrain a lot. I’m not a huge fan of the crossover in general…if I buy a bigger car one day I want it to seat more than 5 people. But honestly, this was a really fun car to drive. And our model had lots of bells and whistles, so it’s been hard going back to my SUPER basic sedan. But I’m surviving.

    Things I loved about the Terrain:

    • USB port – I really really love this – being able to easily charge and listen to our iPods and iPhones is the best
    • Remote keyless entry, with a button that opens the back (I used that all the time) and remote start (we didn’t use this except for fun…but if you live in a hot or cold place, it is pretty darn handy since you can program what temperature you want the car to be when you get in)

    

    • Bluetooth wired through the car speakers…I LOVE using my phone with this feature
    • Rear view camera – now that I’m not driving around with this great feature I realize how much I used it. I loved having the rear camera, just gives additional peace of mind when backing the car up.
    • It senses if there is a person in the passenger seat and turns the airbags on and off accordingly. It can also tell if the passenger has their seatbelt on and beeps if not (it totally busted my mom)
    • Tinted windows (the girls loved this feature although they didn’t realize it…but I didn’t have any complaints about the sun all 2000 miles we drove the car)
    • The “Infotainment” System was great and included XM Radio (which was really great to have driving across the barren desert) and the GPS navigation system
    • There are about 10 different menus for the driver side dash – it can tell you how many more miles your gas tank has, your instantaneous MPG, etc, etc, etc…and it was super easy to use.
    • Cruise control
    • Good MPG (better than my Ford Taurus for sure) and high safety ratings
    • The two-toned black and brown leather interior was really nice.

    The thing I didn’t love:

    • The brake pedal was WICKED high. I have a size 8 foot (pretty average) and my toes barely reached the pedal if I kept my heel on the ground. Driving on the freeway this wasn’t really an issue, but driving in town it was pretty annoying actually. I think other GM cars have an adjustable brake pedal, but unfortunately this particular car did not.

    All in all it was a great car to drive for out trip! In Nevada a guy at a gas station stopped Nate to say, “Wow! Is that the new Terrain?”  Yeah, that’s right buddy, we only drive the latest and greatest.

    After sitting in a car for 2000 miles and eating way too much sugar, I think it’s time for me to go work out…for several days straight. Or maybe just watch some TV.

    Posted by Jane Maynard at 11:50 am   11 Comments
    Categories: travels

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11. Friday, May 14

    Interview with Mireille Guiliano…and a giveaway for “The French Women Don’t Get Fat Cookbook”!

    This giveaway is now closed. However there is a really fun interview with Mireille Guiliano in this post, so keep reading!

    
    Two weeks ago I had the chance to do a phone interview with Mireille Guiliano, author of French Women Don’t Get Fat and The French Women Don’t Get Fat Cookbook, among many other books. Mireille is a lovely person with lovely books and I was so excited for the opportunity. Not surprisingly, we had a lovely conversation! I wish you could have all had a chance to chat with her. She was friendly, sincere, kind and gracious. I’m pretty much in love and ready to do anything she tells me to do. Eat my veggies? Done!

    

    In conjunction with the interview, we are giving away two copies of Mireille’s new cookbook, The French Women Don’t Get Fat Cookbook. Simply leave a comment on this post to enter. The book is beautiful and full of wonderful stories and recipes. Comments must be posted by Midnight, Wednesday, May 19. Two winners will be randomly selected and announced on May 20. (U.S. mailing addresses only, please.)

    On to the interview with Mireille Guiliano! (In case you’re wondering, her first name is pronounced Meer-ray, with that great French “R” sound. By the way, talking with Mireille made me want to jump on the next plance to France!)

    (more…)

    Posted by Jane Maynard at 3:01 pm   159 Comments
    Categories: interviews

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12. Friday, May 7

    I Survived Eat.Blog.Run.

    Last weekend I was a driver for Eat.Blog.Run. It was a BLAST. Granted, I only got 3 hours of sleep on Friday night, a 2 hour nap on Saturday afternoon (outside), and then 3 hours of sleep Saturday night…and I’m still feeling it. But despite all that, the weekend was amazing!

    Since this is a food blog and our team name begins with the word EAT…let’s start with the food! Halfway through our tour of duty, we ate at an Italian restaurant in Petaluma called Sugo. We were all so grateful to eat food that didn’t come in a wrapper, and this meal did not disappoint. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed their food. I can’t remember what exactly we ate…I practically slept through the lunch. But the food was very tasty and made for some nice photography.

    

    

    

    The relay started in Napa Valley. Oh. My. Goodness. The weather was perfect and the vines were green…it was the very definition of lovely. We arrived for the start of the race just as the sun was rising.

    

    I think running and/or driving an average of only a few miles per hour is the best way to see California. Or anywhere for that matter.

    

    The team was made of 12 runners. I was the driver for Van #1 (aka Acadia 1) and I miss my girls already! Spending soooo many hours in a tight space is going to yield one of two results…everyone hates each other at the end, or everyone has a fantastically wonderful time. Thankfully we experienced the latter! And, can I say, the van didn’t even smell.  Good job, girls! Here they all are!

    

    From left to right: Linsey of Me Too You, Heather of Rookie Moms, Marie of Make and Takes, Me, Samantha of GarzaGirl, Sherry, and Christine of Boston Mamas. This is truly an amazing group of women! And they are TOUGH I tell ya. Sherry dislocated her shoulder at the start of one leg, had a guy help her pop it back in and kept running. Marie turned her ankle on a really tough night run and still finished the leg. The girls in Van #2 were equally as tough…one of their runners was injured just days before the race, and they ended up without a driver…so not only did they drive themselves, they ran extra legs. Perseverance was the theme of the weekend to be sure.

    In case you were wondering. Driving 200 miles over 2 days with no sleep made me a bad@$&.

    

    Posted by Jane Maynard at 5:00 am   8 Comments
    Categories: travels

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13. Wednesday, April 28

    Chocolate Cupcakes and AMAZING Strawberry Icing

    When I was getting ready for the Cambria Cove post, I wanted to make something “cute” for the purpose of showing off my cake stands. I had these cute white paper cup thingys, so I decided to go with cupcakes. I made the batter then realized the papers I had bought were not for baking. My muffin tins are packed away somewhere, so I was left with 1 mini muffin tin and no papers. Needless to say the cupcakes were a pain in the patootey to bake, and by the time I got around to icing and photographing, I was over it! So, my cupcakes aren’t that cute. But they ARE delicious. So I have to share them anyway! (PS…if you don’t have cupcake liners, don’t make cupcakes!)

    

    Have you ever seen the Cupcake Bakeshop blog by Cheryl the software quality engineer, aka Chockylit? It was one of the very first blogs I ever laid eyes on and I’ve loved it from day 1. I used one of her recipes and I loved everything about it – the cake itself came out great, and this strawberry frosting? Be still my beating heart…it is perfect. PER. FECT.

    The original post for this recipe is great – Cheryl provides detailed explanations as to why you want to perform each step of the recipe. It’s a very handy post. Thanks, Cheryl! (P.S. You have to read her bio…I love her completely non-cupcake related background!)

    

    CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES
    From Cupcake Bakeshop
    - 2 sticks of butter (room temp)
    - 2 1/2 cups sugar
    - 4 large eggs
    - 1 3/4 C flour
    - 1 tsp baking powder
    - 1/2 tsp. baking soda
    - 1/4 tsp. salt
    - 1 C cocoa powder
    - 1 C milk
    - 2 tsp. vanilla

    Beat the butter until it’s all nice and whipped. Add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy…as in for a long time, so the butter is completely incorporated into the sugar. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

    Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder. (Cheryl mentions that whisking will suffice over sifting…but my cocoa was all lumpy, so I wish I had thrown at least the cocoa through the sifter quickly…just keep an eye out for that problem in your cocoa.)

    Mix the milk and vanilla.

    Add the flour mixture and the milk mixture to the butter mixture – alternating and beating between each addition, about 3 cycles.

    Scoop batter into cupcake tins (with liners!!) or those uber-cute cupcake papers that Cheryl uses that I can’t wait to get my hands on. ONLY FILL THEM HALF WAY. Bake for 22-25 minutes at 350, or until tester comes out clean. (Obviously my mini cupcakes baked a little shorter than that.)

    I made two kinds of icing, halving each recipe. This is exactly what I made – feel free to double these measurements if you decide to just do one flavor.

    STRAWBERRY ICING
    From Cupcake Bakeshop
    - 1 stick butter (room temp)
    - 1 1/2 – 2 C powdered sugar
    - 1/8 C strawberry puree (I had some pretty big strawberries – 1/8 C was a little less than one giant strawberry all smooshed up)

    Beat butter until soft. Sift in the powder sugar and beat. Add strawberry and mix. Add more powdered sugar if you need it. Seriously…this frosting ROCKS.

    WHITE CHOCOLATE CREAM CHEESE FROSTING (I know, I’m obsessed)
    - 3 oz white chocolate
    - 4 oz cream cheese
    - 1/8 C butter (room temp)
    - 1 C powdered sugar

    Melt chocolate and set aside to cool. Beat cream cheese and butter together. Add chocolate and beat. Sift in powdered sugar and beat for a long while.

    
    

    Posted by Jane Maynard at 7:41 am   18 Comments
    Categories: sweet things

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14. Friday, April 23

    Cambria Cove Mother’s Day Giveaway – $150 Shopping Spree!

    When I shared the Raspberry White Chocolate Cake a couple of weeks ago, a few of you noticed my completely gorgeous cake stand:

    

    I love my cake stand. I mean really love my cake stand. Last summer, Cambria Cove gave all the BlogLuxe Award winners a $100 gift certificate to their site. I had a really hard time deciding what to get (they have so many beautiful things), but I eventually settled on the large milk glass serving pedestal from Mosser Glass. When I talked with Cambria Cove about doing a giveaway for all of you, they kindly sent me the small and medium pedestals to complete my collection (thank you, Cambria Cove!!!). Aren’t they so pretty?

    

    Now that I’ve gushed about how happy I am with my cake stands…time for a giveaway, don’t you think? Cambria Cove is giving away a $150 shopping spree! One of you lucky people will be randomly selected to choose whatever you like from their wonderful website! Same drill as always – simply add a comment to this post by Midnight, PT on Wednesday, April 28. Your comment can be anything, but I think you should go window shopping over at Cambria Cove and tell us what you would spend your not-so-hard-earned money on! The winner will be announced on Thursday, April 29. That’s right, the winner will have time to get some shopping done for Mother’s Day! (Although, I won’t tell if you spend it all on yourself!)

    Good luck!

    Posted by Jane Maynard at 5:00 am   355 Comments
    Categories: the goods

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15. Tuesday, April 13

    Arizmendi Bakery

    Last week I happened to be in Emeryville, CA…my good friend Lindsay used to live there, so I called to find out if there were any good bakeries we could swing by quickly while we were in town. She guided me to Arizmendi Bakery. The girls and I grabbed a few goodies and a sourdough baguette and ate almost everything by the time we got home!

    

    Arizmendi Bakery is a worker-owned cooperative that grew out of the Cheeseboard, a famous Berkeley-based cooperative. If you’d like to read more about it, click here. It’s interesting and classic Northern California.

    

    All of the baked goods we purchased were tasty…but the sourdough baguette is where it’s at, my friends. The texture was perfect and the sourdough flavor was subtle and well-balanced. The baguette was good just by itself, but when we got home Cate asked for a piece with butter…good call, Cate. I think I just had bread and butter for dinner that night and was completely satisfied.

    

    Posted by Jane Maynard at 10:18 am   20 Comments
    Categories: travels

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16. Friday, April 9

    San Francisco Food Carts Visit Palo Alto

    San Francisco has all these cool food carts with super tasty and interesting foods, and many of these vendors connect with their customers via Twitter and Facebook.  How more Bay Area can you get – gourmet food from a cart that you learned about on Twitter?  You gotta love it.

    

    Magic Curry Kart and Crème Brûlée Cart ventured down the peninsula this week and visited us poor cart-starved people here in the Palo Alto area. I met up with one of my real life blogging friends Gudrun Enger (aka Kitchen Gadget Girl) in front of Moxsie (who got the carts down here in the first place) for curry and crème brûlée yesterday for lunch.  It was really fun…we felt like we had escaped suburbia for city life, if but for a few small moments.

    

    So, how was the food?  It was really good! First let’s talk curry.  I really liked the flavor of the sauce, the vegetables were yummy, and it was just the right amount of spicy. I ordered veggie because the line for chicken was too long…oh, and that whole new year’s resolution thing I’m doing. I don’t like tofu, but this was pretty good tofu, made even better by the sauce.

    

    Now let’s talk crème brûlée. I shared mine with the girls and was wishing the whole time I had splurged and gotten one for each of us. Our chocolate crème brûlée was oh so tasty. And, too my surprise, there was peanut buter buried inside! It ended up being a very pleasant surprise, by the way. Well done, Crème Brûlée Guy, well done!

    If you live in San Francisco and for some reason aren’t following these guys on Twitter (Magic Curry Kart and Crème Brûlée Cart), start following please. You need to get out there and enjoy their food for me.

    Posted by Jane Maynard at 4:37 pm   8 Comments
    Categories: travels

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17. Thursday, April 8

    Jamie Oliver Cookbook Giveaway Winner

    We have a winner for the Jamie Oliver cookbook giveaway…the oh-so-lucky commenter is…

    andrea p, who said “Tonight will be my first chance to watch Food Revolution. I’ve only heard the best comments about it. I’ve loved some of Jamie’s other projects. It’s great that he uses his celebrity to make a difference!”

    Congratulations, Andrea! Andrea will receive a copy of Jamie’s Food Revolution: Rediscover How to Cook Simple, Delicious, Affordable Meals. For the rest of you, you can buy the book right here.

    If you haven’t signed Jamie’s petition yet, hop to it! Just click here, it’s easy!  And thank you all for entering the giveaway…your comments were fabulous, I loved reading every one!

    Posted by Jane Maynard at 10:47 am   3 Comments
    Categories: fab faves

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18. Friday, April 2

    Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution (And a Giveaway! And Recipes!)

    This giveaway is now closed. But please read the post anyway….it’s a goodun.

    (Hey friends. This is a long post. Please stick with it. It’s a good one. Plus, there’s a giveaway tucked in there you don’t want to miss!)

    

    When Nate and I were newlyweds, we loved watching The Naked Chef. (Now that is a good opening line for a post, no?) The Naked Chef was Chef Jamie Oliver’s first T.V. show. We loved it…the whole idea was to get the food naked, strip it down to the essentials. Jamie has stayed true to that philosophy over the years and has taken it to a whole new level, a “revolution” if you will. Have you heard about Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution? In Jamie’s own words, this is what it’s all about: “I believe that every child in America has the right to fresh, nutritious school meals, and that every family deserves real, honest, wholesome food.” That’s it folks. Simple, right? Nope. Unfortunately, it’s unbelievably complicated.

    If you haven’t gotten a chance to watch Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution on ABC, you can watch the full episodes on the website. So, get yourself caught up and make sure to tune in tonight for Episode 3. I love this show. It’s eye-opening. It’s frustrating. It’s inspiring. It’s touching. It’s downright awesome. I think what got to me most were the USDA regulations governing what food has to be served in the schools. The “health” guidelines are so misguided, and the red tape is stifling for administrators. Simply put, the system’s a mess. It all makes me a little crazy.

    I received an email from Jamie’s PR firm a few months ago about the Food Revolution. Since I was a fan of Jamie, I actually read the email and then I hopped over to Jamie’s website, signed his petition and called it a day. Then I saw the premiere of the program on ABC two weeks ago and decided this was something I really wanted to share with all of you. So here we are!

    If you’d like to sign the petition, which Jamie will take to the White House, click here! And please spread the word to get others to sign as well! Jamie was the catalyst for some great changes in the U.K. school lunch program. There’s no reason we can’t do the same thing here in America!

    Oh! And I do have a giveaway for you! Leave a comment on this post to be entered for your chance to win a copy of Jamie’s Food Revolution: Rediscover How to Cook Simple, Delicious, Affordable Meals. Post your comment by Midnight PT, Wednesday April 7. One randomly-selected winner will be announced on April 8. (Prize must be shipped to a U.S. address, thanks!) Big thanks to Jamie’s PR firm for the giveaway!

    And, because this post just simply is not long enough (ha!), click ‘more’ for some simple & healthy salad dressing recipes from Jamie’s book!

    (more…)

    Posted by Jane Maynard at 5:00 am   287 Comments
    Categories: side dishes

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19. Friday, March 26

    San Francisco International Chocolate Salon

    Last weekend Nate and I attended the San Francisco International Chocolate Salon. It was a LOT of fun. We went without the kids, the weather was spectacular, and we stuffed ourselves silly with chocolate.

    Pictured: Chocolates from Marti Chocolatt

    The Chocolate Salon is an open-to-the-public event where oodles of chocolatiers and confectioners come show off all their chocolatey goodness in a hugemongous room at the Ft. Mason Center.

    

    We tried some very “interesting” chocolates (chocolate bacon, anyone?) and some really great stuff. I have to share some of that goodness with you!

    There are so many companies I could write about, but I’m going to focus on our favorite. Marti Chocolatt is based in Los Angeles and is the one company we actually purchased something from. Marti does a fantastic job integrating chocolate with very unique and sometimes unexpected ingredients. Our favorite Marti chocolate was the ube flavor, purple yams in dark chocolate.

    

    The umeshu flavor, Japanese plum wine in white chocolate, was also quite amazing. And the jasmine citron? The only word I can think to describe this chocolate is intriguing. I am normally not a fan of flower-infused foods, but this jasmine chocolate was very appealing. When you eat it, it’s more like you’re smelling flowers than tasting them. It’s hard to describe. Marti Chocolatt took first prize in our book.

    Of course there were many other amazing companies, and I just can’t write about all of them.  Here is a small sampling!

    As an artist, I absolutely adored these truffle bars from Sterling Confections. The truffles do in fact taste great, but I love the visual concept more than anything.

    

    Plumeria Flours makes these beautiful chocolate covered Oreos. I’m not a big fan of Oreos, but I actually did like these. Plus, they’re so cute!

    

    I couldn’t help but snap a shot of these pretty (and tasty!) white chocolates with flowers from Robyn’s Chocolates and Confections.

    

    I have to tell you about one more chocolate we tried. By far the CRAZIEST chocolate we tasted was from Vice Chocolates. It was called “Vixen” – a passion fruit truffle with Thai chili, jalapeno, and cayenne, decorated with white chocolate and a caramelized red pepper on top. I’m pretty sure she said it had all the different taste flavors – Sour, Sweet, Salt, Bitter, and Spicy. And BOY was it spicy. I have a pretty high tolerance, but that one got me for sure. I’m glad we tried it!

    We were completely chocolated out 2 hours into our venture. I don’t think that has ever happened to me! I am so happy that the event was at the Ft. Mason center…beautiful views of the Golden Gate bridge, Alcatraz, downtown and the Bay Bridge. Such a lovely spot and a morning to be remembered!

    

    Posted by Jane Maynard at 11:27 am   6 Comments
    Categories: travels

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20. Wednesday, March 24

    Murgh Makhani (Indian Butter Chicken)

    I am over the moon for today’s recipe murgh makhani, more commonly known as butter chicken. Our favorite Indian restaurant in Palo Alto, Darbar Indian Cuisine, has the BEST butter chicken. I can’t get enough of it. I’ve been trying to find a recipe so that I can make it at home, but all recipes have come up far too short. So, I did a lot of research, compared about 6 different recipes and have created my own. And I am here to tell you (in all humility, of course!), I nailed it. My version isn’t identical to Darbar’s, but it is darn close and they are equally as good. Success! (To add to the elation, both girls inhaled their dinner! This is a not-too-hot Indian dish, nice for kids. Increase the heat with more chilis and cayenne if you so desire!)

    

    The key to this dish is using tandoori chicken. Almost all of the recipes I found were skillet recipes that simply add plain chicken breasts to the sauce. Using tandoori chicken makes ALL the difference. A delectable, mouthwatering difference. Not only is there more depth to the flavor, but the meat is oh so tender. Using tandoori chicken requires planning ahead, but it’s worth it.

    Without further ado, I give you murgh makhani!

    Murgh Makhani, i.e. Indian Butter Chicken
    From Jane Maynard, This Week for Dinner

    Tandoori Chicken:
    Adapted from a recipe on About.com – this is a good American kitchen adaptation that doesn’t require a tandoor (clay oven) and works perfect for cooking tandoori chicken to go in a sauce
    - 3/4 C plain yogurt
    - 2 T lemon juice
    - 2 cloves minced garlic (I use my garlic press)
    - ~1 inch ginger root, peeled and crushed (it was hard to crush, I squeezed the juice out with my garlic press and threw in some of the mangled pieces of the root)
    - 1 T cumin
    - 1 tsp. coriander
    - 1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
    - 1/4 tsp. cardamom
    - 1/4 tsp. cloves
    - 1/4 tsp black pepper
    - 2 tsp. salt
    - 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (this is the amount you’ll need for the butter chicken sauce below – you can make this recipe with bone-in, skinless, dark & white meat chicken cut into pieces – my personal preference are boneless, skinless chicken breasts and they worked great)
    - 1-2 T canola oil

    The night before you want to make butter chicken, mix the above ingredients (except the chicken) in a bowl. Take the chicken breasts and stab them a bunch with a fork, then make some gashes with a sharp knife. This part is fun, especially if you have some frustration to vent.  Marinate the mutilated chicken in the yogurt mixture overnight and until you’re ready to cook the next day.

    

    To cook the chicken, pat off some of the marinade, brush with oil and place in a pan (I used my 9X13 metal pan). Roast in a 450 oven  for about 20 minutes, or until juices run clear. Let cool a bit then cut into chunks.

    

    Butter Chicken Sauce:
    Adapted from 6 different recipes! Katie from GoodLifeEats and this YouTube video deserve a special shout out!
    (no need to carefully chop these ingredients, you’re going to blend them eventually)
    - 1/3 sweet onion, chopped
    - ~1 inch of ginger root, peeled and julienned
    - 2 cloves of garlic chopped
    - 1 green chili (membranes and seeds removed), chopped
    - 6 T butter (divided – 2 T and 4 T)
    - 6 medium tomatoes, cut into large pieces
    - 2 tsp garam masala
    - 1 tsp chili powder
    - 1/2 tsp. cumin
    - 1/2 tsp. cardamom
    - 1/4 tsp. coriander
    - 2 shakes cinnamon
    - 3 oz tomato paste
    - 1 cup chicken or veggie broth
    - 1/2 C cream
    - 4 cooked tandoori chicken breasts (above) cut into chunks

    Sautee onion, ginger, garlic and green chili in butter until onions are translucent.

    

    Add tomatoes and let simmer for ~5 minutes. Add spices (garam masala, chili powder, cumin, cardamom, coriander, cinnamon) and simmer another 5-10 minutes or so. Add tomato paste and broth, stir. Blend everything in a blender until smooth then return to pan. Add tandoori chicken, cream and butter.

    

    Serve with basmati rice and naan bread. Yum!

    

    Posted by Jane Maynard at 10:53 am   23 Comments
    Categories: main dishes

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