news Archives - Alida's Kitchen

Rubbermaid Deluxe Dish Drainer & Target Cartwheel App

May 27, 2014 ·

This shop is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Pollinate Media Group® and Rubbermaid, but all my opinions are my own. #pmedia #RMDishRack http://my-disclosur.es/OBsstV

As a food blogger and a mom, I am constantly working on new recipes. Each recipe is tested several times to make sure that it is successful. While this is all in an effort to make tasty recipes that you and my family will enjoy, there is a less glamorous side…the dishes! We have mountains of dishes every day. I entrust the dishwasher (the machine…and Mike too – lol!) to clean most dishes. While it does a good job cleaning, the dishwasher can be a bit harsh too. Some dishes just must be done by hand! Stainless cookware, china, nicer baking pans, even my kids’ plastic dishes are among the most frequent items I wash by hand.

Unfortunately, for the past few years this is what we have been doing to dry our hand washing: …

Filed Under: news Tagged With: #RMDishRack, cartwheel, rubbermaid, target

Family Meal Time with Ragú #NewTraDish

March 13, 2014 ·

I am a brand representative for Ragú and have compensated for this post. As always, all opinions are my own.

As a mom to two young kids, it seems we are on the go all the time…probably because we are! From the kids’ activities to work and everything in between, there is never a dull moment. However at the end of the day, we always find time to have dinner as a family. So when Ragú asked me to write about how important family meals are to my family, the answer is easy. Family meal time is priceless.

Not only is family meal time a time to encourage healthy eating habits, conversation, and (try to) teach table manners, but family meal time creates memories. Adam and Greta are boisterous at meal time. They LOVE sitting around the dinner table together, talking to each other, at each other, over each other. Adam likes to relay random facts about his day or sing songs (or make up songs). Greta watches Adam, grinning from ear to ear, chiming in whenever she can at a volume set to be heard. This bond and the memories they create can only get better, making the time that we spend together around the dinner table priceless.

While the time around the table is important, so is finding meals the whole family will enjoy. Ragú has a variety of great tasting, quick and easy recipes that can please even the pickiest eaters, and will become family favorites! In fact, some of our favorite recipes have been inspired by Ragú (especially their No Boiling Baked Ziti!) Each jar of Ragú® Old World Style® Traditional Sauce is packed with 11 juicy tomatoes, making it richer, thicker and just taste better.

ENTER THE RAGÚ SWEEPSTAKES:

Be sure to Visit Facebook.com/RaguSauce for additional quick, easy and delicious Ragú recipe ideas.

To Enter the Contest: http://www.ragusweeps.com to enter the Ragú Sweepstakes for a chance to win great Authentic Italian themed prizes and a grand prize trip to Italy for a family of four.

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Legal residents of the 50 United States (D.C.) 18 years and older. Ends 5/6/14. To enter and for Official Rules, including odds, alternate method of entry, and prize descriptions, visit www.RaguSweeps.com. Void where prohibited.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Ragú® Official New Tra-Dish. The opinions and text are all mine.

Filed Under: news Tagged With: #NewTraDish

Running to Feed People #ReliefinAction

December 4, 2013 ·

I am participating in a sponsored campaign hosted by Advil® as part of the Advil® Relief in Action campaign. I received compensation for this post. While all opinions stated are my own, I make no claims about Advil® as a product or its effectiveness.

For the past 10 weeks, in anticipation of the holidays, Wednesdays have been devoted to recipes for holiday treats. I will have a sweet treat for you later this week, but I am going to deviate a bit today to talk about another passion of mine – running. Not just running for fun, though I like to do that too. Today I want to talk about running to help feed people in need….

Filed Under: news, Recipes Tagged With: #reliefinaction, running

Time for change!

July 23, 2013 ·

Things are looking a little different at Alida’s Kitchen these days……

Read more

Filed Under: news

Summer Kick Off with Drumsticks!

May 28, 2012 ·

We have been enjoying unseasonably warm weather lately, which has put us all in summertime frame of mind. With summer comes lots of time with family and friends over barbecues and ice cream cones. Accordingly, we decided to celebrate the unofficial kick off to summer in all its glory, christen our new grill and try Nestle’s Drumstick Pretzel Dipped Cones.

We had a busy day planned, so I wanted dinner to be a no-fuss classic summer menu. The low-maintenance menu for our perfect summer day included:

*Crudites

*Cheddar Cheese Burgers with Caramelized Shallots
*Grilled BBQ Chicken (recipe to follow)

*Baked Sweet Potato Rounds
*Roasted Broccoli

*Watermelon
*Drumstick Pretzel Dipped Cones

I was able to prepare the burgers, marinate the chicken, chop the veggies, and cut up the watermelon, all the night before. Thanks to Nestlé Drumstick, dessert was easy.

This left very little work to do the day-of, so we were able to enjoy our day of outdoor recreation, which included a trip to the park, blowing bubbles, and playing with Grandma and Grandpa.

Come dinnertime, grill master Mike grilled the chicken and burgers to perfection. The roasted broccoli and sweet potato rounds were delicious and healthy accompaniments to our dinner. We enjoyed every bite, and then it was time for dessert.

Once we opened the box of Drumsticks, that’s when the magic happened.

Everybody started talking and reliving memories of Drumsticks. It was so fun to have different generations sharing memories of eating Drumsticks as kids.

These were the same old Drumsticks that we all remembered, except with pretzels in the chocolate coating instead of a peanut topping. We savored every last morsel from the chocolate-pretzel covered vanilla ice cream down to the chocolate at the bottom of the cone.

Our summer celebration went off without a hitch, from our activities to dinner to the magic of Drumsticks. With today being the unofficial start of summer, in the months to come, I hope that you get to enjoy many perfect summer days with many magic moments!

Disclosure: Nestlé has provided me with free product and other items in order to help with my review, but anything I receive from Nestlé does not affect my thoughts on its company or their products.

Filed Under: news Tagged With: summer, tastemaker

Your Online Recipe Box with ZipList!

April 3, 2012 ·

I am excited to tell you about a new feature here at Alida’s Kitchen.

As you may have noticed, I added a handy little button at the bottom of each post (It’s right next to the ‘Print Friendly’ button, pictured below).

You can now can save your favorite recipes to your very own personal recipe box! You can also save recipe ingredients to an online shopping list with just one click.

I’ve teamed up with ZipList to make this happen. ZipList is a free online recipe box. They have free mobile apps, or you can use their website. You can access your recipe box from your phone or computer any time you want.

ZipList powers the online recipe boxes and shopping lists you see at MarthaStewart.com, The Daily Meal and Joy of Baking, as well as many food blogs. You can save recipes from any of these websites, including mine, and they’ll all be saved in one place. No more hunting from site-to-site to track down your favorite recipes.

To make it easy for you to access your recipe box and shopping list, I have added a couple places for you to access them on the website:
In the navigation bar, you will find the link ‘Recipe Box’

And on the right sidebar, under ZipList, you will find links to your Recipe Box and Shopping List.

As mentioned, you can also access your recipe box from ZipList.com and using free mobile apps so you have what you need to plan meals and grocery shop wherever you go. I have been using ZipList for year and love it. So go click on the icon to create your personal recipe box..and let me know what you think!

Filed Under: news Tagged With: news, ziplist

Time for Change!

February 24, 2012 ·

Over the next few days, you will see some changes happening at Alida’s Kitchen. We are undergoing a site redesign, and I am very excited to share with you a sneak preview of my new logo.

I have been working with Sugar Studio Designs to create this new look for Alida’s Kitchen. A big thank you to Casey, who is super creative, talented, and so fun to work with!

During this transition, the site will perform as usual, other than you may see some periodic updates throughout the design update process. I appreciate your patience during this exciting transition and look forward to launching the new site!