Bloggers Bake for Hope: Let the Bidding Begin!

Hi friends!  In the spirit of paying things forward, I decided at the 11th hour to participate in a virtual bake sale fundraiser.  It's called Blogger's Bake for Hope.  Bake for Hope is a week long, nation-wide, 100% volunteer-run, bake sale event happening, the week leading up to Mother's Day. Proceeds donated to local Susan G. Komen for the Cure affiliates.

Bloggers Bake for Hope is a virtual bake sale. Bloggers donate their time, ingredients, and shipping costs so there are no expenses associated with this virtual bake sale. All proceeds from the bake sale will be sent to the Massachusetts Komen for the Cure.

Jen and Cara, two Boston area food bloggers and fellow What's Cooking Nesties have teamed up for a project called Bloggers Bake for Hope, a virtual bake sale as part of Bake for Hope. Jen serves up sweets at Beantown Baker, while Cara shares healthy, creative dinners at Cara’s Cravings.

The virtual bake sale will take place on May 4-6, 2011. Bloggers and bakers from across the country will agree in advance to donate baked goods. Buyers will make virtual pledges on the Bloggers Bake for Hope site, and at the close of the bake sale the highest bidders will be awarded the donated baked goods. They will make their donations via PayPal, and the bakers will then bake and ship their goods. Because the bakers are donating their ingredients, time, and shipping costs, there are no expenses associated with the virtual bake sale. 100% of the proceeds will be donated to the Massachusetts Komen for the Cure. Jen and Cara are challenging their fellow bakers and bloggers to help them raise $2000 through Bloggers Bake for Hope.

I wasn't sure what to contribute to the bake sale or if I should even participate.  I mean, how embarrassing would it be if nobody bid on my item?   And, I've never shipped cookies before so what if they all arrive broken or something?  The latter was easier to grasp.  There are so many resources on how to ship cookies it's a bit overwhelming but I'll figure it out.  As for whether I should join in the sale and what to bake.  Well, that was taken care of by polling my fans on my blog facebook page.  The answer of what to bake was clear by a 2-to-1 margin!  Grasshopper Cookie Bars.

Unfortunately after reading elsewhere on the website my assumption that as long as I submitted before the sale began was wrong and I realized that I missed the submission deadline (4/30) :(.  So, you won't be able to bid on these babies in this virtual bake sale.  Still, please visit Blogger's Bake for Hope and bid on the MANY delicious baked goods for sale!  I have my eye on the truffles and Cara's rice crispies.  What about you?

PS: I'll still take orders on those Grasshopper Cookie Bars and anything else if anyone's interested. ;)

Product Review/Gift Idea: Custom Cookbooks from Tastebook

Are you still looking for the perfect gift for your mom, grandma, sister, friend, or just someone that plain loves to cook?  If so, I have to highly recommend a custom cookbook company called Tastebook.

I ordered this product for my mom and mother-in-law for Mother's Day this past year.  They aren't the most computer literate people but wanted copies of the recipes I was sharing online.  This was the perfect way to capture some of my favorites from this blog as well as to organize family recipes.  If you don't want to enter your own recipes, Tastebook also has pre-made themed books or you can select individual recipes from favorite sources like Food Network, Epicurious, and Food and Wine.

The books start at $19.99 (up to $34.99) and come in a very attractive hardcover binder that can include up to 100 vibrant colored pages and has dividers. The price is very reasonable given the quality (far exceeded my expectations!) and that a regular cookbook will run this much anyway.  You can add/move around the pages to your hearts content. You can also buy a book with 100 pages and create it with say 50 recipes. The recipient would then get 50 page credits to add their own recipes later.

Checkout my book here as an example to get your creative juices flowing and making your own (or, flatter me and actually buy my book!)

The Cincinnati Nest/Bump Cookie Exchange

You know what the beauty of cookie exchanges are?  You make a big batch of one type of cookie and then you come home with the same size batch of a bunch of DIFFERENT types of cookies!  They're perfect for when you want to set out a holiday platter for guests or the office but don't want to slave in the kitchen all day making many types of treats.

This year I finally made it out to meet some of the ladies from the local Nest and Bump boards.  I've been a member of the online community and chatting with some of these ladies since my wedding planning days on The Knot like 4 years ago.  So, it was nice to finally meet some of them IRL (in real life...for those that don't know the lingo!).  They were as awesome as can be and it wasn't nearly as awkward meeting "strangers" as you'd think.  Then again, since Chris and I met online, the whole meeting people from online concept is not at all foreign to me!

I brought Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Truffles to the exchange.  Believe me, Chris had a hard time letting me take those away from him since he loves them so much.  Thankfully, the ladies loved them just as much.  My personal favorite so far is the White Chocolate Macademia Nut.  It's not at all Holiday but what can I say?  It's just my favorite cookie of all time and therefore good anytime of the year!  In all, there were probably 30+ different cookies that were exchanged.  You better believe that these cookies are being shared with others because we certainly don't need them all for ourselves!  The recipes from all the cookies are being compiled by one of our awesome coordinators this week but for now, I'll post a picture for you to salivate over.  Mmmm...cookies!

PS:  Did I mention that we're doing a Dinner Club cookie exchange this weekend, too?!  Yeah.  Hello lardy.

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

We're still getting over the sugar rush of Halloween and the turkeys haven't even gone out for slaughter yet for Thanksgiving but by golly it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! 

I am amazed year after year how the Christmas season seems to extend itself to be earlier and earlier.  I think I saw Christmas goods for sale at the beginning of OCTOBER and some radio stations have already switched over to 24/7 Christmas music.  Don't get me wrong.  I *love* Christmas music and all things Christmas but I also love paying each holiday its due respect, first.

Anyway, it may not exactly be Christmas time yet but I bet you ARE starting to think about mailing out your holiday cards soon, right?  Well you're in luck because this year, Shutterfly is offering bloggers 50 FREE photocards from their 2010 Holiday Card Collection!  It doesn't matter what kind of blog you have, you just need to have one (or sign up for one now using a site such as blogger or my old original blogspace, livejournal).  It's free to sign up for a blog and free to get beautiful photocards so you get to show off how fantastic you look :).

It's not clear yet to me what type of cards you get (folded or flat) but either way Edit: Duh, read the fine print!  There's always fine print!  This one says "Bloggers are eligible to receive 50 holiday cards. Free cards are for 5×7 folded or flat stationery cards. Offer ends December 31, 2010. Taxes, shipping and handling will apply". 

I like to send out photocards to our friends and family when we have a major life change. In the past this has been getting married and buying our first house together. This year, I want our card to feature our new family addition. No, not a baby...we're not there yet...unless you count FUR babies :). That's right, our cutie beagle Toby is going to be gracing our Christmas cards with us this year and all thanks to this promotion.  I've had great success using Shutterfly to share photos online but I also really like their wall calendars and photo books.  I've used their photobooks for everything from graduation guestbooks to wedding albums for our parents.  They're so versatile and very easy to create your own storybooks.  Since I'm a sucker for art (and have TONS of pictures I still need to print!), I might even try their canvas wall art sometime, too.


Now back to the cards.  They have some pretty photocard designs and the possibilities are endless!


I think I like this one best!  Very sophistacated and pretty.

This one is bold and modern.

And I like the use of traditional colors and fun heading text in this one.

So there's a few ideas to get you started.  Time to get your own because bloggers get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly, follow the arrow! -->  http://bit.ly/sfly2010

Now to find the perfect picture and design for ours...

Enjoy and shout out to Jes at Bleu Dress for blogging about this so that I could share it with you!

Disclosure: I am being compensated with 50 free photocards from Shutterfly by participating in this program.

Mmmm...BACON!!!

This isn't one recipe but OVER ONE HUNDRED recipes on how to use bacon in all things savory or sweet.  I saw this shared on my brother's friend's facebook and had to cross-share it with my Dinner Club friends.  We do a different theme every month and we often joke that one day, we should have a bacon themed dinner.  I'm pretty sure this blogpost is driving us one step closer to that...

Here's a little photo teaser...

Check out all the delicious recipes and photos for 100 Ways to Use a Strip of Bacon at the Endless Simmer.  Just try not to drool on your keyboard, okay?

PS: Taking requests on something to make with bacon.  Leave a comment!

Foodie Blog Roll

I've added my favorite food blogs to the list on the right.  I am much inspired by these blogs and hope you will be too!  Please feel free to add me to your food blog roll and if you think you have a Food Blog that you think i'd enjoy, please leave a comment so I can check you out!