Touch Other’s Hearts by Going Through Their Stomachs!
July 12, 2009 by Jyl Johnson Pattee · 24 Comments
10 Delicious Ways to Make a Difference This Week
Service doesn’t have to be bland or boring! Spice it up. Sweeten the pot. Make it delicious. Think of people that need a little love and touch their heart by going through their stomach during this week’s Summer of Service Challenge, sponsored by Campbell’s. How? By making and sharing a tasty treat, including one or more of the 10 ideas listed below!
For more ideas, join us for a great Girl’s Night Out (#gno) on Twitter this Tuesday night. And, please share a comment on this post with other ways to serve others by sharing a tasty treat.
- Make some baked goods—cupcakes, cookies, bread, muffins, etc.—and take them to a neighbor.
- Take a meal to someone in your community that is sick or needs a night off from kitchen duty.
- Spend one-on-one time with your children by having a cooking class with them to prepare dinner for the family! For a special treat, do a craft activity beforehand to make paper chef’s hats.
- Have a family activity where you make a tasty treat together, such as suckers, decorated sugar cookies, chocolate-dipped strawberries and pretzels, etc.
- Have a couple’s night in! Invite your closest friends over with their significant others for a fondue party. Play the newlywed game no matter how long everyone has been in their relationship.
- As a family, choose another family that needs some love or an act of kindness/service. Drop off an anonymous treat on their doorstep with a nice card telling them how much you love them.
- Organize a girl’s night out with your closest girlfriends and have a progressive dinner where you rotate houses during the meal, starting with appetizers, moving on to salad, heading to the main course, and ending somewhere else for the dessert.
- Treat your spouse or close friend to a dinner at his or her favorite restaurant!
- Make your family’s favorite meal and decorate the table special just for them. Devote the evening to family time by turning off phones, TV, etc.
- Make your children’s favorite cookies, making a different batch once a week until you’ve made all of their favorites. Don’t forget to include your favorite as well!
How Will You Give to Others This Week?
- What other ideas do you have for sharing a tasty treat?
- How has touching other’s hearts by going through their stomach made a meaningful difference this week for you? For others?
How Else Can You Make a Difference This Summer?
Make a meaningful difference this summer by taking the Summer of Service (SOS) Challenge. Here’s how you can participate:
- Commit to do one act of kindness/service based on the week’s challenge.
- Leave a comment with ideas relating to the week’s challenge as well as your experience(s) performing it.
- Grab the SOS button in the sidebar and put it on your blog or social networking site.
- Enter to win each week’s giveaway. Check out this week’s prizes from Campbell’s.
- Join #gno this Tuesday on Twitter to connect with other Mom It Forward moms about the challenge.
Topic Talk—Thanksgiving Comfort Food!
November 15, 2008 by jyl johnson pattee · 3 Comments
Today’s GNO Gals bring us more delightfully delicious dishes with a touch of comfort—as in comfort food. Welcome:
- Alice at Plain Cook.
- Beth at Coming Up for Air.
- Chef at I’ll Make a Foodie Out of You.
- Kelli at Gohn Crazy.
- Nicole at Pinch My Salt.
Creamy Mashed Potatoes picture courtesy of Nicole at Pinch My Salt.
Alice inspires us to go crazy with cranberries this season with her many recipes featured on plaincook.com. Here are a few:
Cranberry Jello
Cranberry Pineapple Jello
Cranberry Jello Salad With Port Wine
Fresh Cranberry and Cream Salad
Cranberry Pecan Salad With Feta Cheese
Coming Up for Air reminds us what Thanksgiving is about and that it is bigger than our corner of the world. She inspires us to think globally:
… we have taken a break from our normal history routine to learn about Thanksgiving across the centuries, across the world, across religion and across tradition. Thanksgiving is not just something we Americans celebrate because of the pilgrims. Thanksgiving has been celebrated for centuries by many different countries and cultures as a way to express thankfulness for the harvest, for protection and for the blessings of nature. So far, we’ve learned about the Chinese celebration Chung Ch’ui – which starts with the celebration of the moon’s birthday on the 15th of August. We’ve learned how the Greeks and Romans celebrated the harvest and the stories of their gods and goddesses. And we’ve learned about the Jewish holiday Succot and what a beautiful expression of thanks this festival is. Tomorrow we learn how ancient Egyptians celebrated harvest.
I’ll Make a Foodie Out of You shares family holiday tips from her pastry-chef perspective. My favorite? Her delicious recipe for marinated asparagus wrapped in phyllo dough. I am drooling just thinking about the yumminess! I may not be able to wait until the holidays to try out this tantalizing treat.
She also provides some basic, but expert advice like the following:
Sugar Cookies boring you? Then make a huge batch and seperate them into smaller ones. Add different extracts, or maybe even some citrus peel and your completely changed it into something edgy. I like to take my sugar cookie dough left overs and add lemon zest with a little orange blossom water. Think high end tea party, they are ungodly delicious.
Gohn Crazy shares her first Thanksgiving meal with us. Can you almost taste Thanksgiving after seeing this pic? Mmmmmmm!
Pinch My Salt shows off comfort food at its best with the creamy mashed potatoes featured above and this amazing batch of sweet potato rolls. Once again, we appreciate Nicole for being our guest tweet this week. It has been a treat to visit her blog every day for yummy recipes and beautiful pictures. Check out her holiday series throughout this season for wonderful holiday recipes.
Thanks to today’s featured GNO Gals—and everyone that participated this week in Topic Talk—for their mouth-watering pictures and yummy recipes. Next week’s theme is giving and charity in celebration of our live auction to help provide Thanksgiving meals to families facing hunger this holiday season.
Wanna be featured? Please comment here or e-mail us at mommygossipgno AT gmail DOT com and provide your BLOG URL, linking to the post you’d like featured.
Topic Talk—Holiday Dishes & Drinks
November 13, 2008 by jyl johnson pattee · 3 Comments
Today’s GNO Gals share a variety of holiday dishes and drinks. You’ll want to read all the way to the bottom of this post, which will make you feel like you just licked the bottom of the cake-mix bowl. It’s that good. Let’s hear it for:
- Brandie at Joy of the Kitchen.
- Brandy at Not Your Average Soccer Mom.
- Cindi at Moomettegram’s Musings.
- Joy at All Because Two People Fell in Love.
- Tori at Thoughtfully Simple.
Chocolate Mini Marshmallow Velvet Fudge picture courtesy of Moomettesgram’s Musings.
Joy of the Kitchen shares a family Christmas tradition—Persimmon Cookies—and this story:
Several years ago, our family gathered at the beach for Christmas. My mom was living there at the time, so we crowded into her oceanside condo. Let me tell you, it was rough. (Ok, it was cold, but when I’m walking on the beach I just don’t care!) Anyway, Grandma brought a HUGE batch of cookies with her. All I remember was my uncle grabbing his coffee can full of cookies, tucking them under his arm and threatening (jokingly?) anyone who touched his stash.
I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as my family and I do.
Not Your Average Soccer Mom ponders whether to brine or not to brine her buttered and seasoned turkey. What do you think?
Moomettesgram’s Musings refers us to two recipe posts:
Chocolate Mini Marshmallow Fudge (shown above)
Bacon Cheese Roll Up Appetizers
All Because Two People Fell in Love absolutely recommends brining your turkey and provides great instructions and this explanation:
I brine my turkey-Alton Brown from the food network swears by it and lets face it the guy knows what he is talking about so I trust him. Basically it is just soaking your turkey in a salt water (a few other spices) bath for about 8 hrs. It does something with something (kinda science talk I don’t understand) but it makes it very juicy.
Thoughtfully Simple adds this tasty drink to the mix today. What meal would be complete without a delicious drink and dessert? How much better then if you combined the two as Thoughtfully Simple does with her pumpkin martini:
Thanks to today’s featured GNO Gals for their mouth-watering pictures and yummy recipes during this week’s holiday food-themed Topic Talk.
Wanna be featured? Please comment here or e-mail us at mommygossipgno AT gmail DOT com and provide your BLOG URL, linking to the post you’d like featured.
Topic Talk—Sweet Treats for the Holidays!
November 12, 2008 by jyl johnson pattee · 6 Comments
Today’s featured GNO Gals share sweet treats with us. Give it up for:
- Christy at Southern Plate.
- Jessica at Momma Cooks Cooking.
- Kaye at The Butler Diaries.
- Kristin at Give Me a Minute, I’ll Come Up With Something.
- Mikki at My Recipe Box.
Marshmallow Sweet Potatoes courtesy of Southern Plate.
Southern Plate provides perhaps the sweetest of the sweet treats—chocolate cobbler (shown below) and chocolate gravy.
The chocolate cobbler makes the perfect holiday dessert.
And, the chocolate gravy can be packaged up and given as delicious neighbor and friend gifts.
Check out the Southern Plate cookbook for more mouth-watering goodies.
Momma Cooks Cooking shares two delicious Pampered Chef recipes. Check out her Iced Gingerbread Cookie recipe for a sweet treat.
The Butler Diaries writes about holiday traditions and memories. She says:
I’m sure that you all know how quickly the Holidays can sneak up and before you know you are scrambling for just the right gift and groceries. Those wonderful ingredients to make that one special dish that you, your spouse, kids, Uncle Harry, Aunt Millie, or Cousin Bob just can’t live without at Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner, a tradition.
Every year for 32 years, the same tree was put together and decorated on December 6, my birthday, pop corn strings were made and hot chocolate topped it off. Three years ago, I had to give up the tree and buy a new one. No tree will ever be as beautiful to me as the one I grew up with. Keeping tradition, we still put the tree up and decorate it on December 6 and there is always hot chocolate.
Check out her hot chocolate recipe and other yummy holiday food ideas in this post.
Give Me a Minute… shares this tasty treat—eggnog cheesecake bars. Mmmmmm!
My Recipe Box in addition to her yummy Cream Cheese Pie recipe, shares this recipe for daily living:
1 c. love
1 c. patience
1 c. forgiveness
1 c. charityMix well with loving heartstrings and serve 1 tablespoon every morning, noon and night.
Thanks to today’s featured GNO Gals for their mouth-watering pictures and yummy recipes during this week’s holiday food-themed Topic Talk.
Wanna be featured? Please comment here or e-mail us at mommygossipgno AT gmail DOT com and provide your BLOG URL, linking to the post you’d like featured.
Topic Talk—Everything’s Coming Up Cranberries!
November 12, 2008 by jyl johnson pattee · 7 Comments
Let’s hear it for our first featured GNO Gals in this week’s holiday food-themed Topic Talk:
- Beth at Sunshine Daydreamz.
- Cheryl at Mom Fuse.
- Deanna at Domestic Chicky.
- Dianne at Country And Loving It.
- Tara at Feels Like Home.
Sunshine Daydreamz shares a yummy cranberry sauce.
Mom Fuse gives us an alternative to turkey with her Cranberry Meatloaf recipe.
Domestic Chicky shares her top-secret recipe (shhhhhh!)—turkey marinade.
Country And Loving It expresses her memories and then shares her recipe for No Bake Fruit Cake:
Let me start by saying, I do not like fruit cake. I do not like any COOKED fruit. This isn’t cooked. And I don’t really call it real fruit, either. Candied cherries are not fruit, to me. I am also one of those country cooks who doesn’t measure anything. So don’t worry about being exact with the measurements. I knew it was Christmas when my momma made this. It tastes more like candy and I was always anxious to get a slice–even though I picked the cherries out. I remember asking could I leave a slice out for Santa and being so thrilled when the answer was yes. Seeing the empty plate and glass in the sink the next morning (and yes, I went and looked) is a childhood memory I will never forget. Hope you enjoy.
Feels Like Home shares three pie recipes. Can anyone say Mmmmmmm?
Cherry Pie
Pecan-Crusted Pumpkin Pie
Pecan Pie
Thanks to today’s featured GNO Gals for their mouth-watering pictures and yummy recipes during this week’s holiday food-themed Topic Talk.
Wanna be featured? Please comment here or e-mail us at mommygossipgno AT gmail DOT com and provide your BLOG URL, linking to the post you’d like featured.
RSVP for the Most Delicious GNO of the Year! Mmmm… Holiday Food!
November 8, 2008 by jyl johnson pattee · 27 Comments
Please join us Tuesday, November 11 for a tasty GNO treat while we chat about holiday food. This is one party that promises to be virtually delicious! RSVP at the bottom of this post and check out the next post to learn about this week’s guest tweet from Pinch My Salt.
- Everyone seems to have that one special item that makes the Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, or Christmas meal. What is that one thing for you?
- Do you have a story of a holiday meal you totally destroyed (along the lines of A Christmas Story)?
- What about your most successful holiday party?
- Who has memories of making a family recipe of dipped chocolates or that one fabulous Old Country baked item?
- Do you decorate gingerbread houses with your kids?
- Any other fun baking activities?
- Any tips you have to share?
- How do you spend the holidays?
- Share it with family?
- Thanksgiving at a restaurant anyone?
Join us:
- DATE: Tuesday, November 11
- TIME: From 6 to 10 p.m. Pacific (7 Mountain, 8 Central, & 9 Eastern)
- PLACE: Twitter
- WHO: Guest Tweet—Nicole from Pinch My Salt & on Twitter @pinchmysalt.
- TO DO: RSVP at Mr. Linky then check back and click on the names listed there to “follow” them on Twitter.
- RSVP: Enter your twitter ID (e.g., jyl_mommygossip) in Mr. Linky and your twitter URL (e.g., http://twitter.com/jyl_mommygossip). NOTE: Please do not enter your blog URL here!
Follow the #gno conversations here!
Wanna be featured during this week’s Topic Talk. If so, DM @jyl_mommygossip on Twitter, leave a message here, or e-mail us at mommygossipgno AT gmail DOT com to be considered. Please include the URL of the post you would like featured. Thank you!
