What did Mom's do before the Internet?

Watch the 1 minute video from Google here to see how much searching you do once you're a mom. I can believe it, of course, but it makes me wonder -- What did mom's do just twenty years ago when they couldn't google any question that came to mind about babies and life?

Top Chef Tour - Hebron KY 05.13.2011

I did something really fun last Friday. Through relatively obscure means I found out that the Top Chef Tour would be making a stop at MY very own Hebron Kroger Marketplace! I couldn't get tickets in advance but luckily they didn't publicize this particular stop very well and, well, Hebron is a pretty small town anyway, so I had no trouble getting a seat at the show.

It was really fun - I've posted some of the pictures below from the day. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take video, so pictures will have to do. Richard Blais (my personal favorite contestant and owner of a favorite restaurant of my family - Flip Burger in Birmingham AL) was competing against Eli Kirshtein, who was also a contestant on the show, but from a season I didn't watch religiously so I don't have as much of an opinion about him. They had a 15 minute cook off. Main ingredient was some Butoni mushroom ravioli (Butoni is the reason this tour even came to Hebron, so I guess they can star in the cookoff, too). We all got to taste the contestant's food, and I agreed with the judges decision that Blais's dish was tastier.







These aren't in order - I guess you have to blog often to know how to most efficiently load images to a post. It turns out I probably don't have a future in food photography, but the dishes actually were tasty, even though they don't necessarily look it by the pictures.

It was lots of fun and the chefs were very conversational and candid throughout the show. They took audience questions throughout and I learned that Richard played baseball all through college and his favorite burger at Flip is the Steak Tartar (at least that was his favorite that day). He also personally thanked me and my family for eating at Flip - a fact I happily threw in to the conversation while he was signing a head shot for me. He also asked about my sister Taryn and if she and her family were ok from the storms - that Richard is so friendly! :) He then also made one autograph out to her (you can see if you look really close at the picture.) -Eli signed one, too, Tar- I'll send them soon along with an oven mitt I picked up. (I might have been caught up in the moment and gone $30 overboard on a pair, but hey, the rest of the event was completely free so I think I netted out way ahead :)

Oh, and a lot of other great stuff has happened in the last 13 months, in case you were wondering.

Easy, healthly, AND delicious?

(Disclaimer: This picture is not from my kitchen, just the best looking lettuce
wrap image I could find online. I don't take good pictures of food.)

I got this recipe for lettuce wraps from an enrichment and finally decided to try it out. It was much easier than I expected, and, once you make the sauce, having it again is even easier. There is a lot of room to make it your own with meat and veggie options. Here it is:

Lettuce Wraps

What I used:

-finely chopped chicken (2 breasts) marinated in teriyaki sauce and cooked
-chopped carrots
-chopped celery
-chopped green onions
-grated zucchini
-peanuts
-chow mien noodles (the crunchy kind that comes in a can)


What I left out - but was part of the recipe:

-pineapple pieces
-sauteed mushrooms
-sauteed onions
-fried onions (the crunchy kind that comes in a can)
-rice, seasoned with teriyaki sauce (I would have used this but somehow skipped over it while reading the recipe... ooops! But it was still really tasty without it)


Build your wrap however you want on a big piece of lettuce (I used Romaine). Then, top with my favorite part:

Thai Peanut Sauce with Honey

Add the following ingredients to a blender, then blend until smooth.
-1/4 cup honey
-1/4 cup smooth peanut butter
-3 tbs soy sauce
-2 tbs rice vinegar
-2 tbs extra-virgin olive oil
-2 tsp minced garlic
-1 tbs grated ginger root
-1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

After having the wraps for dinner one night, we used the sauce a few more times in wraps or salads with whatever else was leftover. It's so flavorful that a little goes a long way.

Yum.