It’s been a while I know but the food challenge is back!  When I did a recent survey, much of the feedback had requested that I bring the food challenge back into play.  It was a lot of fun but at the time, I had a lot going on personally but am excited to get it going again and thanks to some amazing sponsors already, it’s gonna be a blast! I cannot wait to see your creativity so lets get this food challenge started!

**You DO NOT have to be a blogger to enter. There will be a form that non-bloggers can fill out to enter their recipe so everyone is welcomed to join in!

ABOUT THE FOOD CHALLENGE

Participants will be asked to create an original recipe using the required ingredients in the current month’s challenge.  Participants will need to follow all the rules below.

JANUARY’S FOOD CHALLENGE

Mandatory ingredients for January’s food challenge are:

• Beer
• Ham
• Rosemary

DEADLINE

Recipe submission deadline is January 28th, 2011 at 12pm CST. Voting begins on January 28th, 2011 at 12:01CST.

THE RULES & JUDGING/VOTING

• You must use ALL 3 of the ingredients given in the challenge with any other ingredients you want.
• A photo is required of the final dish.
• The recipe needs to be original, not copied.
• Would love for all bloggers  participating to provide a link back to the homepage or to the Food Challenge post.  Grab code is available for you to use if you like.  All bloggers will need to leave their entry link in the linky below.

Once the contest closes, it reopens for voting. When the voting closes, three judges will pick from the top 5 recipes with the highest votes. Winner will be announced win the next Food Challenge begins!

THE PRIZE & SPONSOR

The winner of the Food Challenge for January will receive a KitchenAid Waffle Baker from the Pro Line Series, valued at  $199, thanks to our sponsor, KitchenAid! FEATURES:

• Baker produces two 7 1/2-inch diameter by 1 1/4 inch thick waffles
• Double-sided, clamshell baking unit flips to provide uniform waffles with superb consistency
• Stainless Steel and Die Cast Metal Construction
• Constant Baking Temperature
• Simple Controls
• Non-stick waffle plates
• Digital countdown timer
• Automatic Shutoff
• COOL REACH™ Design
• 2 Year Hassle Free Replacement Warranty

KitchenAid is a household name that has been trusted or years because of the quality and sophisication of their products. I own several KitchenAid products myself including the sleek refrigerator, hand mixer, and of course the all mighty stand mixer. They offer everything a foodie would love.  Check out KitchenAid on Twitter | Facebook | Website

If you would like to sponsor a Food Challenge month, you can email me at sponsor@mywoodenspoon.com with food challenge in the subject.

***************************************************

*NONBLOGGERS -If you do not have a blog but want to participate, you may submit your recipe here if you don’t have a place to upload your photo (or know how).  Flickr and Photobucket are great thought if you do want to have your own place to upload photos. Then you can just upload, write the recipe with your photo and grab the URL and add to the linky.  Either way, I’ll help you all I can.

*BLOGGERS -Leave the url to your recipe in the linky below.

LINKY

***************************************************

Good luck to all who enter! Can’t wait to see your recipe creations!

My guys depend on me to have their snacks & food ready for game time. I really dislike cooking on game days because I’m a huge football fan and would prefer to sit on the couch and watch with the rest of them. But the fact is, I am in charge of bringing the food to the fans so I’m always making things that are simple and great fillers. I shared with you my shopping list of football food the other day and now it’s time to share what I did with it all.

First, I started with what took the longest, which of course was the jalapeno poppers. They are the most time consuming but so worth it! Here is the whole process with photos of making the jalapeno poppers. I’ll show you all the finished food at the end of the post.

Now that those are done, I’ve moved on to Truett’s favorite, “pigs in a blanket”, using lil’ smokies and crescent rolls. I took one triangle and cut it into two pieces, then rolled a lil smokie up in it.

Then I moved to hot dogs, a teenager favorite around here. Every since my mom showed me how she makes them, it’s now the ONLY way we do it. It’s a simple process. You take a piece of foil big enough to wrap the hot dog in. Lay the bun down first, layer with the weiner, some chili, and a strip of Kraft Velveeta sliced cheese. Wrap it up and set on the pan. We partnered them up with the pigs in a blanket on the same pan to save time.

While those were baking, which is just a few minutes, I whipped up some homemade bean dip. Super simple! Take a can of refried beans, a can of ro*tel chili, chili powder, cumin, and salt; mix together. I warmed it over the stove top together but you don’t have to. You can add sour cream, cheese, and salsa for a 7 layer type of dip but we wanted simple this time around. I bought one big bag of Frito Lay Fritos and one smaller bag of Great Value ‘corn chips‘ since I had never tried them. We thought the Great Value ones were just as good and will be spending our money on those in the future. The Frito Lay bag was around 4 bucks and the Great Value was $1.50. The Great Value bag was smaller but even buying two of them to equal the big bag of Frito lay, would be cheaper.

So we have Jalapeno poppers, Pigs in a Blanket, Hot dogs, and Bean dip. We bought some soda and had tea on hand. Because my guys picked the food out, it was a big hit!

Maybe you’re looking for snacks that are a little lighter? You might try these 3 appetizers.

Top it all off with the fun, Football Oreo cookies! Truett LOVED them and even kept trying to throw a pass with one, to his Dad! They just give that perfect little touch when throwing a football party at home! They are a limited edition of Oreos but when I saw them, I just had to have them!

If you need more ideas, I’ve got queso, sweet fries, hot sauce, dips, and brunch bites.

Food is not the only thing game time is about, it’s also about halftime games, pre-craft ideas for the kids, and making sure you have a fun football environment for everyone enjoying the game! Go check it out because I put together some fun ideas for you that are easy and budget friendly. And if THAT doesn’t get you in the mood, I have a big ol’ list of over 50 of the best football movies ever!

What do you do for game time?

*Disclosure: I am a participant in the Walmart Moms program. Walmart has provided me with compensation and a gift card in return for this post. Participation in this program is voluntary. All opinions are my own, always have been, always will be.

Attention all foodies! QVC is scheduled to broadcast live from the VERY prestigious FOOD & WINE Classic in Aspen, CO Friday, June 18 at 3 PM (ET) and Saturday, June 19 at 2 PM (ET). During the broadcasts, QVC will not only give viewers an exclusive inside look at one of the most elite culinary events in the industry but also offer shoppers the opportunity to order the latest in cooking essentials. You can keep up-to-date with it all the happening and behind the scenes in these places:

QVC Facebook | QVC Twitter | QVC Youtube | QVC Food and Wine

Featured items from The FOOD & WINE Classic include:

KitchenAid Artisan Seven-Speed Digital Hand Mixer with Attachments—QVC Item #K14470 Approximately $72.75 Comes in Buttercup, Green Apple and Clementine – exclusive to QVC! Additional colors include Red, Blue Willow, Gloss Cinnamon, Black and White.

NEW! Food & Wine Annual Cookbook 2010 and Bonus Cocktails ’10 Cookbook Set—QVC Item #F08896 Approximately $24.00

SOMETHING FOR YOU!

To Celebrate the event, I’m giving away a set to one lucky winner!  You’ll get the the Kitchenaid Hand Mixer and the Cookbook set!  WOOHOO!

HOW TO ENTER:

Leave a comment telling me what you love about QVC and if you haven’t shopped there, head over to the QVC website and check it out!

Additional entry methods, leaving each one in a separate comment please:

• Share on twitter, facebook, or any other social network. Come back here and tell me where you shared and username.
• Check out the QVC website and leave a comment with a food that they sale.  (DAILY ENTRY)

Giveaway ends on June 21, 2010.  Good luck!  Disclosure: I received the same set that I’m giving away for my time and efforts to host this giveaway.

QVC’s Fine Print

QVC FOOD & WINE SWEEPSTAKES
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Void where prohibited. Must be legal U.S. resident, 18 years or older to enter. Sweepstakes to commence on xxx at XX Eastern Time (“ET”) and end on xx at 11:59:59 p.m. ET. My Wooden Spoon will determine (1) one Winner by a random drawing from all eligible entries to receive (1) KitchenAid Artisan 7-Speed Digital Hand Mixer w/Attachments and (1)Food & Wine Annual Cookbook 2010 and bonus “Cocktails ’10″ Cookbook set. Limit one prize per household. Odds of winning are dependent on the total number of eligible entries. Approx retail value of prize $90. Winner will be notified by email. Offer valid while supplies last. Giveaway sponsored by My Wooden Spoon; Prize provided by QVC, Inc and KitchenAid.

I shared some of the basic techniques in my last Wilton post and today I’m sharing flowers and my cake.  At the end of the day, we were able to decorate our own cake any way we wanted which was a blast!  The first flowers are Star-Drop flowers.  These were my faves and mine actually turned out pretty decent.  See how she’s holding it…at a 90′ angle and she literally twists as she squeezes and before she pulls up, she stops squeezing.  That’s important to do or else you’ll get peaks.

It was such an amazing time with Wilton. I can’t wait to decorate more cakes!!!!   Enjoy y’all!

I found these blue ones to be easy once I got the hang of it.  It’s just a star tip but the key is to make them the same size and avoid high, stringy peaks.  Cute little things!

And my favorite, creating the rose!!  The teacher did it perfect and it was a beautiful rose.  She started with a little pile, coming up to form a Hershey’s kiss shape…NO witch’s hats! LOL

She started between half and the top and made a tight whip around.  There’s an incredible amount of technique involved here.  She kept going around, I believe 3 or 4 times to form the full rose.  When you’re going around, your angle is what determines the shape of the rose.  So you start with your tip going towards the center, then you move to a 90′ angle, then you’re gonna tilt out a bit more..and so on.

Now here’s MY creations!

I think mine turned out pretty good..at least from this angle. If you saw it from the side view, you’d beg to differ.

And here’s my cake! Like I mentioned earlier, I implemented all the techniques we learned onto the cake…it’s not super pretty but it shows everything I learned and that’s how I wanted it.  LOVED doing this guys. It’s one of my most favorite things I’ve ever done!

If you don’t already know, I had the most wonderful opportunity to attend an event with Wilton.  It was three days of pure fun, not to mention a wonderful learning experience and I can’t thank them enough for inviting me.  I know you’ve seen those cakes, those creative masterpieces and what I learned while at Wilton is that turning a cake from plain to awesome is not as hard as you might think once you learn the techniques.  We had two great teachers (the best of the best of Wilton’s instructors) that made learning easy for us.

Because I have so many photos and things to share, I’ll probably break it all up into more than two posts.  For today, I’ll share making the Cupcake Cake below and a few of the steps.  If you’re wondering about the first steps, it’s to create an outline for you to fill in with other icing, you know, like coloring.

First off, if you look closely, you’ll see that she’s smoothing the icing with a piece of parchment paper.  Very neat trick for all you who have asked how to get it so smooth. Unless you are using fondant, then this is a great way to do it!

Now you take another piece of parchment paper an any template you have.  Outline the template with some piping gel.

Flip that over onto the cake and smooth down lightly with a paintbrush; then lift carefully.

Now you’re ready to fill in the gaps.  With a bigger tip, we created a both the top and bottom.  Super easy to do and very cute!

Top with some sprinkles and viola! You have a cupcake cake!

I added a fun yellow border with pretty much the easiest thing ever to do, the little stars.  You can do a whole cake like that in fact so don’t sweat if you can’t learn the harder stuff.  Just do stars (I say stars but not sure the correct terminology..hmmm) and you’ll still be the talk of the town;)

All the techniques taught for this are very basic and super easy to do. You can take these classes at your local participating stores. Check out the Wilton site to find out where and when. You won’t disappointed!  There’s so much more to share with you but this should get you started!  And if you a subscriber to my monthly newsletter, then you got to see another little cupcake that I won’t be showing here! 

Have any of you taken a Wilton class or do any cake decorating?  If you have or do, share your link or send the photo to wilton@mywoodenspoon.com and I’ll showcase some here!

The million dollar winner of the Pillsbury Bake-Off has been announced live on the Oprah show.  I had the pleasure of watching 100 finalists compete in Orlando for the million dollar prize and out of those, it was narrowed down to these 4 finalists; (see my previous wrap up of the event)

• Breakfast & Brunches – Tomato-Basil Eggs Alfredo in Bread Baskets by Niki Plourde of Gardner, Mass. (recipe)

Inspired by her love for pesto, Niki Plourde brought together the combination of pesto and basil with the creaminess of eggs and tomato for her winning Tomato-Basil Eggs Alfredo in Bread Baskets. A student majoring in social work, Plourde entered the 44th Pillsbury Bake-Off Contest to pay for her college education.

• Entertaining Appetizers – Salmon Pecan-Crusted Tartlets by Evelyn Henderson of Roseville, Calif. (recipe)

When she learned she was a Bake-Off finalist, Evelyn Henderson “had a smile a mile wide.” Inspired by her love for tuna melts and salmon sandwiches, Henderson paired salmon and pecans to give her dish a gourmet feel.

• Dinner Made Easy – Zesty Lime-Fish Tacos by Kellie White of St. Louis, Mo. (recipe)

Setting out with the intention of creating a meal to satisfy the craving for this popular California dish, Kellie White knew her recipe was a hit when the first batch went so quickly. Although her mother hails from the South and serves as her inspiration in the kitchen, White’s mission was to bring this West coast dish into homes across America.

• Sweet Treats – Mini Ice Cream Cookie Cups by Sue Compton of Delanco, N.J. (recipe)

Known for her baking, Sue Compton finds cooking to be her creative outlet, with her son and his college friends being the lucky beneficiaries of her homemade meals. Referring to her cookie cups as “cute and yummy,” Compton thought she had a good chance in the Bake-Off Contest because people rave about her creations.

Of course, there could only be one Pillsbury Winner for the Pillsbury Bake-Off 2010 and that winner is…………………………………………

And now enjoy the Pillsbury winner’s recipe!

No, I wasn’t IN the Pillsbury Bake-Off but I did get the awesome opportunity of watching all 100 finalists compete for a million dollars and even eat some of their tasty creations.   The bake-off was held in Orlando, Florida at a beautiful Waldorf=Astoria Orlando and Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek hotel.

While riding from the airport to the hotel, I actually got to sit next to a finalist who happened to be from Texas!  Her name was Kim Rollings from Dallas, TX and was sweet as can be.  She clearly was honored to be a finalist and no matter the results, I’m pretty sure she was happy and proud with just getting to the bake-off. Here’s a few pics of her!

Her recipe:

If you’ve been a reader of mine since 2008, then you’ll recall the time I hung out with Rocco Dispirito. It was glorious to watch him cook and charm us gals to no end.   Since then, I’ve had several encounters with various celebrities including the lovely Paula Deen but this time around, I’m getting to spend some time with the beautiful & sweet Marisa Tomei, very funny Dan Cortese and Mr. Charming himself–Rocco.

The proud sponsor, Bertolli, presents a new branded webisode series “Into the Heart of Italy” where these three fine people will be sharing their journey of finding the secrets of Italy’s best culinary recipes.  I get to be there for a NYC lunch & premiere and I’m so excited that I’m about to pee my pants.

If you haven’t seen a clip yet, check the video out below and stay tuned for updates and a recipe!

Disclosure:  The PR firm, Zocalo Group, is handling my all expense paid trip to the NYC event premiere of Into the Heart of Italy. As always, this doesn’t sway my opinions in any way. I freakin’ love these guys and Bertolli so it’s a match made in heaven.

I absolutely love challenges, cook-offs, and bake-offs which is why I’m constantly watching shows like Challenge, Chopped, and Iron Chef but have you ever considered entering a food challenge (<–which btw, the winner will be announced soon)?  As much as I love challenges, I don’t know if I’d enter.  I’m just not that creative but seeing others create such tasty recipes always inspire me.

In April, I’ll be attending the Pillsbury Bake-off in Orlando.  I’m excited for a number of reasons.  Not only do I get to see someone win a million dollars, I get to see an everyday joe like you and me win that million dollars.  I get to see them doing something they are passionate about, taking a risk, and hopefully being proud of how well they did because regardless of whether they win or not, it’s a big accomplishment to be a Top 100 finalists!

I browsed through the 100 entrants to see what recipes caught my eye and I have to say, the judges are going to have a very difficult time choosing but boy I sure would love to be a taste tester!

Some of the Pillsbury Finalists entries that I’d love to try!

Dutch Apple Breakfast Bake by Linda Bibbo

Mile-High Peanut Butter-Brownie Pie by Debbie Bracker

Snappy Joes on Texas Toast by Devon Delaney

Balsamic Roasted Tomato-Spinach-Bacon Pie by Allison Foley

Golden Breakfast Bruschetta by Christine Wilson

If you get a chance, check some of the Pillsbury Entrants out. I’d love to hear which ones you want to try and which one you think will be the grand prize winner!! Who knows, I might give out a small prize to the one who guesses correctly;) (and of there is more than one, I’ll draw from those correct guesses) You have until April 09 to make your guess in the comments below.

I just came back from an Oscar Mayer event Wisconsin and while the discussion was sandwiches and “brown bagging it” (more on that later), it was Oscar Mayer’s Wienermobile that captured my heart.  You’ve seen it on TV and it’s been around for years and years so being able to step inside a piece of history was kinda cool. Of course after that, I couldn’t stop singing the song! And just in case you can almost remember the words, check out this video of the commercial made back in 1965.

And did you hear that whistle at the end?? Maybe you even remember them! They still give those whistles away from the Wienermobile! I got two, one for me and one for me son.

The original 1936 Wienermobile was scrapped for metal back in the World War II days but there is a very old 1953ish model that’s in the Henry Ford Museum. The one I had the privilege to see is a 2004 model and driven by two girls who go cross country and participate in various functions.

It was so much fun being a part of that history and now I can say, I really am an Oscar Mayer Wiener!

It’s great to see the Wienermobile has their own Hotdogger Blog and you can even follow the Wienermobile on twitter!

Do you have any Oscar Mayer memories to share?? I would love to hear them!