Standing under the golden arches

Yeah, this is cool. McDonald’s flew a posse of bloggers and their families (all members of the BlogHer publishing network) to corporate headquarters just outside of Chicago and we get to spend the rest of the week getting behind-the-counter peeks, talking with McDonald’s execs, giving lots of feedback, having fun, and visiting the Ronald McDonald House charity.

The girls are just tickled pink, and so are TubaDad and I actually. These folks sure know how to make families feel welcome. Whooooeeeee! More details to come later – all the bloggers will be writing full reviews about our experiences, questions, and feedback (the good and the bad) in July. In the meantime, here are a few sneak preview pictures.

(Ro brown shirt, Ree pink and white striped shirt)

Another winner in the Pop-Tarts giveaway

Well I didn't hear back from the first winner in 48 hours, so I had to draw a new winner for the BlogHer $100 visa gift card. We had 332 entries spread over both Pop-Tarts posts, and Random.org drew #91, which was this comment on the first post:

Lori A. said...
We love to have eggs, bacon, biscuits & gravy! Yum! ljatwood at gmail dot com

Congratulations Lori!!

I'll be emailing a winner's announcement right now, and Lori you've got 48 hours to respond or I'll have to draw a new winner.

Winner Pop-Tarts giveaway

I've drawn a winner in the Pop-Tarts $100 Visa giftcard giveaway. We had 206 entries on the first post and 126 on the second post, for a total of 332 entries. I used random.org to draw a winner, and the site chose #169, which was this comment:

McCurdysZoo said...
We love waffles!! Especially oatmeal waffles!
April 5, 2010 3:56 PM

Congratulations!

The winner has an email address listed in her profile, so I'll be emailing her shortly.

Cheers, and thanks for all the fun entries. You guys sure made me hungry!

Review and giveaway: A Salsa in China Pop-Tarts recipe (yipes!)

This is a compensated review by BlogHer and Kellogg’s® Pop-Tarts® Toaster Pastries.

For the second part of our Pop-Tarts review (see the first part here), we were asked to make up our own recipe using any flavor of Kellogg’s® Pop-Tarts® Toaster Pastries and serve it to our families for breakfast. Yipes. I am SO not a fantastic cook... But that's ok, I am creative, and my helpers were very enthusiastic (they always are). It doesn't hurt that they've been big Pop-Tarts fans from a very early age. Does anyone remember this picture? Awwwww.


Anyhow, our creation was Brown-Sugar Cinnamon Pop-Tarts Coffee Cake, and it actually turned out really well. Phew!! I thought that a nice coffee cake with frosted brown-sugar cinnamon Pop-Tarts sprinkled throughout and on the top might be just the ticket, so I looked at a whole bunch of coffee-cake recipes, and kind of adapted one that would fit what I pictured in my head. Here's what we did:


Preheated the oven to 350 degrees, then gathered these ingredients:

3/4 cup butter (softened), 1 1/2 cup sugar, 3 eggs, 1 1/2 tsp vanilla, 3 cups flour, 1 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/4 tsp salt, 1 1/2 cups sour cream (a 16 oz container), 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup finely chopped pecans, 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 6 frosted brown sugar cinnamon Pop-Tarts.

Combined the butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla together in a large bowl and beat it on medium speed for a couple of minutes. There was a little tussle over rights to the uber-cool mixer (there always is), so each girl got to take a turn (and our poor little batter got way overmixed, but who cares, everyone was happy):



Next, we added in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sour cream. Then beat it again until it made kind of a stiff dough. We set this bowl aside (and out of reach of sneaky little twin tongues and fingers) for a few minutes.

In another bowl, we made the filling (the good stuff!). Combined the brown sugar, pecans, cinnamon, and crumbled Pop-Tarts (Ro and Ree started cutting the crusts off on their own and tossing those parts out, and I kind of thought it was a good idea, so I let them have at it).



Now we spooned about a third of the batter (around 2 cups) into a greased bundt pan and sprinkled with about a third of the filling. Then repeated the batter-and-sprinkle layering two more times. (Fun fact: This bundt pan is an antique. It used to belong to my grandmother.) We ended up with a yummy-looking top that was completely covered with sprinkles.



Um, there was a quick pause for some "cleanup":


Then we baked it at 350-degrees for 50 to 60 minutes (it's done when a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean).


Hey that looks pretty good! Ree thought so too, because she couldn't wait until I was done to sneak a bite:


Everyone actually liked it, so yay me! TubaDad said "Hey that's good!":


Ro said "Dat's gwate!" (that's great):


And Ree said "Dat's awesome!":


Fun stuff. I liked it too. Next time I might even get a little wild and use cherry or blueberry Pop-Tarts for a little extra surprise in the middle!


The Giveaway: BlogHer has something special for you too! One lucky Salsa reader will win a $100 Visa giftcard. To enter, leave me a comment below and tell me your favorite family breakfast. The contest runs from 4/2-4/16/2010 and entries will be generated by this post and our previous Pop-Tarts review on 4/2. Make sure that your email addy is in your profile or that the e-mail address you leave is correct (feel free to use weird spaces and spell out "dot" or "at" or that sort of thing) so I have some way to contact you.

The Rules: Duplicate comments/entries will be deleted. You may receive an additional entry by blogging about this contest and leaving a link in the comments. This giveaway is open to US-residents only. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will notified by e-mail. You have 48 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected. Please see the official rules here. Check out the BlogHer.com special offers page to read other bloggers’ reviews—you've got seven other chances to win! For other recipes, and a full list of the flavors, take a peek at the Pop-Tarts website.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

COMMENTS FOR THIS GIVEAWAY ARE NOW CLOSED. I'LL DRAW THE WINNER AT RANDOM THIS EVENING AND WILL BE BACK TO POST THE WINNER.

Review and giveaway: Pop-Tarts Sprinkly Ice Cream Bites

This is a compensated review by BlogHer and Kellogg’s® Pop-Tarts® Toaster Pastries.

When our family was asked if we'd like to do a Pop-Tarts review, the kids practically pushed me away from the computer and typed "YES!!!" themselves. Heh. We kind of like Pop-Tarts around here. When we found out we'd get to sample a new flavor and try out an Easter recipe with it, well shoot you should have seen the grins.

A few days later, we heard a knock at the door and found an entire case of Strawberry Milkshake Pop-Tarts. The girls screamed and started jumping up and down singing "We have PopTarts... we have PopTarts!" over and over. It was kind of funny. Loud, but funny.

Anyhow, I think we were supposed to wait for recipe day to try the Pop-Tarts, but, um, it didn't happen. That box barely hit our foyer before it was ripped open and the girls were chewing. And man was that new flavor a hit.



On official recipe day, we printed out the directions for Sprinkly Ice Cream Bites from the Kellogg's web site and got right to work. (Ro is in the white sundress, and Ree is wearing the backwards yellow cardigan, in case you wondered.) This recipe has only three ingredients, and the girls could do everything themselves (always a bonus in our house).


Alrighty, here's what we did:

Grabbed a box of Strawberry Milkshake Pop-Tarts (hm, this case used to be full...):


Cut each of the Pop-Tarts into four pieces. The girls did this easily using butter knives. (Notice I said "easily" not prettily. Heh heh.):


Put a scoop of ice cream between two Pop-Tart pieces and squished it together:


Rolled the edges of each ice-cream sandwich in sprinkles:


Hey, not bad!:


Yeah, this looks pretty tasty:


Let's see:


Yummmmmm!:


How many do we get to eat? Hmmmm?:


The girls definitely liked the new Pop-Tarts, and the Sprinkly Ice Cream Bites recipe (in pretty pastels, just in time for Easter!). And I might have eaten one too. Ok it was two. Alright fine, it was three little ice cream sandwiches. Ahem.

This would be a really fun do-it-yourself dessert bar to have at a kid's party. You could put out a whole bunch of pre-cut Pop-Tarts in a wide variety of flavors, have little ice-cream balls that you had scooped out and frozen ahead of time (again in a variety of flavors), and a whole bunch of bowls of sprinkles. The kids would go crazy for these.

As Ro said on the video, "four thumbs up," one from each person in our family. :-)

The Giveaway: BlogHer has something special for you too! One lucky Salsa reader will win a $100 Visa giftcard. To enter, leave me a comment below and tell me your favorite family breakfast. The contest runs from 4/2-4/16/2010 and entries will be generated by this post and a subsequent one on 4/9 (the girls and I get to make up our own Pop-Tarts recipe next week—should be interesting!). Make sure that your email addy is in your profile, or the e-mail address you leave is correct (feel free to use weird spaces and spell out "dot" or "at" or that sort of thing) so I have some way to contact you.

The Rules: Duplicate comments/entries will be deleted. You may receive an additional entry by blogging about this contest and leaving a link in the comments. This giveaway is open to US-residents only. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will notified by e-mail. You have 48 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected. Please see the official rules here. Check out the BlogHer.com special offers page to read other bloggers’ reviews—you've got seven other chances to win! For other recipes, and a full list of the flavors, take a peek at the Pop-Tarts website.

Comments are now closed for this post and the rest of the comments for this two-part giveaway will be received at the Salsa in China Pop-Tarts recipe post directly above this one.

Winner announcement: Hershey's $100 giveaway

Happy New Year! The Hershey's $100 Visa gift card giveaway winner has been chosen. We had 268 entries that came in before end of day on 12/31, and I used random.org to select the winning #140.

Congratulations LStewart, your comment was the winning comment #140. Please email me and I'll have Blogher (the company that is running the giveway) send your prize out.

LStewarts comment was this one, and I think we're going to make that Monkey Bread in celebration:

LStewart said...
Easy Monkey Bread3 containers (8oz Tube) Refrigerated Biscuit Dough1 1/2 cup White Sugar, separated3 Tablespoons Cinnamon1/2 cup Butter or Margarine MeltedPreheat oven to 350 degreesMix together 3/4 cup sugar and cinnamonQuarter each biscuit using a pair of kitchen shears. Dip shears in water between each cut to keep the biscuit from getting too sticky.Dip biscuits into sugar/cinnamon mixture and place in a greased tub pan. Do this until all biscuits are used.Melt butter or margarine and mix in the remaining 3/4 cup sugar. I add any of the sugar/cinnamon mixture that may be left over too! Pour mixture over biscuits.Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes.Serve warm
December 10, 2009 1:43 PM

Hershey's Kisses and the holidays: recipe review and giveaway

This is a compensated review from BlogHer and Hershey's

When the chocolate makers at Hershey's were looking for some bloggers to turn their kitchens into test zones and then blog about it, I was a little dubious. But the twinados nearly died of excitement when I asked them about it, so we signed up. We were told to choose three Hershey's Kisses recipes from the official web site and then give them a whirl. Needless to say, the girls and I had radically different criteria when it came to choosing recipes. They were drawn toward the most colorful, most candy-per-inch items, while I leaned strongly toward the things that had the least number of ingredients and steps (anyone who has ever cooked with Ro and Ree will attest to my wisdom).

In the end, we settled on three mutually agreeable choices (Kisses Candy Twists, Double Chocolate Kisses Cookies, and Hershey's Hugs and Kisses Crescents), tied on some aprons, and away we went! It was lots of fun and I'm happy to report that the kitchen is still standing.

Ro (pink flower barrette) and Ree (yellow flower barrette) heartily enjoyed unwrapping all the candies (and sneaking as many as they could):






They also sniffed many, many of the chocolates quite deeply. Not sanitary, not sanitary at all, but I'm sure the germs all died in the oven...


The Kisses Candy Twists were fun and tasty—an easypeasy treat for kids of any age to make. We mixed it up with plain chocolate kisses and minty candy-cane ones.





The Hershey's Hugs and Kisses Crescents were really fun to make, and they looked awesome too. But I have to be completely honest and say that none of the adults liked the taste at all. The biscuit dough and chocolate flavor just did not work together, in my opinion. Maybe if it had been a sweeter puff pastry dough or something? Anyhow, they were awfully cute and the girls were mighty proud of them.





And, finally, the Double Chocolate Kisses Cookies were my favorites. They looked and tasted great. (Although the next time I'll add even more cocoa to make the cookies a little richer tasting. Yeah I tend toward excess like that...)




So there you have it, the results of our fun Hershey's Kisses baking. And, in keeping with one of our family holiday traditions, we'll be using the twist and double chocolate cookies in our annual holiday cookie exchange with friends so that we can sample even more deliciousness:


The Giveaway:
Hershey's is giving away a $100 Visa gift card to one lucky Salsa reader. To enter, leave me a comment below and tell me your favorite holiday recipe (Ro and Ree lovelovelove to cook and bake, so you'll make them smile extra big if you can give me the directions or a link to the recipe). The contest will begin right now (12/4/09) and will end at midnight on 12/31/09. Make sure that the e-mail address you leave is correct (feel free to use weird spaces and spell out "dot" or "at" or that sort of thing).

The Rules:
No duplicate comments. You may receive an additional entry by linking on twitter and leaving a link in the comments. You may receive an additional entry by blogging about this contest and leaving a link in the comments. This giveaway is open to US-residents only. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will notified by e-mail. You have 48 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected. Please see the official rules here. If you'd like even more entries, check out the BlogHer.com special offers page to see the other reviews (you've got 8 chances to win).

For other recipes, and some craft ideas, take a peek at Hershey's Holiday web site.

~~ The giveaway is now closed, no more entries will be accepted, and I'll draw a winner at random and announce the winner sometime today (Jan 1st). Happy New Year! ~~