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Next Food Network Star!

Jennifer — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 17:11:10 +0000

Yeah Aarti!!! Through the whole season I was hoping she would win. They always mentioned her as a food blogger, but I had actually never been to her site before this weekend. And in the “About Her” page, they mentioned some things about her that they never mentioned during the show.

She went to Northwestern University and got a degree in broadcasting/television news and actually worked for CNN news producing stories on major headlines, the economy and financial markets. After she got married and moved to LA, she didn’t have a job, so she started cooking and even had her own Cooking Show on You Tube from her tiny LA kitchen. You can find those at www.youtube.com/aartipaarti.

Her husband noticed how much she enjoyed cooking and talked her into enrolling in cooking school where she attended The New School of Cooking in California and completed a culinary program there.

She also had an internship at Lucques restaurant, a James Beard Award Winning restaurant. And she also started taking improv classes and by doing that she became more adventurous in her kitchen making her own recipes, or tweaking her families recipes.

So, it is surprising that none of that came up during the show! They always said Food Blogger like it was just some hobby and she was an at home cook.

Either way, I was happy that she won. Today is her first day on the job and her show will air next week already.

You can visit her blog HERE

Did you watch this seasons Show and if so, who did you want to win??

It’s my daughter Claire’s 7th birthday today!

Jennifer — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 15:02:37 +0000

Here are pics from over the years. The one at the top was when she was about 14 months old. The second one is when she was two. The third picture is Mark, Claire and Paul overlooking Lake Michigan from the Children’s museum at Navy Pier, and the next one was when she was 3 at her first dance recital, the next picture is when she was 4 at her second dance recital, Claire and her cousin Rachel at their cousins wedding, summer of 2007, Claire in the bathtub swimming and the last picture was taken summer of 2008 in Lake Michigan. It’s a school day today, which meant getting up a little earlier, so she could open all her presents. Her older brother Mark has the chicken pox, so our birthday plans have to be adjusted a little. We were going to go out for pizza, her older brother Paul has an orchestra concert tonight, the grandmas are meeting us there and we are going out for ice cream. Mark will have to miss the concert, and we are ordering in pizza. A few years ago, Claire’s Aunt Joan, her godmother (or gosh momma as we like to call her) gave Claire a cupcake book. Its more like a deck of cards that has a bunch of fantastic cupcake recipes in them. They are not that figure friendly, but since its my baby’s birthday, I may splurge a little bit. I made these cupcakes for her which she helped decorate.Cupcakes:

1 1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup sour cream

Line a muffin tin with cupcake liners
Sift the flour, baking powder, banking soda, and salt into a medium bowl and set aside.
In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, beat the egg, egg yolk and sugar until thickened and lightened, about 2 minutes.
On low speed, mix in the oil and vanilla. Mix in the sour cream and then the flour until the mixture is smooth.
Fill each muffin tin with 1/4 cup of the batter.
Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes, or until the top is firm and a toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting.

I ended up just using store bought icing, but if you have the time you can use this frosting recipe:

1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
3 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3-4 tablespoons of milk
3 tablespoons of sprinkles, candies, nonpareils, or chopped chocolate

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on low speed, beat the butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla together with 3 tablespoons of milk.
Add up to one more tablespoon of milk, if needed to form a creamy spreadable frosting.
Once the cupcakes have cooled, spread the frosting, add the sprinkles and you are all set!

Happy Birthday Claire Bear!!

Lunch with Roni!

Jennifer — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 22:28:06 +0000

I had the pleasure today of having lunch with Roni from www.ronisweigh.com and www.greenlitebites. She could not have been nicer! We met at Water Tower Place at Mity Nice Grill. It was me, my sister, my niece and two other fantastic women, so I was glad it was a small group so we could actually have a conversation with her. For those of you who don’t know, Roni lost 70 pounds on Weight Watchers and has kept it off for several years. Her site is inspirational because in the beginning, you follow her weight loss and in the subsequent years, you learn how she balances being a Mom, working full time and trying to eat healthy and stay at goal. You feel like you really get to know her threw her blog because she not only posts recipes, but also video tapes making some of her recipes with her son. She gave us lots of tips on food blogging, how to advertise, and other great ideas she has used over the years. She was invited on behalf of Quaker Oats Company to come to Chicago for a conference this weekend. She and about 20 other food bloggers from around the country were invited. Other sites such as www.katheats.com, www.backinskinnyjeans.com and www.eatliverun.com andwww.pastaqueen.com to name a few. They were treated like queens by Quaker Oats, they were given great gift bags and they learned a lot about Oatmeal and about women’s health in general as well as new products like a pancake mix which is coming out in January. We had about a 3 hour lunch with non-stop talking about blogging, food choices, health and how everyone fits in blogging in their every day lives. It was a great afternoon! Thanks for lunch Roni!