Put your best food forward-An exchange!

Exchanges are a lot of fun and a great way to meet other bloggers. I have participated in two, one a Halloween exchange hosted by Elizabeth of Mommy Cooks and the recent One World One Heart exchange hosted by Lisa Oceandreamer of Heart of the Nest and Imagination Cafe . Both were fun since you have the joy of both giving and receiving. Kristen, of One and Two Makes Three, and a new diet/food blog called Lick the Spoon who was my exchange partner in the Halloween exchange is hosting an exhange that closes at midnight tonight. The premise is simple, share the best of your city/state/region with another blogger. This has great potential- Boston baked beans, new england clam chowder, Idaho potatoes, Kansas City steak... you see the trend. Now you know exchanges are only successful if you have lots of bloggers, so check out Kristen's site before midnight and sign up for the "best of" exchange!

Play with (360) Vodka

I am not a connoiseur of liquors, so when I was contacted by a representative of 360 Vodka who offered to send me a sample to try and blog about, I wasn't sure. But I was intrigued by the special angle of the 360 brand. Besides being a premium vodka that is distilled 4 times and filtered 5 times, 360 prides itself on being eco-friendly. So much so, in fact, it was named the official spirit of the Sundance Film Festival. So I responded that I would love to try it, and I waited for my package, and checked out their website to learn more about this vodka.

About a week later, when I got home from work there was a big plastic bag with a wet box inside from Fedex. When I opened the bag, my heart sunk because , I could smell vodka right away. I expected the box to be full of broken glass, but apparently, the unique pressure seal top was compromised in the trip and the vodka leaked out along the Fedex route from 360 Vodka to me. By now I had researched 360, and checked out all the recipes on their website I was going to try(not all at one time), so I emailed the 360 rep and told her the story and that I was crying over spilled vodka. She immediately sent me a new bottle that arrived just in time for the President's Day weekend, and so I began playing with vodka.

But before I tell you about the fun I had trying new cocktails, I want to tell you something about 360 Vodka and its eco-friendly stance. This is not just a gimmick, they have really made a commitment to being a green product from the industry-standard 85% recycled glass content of their bottles to the use of paper using primarily post-consumer waste, to a website powered and sustained by renewable energy. Their website gives information not only about 360 Vodka but information and factoids about being environmentally responsible.

But now to the fun part. I selected a few cocktail and made one each evening so that could get an idea of the taste of this spirit. First, I started with a cocktail that I often order out, a vodka and tonic. I tought this would be a great test of the vodka since there are few ingredients to detract from the vodka itself. I was immediately impressed. I have had drinks made with "top shelf" vodka, and this was the smoothest vodka I have ever had.

The next evening I decided to make 360's version of the Seabreeze, one of my favorite summer cocktails (I associate it with the beach). This drink with the perfect blend of tart and tangy from grapefruit and cranberry juices was perfectly supported by the smoothness of 360 vodka, for a great drink.

The next drink I tried (okay, I am starting to feel like Sandra Lee here) was the Bloody 360 Mariner. Now I have to preface this by saying I am not a big Bloody Mary fan, but I was intrigued by the clam juice and horseradish, and thought I'd give it a try. I used Clamato juice instead of separate tomato and clam juices, and the drink was hearty, delicious and fresh tasting with a strong undertone of heat from the horseradish. I am now a convert. I will definitely make this again(That is my husband's hand trying to steal a sip!)

Finally, I decided to try what my husband called a "girly" drink, the Purely Delicious. Made with 360, pineapple juice and creme de menthe, it made a beautiful and delicious cocktail that I know would be a hit on "girl's night".

There are still a number of recipes like the Global Warming and the Greentini just waiting for you to give them a try. Believe me, you, and the environment, won't be sorry!

Note: When you are done with your bottle of 360, you can return its unique top in the attached self addressed, postage paid envelope and 360 will contribute $1.00 to environmental causes!

360 Breeze
2 oz 360 Vodka
4 oz Grapefruit Juice
1 oz Cranberry Juice
Pour 360 Vodka into iced highball glass and fill with grapefruit juice and top with cranberry juice. Garnish with a lime wedge.

Bloody 360 Mariner
2 oz 360 Vodka
4 splash Tabasco Sauce
1 dash Garlic Powder
1 dash Onion Powder
1 dash Chopped Horseradish
2 oz Clam Juice
Tomato Juice
Combine ingredients and pour into tall glass filled with ice. Stir well and garnish with a celery stick.

Purely Delicious
1 1/2 oz 360 Vodka
3 oz Pineapple Juice
1/2 oz Green Creme de Menthe
Juice of 1 Lime
1/2 tsp sugar syrup

Curses- Tagged Again!

When I was a new blogger, one of the best ways to get to know other bloggers was the 5 things you didn't know about me meme. In the fifteen months I have been writing this blog I have responded twice to this meme, but when Laura, a new blogger at The Spiced Life visited my blog and tagged me, I thought I would dig one more time to find something surprising I hadn't already shared before, so Laura, this is for you:

1) In my life I have been accepted once to medical school and once to law school. The first I left behind because my advisor thought that with three children, I would constantly be conflicted between family and patients, the second I could not pursue because I didn't qualify for tuition reimbursement.

2) During my pregnancy with my son Andrew (now heading to Marine boot camp) I began having chest pain and was dignosed with high-output heart failure because he was lying on the nerve that controls heart rate. For about three weeks I had to sleep sitting up and had to get in the tub each day and move around to try to get him to move. He finally did, everything was fine and he has been giving me heart failure since!

3)I was the captain of my high school drill team- need I say more?

4)I am a rabid fan of the Washington Redskins. First, because they were our "local" team when I was growing up in Winchester VA. Second, because when my dad, who was also a big fan was dying of cancer, I sent them a letter about him and they circulated a Redskins cap collecting signatures. When his condition took a turn for the worse, they overnighted the cap so it would get there in time. That cap was the last thing my dad saw, except for his family and it elicited his last smile.

5) I studied 5 years of Latin and was a state officer in the Junior Classical League (okay, I was a nerd)

Well now you know me even better. I will not tag anyone, but if you are new to the blogosphere, consider yourself tagged and link back so we can all learn about you!

Semper Fi- On becoming a Marine Mom

Forgive me for straying from food for this post, but my family is central to this blog ( and to me!) and something important is happening in our family in the coming week. About a month ago, my son announced to us that he was joining the Marines. He had toyed with the idea of joining the military previously, but then changed his mind (as young people are inclined to do), but this time he is serious, and next week he will be sworn in and head off to boot camp. And I will become a Marine mom.

My husband is from a military family, and we live in a military town, and we have numerous friends and family in the military, but I have to say that it is completely different when your child (though he is now 22) is headed into the military. I feel a strange mix of pride and fear, bcause I know that boot camp is tough, and like every mom, I want my son to succeed. I worry that he will end up in harm's way, or that he will regret a decision that he won't be able to do anything about until his term of service is complete. But on the other hand, if he is successful, he stands to benefit from additional training and education that he might not have had any other way.

So often, we as Americans take for granted to willingness of a whole population of men and women to serve our country around the world to defend freedom and ensure our way of life. I have no doubt that I will never take that for granted again. Whether you agree with current policy or not, there are people - sons, daughters, mothers, fathers- who are in dangerous places all around the world not only waging war but bringing peace, ensuring security, opposing tyranny, providing humanitarian aid, and representing all of us every day.

So what can I do but be supportive? I encourage him to work out and run, I have bought every book recommended to help recruits prepare for boot camp, and scoured websites for new recruits and parents of recruits for tips and advice to make his life easier. I will write to him, and encourage him, and above all, pray for him. I hope all of you will take a moment to say a prayer for the men and women of our armed forces, or even better, to reach out to their families in your own communities. They are making sacrifices for all of us every day, and they deserve our respect and gratitude.

Leave...her...Alone...

I know it is really popular to dis Rachael Ray. Next to George Bush (and Sandra Lee) she probably elicits the most negative response on the blogosphere. But she is popular,with two Food Network shows, books and a magazine, and she is almost everywhere. And while RR is no Julia Child, she has encouraged a whole generation raised on fast food to break out their pots and pans and start cooking for themselves. That in and of itself is something good, in my book.

As a working woman, I often go to her 30-Minute Meals archive to find something to make in a pinch, and yesterday, after catching the end of her show on a spicy barbecue chicken, I looked up her menu to try an make something new and different that would appeal to my husband's latest addiction to Mexican food (it has become so much an issue that my oldest daughter got him a sombrero and pinata as a joke for Christmas!) The menu included some spice-rubbed boneless chicken, pumpkin polenta, and a salsa salad with grilled pineapple. I didn't have everything in her recipes on hand so I made a few substitutions and some additions, but the final products together made a perfect blend of spicy, savory, sweet, and fresh that went over very well at our table. Even my polenta-hating (he often calls it placenta) husband loved the pumpkin polenta even though mine turned out a little bit lumpy.

I was only cooking for my husband and myself since Bridget was working and Molly was not feeling that adventurous, and again I forgot to take pictures before we devoured the whole dinner. Here is my version of RR's BBQ Spiced Chicken, Salsa Salad and Pumpkin-Chipotle Polenta or you can look it up and try hers by the book, but this is a recipe that you can really play with. While it is good with chicken, I also used this same rub on a pork tenderloin, and I am thinking this would also be great on salmon.

Spicy-Rubbed Chicken Thighs

1 tablespoon Montreal Steak seasoning

2 tablespoons smoked chili powder

1 tablespoon coriander

3 tablespoons dark brown sugar

5 boneless skinless chicken thighs

Extra-virgin olive oil

Mix spices and sugar in a zip-loc bag. Add chicken and rub spice mixture into meat. Let sit for 15-20 minutes. Brush grill or stove top griddle with oil and grill chicken for 5-7 minutes on each side depending on thickness. Serve with pumpkin polenta and grilled pineapple salsa.

Grilled Pineapple Salsa

4 yellow heirloom tomatoes, chopped

handfull of fresh cilantro, chopped

1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped

1 red onion, chopped

1 avocado, chopped

5 pineapple rings (canned, packed in juice) or fresh pineapple spears, grilled

2 limes

2 tbsp olive oil

A handful fresh cilantro leaves, chopped

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Combine all ingredients and juice of two limes, oil with salt and pepper to taste. Toss and chill.

Pumpkin-Chipotle Polenta with Monterey Jack Cheese

2 cups chicken stock

1 cup fat free half-and-half

1 chipotle chili in adobo, finely chopped with 2 teaspoons adobo sauce

3/4 cup quick cooking polenta

1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin puree

2 tablespoons butter

1/2 cup shredded monterey jack cheese

Heat the stock and milk or half-and-half in a sauce pot with chipotle and adobo sauce. Whisk in the polenta and thicken 2-3 minutes, stir in pumpkin to warm through. Stir in butter and season with salt and pepper. Stir in cheese just before serving.

Serve polenta with chicken and salsa.

Though sometimes RR uses a lot of prepared foods, this menu focused on fresh and simple ingredients combined to compliment one another. So, while I am not about to make a YouTube video crying, "Leave... Rachel...alone..." I, for one, will be giving RR a pass for a great idea that resulted in a delicious, simple and quick dinner.

And the winner is......

The One World, One Heart giveaway is finally over. I received seventy-seven entries (visits) representing 24 states in the US as well as entries from eight foreign countries. I am not sure which was more fun, reading each of the comments or visiting the many (I think the number went over 400!) participants and their blogs. There were entrants who lived in cities like NY and Chicago and some who lived in America's heartland. I really enjoyed checking out the sites of those entrants from other countries, and reading about them and what they were passionate about.

Over the last week I have seen amazing photographs, original artwork, handcrafted papers and jewelry, quilts and needlework. So many people putting so much love and creativity into what they make with their own hands. There were many many more crafting blogs participating than food blogs, so it was fun for me to get a peek into another blogging world.

But I am sure that you all really don't want to hear my ramblings at this point, what you really want to know is who won the homemade coconut cream eggs (pictured right waiting for their dark chocolate bath) to be delivered before Easter. I used a random number generator, and the winner is Nancy of NancyLuvsPix, somewhere in the US! I will be sending Nancy an email and the rest of you will be grateful when you step on your scales after Easter! Thank all of you for stopping by my blog and entering this giveaway.

I will definitely particpate again and look forward to taking a more leisurely look at the many bloggers who responded to the giveaway, and I hope that many of you will become regular guests at my cyber-kitchen table.

One World, One Heart Giveaway!

With the blogosphere, you have the whole world in your hands (or at least at your fingertips!), and no event helps bloggers cross geographical borders like the One Heart, One World event. To encourage participation, bloggers are supposed to offer a giveaway, and so here is mine- 1 dozen handmade bitesize coconut Easter eggs, made from my family recipe (I you want to see how involved it is, check out my archives- my eggs were an entry in WTSIM Easter Basket event).

To enter, leave a comment to this post and on Valentine's Day, I will randomly select a name from comments received to get these rich delicious morsels before Easter! Be sure to check out the OHOW blogroll to discover new friends, there are over 280 participants! Good surfing and good luck!

P.S. Hey food bloggers- the arts and crafts bloggers outnumber us in this event- check it out and sign up!

Super Sunday (for eating!)

One of the biggest challenges for me as a blogger is blogging about an event or holiday. I don't have the time (or the money) to make and photograph dishes before the occasion, so normally I am not posting ideas and recipes until after the actual event. I promise I will work on it, but until I overcome this blogging dilemma, here is a look at how we spent Super Sunday.

The tagline for this blog talks about how food can bring family and friends together and a big part of how I do that is making a food event anytime I can, and what food event is bigger than the Super Bowl? Pound for pound more food is made on Super Sunday than any other day, including Thanksgiving! Many of you have either chosen to attend Super Bowl parties or to host them, but you don't need a crowd to enjoy the fun that accompanies this bit of Americana.


When our children were young, we were such a crowd, and getting a sitter was so expensive, that we started making the Super Bowl a family affair and that tradition has carried through to this day. That doesn't mean we don't ever invite people, it just means the most important MVPs at our house are family. I decorate with the colors of the opposing teams, print out pictures and logos to make our table festive, and we usually each make our predictions with a prize for the person who gets closest to the actual final score (You can see that my husband won the DVD What About Bob?, this years prize since he was the only one who thought the Giants would win!)


Not everyone in our family is a football fan , but they are all fans of football food, and so everyone gets into the action. As the kids have grown up, they often contribute their own recipes or want to make a dish for the Super Bowl table.


This year, even though neither the Redskins (#1 favorite Dowd team) nor the Packers (#2 Dowd favorite team) were in the Super Bowl, we stared getting wound up last weekend- the underdog Giants vs. the perfect season Patriots offered us lots to talk about. Some Dowds jumped on the Tom Brady perfect-season bandwagon, while some of the women wanted all kinds of harm to come to Tom Brady because of his abandonment of his pregnant girlfriend (told you even non-football fans could get drawn in!), and so they were rooting for the Giants in a big way. I was sitting on the fence until I found out that a young man who works at JLab's Copy Center is the cousin of Giants #27, and so of course, that was enough of a local connection (and the whole underdog thing) to push me off the fence.


While the game is important, in our house it is all about the food, and I started working on the menu several days before the weekend. I tried to have a variety of healthy and traditional "football" foods so that we are not just filling up on chips and dip. So what was on the Dowd Super Bowl Menu? It was an all-star line-up of old favorites and new dishes.


Crudites with hummus dip







Chili-cheese cups- an easy family favorite made by pressing canned biscuits into muffin tins, filling with a mixture of your favorite chili with grated cheese and baking till the crust is brown and the cheese is bubbly.



Elise's 7-layer dip from Simply Recipes - This was a great and healthier version of an old favorite, and everyone liked it better than the original!







Fricken' Chicken (posted previously)







Apple-Red Onion-Blue Cheese Slaw (a new recipe that Bridget made) - She tried to recreate a slaw they made at the restaurant where she works, with matchstick strips of red onion and granny smith apples, crumbled blue cheese and tossed with a little salt and white wine vinegar- it was a perfect foil for some smoking hot wings she made and my frickin' chicken!


Baby Potatoes with Light Sour Cream and Caviar (pictured here at the Giants end of the football table!)

A new feature for this Super Bowl was my daughter's suggestion that we put a cup on the table and anyone who said a curse word would have to put a quarter in, assuming that her dad would have to open a roll of quarters (he has been known to yell obscenities at the TV during a game). However, I turned out to be the #1 offender with $1.50 in the cup!! Katie, who usually doesn't even watch football, was in for $1.00! We are thinking of instituting this next football season to boost our vacation fund (the way the Redskins play, we could probably go to Hawaii!!!)


We had great food, watched a great game and as a bonus, our team won!! And you know what? I will post these recipes in advance of next year's Super Bowl so you can gve them a try, too.

From S'kat to Bistro 613

One of the most welcoming (and closest, geographically to me) bloggers when I entered the blogosphere was Shelley, whom many of you know as S'kat, of S'kat and the food. Changes are happening, and now Shelley has her own, new independent blog at Bistro 613. Elegant new format, same great writing, recipes and recommendations. Update your links to reach Shelley at her new home!