Happy Friday!

I am pleased to announce something that I have been working on for a few weeks now. Just recently I was selected by Quaker and Goodbite.com to work on their latest promotion. All the details will follow but I just wanted to give you a heads up that Zesty has shot his first series of VIDEOS and is quite excited about it.

Good Bite is kicking off a challenge sponsored by Quaker Instant Oatmeal that begins today! The challenge is called the “Awaken Your Senses” Challenge. Here’s how it works…
Twelve of the most influential bloggers have come together to share their favorite food memories. Our memories will be brought to life by David Lawrence (of Good Bite) who will translate them into a Oatmeal Creation using Quaker Instant Oatmeal and a variety of toppings.
Every 2 weeks, a new round of videos will be posted where you can vote for your favorite.  With each round, semi-finalists will be selected.

At the end of eight weeks the blogger’s video with the most votes wins!  And $10,000.00 will be donated to their favorite charity!
zesty of zestycook.com is representing The Hunger Project in the challenge and all you need to do is go to www.youtube.com/quakertalk every week and vote for your topping creation, you can help a really deserving food charity win $10,000.00!

Since I am in the third round of videos being uploaded, I wanted to give you a heads up that soon I will need you to vote for me on www.youtube.com/quakertalk and vote for my topping so that I will make it to the semi-finalists and hopefully win, granting The Hunger Project $10,000. I just need you to tell all your friends and all your family members and tell all your readers( if you have a blog) to vote for zesty. I will be sure to bug I mean remind you again as the time draws closer.

Thanks so much! I am so excited.

Have a great Friday and a super weekend. I will see you on Monday with a house update and some fun guest posts as I am travelling to California for work.

Take care

zesty

Download my Free Recipe Book: Simply Zesty

Happy Wednesday!  No new design yet… what a story that is.  We have run into some trouble moving the plug-ins over to the new theme so it looks like we have to wait a couple of more days until we figure out what is going on.  I am sorry for all the hype and no delivery but it is out of my control.

As for some good news…. yesterday was pretty exciting.  I was contacted by the folks at FoodDoneRight.com. They have been working really hard on an online cooking school  and they are looking to add more value to the customers who join.  With that said, they asked me to do an on air interview and chat a bit on how I got started cooking, some of the challenges I faced, and some tips that helped me realize my recipe independence.  I was very willing to help as I love cooking and love helping other people do the same.  I will be sure to let you know when the interview gets published as well.

On to the food!  I had a lot of people asking about the apple bacon chutney recipe and ” What they would eat with it”.  So last night I put together what I call a “HELLABALOO“.  It is a total mish-mash of ingredients in the fridge such as left over rice, left over apple bacon chutney and some spinach that was close to expiry.  The flavors blended flawlessly and everything turned out great!

Here is a quick snapshot of what I did …

Ingredients

• 1 Cup Apple Bacon Chutney
• 2 Cups Baby Spinach
• 2 Cups cooked Jasmine Rice
• Splash of Lemon Juice
• Parmesan Cheese Shavings

Method

1. Preheat pan to medium high heat.
2. Add Chutney and warm through.
3. Add spinach and lemon juice stirring until spinach begins to wilt.
4. Add rice, stir together until hot.
5. Plate and top with fresh Parmesan cheese
6. ENJOY!

On to some exciting news…. I was asked to be a judge at the Latest Peanut Butter Exhibition.  Here is the low-down on the contest.  It can also be found at PeanutButterboy.com

THE GREAT PEANUT BUTTER EXHIBITION

Congratulations! You are cordially invited to participate in the next Great Peanut Butter Exhibition! In conjunction with Peanut Butter Boy, Fake Food Free, For The Love of Peanut Butter we are proud to bring this roundup/competition right to your doorstep. This time the theme is “Sandwich”, chosen because of my surprise at not receiving one sandwich recipe for the previous “no-bake” peanut butter exhibition. The real prizes here are the wonderful recipes we gather but we also have a prize for the winner!

What classifies a peanut butter sandwich? Traditionally it’s a slab of peanut butter between two slices of bread, but let’s see some creativity here. How about some peanut butter lettuce wraps or Peanut Butter Sushi? Any method of eating peanut butter that is all-inclusive and portable as to make for a nutritious lunch should do. To enter, submit your best peanut butter sandwich recipe below, following the guidelines. The deadline is March 15th @ Noon (PST) which gives you a full 3 weeks to brainstorm, develop and create the ultimate peanut butter sandwich! Stock up on peanut butter and get ready, read on for details.

Judging Criteria:

Peanut Butter Weight, Creativity, Portability and Preparation Time.

Rules:

One entry per person so choose wisely! Pictures are highly recommended but not required. Due to peanut allergies, you may use any nut butter in your recipe since nut butters are easily interchangeable. Also, please link back to this page to indicate that you are entering the recipe into this contest and to spread the word. Feel free to use any of the logos, including the following, to do so:

Blogless? Don’t worry if you don’t have a blog, you can still submit your winning recipe. Fill out the same form but provide the “Recipe” instead of a “Recipe Permalink” and feel free to email a picture to “pbe@peanutbutterboy.com” to go along with the recipe!
Submission:

Click hereto submit your recipe online. Alternatively, email “pbe@peanutbutterboy.com” with “PBE #5? as the subject and the following information:

Name
Email
Recipe Title
Recipe or Recipe Permalink
Prize:

All recipes will be listed but the judges will vote for the Top 3. All 3 winners will receive a winning badge to place on their site but the first place winner will receive the Peanut Butter & Co. Cookbook. Good luck to all!

Wow that was a super long post… sorry to make you read so much.  But if you made it all the way down here, I would like to thank you and also look forward to hearing your comments about just one way to use up that chutney. Have a great Wednesday.

Take care

zesty

Download my Free Recipe Book: Simply Zesty

Happy Monday!  I hope you had a great weekend.  It was a very very cold weekend here and therefore was a great excuse to do some good old fashion baking as well spend some quality time with the family.

Contest Winners

Lets get the day started with our contest winners! After a very strong response to my giveaway post for 2 copies of the great book “FUNDAMENTALS OF PHOTOGRAPHY” we officially have our winners.   The random number generator popped out 147 and 161 which corresponds to:

VeganLisa                      Teeni

I just want to say Congratulations to Lisa and Teeni and thank you to everyone who participated. It was a lot of fun seeing all the comments, link backs as well as new subscribers. Stay tuned for another giveaway in February.

Homemade Turkey Pot Pie

After any turkey day, for as long as I can remember, we’ve always had a ton of left overs.  All kinds of leftovers in the form of vegetables, gravy, turkey etc.  Sometimes I have a craving for an old fashioned turkey pot pie to utilize some of those ingredients.

Below is a simple little recipe that tastes great on its own or with a quick and simple Caesar salad on the side.

Ingredients

FLAKY TENDER PIE CRUST (makes enough for two pies 9″ diameter)

• 2 – 4 tablespoons ice water
• 2 cups flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 4 ounces (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into 16 pieces
• 1/2 cup Crisco shortening
• Egg wash of 1 yolk whisked with 1 tablespoon water

PIE FILLING

• 1 cup of gravy
• 1/2 cup cooked carrots (chopped or sliced)
• 1/2 cup corn
• 1/2 cup peas
• 3/4 cup chopped turkey meat (cooked)

Method

1. In a large bowl, stir together one cup of flour, sugar and salt. With a hand-held pastry blender, cut butter into flour until butter is dime-sized.
2. Add shortening, cut into mixture til dime-sized. Lightly stir in remaining flour. Sprinkle with half the water. With a full palm, squeeze flour together against side of bowl.
3. Rub hands together to drop damp flour into mixture. Add just enough water to hold together; the less water the better, dry crumbs on the bottom are good.
4. Refrigerate. Preheat oven to 375F.
5. Sprinkle work surface with flour. Cut dough in half, return second piece to fridge. Sprinkle dough with flour. Working in just one direction, roll dough into an oval the diameter of the pie plate plus its sides. Slip a bench knife beneath the dough to loosen, turn 90 degrees. Roll again to form a circle. Brush off excess flour.
6. Bake bottom crust until golden brown.
7. Prepare filling in a bowl by adding gravy, corn, peas, carrots and turkey.  Mix together and season to taste with salt and pepper.
8. Roll out top crust. Fill bottom crust with your filling. Gently flip top crust over filling, brush off excess flour. Trim excess pastry, then turn under and press to form and seal the edge. Crimp decoratively. Slice top to vent. Brush top (but not edges) with egg wash.
9. Bake 35 minutes or until top crust is golden brown and juices inside are bubbling.
10. Let cool for 5 minutes prior to slicing.



11. ENJOY!

I really hope you enjoyed today’s post.  I want to thank everyone for participating in the contest and send out a special congratulations to the winners.  Have a great week and I’ll see you tomorrow.

Take care

zesty

Download my Free Recipe Book: Simply Zesty

It’s Giveaway Time! This month I have the pleasure of giving away 2 free books.  I am giving away a beautiful and wholly comprehensive how-to book for today’s photographers, FUNDAMENTALS OF PHOTOGRAPHY by renowned author, Tom Ang.

Novice or Advanced, Film or Digital, this book is your guide to everything photography related today.

Fundamentals of Photography – Book Review

When I received this book in the mail – I was really excited. I love free stuff not too mention I am really interested photography and learning how to improve my picture taking skills.  If this sounds like you – than this book will be perfect!

About the Book

Fundamentals of Photography, the Essential Handbook for Both Digital and Film Cameras, by Tom Ang is 352 pages long with a soft cover. The book contains 11 chapters filled with information and sample photos to demonstrate the topics covered. The chapters include a General Introduction, Fundamentals of Light, The Camera, Capturing Light, Using the Lens, Manipulating Light, Working with Color, Processing the Image, Digitizing the Image, Outputting the Image, and References.

Each chapter is broken up into small sections covering a very specific topic (as the sample above shows). Most of the sections span two pages (across the fold), so the topic can be studied without flipping through page after page — it’s at your fingertips.  Certain sections are also marked as “advanced topics” aimed at the photographers with a previous background. And finally, there are “Analysis” sections in some of the chapters that present a full image across the two pages.  This analysis includes many notes pointing out tips that were discussed in previous sections of the chapter — like a “tutorial” lesson.

The really cool thing about this book is the fact that it presents material for both digital and film photography.

About the Author

Tom Ang is an award-winning photographer and a leading authority on digital photography. His books include Dictionary of Photography and Digital Imaging, Digital Photographer’s Handbook, Photoshop CS for Photography, and How to Photograph Absolutely Everything. His work has been exhibited internationally, and for twelve years he was Senior Lecturer in Photographic Practice at the University of Westminster, London. He was the presenter for two six-part BBC programs on digital photography.

He has contributed regularly to magazines such as What Digital Camera? and The British Journal of Photography, and now writes for MacUser magazine. Tom won the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award for his photographic coverage of the Marco Polo Expedition, which pioneered the modern land crossing from Europe to China via Central Asia.

You can find Tom on the web at his main website.  This man has a wealth of knowledge, and I’d suggest you check out his website and any of his books.

Zesty’s Final Thoughts

I like it!  I definitely like it. My main reason for liking the book is because of its concise layout.  It gets to the point and doesn’t fool around. The book covers topics for all photography lovers as it is easy enough for a beginner, but interesting and useful enough for advanced photographers.  I would definitely recommend this book as a great read and a great reference.

Contest and Giveaway

How To Enter:

• New and existing email subscribers will automatically get an entry on draw date.  Note that only verified subscribers count. (+1 entry)
• Leave a comment telling me what kind of Camera you use. (+1 entry)
• Earn an extra chance to win by linking back to this post on your own blog (if you have one). (+1 entry)  (please email me if you link back)

The Rules:

• Please only 1 comment entry / person (please enter a valid email address).  Your email will be kept private and never given/sold to third parties.
• Two winners will win a copy of “Fundamentals of Photography” book.

So let me know your camera name in the comments below!  A random generator will be used to pick the winner.  Contest will end at 5pm EST January 23, 2009.

I look forward to all your responses.  Have a great Wednesday!

Take care

zesty

Download my Free Recipe Book: Simply Zesty