Better Homes & Gardens Cooking Experience Part One! I was beyond blessed to get to go to the Better Homes & Gardens Cooking Experience as an anniversary gift from my dear husband. I must give credit to my mom’s friend, Diane Brown, who first heard about it and passed the idea along to my mom. In fact, here’s the exact e-mail I received several months ago from my mom: “Diane Brown called me today & thought of you. In BH&G mag, she said there is a deal in DM on October 11th at the BH&G office & test kitchens in DM. This is the first time they’ve ever done this. I have the article but you can check it out at BHG/CookingExperience for details & registration. Limited seating and will be taught by their editors, test kitchen pros & contributors Scott Peacock and Gesine Bullock-Prado. Check it out! Love, Mom” Well, little did she know, this weekend would spark such a love affair with food and even more passion about cooking! (I know that’s hard for some of you to believe that I could be even more passionate about cooking!) :) So the day finally arrived that I got to enjoy this unbelievable anniversary gift! I had an extrememly fun day as I taught elementary art, then went home, changed clothes and made my way downtown Des Moines. Thankfully they told us to park in the Meredith parking ramp or I would have circled around downtown Des Moines trying to avoid having to parallel park. I did have to chuckle when I got to the door of the event that was being held open by sweet potatoe! Only a cooking event would have sweet potatoes as a door stop! :) As soon as I arrived inside, I went to the registration table, was given a name badge and a canvas bag FULL of goodies! I took a picture of the fun stuff, but in case you can’t quite see what all it included, I’ll list them out for you: an adorable red ramekin, a Knife Skills book by Jeffrey Elliot (more on that later), a kitchen towel, a Good Grips pancake/waffle battter dispenser (also more on that later), a pizza wheel (actually somehow I ended up with two), Analon 8” Saute’ pan, pastry bags, Pomegranate hand wash, Wilton Sugar Cookie candy melts, Kerrygold Cookbook, a fun bar of soap, a knife honer, a mini liquid measuring cup, a citrus spray, a box of milk chocolate English Toffee from Whole Foods, tons of the latest magazine issues produced by Meredith, Ginger Sorbet lotion, and a dark blue Staub glazed ceramic pie dish (which I am most excited about and will probably use it more as a shallow souffle’ dish) staub.fr/en/ceramic-category/items/pie-dish--481.html, [Artisan crafted of 100% ecological ceramic, the Staub 9 Pie Dish evenly distributes and holds heat so your fruit pies, quiches and specialty desserts bake uniformly with a light, delicious texture. Sloped-sided ceramic pie dish with fluted rim holds the dough for a golden, flaky crust edge. A benchmark for artisan quality and durability, Staub is the preferred bakeware of choice, used in restaurants around the world]. Anyway, this amazing goodie bag was quite heavy, so I took it out to my car so I wouldn’t have to lug all that awesome stuff around all evening. :) What a nice problem to have! (And this was only the first day of giveaways!!) Then, we were give the opportunity to take tours of the Meredith Corporation where over 14 magazine brands and nearly 100 Special Interest Publications are published (like Better Homes and Gardens, Family Circle, Parents, Midwest Living, All Recipes, Fitness to name a few!) It was pretty darn cool to see the huge rooms full of props that they use for photo shoots for their magazines. They had one humongous (I know that’s a strange word to look at in print, but yes, it really is a word) room devoted to prop dishes in every shape, size and color that you can imagine! There were also rooms full of fabrics, backdrops, furniture, etc. that were a delight to see. We also had the privilege of seeing the makeup room where many celebrities have gotten their make up done and last minute touch-ups before doing a photo shoot. It was fun to dream about all the celebrities who have been in there. We also got to visit the test kitchens where all the cooking magic happens. I have to admit that I was quite surprised to find the most basic appliances in the test kitchens. I had pictured a Viking gas stovetop, Sub Zero fridges and freezers, etc. However, our wonderful tour guide, Carlos, explained that it’s because the recipe creators, test cooks, etc. truly want to make sure every cook can make their magazine recipes without having the latest and greatest appliances. Regardless, it was fun to imagine all the cooking that takes place in their test kitchens! Carlos explained that they are lucky if they get 7 recipes photographed in one day. It takes hours upon hours of editing a recipe, cooking it, photographing it, tweaking it, coming up with the page layout, etc. If only the average magazine reader had any idea how much effort goes into just one recipe! Also, you know those beautiful magazine spreads full of bedrooms that are so inviting? Well, of course most readers looking at the magazine assume its in a real house, but we saw a behind-the-scene view of how they create a room with 3 walls and some neat back drops, take a bunch of photos for their shoot and then tear down the stuff and start all over again with something else for another photo shoot. They have the ability and space to do four rooms like this at once! The next item on the agenda was a beautiful reception with all sorts of delicious appetizers. I met people from California, Texas, Connecticut, Georgia, Wisconsin, Ohio, New York, Florida, etc. and yet I live a mere 20 minutes away from Meredith Corporation! I had the fun privilege of meeting several food bloggers! Yes, those are people that get paid to write about food! It got me thinking that maybe someday (hopefully sooner than later), I can be one of those people! I mean, come on, have you ever met a person more passionate about cooking than me?! I’ve had several people mention to me recently that I should start a blog and/or I should write a cookbook. Well, the food bloggers I met were sweet enough to let me pick their brains a little to find out more about how to get started and a few of the fun details...I thought I could start one for fun now and then see where it leads. I am a little unique in the fact that I love to cook very healthy things that are very simple using the freshest ingredients possible with the fewest ingredients possible. But hey, who knows? Maybe a couple of years from now you’ll say, “I knew Holly back when she was just a normal midwestern girl who loved to cook!” :) Major wishful thinking on my part to think someday I’d get paid to write about my love affair with food! Although I got thinking, if I were to start a blog, I would need to come up with a catchy name for it....hmmm...maybe I should get to work on that now. Yes, I think I will. Here’s where I need your help. I’ve thought of a few names, but I’m really looking for one that’s short (Happiness in the Kitchen with Holly Houg is just a tad boring and a little too long). I want it to captures the essence of my mission: Like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz says, “There’s No Place Like Home, ” well, my motto is, “There’s no place like my kitchen!” My kitchen is my absolute happy place! To say I love to cook is an absolute understatement! But not just cook, my favorite thing in the whole world to do is experiment in my kitchen! I am undeniably passionate about coming up with new healthy recipes! I LOVE to experiment with simple, new recipes using fresh ingredients. My hope is to inspire you to eat healthy & learn to love cooking! My desire is also to teach others to make cooking fun, easy, healthy & budget-friendly so you can spend more time with your family around the dinner table & so you feel good. I love to use the freshest ingredients possible & cook whole food, not from a can or a box or a bag! I just can’t describe how much I love to be in my kitchen creating something new. Think of your favorite thing in the world to do, take that times a thousand, and that’s how much I love to try a new recipe! :) I know to many people, cooking is just too much work or not enjoyable, so I’m lucky enough that I love something that I get to do three times a day! :) Anyway, back to my search for a catchy blog name. Here are some somewhat cheesy ideas I came up with, but I wouldn’t be surprised if some of you out there have better ideas...I thought of even more, but when I googled them, they were already taken... Healthy Chef Girl Passionate Kitchen Messin’ in My Kitchen Cooking Is Bliss Cloud 9 Cookin’ Dreamin’ in My Kitchen So, how about this? Throw out some ideas and I find one I decide to go with, I’ll give you the free 8 inch saute’ pan that I mentioned earlier?! Ready, set, go! Can’t wait to hear your ideas! In the meantime, my Better Homes & Garden Cooking Experience details and pictures are to be continued...so please stay tuned because I still have a LOT more to share!
Posted on: Sun, 12 Oct 2014 12:58:15 +0000
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