House Party, HSN and me

Over the last three years, I've been blessed to host nine different House Party events. If you aren't familiar with House Party, they are a marketing company that puts new products and information in your hands to share with your friends. It's the opposite of the traditional home party, your friends leave with free items, coupons, etc. They always send you a little something to keep for yourself as the host too. If you haven't yet, please visit their site for yourself and see if there is a party that you'd like to apply to host. Don't be discouraged if you aren't chosen often, eventually you will be what they are looking for as a host.

A few weeks ago, I hosted another House Party event for Philadelphia Cooking Creme and GreenPan cookware. They sent another fun party pack filled with goodies for my guests, along with a GreenPan stainless skillet for me to use at my party and keep. I was really excited to have been chosen. An email came in asking if I would be willing to Skype with HSN and Chef Todd English during my upcoming event. I sent them a couple of photos of my kitchen, and thought that I could surely pop my computer open and Skype for a few minutes. House Party has been good to me over the years, it was the least I could do. Well, it ended up being a bit more. First there was an interview and then a rehearsal with HSN, both via Skype. They told me what not to wear and how to get everything ready. Where to put my laptop, and asked me to please not use the tablecloth I had used during the rehearsal. I had a little bit of nervousness and excitement. Excitement because I have two sisters that live in Oregon, and they'd get to watch and see our family and friends. When the producer arrived with her stack of release forms for my friends, it seemed real. My guests were caught up in the fun and recorded the show at home too. We were on the air off and on for an hour.


Before the excitement started, I made several pizzas with pre-made pizza crusts and the Philadelphia Cooking Creme so that my guests would have something to try before I cooked with HSN. Their favorite was one that I threw together. The easiest recipe ever:

1 pre-baked pizza crust (I used Mama Mary's)
1/2 c. Savory Garlic Philadelphia Cooking Creme
2 slices crumbled bacon
1/4 c. chopped spinach (frozen, thawed, drained and squeezed dry)
1/2 c. shredded mozzarella cheese

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Spread pizza crust with cooking creme, sprinkle with remaining ingredients and bake for about 10 minutes or until the shredded cheese melts.

I've used the skillet a lot since then and still love it. I like that it doesn't contain or release any harmful chemicals in it's non-stick finish. We've used the cooking creme since then too. I can see that it will help make my life a little easier once football season hits us. There is another House Party event that I've just applied for too. My friends and family are the best. I can't wait for another excuse to have them all over.

Local Strawberry Heaven!

We are blessed to live right down the road from the winter strawberry capital of the world, Plant City, FL. My husband grew up on these beautiful berries, and no matter where the USMC sent him, he could always tell if he was eating a Plant City berry. He knows the difference between a Sweet Charlie and a Camarosa strawberry. Whenever we go picking, the variety of berry is important to him. He never met a local strawberry that he didn't like, but because of his family's background in local agriculture, he likes to know. We love to watch the process of the planting and growing season, pray for the crops when the hard winter freezes hit and wait to see just how good the next strawberry season will be.

Last year saw an especially hard winter for our berry farmers, and a mix of conditions led to a market that wasn't particularly favorable for them. We saw an early U-Pick season, where many fields could be picked for free. We repeatedly harvested berries from a local field and paid a whopping quarter for each quart. By the end of last season we had picked over seventy quarts, freezing many berries for smoothies and shortcake. Then there was the jam. I'm not certain how many batches we made, but it was more than ever before in one season. My husband's sweet Granny taught me how to make jam (always one batch at a time) going on a dozen years ago. She could make something out of nothing, but jam is something she is famous for in the family. I'm so thankful for the blessing of learning from her.

This weekend, we've done just a little strawberry picking. Most have gone into the freezer, but we did make some strawberry milkshakes and a new recipe. Last night I tried my hand at baking a strawberry quick bread. I couldn't find a recipe that made sense to me, so this is the one that I came up with. Surprisingly, it came out nicely.




Strawberry Bread
4 c. fresh strawberries, sliced and some slightly mashed
4 eggs
¼ c. olive oil (traditional, NOT extra virgin)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 c. sugar, divided
3 ½ c. all purpose flour
1 ¼ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. freshly grated nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two loaf pans. In a medium bowl, stir together strawberries, eggs, oil, vanilla and ½ c. of the sugar. Stir until the eggs are completely combined. In a large bowl add all dry ingredients (including remaining 1 ½ c. sugar). Mix dry ingredients together thoroughly. Stir strawberry mixture into dry ingredients, just until combined. Divide batter between greased loaf pans. Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 1 hour, or until crust turns golden brown and passes the toothpick test. Remove from pans and cool on wire racks.

If you try this yourself, please don't be scared if you check the bread while it's baking and it's a scary grayish color. By the time it's done, it's nice and pretty brown. Trust me.

Wearing of the GREEN!

Being of primarily Polish descent, I lived my life without giving St. Patrick's Day much thought. Until my bright boy turned five and decided that he was very Irish (which he is actually just a little bit). I took him to a local St. Patrick's Day celebration and parade, which took place on the Saturday before the holiday. Three days later, he awakened to a new green striped shirt for him to wear to school (no one would be pinching my boy) with great disappointment. "Where are the decorations, where is my celebration?" He was really sad that I skipped over his holiday. That's where it started. The next year, after he went to bed, I decorated everything that wasn't moving. He even found green water in the toilet that morning. I had watched for sales and purchased every over-the-top Irish looking decoration that I could find. He was thrilled. I was too. This was fun.

So that's where it started. Over the years, we've had huge parties and small parties with green bread and corned beef. I've bought Irish butter, Irish cheese and shamrock shaped everything. This holiday has become a part of us. I'm still not Irish, that I know of (there's a story there), but have come to enjoy the celebration. These are a couple of photos of my smiling boy when he was still small and some of our more subdued decorations. The explosion of green won't happen until the big day.