Celebrate With Cookerati and a Kenmore Elite 5 Quart Stand Mixer Giveaway
December 13, 2010 - Written by DianaThis Contest has been closed.
I was given a choice of Kenmore small kitchen appliances to review for Cookerati and also give one away. In spite of all the drama of the holiday season, there is something to celebrate in Cookerati-land. This December we hit three years of posting to this wonderful blog of ours. We started with a bunch of different people, but it slowly wound down to Deb and me, though Deb does more of the administrative stuff and I do more recipes. Anyway, I chose the Kenmore Elite 5 Quart stand mixer because darn it I didn’t have one, and I coveted one for years. Years, I tell you. So in honor of our blogiversary – Cookerati is giving one away too, (okay, the giveaway was from Kenmore, but it’s perfect timing don’t you think?)
I once asked my husband for a mixer and the frugal guy researched and bought me a nice compact hand mixer. Yeah, it’s like getting a hatchback with manual controls when you want the sedan with all the bells and …
Girls Night In with Godiva Liqueurs
May 5, 2010 - Written by Diana
This past weekend was a big blur of family time. Two nephews, from different sisters had events going on this weekend. My husband and I wrangled my mother in law to stay with our teens (leave them alone, I think not), and drove 600 miles for a long weekend visit. Long days of driving, they were. Saturday while we were at my sister’s enjoying each other’s company, I brought out the Godiva Liqueurs I was sent to review. First off, I must tell you I was totally caught off guard because my mom who doesn’t like sweet stuff, enjoyed the white chocolate a lot. I mean, she tasted and sent the glass back for another taste, because it was that good. I confess, I didn’t bring the mocha, I wanted to share the mocha with my in laws. I thought chocolate and white chocolate for my family, mocha to share with the in-laws and caramel just for me. After eating, we picked up some ice cream and made our own desserts. My sister doesn’t own ice, so the ice cream worked as a milky …
Barbecued Beef Chuck Short Ribs – A Nice Treat That You Don’t Want to Share
December 20, 2009 - Written by Diana
The kids would have loved these ribs – if they were home, but we didn’t want to share, so we had them tonight when they were out. Does it sound terrible that we save some of our favorite things for nights when they’re out? Evenings together should be memorable, and delicious, not just sandwich night. Plus, if I put in the effort, my husband does the pots and pans, how cool is that? That’s not to say I spent all day on these ribs because I didn’t. These were precooked cryo-vac ribs in a barbecue sauce. Throw them in a pot of water still sealed for an hour and they are done.
The barbecued ribs were so soft and tender, melt in your mouth delicious. I told my husband that we were probably way over our limit in portion size and could have shared it a little, but as we scarfed …
Book Suggestions for the Cookerati 2009 Holiday Gift Guide
December 19, 2009 - Written by DianaGadgets, and tools are great gifts, but cool ideas and inspiration come from great books too. I like to give books out, though sometimes I have a hard time parting with the ones I like best. I’ve got a few choice suggestions for you and I hope whatever books you choose – whether they’re from the list or not, they help to inspire you throughout the new year. Cooking should be an adventure, we should all step out of our comfort zones and tryout something new for us. First I want to admit, that I haven’t tried a recipe out of every book like I usually do, due to lack of time. I will however, try to get to that and let you know about how the recipe turned out at a later time. I will tell you honestly how I feel about the book as a gift though based on what I like in a cook book.
- My Picks. - My two top picks for books are The Seasons On Henry’s Farm, and New England Soup Factory Cookbook.
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I am a lover of things that are useful. I do also love the decorative and if they are both all the better for me. For years my husband balked at buying cooking things for me because it just wasn’t right. Now I give specifics, and he sometimes follows through because it’s what I want. I have been trying out a bunch of stuff and I’m here to review and recommend. I’ll probably have other recommendations, but since you’re list checking now we want you to know what we think. These are the best of the best. I still have a few more things to put out, including a book round up with some great choices, and some quality products to use when making gifts. Those reviews are on the way. I like to thoroughly try out my products before I give a review, I want Cookerati to be the place you can trust. …
I’ve done reviews during the year and I like doing the reviews, even though it means trying things out I might not be in the mood for. I always tell the truth about what I’ve feel and I don’t do things I object to, like cookie diets. I’d like to tell you my favorite reviews of the year, the ones I liked the best. These are also the things I still use on a regular basis because I found them so useful. These are items I reviewed between October 1, 2008 and September 30, 2009. They may not seem like the most elegant gifts, or the coolest, but these are the ones I use the most. …
While the berries are listed as an ingredient, and it says they are dipped, I wasn’t able to find fruit inside the syrup. The sweet liquid inside the chocolate shell is light and more flowery than fruity tasting, but still pleasant. While I’m not a huge fan of chocolate covered syrup, my husband and son felt similarly about the fruit and the syrup but gave the candies a little better rating. Would I buy these for myself? Maybe not, I’m not a huge fan of …
Spice Depot has a slide show on their website with suggestions for presents for your foodie friends. You can find most of these items at your grocery store. I thought these were good suggestions. I like the Spice Depot Grinders they’re better than the store brand. I bought a store brand the other day of the Garlic Pepper and was disappointed, it had salt and some other things in it unlike the Spice Depot Grinder. Be sure to read your labels to make sure you are getting what you want. If you talk to my husband and kids, you would find that I like gifts that I can use, so these gift suggestions would be great for me. Ferraro’s advice this holiday season is to “Customize your spice grinder purchases and pair them with creative and inexpensive add-ons to suit each recipient – maybe pair our Spicy Sea Salt with a DVD and small package of microwave popcorn for the babysitter, or tuck our Salad Seasoning, cotton garden gloves and a packet of lettuce seeds into a tiny terra-cotta pot. What gardener wouldn’t love that? Singles love a trio of Salad Seasoning, JoJo …
I posted earlier about different types of presents you can find for kids having to do with the cooking theme. Here’s one I wanted to put out as a little more special. Enchanted Thyme: Book One The Delicious Adventure Series is a fairy tale or story book. There’s a Queen under a spell, she eats and eats and is still hungry. There are three flying mice that come looking for Peter and Belinda to help them create a recipe using the secret ingredient to save the queen. They travel into the book and through a swamp and into a castle and a then a cave during the story. There are different creatures in the book that either help or hinder their adventure. I won’t tell you the end of the story, but it’s good. At the end of each of the 15 short chapters there are delicious and nutritious recipes that your children can prepare that correlate to the story. It’s a chapter book and it’s age range is 5 to 11, although you would be reading the book …
Cookerati isn’t just for adults, we should also consider fostering the cooking creativity of the kids in our homes. My daughter has been doing some experimenting with cooking here and there all along , but my son has been hanging back until this year. He has a basic smore’s recipe he brings to family parties, but until this year he hasn’t really expanded his cooking repertoire. I think it stems back to cooking spaghetti into mushy oblivion one time. My son was supposed to prepare dinner, but didn’t pay attention. When my husband came home, it was one big glob. He poured it out into the colander but it was unusable, and my dear hubby started over. I really think that since his sister was so good at it, he preferred to let her do the work and just sit down to the meal. Since she’s not around, some nights he has to prepare dinner and is doing much better. My husband and son would declare every night sandwich night, but I wouldn’t allow it. Deb’s son on the other hand has had a big interest in cooking. He takes classes and bakes and helps with dinner. My …
Cookerati’s 2009 Holiday Gift Guide Recommendations
December 10, 2009 - Written by Diana
Seven Items I’d Still Recommend For Christmas 2009
December 3, 2009 - Written by Diana
Kyocera – Ceramics – These knives are fantastic, still very sharp and cut easily. My mom was struggling with one of my old knives, I gave her one of the ceramics and she thought they were wonderful. When I told her it was a review item, she said that she hoped I gave them a great review because they deserve it.
Wolfgang Chocolate Berry Dipped Candies
October 30, 2009 - Written by Diana
Recently, I was given the opportunity to taste Wolfgang Candies. These were sweet dark chocolate candies filled with a light fruit syrup. They’re individually wrapped and come in blueberry, raspberry and cranberry. The berries are listed as ingredients which is a big plus, no artificial flavoring. The ingredients include dark chocolate (sugar, chocolate (processed with alkali), cocoa butter, soy lecithin (an emulsifier) vanilla), sugar, berries, vegetable oil. I enjoyed the dark chocolate outer shell. It wasn’t too sweet, and is a good contrast to the fruit syrup inside.
Spice Depot Gift Suggestions for Foodies
December 24, 2008 - Written by Diana
Holiday Gift Guide: Enchanted Thyme: Book One The Delicious Adventure Series By Ariane Smith
December 21, 2008 - Written by Diana
Holiday Gifts for Cookerati Kids
December 21, 2008 - Written by Diana
