Popchips™ Coupon Giveaway

Usually when samples of food are delivered at the office, they're for me. (Naturally... I am the food blogger.) Yet, not too long ago, we received a generous delivery of Popchips™ for the entire office to share. Since our snack supply was pitifully low at the time, we were very grateful for the delivery and tore into the bags to try the "never fried, never baked" chips. With five flavor varieties -- Original, Barbeque, Salt & Pepper, Sea Salt & Vinegar, and Parmesan Garlic -- to choose from, there was something to suit everyone's tastes.

Fiery Pomegranate Sauce

I'll admit it. I'm a person who highly values the extra minutes of precious sleep acquired between the first smack of the "snooze" button on the alarm clock in the morning and the third. So, I was less than thrilled when I was ripped from sleep a couple of weeks ago by the incessant wailing of the buzzer to my apartment. And, sure, I cursed as I made my way over to the intercom and found out that the USPS had a delivery for me. When I found out what was inside the package, my annoyance morphed into elation, as I had just received an entire box of POM Wonderful 100% Pomegranate Juice!

Simple Mixed Berry Smoothie

Back in the day, I was somewhat of an athlete. In the four years I spent at Choate Rosemary Hall, I played field hockey and basketball and ran on the track team. While I certainly wasn't the faster runner on the team, I was a member of a school-record-breaking 4x4 relay team and I managed to bring home some medals from local invitational meets.

Friendly Friday and an Award

As I was catching up on the unread items in my Google Reader at the end of March, I was touched by a blog post by Brenda from Cre8tive Kitchen. She awarded me, along with seven other bloggers, the Friends Award! As a "self-proclaimed foodie" without the culinary training to really back up my obsession with creating new recipes and sharing them with the world, I sometimes wonder whether anyone is really reading what I write or whether anyone really cares.

Electrolux ICON Event with Chef Brad Steelman of The River Cafe

Last week, I made my way to the Desiron Gallery in SoHo for another Electrolux event with Chef Brad Steelman of The River Cafe. This time, instead of showing us what the Perfect Turkey button could do, Chef Steelman showed us various features of the Electrolux ICON designer series appliances. (By the way, Chef Steelman remembered me from the Thanksgiving event!)

Creamy Parmesan Risotto with Roasted Shrimp and Peas

You'd think that the last thing I'd want to do at the end of a long week full of deadlines at work and meetings for the various groups for which I volunteer would be to make a dish for dinner that requires a bit of effort. But I had stopped by Hunter's Point Wines & Spirits after I left the office and Paul (the owner) convinced me (way too easily) to stay for their Friday evening tasting featuring Italian wines. I really enjoyed the Vermentino and before I could stop myself, I was standing by the cash register, signing the receipt for the bottle I had just purchased.

A Taste of Thai at Rhong Tiam

Rhong Tiam
541 LaGuardia Place
New York, NY
(212) 477-0600 | Map

It was my turn to choose a restaurant for the March meeting of the Lehigh Dinner Club, and based on a review from The New York Times, I suggested that we dine at Rhong Tiam. It occurred to me as I was trying to pick a restaurant from my ever-growing list of restaurants to try that we had somehow managed to ignore the cuisine of Thailand while conducting our culinary tour of New York. After a few minutes on OpenTable, we were all set to have a taste of Thai at Rhong Tiam.

Asparagus with Honey and Curry Butter

Despite having had endured below-40° temperatures on my morning runs over the past few weeks, it is, technically, spring. And, to me, one of the many joys of spring is the abundance of fresh asparagus in the grocery stores and farmers' markets. While I, generally, like to toss asparagus spears with olive oil, salt, pepper, and lemon juice before roasting the spears in the oven, I wanted to see if there was something else I could do with the vegetable. I knew it was the perfect time to try a ridiculously simple recipe from EatingWell Magazine that I had recently starred in Google Reader.