Pepperidge Farm's Baked Naturals Cheese Crisps ~ and another chance to win!

Please note ~ This is a compensated review from BlogHer and Pepperidge Farm Baked Naturals Cheese Crisps.

This contest is now closed.

In my family, an event of any significance at all calls for a get-together involving food. Birthdays and holidays, of course. But also we seem to have more than our share of going-away and coming-back parties (think pre- and post-vacation), pet birthdays, and all manner of reasons to just gather together for food and fellowship.

And even though we gather frequently, each shared meal is an event in its own right. Appetizers, wine, dinner, dessert, and extended coffee ~ possibly followed by a round of speed Scrabble and round 2 of dessert. Seriously, there's no halfway when it comes to get-togethers in my family.

Because we're the kind of family that tends to hang around in the kitchen when someone else is cooking, I like to provide something to munch on that doesn't require a lot of prep work and that isn't so filling that no one's hungry by the time dinner's on the table. I like to put out cut veggies and dip, hummus and pita triangles, cheese and grapes, and the like.

Recently, I had the opportunity to sample Pepperidge Farm's Baked Naturals Cheese Crisps. The official description is: "Natural, preservative-free snacks, made with an artisan blend of real cheeses golden baked to bubbly perfection on top of a thin, crispy, crunchy cracker. Four Cheese is made with Aged Cheddar, Asiago, Romano and Parmesan, while Italian Herb is seasoned with flavorful herbs and spices."

These classy little snack crackers are pretty munchable. The cheese is baked on top of the cracker, not lost inside it, giving them an assertively cheesy flavor. They're really nice with a glass of wine and some olives, and they're light enough to take the edge off your guests' hunger without dulling their appetite.

So, what inspires you to break out the party snacks? To enter for your chance to win a $100 Visa gift card, leave me a comment below and tell me What brings you and yours together for food and fellowship, and what's your celebration style? Do you shine up the silver for Super Bowl Sunday or are your gatherings the "barefoot in the backyard" type? Alternatively, you may leave a link to your post on your own blog in the comments below. The contest will begin at 10/5/2009 and will end 11/2/2009. Please make sure that the e-mail address you leave is correct.

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 age 18 and over
• 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: Official Rules

Don't forget to stop by and visit other BlogHer Reviewers for seven other chances to win a $100 Visa gift card.

Do You Ragu?

This contest is now closed.

Please note: This is a compensated review from BlogHer and Ragu.

Generally speaking, I try to make my own pasta and pizza sauces from scratch. Like everyone else with an Italian grandmother, I have a "signature recipe," and it's a process whose end results are worth the hours of prepping, cooking, and cleanup it necessitates. That said, when I was offered the chance to test-drive some recipes from Ragu that featured 3 of their signature sauces, I had to seize the opportunity. Why use sauce from a jar if I usually make my own? Because, frankly, there are only 24 hours in a day, and even the very best intentions have been known to go astray.

Is it important to me that my family eats a minimum of processed foods? Absolutely. But it's even more important to me that my husband, teenage son and daughter, and I get to sit down together at a dinner table that's a haven from the stress and conflict of the day that preceded it. And if that means opening a jar of sauce that lets me put together a flavorful meal that's easily customizable to suit various dietary preferences and needs, then that sauce will have a place in my pantry. Without a fall-back plan for those busier-than-usual nights, we tend to take the path of least resistance ~ which may lead straight through a fast-food drive-thru.

So, jarred sauces can be a great tool in the arsenal of a busy home cook. Keeping some on hand in the pantry means always having a meal ready at your disposal. The Ragu sauces I sampled were good, flavorful, and excellent in each of the applications I used them for. In one, my family actually preferred the Ragu version to my homemade sauce ~ and no, it wasn't a blind taste test. Unfortunately.

Ragu offers a terrific bank of recipes to support its products, and it's from here that I drew the three recipes I used to incorporate the samples I received. I prepared the Pasta Margherita (with Ragu® Old World Style® Margherita Smooth Pasta Sauce), the Chicken Alfredo with Fettuccini (with Ragu® Cheesy Classic Alfredo Sauce), and a homemade deep-dish pizza (with Ragu® Pizza Sauce - Homemade Style).

The Pasta Margherita was a huge hit. I used basil from my garden and diced mozzarella. The sauce is terrific ~ not too acidic, and light enough to taste fresh herbs through.

The Chicken Alfredo I modified to be meatless ~ there's a vegetarian at my table. I threw some blanched broccoli florets in and voila ~ dinner!

One of my favorite easy meals to put together is also one of the most popular in my repertoire. Pizza. And in the interest of full disclosure . . . Ragu's pizza sauce is my number one go-to sauce. I use it more than I use my own. It's really good and my family loves it. One jar gives us two large pizzas, and I love, love, love that it's resealable.

How do you feed your family well when you're rushing? Do you have a few tricks up your sleeve and in your pantry you'd like to share? Leave a comment with your answer and you may just win a $100 Visa gift card!

To enter, leave me a comment below and tell me how you feed your family well even when you're in a hurry. Maybe it's not the fanciest meal on the block ~ we've had more than our share of "cereal buffet" nights, but I'd love to hear how you make the most of what little time you have to put something nourishing and satisfying on the table. Alternatively, you may leave a link to your post on your own blog in the comments below. The contest will begin at 10/1/2009 and will end 11/11/2009. Please make sure that the e-mail address you leave is correct.
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, aged 18 and older.
• 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.
Be sure to stop by the BlogHer.com Review/Giveaway Roundup Page to see what everyone else thinks. You have 10 chances to win the gift card if you do!

Ritz Crackerfuls ~ And a Contest!

Please note ~ this is a compensated review from BlogHer and Ritz Crackerfuls.

I admit it, I'm an inveterate snacker. No matter how satisfying my breakfast, lunch, and dinner, I just seem to require the little bursts of joy that accompany foraging and consuming some tasty little thing between meals. And I'm a savory snacker. I've had an open bag of M&M'S in my pantry for a month, and although I love M&M'S, they don't tempt me like a bag of chips or snack crackers would.

My greatest need for snacking satisfaction generally occurs during one of two times: when I've had to work through lunch and it's only an hour before dinner, and when I'm working into the wee hours and caffeine has ceased to have any effect on me at all so snacking is the thing that keeps me awake.

I was happy to give these Crackerfuls a try because they're right up my alley ~ savory and cheesy, conveniently packaged in single-serve pouches. They reminded me a bit of the cheese and cheese cracker sandwiches that I used to throw back during protracted cram sessions in college (a requisite no-fridge snack). Only these are way more substantial, with a more generous spread of cheese filling presented between two yummy, not-too-salty crackers.

I tried the Cheddar and 4 Cheese varieties, and both were tasty, with 5 grams of whole grain per serving. If I had a quibble, it's that they do crumble fairly easily. I'm not confident that these would fare too well in a backpack or soft-sided lunch box. You can Visit the official site for more information on the varieties available.

When do the hungries tend to strike you? Maybe it's while you're driving home from work. Maybe it's while you're making dinner or cheering your kids on from the sidelines at a game. And when they strike, how do you strike back?

To enter for a chance to win a $100 gift card, leave a comment below telling me when you're most likely to experience a snack attack, and how you tend to satisfy those hungries, or you may leave a link to your post on your own blog in the comments below. The contest will begin at 9:00 a.m. (PST) 07/21/09 and will end 5:00 p.m. (PST) 08/20/09. Please make sure that the e-mail address you leave is correct.

For more chances to win, go check out the roundup and see what other BlogHer reviewers had to say about Crackerfuls!

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, aged 18 and over.
• 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.

LGDTXTR.COM Site Review

Please note: This is a compensated review from BlogHer and LG.

According to the LGDTXTR Web site, the average texting teen sends about 1,700 text messages per month. That’s about 56 messages per day. If you have a teen who texts, are you able to say that you are comfortable with that mode of communication? Or do you grind your teeth in anxiety when you contemplate the jargon of "txt," a code so inscrutable surely Navajo Code Talkers would be required to unravel it? Relax, LG has your back with its new interactive site ~ www.lgdtxtr.com ~ oriented to helping parents of texting teens learn the lexicon and make their way in this strange new alphabet soup of TTYL and ROTFL.

There are four main features to the LGDTXTR site: a Glossary, a Translator, a Tips section, and a Quiz.

Glossary

I like the fact that it's a dynamic feature. Visitors can submit new terms, so it's constantly being updated. You can enter a text message into the search window, or browse the glossary alphabetically.

Some text-acronyms definitions are pretty standard, and easy to puzzle out. But there are others that are completely cryptic. For example, it doesn't take a lot of imagination to figure out that "GGN" means "gotta go now." If cell phones had been available back when I was in high school, it probably would have meant the same thing. After all, that's what we signed on the bottom of our college-ruled notes before we ripped them out of our notebooks, folded them into elaborate origami shapes, and slipped them into locker vents. But something like "GNOC" or "MOS"? Not so much.

The Glossary is probably the most useful tool on the site. Why? Because if you're in the habit of checking your kids' text logs ~ and trust me, random spot checks aren't a bad idea, especially if you provide advance notice that you plan to conduct them ~ you can copy down a few of those mysterious text acronyms and run them through the glossary. Your kids will be amazed and astounded at how fluent you are in interpreting and disrupting their ill-conceived plans.

Translator

This is a kind of fun side-by-side Translator. Not as useful as the Glossary, but your kids may get a kick out of exchanging texts with you in their own vernacular. This would be awesomely useful if the phone itself had such a feature ~ as well as a reverse translator.

Of all the features, I think this one will be of least practical use to parents. However, I can see kids getting into it!

Tips

The Tips section offers some useful guidelines for managing a child who texts. Also, it includes a few reasons why it can be beneficial to provide a child with access to texting. At first glance, this might seem self-serving, but realistically, there are many parents who may not realize that texting goes both ways. Kids love it, and a lot of adults love it too. I'm one of them. I often communicate with my kids (and others) via text messages because it's more efficient in many cases than making a phone call or even sending an e-mail. Sometimes all you need to express is a quick one-liner: "Don't forget to bring home your science notebook," for example. My son will text me on the way home from his sporting events to let me know when the bus will arrive back at the school. Often, it's the easiest, quickest, surest way to get in touch with my kids when they're away from home, be it at a friend's house, riding their bikes around the neighborhood, or on the school bus. (My kids' school prohibits the use of cell phones in the school building during school hours.)

If you're not familiar with the practice of text messaging and have experienced a certain level of irritation over your kids' misuse of it, you may be missing out on the ways you can make it work for you.

Do U Know Txt Quiz

Took it; got 7 out of 10. But here's the thing . . . acronyms differ. It's just like dialects in a foreign language. Mexican Spanish is different from Argentinean Spanish which is different from Puerto Rican and Dominican and Colombian Spanish. And even Spanish Spanish has 4 or 5 different major dialects within itself! What does that mean? That means you might want to buy, say, a guinea pig from me, and express it thusly: "WTB" (want to buy). I, on the other hand, might type, "W2B." Both mean the same thing, and in context, we'd probably have no trouble figuring out each other's meaning. But, still.

So, ultimately, all these tools are useful. This is a new frontier! Kids now are using a new communication device with almost unprecedented reach. It behooves us to stay on top of things, and the LGDTXTR.COM site is a good tool in the engaged parent's arsenal. But remember to stay level-headed, and keep ALL lines of communication open with your kids. If you read, "GFY" in your child's text log, plug it into the Glossary, and see that it could mean something not polite at all, don't panic ~ these letters combine to represent at least 3 different phrases. It could be something surprisingly nice. Best to put down the phone and talk about it.

So that's my two cents. But don't just take my word for it, check out the other BlogHer reviewers' input here. And while you're there, be sure to enter to win one of the 5 free phones that LG is giving away!

How to Be a Better Foodie

Sudi Pigott, How to Be a Better Foodie (Viking Studio, 978-1-84400-333-7; casebound $17.95 US, 304 pp.)

We love food, a lot. But not just any food. For example, while others wake up thinking, “Hmm, Frosted Flakes or Pop Tart,” our mind is filled with visions of Saturn peaches, labneh, and ginger-fig jam on wild-yeast sourdough. We are foodies, which, according to Sudi Pigott’s luscious little brown-and-pink bonbon of a book, involves, “eating with integrity, bettering our already demanding palate, and feeding our insatiable craving for culinary knowledge.”

So, proceeding on the assumption that we recognize something of ourselves in that definition, let’s dive right in to How to Be a Better Foodie with a napkin tied around our neck and a notepad and pencil at hand.

If you desire to know more about the kind of foodie you are, you can take the quiz that begins on page 10. This is an interesting exercise, but since I already know the kind I am (guided by taste, not fashion; if I make a visceral, sensual connection to a particular food - if it moves me - I don’t care if it’s culinarily cool), I skipped the quiz to satisfy my more immediate craving. I love food lore; food trivia, food facts, random bits of savory food knowledge are totally my thing. I went right for the meat of the book, flipping through the pages - which are all in delectable shades of pink and brown, by the way, stuffing myself with tidbits in the vein of, “What kind of fowl is Bombay Duck?” (p. 46); ”Who was the author of the earliest recorded cookbook?” (p. 214); and “Who first gave the cranberry its name and why?” (p. 272). Satisfied for the moment, I flipped back to the table of contents.

The book is divided into 8 chapters: One, ”Getting Started”; Two, “At Home with the Better Foodie”; Three, “How the Better Foodie Entertains”; Four, “Culinary Fashionability”; Five, “Out and About with the Better Foodie”; Six, “The Festive Better Foodie”; Seven, “The Intricacies of High Foodism”; Eight, "The Better Foodie Almanac.” These pretty much cover everything you need to know about evolving in your quest to become a better foodie, or at least enough to put you on the right path.

You’ll learn what the foodie kitchen requires, from goose fat and honey varietals in the pantry to gadgets ranging from the indispensable (good-quality saucepans) to the indefensible (truffle shaver) . . . what the better foodie wears (an elastic waistband), never serves to guests (salted pistachios), and keeps as a pet (chickens, bees, pigs).

There’s so much more packed into this little book! I could go on and on, but I won’t. I have other things to eat. I mean, do. Instead, I’ll give you a few section titles to whet your appetite, and let you pick up your own copy to devour: “The Foodamental Issues: How to have your ethics and eat them too” (consumption with conscience and compassion!); “The Better Foodie Movie Guide to the Ultimate TV-dinner: Carefully premeditated edible and visual sustenance” (dinner-and-a-movie pairings!); "Better Foodie Foodementals: Core gastro-knowledge for full Foodie credentials” (what you came for!).

How to Be a Better Foodie is fun, informative, and small enough to tuck inside a briefcase or large purse. This is just the sort of book that’s great to read in small bites, a perfect take-along for a train commuter, a solo restaurant diner, or a work-at-home mom who does most of her reading while stirring dinner on the stove (ahem). Need a gift for someone who considers him- or herself a foodie? You can’t miss with this amuse-bouche of a culinary tome. Bon appetit!