The Friday night meet-and-greet for the Atlanta Food Blog Forum was awesome! First, I would like to say that I could live forever in a Viking Cooking Store. Forever. What a great location to have a party. Maybe I’ll have the kids’ birthday party there.  At least I would enjoy it.

Second, the people were awesome. I talked to so many bloggers! Indian Simmer, Bread Experience, Food Victorian, Smith Bites and of course, Steamy Kitchen and White on Rice.

The food was fantastic!! They had lots of little stations set up with all kinds of food. There was a dessert table with pound cake and basil whipped cream and fresh fruit. There was a Chef there making fresh herb pasta with a mushroom ragu.

There was a cooking demo set up to learn how to make turkey dumplings. I made a few dumplings myself.

Yeah, these were awesome…and only 34 calories!

Chef Donna was awesome. And such a nice lady too.

Then Chef Kevin Rathbun made bacon.

 Beautiful, succulent, fantastic bacon. Spicy delicious pork belly with watermelon skewers. Awww…I wish you could have been there so we could have moaned together. It was a beautiful thing. I am saving up for a pork belly so I can do the same thing at home.

A big thanks to Steamy Kitchen and Bunky Cooks for putting all of this together. I can’t wait to see what today brings!

I’m getting pretty excited about this weekend.  The Food Blog Forum is coming up and I’m excited about meeting all of these other bloggers out there. A little nervous too, but mostly excited now. I’ve got my camera batteries charging, a full tank of gas, and my friend Dawn’s GPS ( because I always get lost in downtown Atlanta). Now the only thing left to do is figure out what the heck I’m going to wear.

Isn’t it just pitiful that I can’t figure out what to wear? 5 years ago it wouldn’t have been a problem. Now that the majority of my days are spent in t-shirts from high school and a pair of sweatpants, all knowledge of how to dress for a meet-and-greet in a room full of people I don’t know has completely left me.

My closet is pretty sparse too. I think I own exactly 2 pairs of jeans that don’t just scream ” Hi! My name is Jodie and have 3 year old twins!”. But are jeans too casual? I think I have a pair of dress slacks that I can still fit in…maybe fit in. I’m not sure. I bought a cute little black dress for $17 today. It’s graciously hides my fat rolls. I’m thinking after-party on that one though. With flats, because heels no longer agree with my feet… or my marriage status.

I guess the question is, What do you wear when you have no idea what to wear? I’m guessing that t-shirts and ratty sweatpants are probably not on that list. Which is a shame, because I hold the market on that fashion line.

Can anyone out there knock the dust off my fashion sense for me? Just point me in the right direction and I’ll give you a great dinner recipe. Pleeease. 

Thanks. You’re the best.

Creamy Chicken Pasta
1 pound of hot cooked egg noodles
3 slices of bacon
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup chopped cooked chicken
2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced
1 cup frozen peas
2 cups of half and half or heavy cream
zest of 1 lemon
pinch of cayenne
2 t. Herbes de Provence
2 T cornstarch ( optional)
salt and pepper
juice of lemon

Chop bacon and fry in a skillet until crispy.

Add cream to the pan and whisk.

Bring to a simmer and let reduce until sauce is thickened, about 10 minutes.

If the sauce doesn’t get as thick as you would like ( or you are impatient like me), scoop up a little sauce out of the pan and stir in the cornstarch. Return the slurry mix back to the pan and whisk. Sauce should thicken up .

 and top with a squeeze of lemon juice and cooked bacon. Serve and enjoy!

I’m pretty sure I have told you about everyone in our family. You have met; the kids, my husband, my mother, my Aunt Patsy and you have heard about my grandmothers time and time again. I don’t think I have ever told you about our cat, George. George is named after George Costanza ( you know…Seinfeld).

We also have another cat  Laney ( after Elaine) but I’m mad at her for peeing on the bathroom rugs so I’m not going to talk about her. I will tell you that peeing on everything is what got Kramer transferred to a new family and that Laney is walking a thin line.


Anyway, back to George. George was mine and Blaine’s first pet together. I came into the relationship with another cat, Lola. We decided Lola needed a friend, and I adopted George from a shelter. It was the day I brought George home that I found out my husband was actually allergic to cats. He was not happy.

George has always been weird. After Lola died, George started yowling…constantly and very loudly. He would walk around, ” Peeerrruuu, Peerrruu, PEERRRUUU!” It really did sound like he was saying “Peru”. We tried to let him outside, but he was way too scared to go out. He got fat. He got lazy. He wanted to go to Peru.

So we moved. And as soon as we got settled, George changed. Suddenly he had the courage to go outside. Only a few steps at first, but more and more over time. He got skinnier. He was happier, but this was not Peru.

While I was pregnant, we got two kittens from one of Blaine’s employees. Now this was Blaine’s idea, not mine. I was okay without more cats, but he was the sucker here. We brought them home, and George took to those kittens like a doting mother. He had finally found Peru….and a love of hunting.

We moved into a new house and brought two babies home. George suddenly felt a need to provide for the family. While the two kittens were content keeping the new babies company, George started to bring us “presents”. He would leave us a dead animal at the front door once or twice a day. A day. I told Blaine that it would be okay if he couldn’t provide for us, because George had it covered.

Then one day, George apparently decided that we wanted something fresher than the dead moles, mice, chipmunks, birds, and the occasional squirrel that he was bringing us. He began to bring us live chipmunks, through the cat door and all the way in the house.

Let me be the first to tell you that there is nothing like sitting in a chair working in deep thought and suddenly have a very tiny furry creature scurry over your feet.

Nothing like it.

The yelp that comes out of your throat will be loud enough to wake your children from their slumber. And the hunt to catch the furry critter will be long and arduous. It will take over an hour.

Over the last couple of years, I figure that I have caught about 20 chipmunks. I’m getting pretty good, too. I’m down to about 10 minutes or less. Chipmunks are very small and very fast and the cat, who brought them in in the first place, wants nothing to do with them. It seems that once the chipmunks crosses the threshold, George seems to think that it is no longer his problem. I’m pretty sure he thinks this is funny as hell. Or maybe he has figured out that this is not Peru.

The weather has finally changed. The mornings are cool, almost cold and the days are pleasant and breezy. I spent most of the day outside with the kids yesterday and didn’t feel hot. Not even once. Ahhhhh….

Of course this is just a teaser. Temperatures will shoot back up to the 90′s before you know it, but autumn is just around the corner. I need to start dusting off the sweaters and light jackets. I’m so excited. Nothing hides fat rolls better than a good sweater.

So, last night, in celebration of the Autumn teaser, I made soup.  I psyched the kids up for it. Got them all excited. You see, last year we didn’t eat much soup. A 2 year old’s spoon control leaves something to be desired and we had just gotten rid of the high chairs. We weren’t going to push our luck. But this year! This year we will eat soup! We will eat soup until we can eat no more!

So get your soup pot out and get ready for lots more soup posts in the future.

This is a simple, quick, easy and delicious hamburger and veggie soup. It takes no time to put together. When you brown the meat, try to keep the meat in chunks so it’s more like meatballs.

Oh yes…the giveaway winner! I nearly forgot! 

Thank you to everyone who entered and welcome to all the new followers! I hope to see you guys around here in the future too! The Saucy Mama giveaway winner, picked by Random.org, is……..

{drumroll}

#2!
Brandy!!!!
“I love olives… so the Jalapeno stuffed ones sounds delish. That is a fantastic recipe idea! Thanks!
–Brandy”

Well, I must have gotten too big for my britches because I signed up for the Food Blog Forum in downtown Atlanta that is going on next weekend. I’m not sure what I was thinking, signing up for a seminar on how to be a better blogger. I’ll be rubbing shoulders with Bakerella and Steamy Kitchen and I’m pretty sure they don’t know who in the world I am. There are lots of other bloggers signed up to go too; Love and Olive Oil, Knuckle Salad, and Kitchen Scoop. They are much cooler than me and they have an actual “.com” instead of a “blogspot.com”. Oh lord help me.
Is anyone else out there going? Can we hold hands when we walk in? I’m a little nervous about it.

The buzz is in the air. I think it has come with the cooler – if 89 degrees can be called “cooler” – temperatures. It’s been tweeted, facebooked, and sent around in emails everywhere…football season is nearly here!

More so than baseball, football is America’s favorite past time. Or maybe I should say eating while watching football is America’s favorite past time. There is nothing more American these days then everyone huddling around an enormous TV and drinking beer and eating hot wings.  There is usually a lot of yelling and screaming and to this day I’m sure “game day” was where I learned how to use all of my favorite cuss words.

Nothing says “football” like a four letter word screamed at the TV.

I think women love football season as much as men. If not for the muscular quarterback with the nice butt on the field, then because this is where they can try out new recipes on a room full of guinea pigs ( pigs being the operative word here). It’s fun for us, and someone has to be there to explain to the kids how exactly a referee got his head stuck in his butt in the first place.

So, here is a good recipe for you to try out at your next get together. It is my grandmother’s recipe. The woman loved a good chicken wing and this is one of her best recipes. It’s very savory with a bit of an Asian flair. You can broil or grill these if you wanted instead of frying, using the sauce to baste often. But I am sure somebody will have a vat of hot oil going and why not fry these puppies instead!

By the way, don’t forget to enter the Saucy Mama sauce giveaway!

Finger Drumsticks
3 pounds of chicken wings
1/2 c. sugar
3 T cornstarch
1 t. salt
1 t. grated fresh ginger
1/4 t. pepper
3/4 c water
1/3 c. lemon juice
1/4 c. soy sauce
3 T toasted sesame seeds
1/2 gallon oil for frying

Separate wings into drumettes and wings, discarding wing tips ( or save those for stock).

In a small saucepan, heat and stir together all ingredients except the oil. Bring to a boil stirring constantly until mixture thickens. Set aside.

Meanwhile heat oil in a deep sided heavy pot ( oil should go about half way up the sides) to 350 degrees. Make sure you leave plenty of room for the oil to expand. Fry chicken in batches until done, about 8 minutes.Drain on paper towels.

In a large metal bowl, add about a 1/4 cup of sauce to the bottom and then add wings on top. Toss to coat in sauce and then sprinkle with sesame seeds.

 Continue until all the wings are done. Serve and enjoy!

Now you guys know that I am a big fan of “free” and I figure that if a lowly food blogger is going to really enjoy food blogging life, you have to take advantage of  a few of it’s perks. As long as they are good ones.

So, when Saucy Mama sent me an email a couple months ago asking me to participate in the Saucy Mama Cooking Contest ( there is a $1,000 prize), I was inclined to oblige.

I got my full line of Saucy Mama products in the other day and I have been racking my brain trying to come up with something worth a $1,000.

Ya’ll, I’m pretty dang sure this is it!

First off, who doesn’t love hot wings? If you don’t love hot wings, then we cannot be friends. Hot wings for me are part of the food pyramid. The only down side is that they are a tad messy. It’s not exactly lady like to walk around sucking your fingertips. Some people might get the wrong idea.

So, I thought that if you could deliver the hot wing in a nice neat package it would be all the better.

Enter the amazing wonton wrapper. These things are so cool, and since no body roams through the organic aisle too much, I found them on manager’s special!

I added a few other ingredients for crunch and texture and added in Saucy Mama’s Hot Wing Sauce ( because I figure if you’ve got a good wing sauce, everything else is probably pretty stinkin’ good too ) and me and my husband were rewarded with the most addictive thing that has come out of my kitchen in a long time. We ate these little bad boys all night!

In closing, I hope you guys make these things. They are SO good. And I hope you go tell Saucy Mama how awesome they are, because I could really use $1,000 ( and because you love me – right?).

 And because I love you, I’m giving away an entire set of Saucy Mama stuff for you and yours to enjoy! It includes, The Hot Wing Sauce, Sweet Onion Marinade, Lime Chipotle Marinade, Cracked Pepper Marinade, Chipotle Mustard, and Jalapeño Stuffed Olives!

Here’s what you gotta do:

Be a follower of this here lowly food blogger and comment here and tell me which sauce you want to try!

You can be entered again if you follow me on Facebook ( make sure to comment again here)

And you can be entered AGAIN if you follow me on Twitter and tweet about this contest! ( more commenting here with the link to your tweet!)

And you can be entered again if you do a little blog post yourself, in honor of this contest ( comment here with the link)

That’s 4 chances to enter! ‘Cause I love ya!
The contest ends at midnight on September 4th!


On to the recipe!


Hot Wing Wontons

1 cup finely chopped cooked chicken
1/3 cup finely chopped cabbage
1 large carrot, grated
1 celery stalk, finely chopped or grated
1/2 cup Saucy Mama’s Hot Wing Sauce
1 egg, beaten
1 package of Wonton Wrappers
Canola or vegetable oil for frying ( about 1/2 gallon )
Blue Cheese dressing for dipping

In a deep sided pot, heat your oil to 350 using a thermometer.
Meanwhile mix together chicken, cabbage, carrot, celery and wing sauce.

Lay out a few wrappers and put a teaspoon of filling in the middle of each.

 Brush all 4 sides with a little egg wash and then fold wrapper over and press out all the air and seal the edges.

 You can then either leave them in triangles or, for a more bite size package, fold the corners in to create a little purse.

Continue until all the wontons are done.

Gently drop 4 or 5 wontons in the hot oil at a time, frying until golden brown all over, about 1-2 minutes.
Remove and drain on paper towels.

 Serve with Blue Cheese dipping sauce and enjoy!

I’ve got big plans for today. Big ones I tell you!

The kids will be headed off to school for a couple of hours and you know what I am going to do?

Clean like a woman possessed.

I will be cleaning gunk that has accumulated over the last few months. I will be cleaning things that are impossible to clean while two certain children are home.

It’s going to be me and my iPod for a solid 2 hours and then I’ll bring the kids back so they can mess it all up again.

It’s going to be great.

Although probably not as great as this pot roast with sweet and sour cabbage. This is definitely great. There is so much flavor here and it’s not the typical pot roast flavor of beef stock and vegetables. This is much more reminiscent of a Reuben sandwich thanks to the cabbage and the caraway seeds. If you are a fan of the Reuben sandwich like me, you are going to love this pot roast!

Serve this on some hot mashed potatoes and you have got a very filling meal.


Pot Roast with Sweet and Sour  Cabbage
from Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook, 1980
2 T veggie oil
3-4 pound beef chuck roast
1 large yellow onion, chopped
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
4 t. light brown sugar
1 t. caraway seeds
1/2 t. cracked black pepper
water
1 medium head of green or red cabbage
2 T AP Flour
Mashed potatoes to serve

In an enormous dutch oven ( about 8 quarts ), heat the oil over medium heat. Salt and pepper both sides of the beef and place in the hot oil.

Sear each side until well browned.

Mix vinegar, sugar, salt, pepper, caraway seed and 1/4 cup of water in a cup

and add to the pan along with the onions.

 Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat and simmer for 2 -3 hours or until meat is fork tender.

Meanwhile shred your cabbage, making sure to remove the core and any tough ribs.

When meat is done, remove to a plate and keep warm. Add the cabbage to the pot and bring to boiling. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes or until cabbage is tender, stirring often.
In a cup stir together flour and 1/4 cup of water and then add that to the pot.

Stir until mixture has thickened.

Slice beef and serve on top of hot mashed potatoes and top with lots of cabbage and gravy. Enjoy!

If there is one phrase I hear all the time, it has to be “I would love to cook that, but my kids are such picky eaters”. And I have to tell you that “picky eaters” are kind of my hot button issue. I often hold my tongue about my opinions on picky eaters, but I feel today is a good day to let them loose. So, if you are a parent of a picky eater, I apologize if this makes you upset. These are only my opinions and you don’t have to agree with them, or like them. I would love to hear your opinion, just keep it civil.

Okay, here it goes.

Picky eaters are made, not born. So, if you have a picky eater in your house, you have no one to blame but yourself.

Okay, take a deep breath…don’t get all riled up. I’m not trying to be mean.

When I say “picky eater” I don’t mean the kid who refuses to eat broccoli, but will eat a plate of carrots, or the kid who will eat apples and grapes, but not bananas. I’m talking about the kid who won’t eat any fruits, vegetables, or lean meats. The kid who subsides on chicken nuggets and goldfish alone. The kind of kid who grows into an adult with poor eating habits.

I say you have no one to blame but yourself because, as a parent, you are the one feeding that child. You put the first food into their mouth. Was it applesauce? Or was it a Goldfish? ( I’m sure it was rice cereal, but work with me here). This was something that became very important to me when my kids starting eating solid foods. I was so tempted by all of the Gerber pre-packaged toddler meals that I really had to step back and think through how I wanted to feed my children. Because what you give a child to eat in the very beginning will dictate what they are more willing to eat as they get older. So I made sure that my kids had carrots, and broccoli and zucchini and lots of fruit and yogurt when they were just starting to eat and now, I am proud to say, my kids are not picky eaters. Oh sure, Ella doesn’t like tomatoes and Jack won’t eat strawberries, but for the most part, my kids will eat whatever I put in front of them.

Now someone out there is saying, “Well, what do I do with this 3 (or more) year-old picky eater that I have now?” You may not like this answer, so brace yourself…

Serve that child whatever it is that the rest of the family is eating and don’t give them anything else to eat. If your family is having grilled chicken, mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli then the picky eater should also have grilled chicken, mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli. And make them eat whatever it is they don’t like, at least a few bites. If they refuse to eat all together, then send them to bed hungry. Snacks and meals should only be healthy options. Hide any kind of unhealthy snack from view. And don’t give in. The older your child is, the more a battle of wills it’s going to be.

Ok, deep breath.

Here’s the bottom line. Picky eating not only forms unhealthy eating habits, but it is also stressful and expensive. Having to work around a picky eater is a lot of work and throwing away the food they don’t eat is wasteful, and as a parent you should have more control over what your kids eat than your kids do. You are setting them up for life. You are showing them how to feed their kids someday. That is part of your job as a parent. If you have to send your kids to bed hungry a few times ( and it will take a few times) don’t worry. They will eat when they are hungry enough. They will eat what you put in front of them and before you know it, you will no longer have a picky eater.

{stepping off the soapbox}

Okay, now that that is over with. Here are a few dishes and fun ideas to help your child become a more well-rounded eater.

I have found that cutting food into fun shapes and providing dips for fresh veggies really helps kids eat more healthy foods.

Also try making all of the food you want your kid to eat with your child. Have them in the kitchen. Have them pick out what they are going to cook or prepare. Would you like to help Mommy make zucchini fries or apple bars? 

Offer a reward for healthy eating. If you eat all of your apples we’ll go ride your bike!

If you have a friend who’s kids are healthy eaters, drop your kid off for a playdate and leave! Ask you friend to offer nothing but healthy snacks. Peer pressure is a wonderful thing.

Make it a game. The person who eats the most beans wins!


Most importantly, make sure YOU are eating the foods you want your child to eat. You are their role model and they want to be just like you.

Good luck on your road to a non-picky eater. You can do it!

Starting at top, left to right: Baked Zucchini Fries, Elementary School Lunch, Salmon Fish Sticks, Chili Mac Skillet, Apple Oatmeal Bars, Ham and Egg Cups.