Last spring, I was contacted by my friend Ricky Ly of TastyChomps.com to contribute a recipe to his new book the Food Lovers’ Guide to Orlando. I was so excited and knew that the very first recipe I wanted to have published in print was my Grandmother’s Potato Salad. Although my grandma did not live in Florida she sure did know how to make a potato salad that wasn’t full of mayonaise and wouldn’t spoil at parties! Perfect recipe to contribute to a Florida centered book!
I know my Grandma is looking down on me–so incredibly proud. Proud to know that one of her recipes was the first recipe I ever got published in print.
So without further ado. I would like to share with you an interview I conducted with Ricky about his brand new book: Food Lovers’ Guide to Orlando. Whether you live in Central Florida or are just visiting this book is a wonderful resource to have on hand.
To find more about this book and to purchase visit Amazon.com.
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. I received one book to review and keep in compensation for providing a recipe for the book. As always all opinions are my own.
This pitcher is perfect for brewing and infusing hot or cold beverages like tea! My husband is a big tea drinker and being that we live in the South tea is kind of a staple. But don’t worry–if you aren’t into drinking tea… you can infuse fresh fruit flavors into water, infuse mint or lavender into lemonade, or chilling mojitos for entertaining. I can’t wait to make a batch of my Peach Mojitos during the hot summer months and use the Primula® Flavor It™ Beverage System! I also see quite a few other mojitos in my future… and sangria. Well, you can tell. The sky is the limit!
Look how slim this pitcher is… it fits into my refrigerator door freeing up precious refrigerator space!
A few features and benefits about the lovely Primula® Flavor It™ Beverage System:
BPA-free Tritan material
2.9 quart pitcher
dishwasher safe
scratch resistant
shatter proof
stain resistant
fits into a standard refrigerator door
no-spill locking lid
The beverage system includes:
Flavor Infuser - can be filled with fresh fruit, herbs, or spices to lend intriguing flavor notes to water, tea, punch, and more. Creating a multitude of beverage options from cucumber lime drinks to blueberry iced tea, to sangria and more.
Stainless Steel Tea Infuser – designed to brew loose tea or ground coffee, either hot or cold. The infuser’s filter sits low in the pitcher, accommodating small quantities as well as a full pitcher.
Chill Core – filled with non-toxic gel, it is better than ice because it keeps the beverage cool without diluting the flavor.
On to the giveaway! One lucky reader will receive a Primula® Flavor It™ Beverage System. Giveaway closes on 2/2/2013. Open to US Residents, 18 years of age or older. Please wait for the Rafflecopter widget to load. If it does not load, please click on the “a Rafflecopter giveaway” link below.
Living in the South, tea is a staple. Well, sweet tea that is. Being that I’ve lived in the South for almost half my life I consider myself a southerner. However, I’m totally ok with drinking unsweetened tea (gasp! I know). My husband on the other hand doens’t discriminate. He loves the sweet tea, and he loves flavored teas. So when Primula reached out to me and asked if I would do a product review and giveaway for the Flavor It Pitcher 3-in-1 Beverage System, because I knew that this was something my husband would love. And he might actually make a few brews of his own.
The Magimix by Robot-Coupe Food Processor Juice Extractor & Smoothie Attachment is ideal for making fresh juices for recipes that call for them like sorbets. This attachment allows you to extract juices from fruits and vegetables without having to peel or de-seed fruits and vegetables.
A few specs:
Ideal for making creamy all-natural smoothies and juices.
Efficiently processes juice for jams, jellies, sorbets and soups.
Works with standard fruits like citrus, and includes a funnel for soft fruits such as strawberries and bananas.
Includes a heavy-duty juice extractor basket and a unique paddle.
For use with Magimix food processors.
Top-rack dishwasher safe.
Made in France.
Here is what I thought about my new attachment.
Pros: Easy to use and very versatile! The Cons: Although dishwasher safe the extractor is still hard to clean. Even though it’s hard to clean I have used this attachment at least every other day since receiving it over a month ago!
So let’s talk about the giveaway. One lucky reader will receive a Magimix by Robot-Coupe Food Processor Juice Extractor & Smoothie Attachment. Please wait for the rafflecopter to load, enter at least the minimum entry for a chance to win. This giveaway is open to United States residents ages 18 and up. Giveaway will close at 12:01 am on 1/20/2013. Estimated retail value $80.
I’m so excited to share this awesome giveaway with everyone today! SILPAT® contacted me last month to do a product review and giveaway. I was so excited to finally get to see what all the fuss is about. I’ve read about SILPAT® on various blogs, but never tried it out. WOAH! Let me tell you what I’ve been missing in my life… a SILPAT®! Seriously, guys. If you don’t own one… run (don’t walk) to your nearest store and buy one or two or maybe even three! Or you can always enter to win a SILPAT® & Roul’Pat® here.
Today, I’m excited to share with you a giveaway that is perfect for entertaining during the holidays! When BigKitchen.com contacted me and asked me to do a product review and giveaway I couldn’t resist. Then I spent about 5 million hours (ok, maybe I’m exaggerating) on their website browsing through the endless amounts of cooking gadgets, tools, appliances, etc… After spending a good portion of my morning deciding what I wanted to review (and most importantly) giveaway to one lucky reader I realized that I didn’t have a roasting pan and the holidays were quickly approaching! Since I’m now the one hosting Thanksgiving and Christmas each year for my family I kind of felt that it was time to get a roasting pan! Since I’m in love with all things KitchenAid I figured the KitchenAid Gourmet Distinctions Stainless Steel 16 inch Roaster with Rack was perfect!
Product Features
KitchenAid Gourmet Distinctions Stainless Steel Roaster with Rack
Durable stainless steel for long-lasting beauty and luster
Included v-rack allows you to conveniently lift out of the pan with ease
Elegant design can use from the oven to your table
Oven safe up to 500 degrees F
Use for Induction, Gas, Solid Plate, Radiant Ring, Ceramic, Halogen
Manufacturer provide lifetime limited warranty
Dishwasher safe
Can I just tell you how beautiful this roaster looked in my oven! It’s large enough to hold two 5-6 pound turkey breast, but not too large to take up my entire oven space! Let’s face it. That is important to consider when you are hosting and cooking multiple dishes in the oven. Oh, and it is super easy to clean. I’ve only hand-washed my roaster only because I would like to fit all the dishes in my dishwasher!
Now on to the fun part… one lucky winner will receive this very same KitchenAid Gourmet Distinctions Stainless Steel Roaster with Rack thanks to the wonderful people over at BigKitchen.com. Please wait for the Rafflecopter widget to load. Fill out the mandatory entry to be eligible to win. If you don’t see your comment appear right away please don’t panic. I need to approve all comments and that could take up to 24-hours. Giveaway ends 12/15/2012 so make sure you enter before the giveaway is closed!
Disclaimer: I received a KitchenAid Gourmet Distinctions Stainless Steel Roaster with Rack to review and keep as well as giveaway one to a lucky reader! I was not compensated to review this product. As always all opinions are my own.
Every now and then I’m looking for a quick dinner to make. One that is semi-homemade and comes with a little added help in the kitchen. Before I left for Europe I was contacted by Progresso to try the new Progresso™ Recipe Starters™. I love Progresso™ soups so I had a feeling I would like this new product. The box arrived while I was on vacation which was perfect timing because I knew once I was home I was going to have a lot of busy days ahead of me and I would need quick meals to make.
The past week has been beyond hectic for me so I had planned to give the Progresso™ Recipe Starters™ creamy roasted garlic with chicken stock sauce a try. What I love about these sauces is that a typical serving size for one 18 ounce can is 4-8 servings! That means you can really stretch the dollar a long way. They have 5 new sauces; Creamy Parmesan Basil, Creamy Portabella Mushroom, Fire Roasted Tomato, Creamy Roasted Garlic, Creamy Three Cheese. I’m not gonna lie. I expected to see goopy sludge like sauce come out of the can, but too my surprise it was “soup” like… a nice consistency and not difficult to remove from the can. Then again, this is Progresso™ who made this new and exciting product! So the next time you are stuck in a dinner time rut, head over to the new Progresso™ Recipe Starters™ page and browse through the 80+ recipes they have on hand!
2 tbsp Old El Paso® taco seasoning mix (from 1-oz package)
1 can (18 oz) Progresso™ Recipe Starters™ creamy roasted garlic with chicken stock cooking sauce
1 cup water
1 can (15 oz) Progresso® black beans, drained, rinsed
1 cup frozen corn
1 tomato, diced
Cilantro, Green Onions, sliced olives and Cheese for topping
Directions
Using a 12-inch skillet, heat 1 tablespoon vegetable oil over medium-high heat until hot. Sprinkle chicken breasts with salt and pepper to taste. Cook the chicken in oil for 4 to 5 minutes or until browned, turning once. Remove from skillet; cover to keep warm.
Add rice and taco seasoning mix to skillet and stir to mix well. Stir in cooking sauce and 1 cup water. Heat to boiling; cook 5 minutes (stirring frequently). Stir in beans and frozen corn; heat to boiling.
Return the chicken to skillet. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for about 20 to 25 minutes or until liquid is absorbed, rice is tender and juice of chicken is clear when center of thickest part is cut (at least 165°F). During the last 5 minutes of cooking add the diced tomato into the skillet. Mix well.
Serve each person 1-2 chicken strips with a hearty helping of rice and beans. Sprinkle cilantro, green onion, and shredded cheddar cheese over the plate, and top with a few slicked black olives. Enjoy!
I’m so excited to share this giveaway with my readers today. Some people may be like… huh? It’s just a zester and graters. No, no, no–these just aren’t any zester and graters. These are EdgeWare Graters & the Better Zester and they are all handheld. I don’t know about you, but I use to hate grating and zesting just about everything. Not only was the traditional grater daunting and let’s face it scary, but it takes up tons of room. When I mention scary I mean the fact that the blades are just out in the open. I love that EdgeWare provides plastic shields for storage. So if your reaching in a cabinet or drawer you aren’t going to cut yourself (as long as you have the shield on).
I’ve had a love/hate relationship with zesting for years. I hated zesting anything because the contents of my lemon, lime, nutmeg, etc would get everywhere. No matter how hard I tried to contain it in just one area.
Meet the V-etched Better Zester! This is a new zester that EdgeWare debuted earlier this year. This zester is made up of over 300 tiny “V-shaped” teeth.
In my opinion, what makes this zester so darn amazing… it has what EdgeWare calls the “fresh zest” storage container with squeegee. So as you are zesting you don’t need to worry about gathering the fresh zest because it is all being captures in the storage container! Genius!!! The built in squeegee helps remove the moist zest from the back of the blade as you slowly remove the storage container.
Before I received the graters from EdgeWare, I had to resort to a big box grater that was always a pain in the you-know-what to use. Since I cook with quite a bit of Parmesan and Pecorino Romano cheese I’m constantly having to grate it. I love using the hand-held V-etched Fine Grater. It is perfect for grating hard cheeses!
Please fill out the rafflecopter widget below for multiple chances to win a set of 4 EdgeWare Graters and Zesters. If you do not see your coment appear right away it is because it needs to be approved. Please try not to leave duplicate comments. This giveaway is open to United States residents only. Giveaway will close 9/21/2012 at 12:01 AM. One winner will be chosen at random using random.org and notified via email. If the email is not returned within 3 days another winner will be chosen.
Disclaimer: I received a set of graters and zester to review and use from EdgeWare. One lucky winner chosen at random will receive the same. I was not compensated to write this post. All opinions are my own.
I am a marketing profesional by day and one thing I know how to do is market a brand. Katie’s Cucina is my own personal brand and when I went to Food Blog Forum in March I created a shirt to wear for the conference to essentially market my brand. However, I wasn’t happy with the design I chose. I simply used my logo in my header of my blog. It was small and a tad bit off centered and let’s face it no one could read my shirt. After Food Blog Forum the lovely people at Fibers.com reached out to me and asked me if I would like to review their product. Since I was yurning to create a more catchy design I agreed to the task. I got with my friend Sarah, who designed my new logo, and with a little brainstorming we came up with the large spoon concept! I wanted to make sure that everyone could read Katie’s Cucina!
The longest part of the process was on my end–getting the actual design of the shirt created. Using Fibers.com is super simple they have a wide variety of already designed t-shirts created. If I wasn’t creating my own shirt I would total rock this Bacon is Meat Candy shirt!
Fibers.com also has the option to customize your own shirt (as you have seen in the above pictures). That’s the option I went with. You simply chose the style shirt, the color and size and upload your logo! Simple as that! If you don’t have a logo to upload don’t fret. They have templates you can chose from, images, fonts, and effects you can chose to place over your images and text!
I went with a traditional women’s T-shirt in light blue. If you follow me on Facebook you might remember me asking earlier in the month what color shirt I should pick. The options were all over the place, and ultimately I went with the light blue. I seriously love ALL the colors! And I love the fit–its a traditional T-shirt that isn’t paper thin and see through!
I’m excited to give one lucky winner a $30 credit to Fibers.com where you can get a Katie’s Cucina shirt if you chose, or a predesigned shirt or best of all–design your own shirt. Please fill out rafflecopter below for multiple chances to win!
I live in Florida and in the summer months, it’s hot. All I want to do is stay cool whether it be staying inside soaking up air conditioning or eating ice cream. I want to stay cool. It’s my goal every summer. When I first received the Beat This! Cookbook from the Trade Division at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt I book marked quite a few recipes. One of the recipes I book marked just happened to be this Strawberry Gelato. I was intrigued by this recipe not only because it sounded delicious, but because it contained not one egg!
I also liked the fact that after you cooked the milk mixture you placed the pot into an ice bath, whisked it like a mad person until the cream mixture became thick and chilled. Of course then there is mulling the strawberries to remove the seeds… no fun, but totally worth all the effort. Who wants to eat a bowl full of tiny seeds? Not me! As you can tell from the picture above… this is what my kitchen looked like while working on this recipe. *This recipe calls for citric acid as an optional ingredient. I did not use this only because I could not find it any where in town. I would have had to order it and for the 1/8 tsp it just didn’t make any sense. I took a chance and didn’t use it and everything worked out just fine!
I was happy at the fact that I didn’t have to chill the milk mixture prior to freezing in my KitchenAid Ice Cream attachment. My milk mixture was chilled enough to the point that I was able to throw it right into the machine. After 20 minutes (which is my recommended time with my machine) it was thicker and I was actually able to have a few spoonfuls before packaging it in a air-tight container and letting it freeze a few more hours.
I’ll be the first to admit. I’m not a huge fan of Strawberry Ice Cream. I love strawberries by them self, but not it’s ice cream counter part. I dished out small little bowls of gelato for my husband and I. We sat on the couch swooning over this gelato–bite-by-bite. We even were tempted to get seconds at 9:00 at night! Which is not something we would normally do. This gelato is so incredibly creamy and full of flavor it would be a crime to not try this recipe if you own an ice cream maker!
*Make sure you visit the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Trade Blog. They highlight new books being published, authors, coworker spotlights, and of course share recipes like the one I’m sharing with you today!
Republished with Permission from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt: Beat This! Cookbook
2 tbsp unsweetened pomegranate juice or unsweetened 100% cranberry juice
*1/8 tsp citric acid
Directions
In a heavy, nonreactive saucepan, stir together the sugar and cornstarch. Whisk in the milk and cream over low heat and whisk constantly until the mixture just reaches a boil -- 5 to 8 minutes or so. Set the saucepan into a large baking dish, pack ice cubes around it and add some water to the ice. Stir frequently until the mixture is as cold as you think it's likely to get.
In a food processor, puree the strawberries. Stirring hard, pass the puree through a fine sieve into the chilled custard. Stir in the salt and the red juice of your choice. If you want, taste the mixture to see if it would benefit from a little citric acid.
Refrigerate the mixture for at least 4 hours or overnight. I do this in the fridge, but of course you can keep using the baking-dish-full-of-ice method if you have unlimited ice.
Churn the batter in an ice cream maker "according to the manufacturer's instructions." And then, unfortunately you have to pack it into an airtight container and freeze it for at least 3 more hours before it's at its best.
Notes
*The prep time is so long because I include the "chilling" portion of the gelato in the prep time.
This recipe is brought to you by Katie Jasiewicz of Katies Cucina
Disclosure: I received this cookbook for free from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Trade and Reference Publishers. They did not pay me to write this review nor did they tell me what to say. My opinions are my own, and do not reflect the publisher in any way.
I'm Katie Jasiewicz: home cook, food blogger, and recipe developer. I’ve always had a love for cooking, and more so in the past few years a love for eating!
Join me on a culinary adventure where life always tastes good. {more}
I'm Katie Jasiewicz: home cook, food blogger, and recipe developer. I’ve always had a love for cooking, and more so in the past few years a love for eating!
Join me on a culinary adventure where life always tastes good. 
