St. Patrick’s Day Shamrocks: Wordless Wednesday

May your blessings outnumber
The shamrocks that grow,
And may trouble avoid you
Wherever you go.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day everyone!  Will be enjoying corned beef and cabbage for dinner with the family at night, along with my homemade famous Irish Soda Bread!

There’s a dear little plant that grows in our isle,

‘Twas St. Patrick himself, sure, that sets it;

And the sun of his labor with pleasure did smile,

And with dew from his eye often wet it.

It grows through the bog, through the brake, through the mireland,

And they call it the dear little Shamrock of Ireland.

Don’t forget to sign the Linky!

Copyright 2010 Moomette’s Magnificents – All Rights Reserved

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Chili’s Grill and Bar: Shout Out to Eat Contest

Family Friendly Dining

$9.99 Fresh Pairings

I’ve been cooking for the family for well over 35 years.  Although my husband is talented in many areas, preparing food is not one of them.

Now that my daughter is married, we alternate Sunday dinners at her home or mine.  Usually on Friday nights, the family likes to get together and dine out.

Chili’s Grill and Bar Restaurant has always been one of our favorite places to go, even before the grandkids came along.  While my youngest daughter was in college, she worked as a server at Chili’s.

I recently had the opportunity to try Chili’s new line of freshly prepared recipe items.

Since I’m on a mission to lose at least 10, 15, 25 pounds so I can fit in my new dress for an upcoming wedding in Boston this summer, I tried their new Asian Salad.

The Asian Salad is prepared with Napa cabbage, crispy wontons, edamame, green onions, cilantro, sesame seeds, Asian vinaigrette and a creamy peanut drizzle, along with your choice of grilled chicken, salmon or steak.  I chose the chicken in my salad, and found the salad very tasty. I especially enjoyed the peanut drizzle, which gave it a subtle, yet unique taste.

The portion was generous, and I took what was leftover home in a container for the next day’s lunch.

Chili’s has a call-ahead policy which worked out great, as we brought the grandkids along, ages 2 and 3.   Since we try to dine out before the dinner rush crowd comes in, we were seated right away.  Chili’s provides a family atmosphere, and the kids were given crayons to draw with.  Everyone’s favorite are the nachos and sauce, which were promptly brought to the table along with our beverages.  Our server was attentive, and everything we ordered arrived as requested.

Stay tuned for the Chili’s “Shout Out to Eat” Contest, where contestants will be able to upload a 10-30 second video telling why they don’t want to cook tonight.  A daily winner will be randomly selected and entered to win a gift card to Chili’s everyday.

Copyright 2010 Moomette’s Magnificents – All Rights Reserved

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Country Bobs All Purpose Sauce Giveaway

Check out my recent Review and Contest

Moomettesgram’s Favorite Recipes is hosting a Giveaway Contest! For a chance to win, there will be two (2) winners of two (2) bottles of Country Bob’s All Purpose Sauce!

Enter HERE at Moomettesgram’s Favorite Recipes ,  Mar 2010

Copyright 2010 Moomette’s Magnificents – All Rights Reserved

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Organic Batter Blaster: Making Breakfast Easy With Kids

Keep Cooking Simple

Cooking Teaches Kids Life Skills

Many families never plan menus. They go to the grocery store with no idea in mind or what it is they want to buy. Is it any wonder that there’s often nothing in the house to eat?

Menu planning isn’t a difficult task. It seems to take a lot of valuable time, but in the end it actually saves time in unnecessary trips to the store, and the nightly indecision of what the kids are going to have for breakfast in the morning.

When my kids were little, their favorite breakfast before heading out to school was chocolate chip pancakes and waffles.  I didn’t mind making them when I worked part-time.  I worked out of the home 3 days per week until they got older; so it was easy for me to do.

But on those days when I did have to rush out the door, I felt guilty about not making their favorite breakfast food, as preparation time is required.

I like to try something new occasionally, and my husband, who likes to poke through grocery stores,  brought home Organic Batter Blaster Pancake Mix!

On the days that I have to babysit ‘Lil Moomette and her brother, I can easily make pancakes for the grandkids and know that they’re starting off the day with a good breakfast! We pressed a few chocolate chips into the batter as it was cooking in the pan, and presto! It tasted just as good as if made from scratch!

Kids love to help when it comes to cooking. Getting them involved early is a good way for them to learn responsibility and a skill they can use in life.

Cooking with kids can also be a time of bonding for child and parent. Kids can help in various ways; age appropriate tasks are best. Your younger children can just point and blast the pancake mix into the pan!

Showing kids simple things they can do will make them feel important. It’s a way of having fun with your children, and the fun thing about cooking with your kids is that they’re learning a new skill, they just don’t realize it!

Cooking with your kids and as a family is a great way to connect with your children. Keeping them involved in activities such as finding new recipes and cooking lets them know you think they’re special.

Organic Batter Blaster has been featured on the Food Network and CBS, and is available in BJ’s and local grocery stores.

For More Information Visit: Batter Blaster

Note:  This is not a compensated post.

Copyright 2010 Moomette’s Magnificents – All Rights Reserved

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Pillsbury Sweet Rolls and Gift Pack Giveaway

Sweet Sunday Mornings

Check out my Pillsbury Giveaway:

Moomettesgram’s Favorite Recipes  is hosting a Giveaway Contest! For a chance to win, there will be one (1) winner of a gift pack which includes includes a VIP coupon for Pillsbury Orange Sweet Rolls as well as a photo album to help keep your family’s sweet Sunday morning memories close at close at hand.

Enter at Moomettesgram’s Favorite Recipes HERE Pillsbury contest, Mar 2010.

Copyright 2010 Moomette’s Magnificents – All Rights Reserved

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Bean Appetit: Childrens Cookbook Review and Giveaway

Hip and Healthy Ways to Have Fun with Food

Bring Kookiness to the Kitchen

As any grandmom knows, kids learn through emulation – watching and imitating the actions of others.  That’s why it’s a good thing to always strive to be a good example.

For me, I learned to cook by watching my mom and aunts who passed down many of the traditional Polish recipes that I learned to love as a child.  I’ve since passed down those traditions to my own girls.

Recently I had the opportunity to review a new cookbook – Bean Appetit:  Hip and Healthy Ways to Have Fun with Food (Andrews McMeel Publishing) which was recently featured on Martha Stewart Radio.

The authors, Shannon Payette Seip and Kelly Parthen are co-owners of  Bean Sprouts Café and Cooking School.  They offer cooking classes for toddlers and grade school children.  The school lets the kids have fun with food while exploring new ingredients.  The authors are also currently developing a kids’ cooking show.

Bean Sprouts, a hip and healthy kids’ cafe, opened to much anticipation near Madison, WI in 2007. Bean Sprouts has drawn great media attention for providing a place for families that is both healthy and fun. Under the guidance of a child nutritionist, Bean Sprouts built its menu with the help and enthusiasm of Gale Gand–renowned chef, author, and Food Network star, who believes in Bean Sprouts’ mission.

One of my favorite chapters in the book was the breakfast chapter.  The meal that both of my grandkids, ‘Lil Moomette and Slugger, enjoy best is breakfast.  Soon they’ll be spending their first overnight with my husband and I, so I paid particular attention to finding recipes that would start their day off right!

Pancakes is a favorite of both grandkids, and “Stick Stacks” incorporates yummy fruit and skewers in an eye-appealing manner.

A great rule of thumb when it comes to cooking with children is keep it simple silly. Foremost, most children have relatively short attention spans. While they want to learn and help mommy out, they also don’t want to have enough time to get bored with the details. Use simple recipes when cooking with children and your chances for success will be much greater than with overly complicated or ingredient intense recipes.

The book is full of whimsical presentations, as well as food-themed games, crafts and activities.

Bean Appetit would like you to help them taste-test some recipes.  You can test online recipes for Bean-GO (a healthy twist on Bingo that gets kids to try to new tastes) found in the book. Feedback Form

Visit on Facebook

Moomette’s Magnificents  is hosting a Giveaway Contest! For a chance to win, there will be one (1) winner of the book, Bean Appetit.

Please include a way of contacting you. Should you be the contest winner, this information may be shared with the contest sponsor in order to send your prize.

Main Rule:   (remember if this rule is not followed then no others will count)
a) Sign up for my free Newsletter Updates to my blog through my e-mail Feedblitz link (on the top of my right column or let me know if you already are, in a separate comment) AND

b) Visit Bean Sprouts and leave a comment about what you like best about their site and why you’d like to win this book.

This contest will run until March 15, 2010 at 11:00 pm. EST

For Additional Entries, check out my Contest Entry Rules.

Copyright 2010 Moomette’s Magnificents – All Rights Reserved

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Culinary Arts Career Opportunities

Career Opportunities

Turn Your WAHM Talents Into a Full-Time Business

I have yet to see the new movie that came out about Julia Child, “Julie and Julia” – but it’s on my list of top things to do.

I’ve posted here in the past that in hindsight, I should have gone to culinary school since the Culinary Institute of America used to be located almost in my backyard.

Cooking has always intrigued me, and those with specific talents can turn their passion into a catering work-at-home business and in turn expand their work-at-home business into a full-time restaurant business!  Some of my favorite places to eat are locally owned, mom and pop restaurants.

Many believe that food preparation or cooking is an art. Restaurants and catering services anchor their success on the expertise and skills of their kitchen crew. As the cliche goes, “a man’s heart is through his stomach.” Restaurants and the food industry keep their customers loyal though unique and delectable recipes using both innovative and traditional ingredients.

The Culinary Arts have become an academic pursuit as well. Large food manufacturers look to culinary artists to create ready-to-eat, name brand food products that feature the same quality as those of homemade and restaurant-prepared food. Several culinary arts schools offer graduate studies in Hotel and Restaurant Management for students.  Many schools here in New England offer such opportunities.

There’s also more traditional, classical institutions that cater to students who are employed in luxury hotels, cruise ships, resorts and restaurants or those employed as personal chefs to the rich and famous.

When we were visiting Hilton Head, many of the students of such schools were doing their Internships in the resorts down there for the summer.

Famed chefs open up their own schools to train protégés.  A few culinary arts schools cater to hobbyists. The King Arthur Flour Company in Vermont is one that offers courses.  Good schools provide intensive, hands-on training in everything as well as the real environment simulation to prepare their students well.

Culinary art’s courses quite frequently touch on cooking science or the standard ingredients that go into most food products, food decoration and preservation.  The courses also segregate trainings into stocks, sauces, soups, meat, fish and poultry cookery, breads and pastries, etc. Several schools also offer courses on exotic and traditional cooking. Students are also trained on food service safety and sanitation, commercial kitchen parts, management and finance.

As it is with other specialized professions, culinary arts graduates may often have to start at the bottom when they do find a position. But extremely talented students need not wait too long to establish their own reputation and following.

Copyright 2010 Moomette’s Magnificents – All Rights Reserved

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Valentine’s Day Giveaway at Skin MD Natural

Everything Nice, Naturally

Awhile back I wrote a post about Skin MD Shielding Lotion that I had the opportunity to review.

Skin MD Natural is now hosting a terrific contest in time for Valentine’s Day!

They’ll be giving away a prize basket that’s valued at $100 which contains the following goodies:

• Bottle of Skin MD Natural shielding lotion

• Bottle of Skin MD Natural + SPF 15 shielding lotion

• One pound of See’s dark assorted chocolates

• Pack of Starbucks VIA Ready brew coffee pouches

• Kiss Me coffee mug

• A Cuddly teddy bear

• Lollipop Bouquet

Contest closes February 7, 2010 and will ship in time for Valentine’s Day!

Whether for yourself, or someone you’re sweet about, don’t miss this terrific contest!

To enter, Visit:  Skin MD Natural

Copyright 2010 Moomette’s Magnificents – All Rights Reserved

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Pepsi Refresh Project: Giving Back to Community Projects

Help Make Communities Better

Pepsi can help make their – and your friends’ and families’ – ideas happen with the Pepsi Refresh Project.

Our family has always been pet-friendly.  We had a purebred Black Lab before the girls were born and as they were growing up.  Now I have a grand-dog, also a Black Labrador.

My own Lab was leash-trained, and didn’t roam freely, even in our own backyard.  The grand-dog, however, was trained off-leash, feels quite at ease responding to commands, and is quite social with other dogs and people.

Through combined efforts and donations, my town recently opened a dog park. Dog Parks are becoming more and more popular. Not only  are they fun for our dogs but , but are also a great place for humans to interact. They provide a place for dogs to run off leash and socialize with other dogs, as well as allowing for owners to socialize at the same time.

Unfortunately not all communities have Dog Parks available for our canine friends.

I’ve been asked to let you know that through the Pepsi Refresh Project, Pepsi will give away more than $20 million dollars to fund projects – both big and small – that help make communities better. The company invested significant resources, and opted not to advertise at the Superbowl this year, in order to support meaningful social engagement.

Through grass-roots community effort, our town has also upgraded a local playground to make it more handicapped accessible as well as added new lights for the football field at the high school.  Neighboring towns were able to build a skateboard park, and another one built new sports fields for youth lacrosse, baseball and football programs.

Pepsi wants to hear what needs they can help fulfill for you and your community.

Each month, you have the opportunity to submit a project in one of six categories:

• health
• arts & culture
• food & shelter
• the planet
• neighborhood
• education.

At the end of the month, Pepsi will post the top submissions on their website and let the public vote on who should win grants ranging from $5,000 to $250,000 (totaling up to $1.3 million dollars!)

Lauren Hebart, Mom and CMO of Sparking Brands at Pepsi was interviewed and states:

Why is Pepsi Refresh Unique?
The program is unique because it puts the power in the hands of the consumer. Individuals submit their ideas and then the nation votes on the idea that moves them the most. This is done in a very ground up way. Essentially, we’ve democratized the process.

As a Mom what types of lessons do you hope children learn by getting involved in community projects?
Parents want to instill good values in their children and encourage them to act on their ideas and beliefs. As a Mom myself, I’ve shared this program with other moms in my community and have found that it sparks a cord with everyone. I’ve also seen my own children get very excited about it. I think it just feels right to them

If you and your family have a fantastic idea for an improvement you’d like to see in your community, submit it for consideration for the March round of grants.

When I do drink soda, Pepsi is my beverage of choice.  You can connect with the Pepsi Refresh program via Twitter (@pepsi) or on Facebook

Vote for your favorite submissions for February’s grants at RefreshEverything.com

There are many creative, fun and unique meaningful ways to give back, and Mom Central thinks it’s fantastic that Pepsi wants to help.

“I wrote this review while participating in a blog campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Pepsi Refresh. Mom Central sent me a gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate.”

Copyright 2010 Moomette’s Magnificents – All Rights Reserved

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How To Sew A Button – Book Review and Giveaway

Back to Basics

Nifty Things Your Grandmother Knew

When I was in Middle School I had to take a class called “Home Economics.”  Only it wasn’t called Middle School back then, it was called Junior High, for grades 7-9.

In Home Economics, we learned basic cooking skills such as food safety and baking.  We also learned basic sewing and ironing skills.  We had to find a pattern and learned how to shop for the right of fabric and sewing notions.   I think that Home Ec should still be a required subject in schools.

Although I really tried to pass on such skills to my grown daughters when they were growing up, they were much more interested in playing sports.  Of course, before Title IX came on-board, competitive sports weren’t available to girls my age.

The girls were in for a rude awakening when they went off to college and set up housekeeping in dorms and apartments!  They were on the phone with ‘Mom’ all the time asking questions!

Recently I had the opportunity to review a wonderful new book by Erin Bried, a Senior Staff Writer at Self magazine,  called ‘How To Sew A Button:  And Other Nifty Things Your Grandmother Knew.”

In her book, Bried, who was featured on the “Today Show”,  shares over 100 essential ‘must-know’ and ‘how-to’ skills that apply to both women and men.  In preparation for her book, Bried interviewed over 20 grandmothers from across the country.  My own mom and grandmother (who lived to be 101) grew up during the Great Depression, and because of that experience, learned to make do with what they had, as well as fix, repair and become creative.  In fact, I inherited a cookie can full of thousands of buttons that my mom had cut off from garments over the years!

Some of my favorite chapters included:

• Omit Oopsies – How to Remove Most Stains

This is important, as any college student, mom, homeowner or apartment dweller knows.  Want to know how to remove red wine, blood, lipstick or mud?  It’s in here!  If you’re a college student or apartment dweller who placed a deposit – these tips might help you get your deposit back when you move~

• Get Stoked – How to Build a Fire

My charming son-in-law is from Vermont.  His family likes to have a bonfire or camp fire in a backyard pit.  On one of my first visits up there, all the gals knew how to build, start and stoke the fire to keep it burning.  I remember somebody saying that if you didn’t know how to build a fire up there, you wouldn’t survive!

• Use Your Imagination – How to Make Art Out of Pressed Flowers

Years ago we had a boat that we kept docked at a marina on the Connecticut River.  In the fields nearby were tons of wild flowers.  Many of my friends were getting married, so I used to pick the flowers and then dry and press them.  I’d make a framed wall-hanging out of their wedding invitation.  You’ll find plenty of tips in this chapter, as there’s definitely a trick to getting it to come out right!

How to Sew A Button is not only educational, it’s retro-chic and a wonderful read!

If you know a bride-to-be or a student going off to college, this book would make a special gift!

A Ballantine Trade Paperback Original

Published: December 15, 2009

ISBN: 978-0-345-51875-0

MSP: $15.00

For More Information Visit: How To Sew A Button

Moomette’s Magnificents  is hosting a Giveaway Contest! For a chance to win, there will be one (1) winner of the book “How To Sew A Button”

Please include a way of contacting you. Should you be the contest winner, this information may be shared with the contest sponsor in order to send your prize.

Main Rule:   (remember if this rule is not followed then no others will count)
a) Sign up for my free Newsletter Updates to my blog through my e-mail Feedblitz link (on the top of my right column or let me know if you already are, in a separate comment) AND

b) Let me know a favorite tip you learned from your mom, grandmom or favorite elder.

This contest will run until February 11, 2010 at 11:00 pm.

For Additional Entries, check out my Contest Entry Rules.

Copyright 2010 Moomette’s Magnificents – All Rights Reserved

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