Day 20: Summer Entertaining GIVEAWAY from National Pork Board
Thanks for joining me in my “30 Days of Summer Entertaining” series. (Scroll down to the bottom for previous posts in this series) :)
Grilling is a big part of summer entertaining, so today’s post is a very exciting one!
Back in May, I was invited by my cute and inspirational friend, Marla Meridith, from Family Fresh Cooking, to attend a wonderful evening with … the National Pork Board. It was called a Pork Crawl, hosted by Jaden Hair from Steamy Kitchen. Basically, a group of bloggers went to some of the finest restaurants in Atlanta, where chefs created pork recipes in ways I’ve never experienced before.
Lori @ Recipe Girl, Angie @ Bakerella, Jenny @ Picky Palate, Jaden @ Steamy Kitchen, Sandy @ Reluctant Entertainer, Georgia @ Georgia Pellegrini, Marla @ Family Fresh Cooking, not pictured Carrie Minns @ La Pomme De Portland, and photo credit by Amanda @ Kevin & Amanda
And the night didn’t end there … when we got back to our hotel room, we were given a gift of great cooking tools and spices for making our own pork chops when we arrived home. (Items in very top photo – my favorite? The grilling pan and juicer! Both awesome!)
Yesterday I shared this fantastic recipe that our family enjoyed for an early Father’s Day celebration using fresh pork chops and glazed apricots.
Today I am sharing with YOU the exact same items I received from the National Pork Board, to give away here at RE to ONE LUCKY WINNER!
As the generosity continues … here are the items I’m giving away here on RE today:
Pork Be Inspired brand Apron
Pork Be Inspired Brochure
Digital Meat Thermometer
Cuisinart CCJ-100 Citrus Pro Juicer
Vacu Vin Pineapple Slicer
Norpro Grip-Ez Jalapeno Pepper Corer
Cuisinart Grill Pan (I’m most excited about this!)
Dry Ingredients (Salt, Light Brown Sugar, Garlic Powder, Onion Powder, Chili Powder)
If you are interested in receiving this generous gift from the National Pork Board, leave a comment and tell me:
What is it about summer entertaining that stressed you out?
Extra ways to win, 1 point each, and please come back and share the link.
-Tweet this giveaway (@SandyCoughlinRE)
-Share this post on your Facebook page
-Post this giveaway on your blog
-Become a brand NEW follower of RE Facebook page
-Become a brand NEW follower of ReluctantEntertainer.com (Brand NEW folks, easy to sign up with your email)Contest ends Wednesday at midnight, 6/22/11. Winner announced Thursday, 6/23/11 on RE.
(Very top photo credit of giveaway items from Carrie, La Pomme De Portland.)
If you’ve missed the last 19 days of this series, you can catch up now:
Day 1: Summer Entertaining is About the People
Day 2: When Perfect Robs You of Something Good
Day 3: Who To Invite to Dinner
Day 4: Planning the Menu for Outdoor Entertaining
Day 5: Setting the Table Using What You Have
Day 6: Using One Classic Water Glass
Day 7: Napkin Options for Summer Entertaining
Day 8: When You Feel Like Canceling the Party
Day 9: Leave Your Technology at the Front Door
Day 10: Candles That Enhance Good Conversation
Day 11: Serving Flavored Herb and Fruit Water
Day 12: Leafy Greens and a Tiny Bit of Agave
Day 13: Keeping Nut and Fruits and Cheeses on Hand for Easy Appetizers
Day 14: Move Your Table to a Different Space
Day 15: Greek Salad on a Stick and Getting the Kids Involved
Day 16: Three Lies of Perfectionism that Ruin Entertaining Moments
Day 17: Be Creative When You Run Out of Linens for Your Dinner Party
Day 18: Gather Around a Fire for Intimate Summer Entertaining
Day 19: Last Minute Father’s Day Invite and Pork Chops with Glazed Apricots
Feel free to grab my button and share it with your readers :).
Hello and welcome to my home and table!
I’m Sandy—lover of food, family, cooking, THE BIG BOARD, travel, and bringing people together. Through great recipes and connection around the table, we become better, stronger, and more courageous people. Feasting on Life is real, and every time we do it, we grow a little more. Read more...
What stresses me out most about summer entertaining is being able to spend quality time with my guests. Between cooking,, making sure food and drinks are refreshed, cleaning up, etc. it is difficult to sit and relax with each guest.
I ususally stress out about having enough food. I’ve never actually not had enough food, but I feel a lot of college age young people and then tend to eat a lot when they can share a good meal with fun people.
In Florida, between mosquitoes and the heat, entertaining outside isn’t always an option. We love to have friends over, but the hardest, most stressful part of entertaining, for me, is serving my husband -as he travels quite a bit. We have lots of kids over but sometimes it’s hard to have families over when we are trying to be so purposeful to “BE” a family ourselves. We seem to have found a good balance, but it’s work in the current season we’re in.
Wow, what a fun evening. I never knew that there was such a tool for jalapenos. Wish I would have discovered that before I fire roasted all of those peppers. Thank you and I will be on the look out for one. :) Since it is so hot here in AZ we do not do much entertaining outside in the summer, and with this series on your blog currently I am wishing that we could entertain outside right now. What stresses me though is that the grass has all died and when I am able to entertain outside again, it will look really sad out there. I so want the foundation of my yard to be pleasing so that I can build a wonderful outdoor entertaining space and mood. Thank you for this series and giveaway.
A great giveaway! Thanks for the chance! For me, the most stressful part of summer entertaining is twofold. First, we have 3 dogs. It is sometimes hard to gauge how people’s reactions will be towards young animals like that. The other is that our backyard just isn’t all that nice looking right now. We’ve had a wet spring that has kept us from being able to get it cleaned up yet.
I love my boys but dinner can sometimes be an ugly hour for them. We like to entertain, especially in the summer, but I’m often a little on edge hoping there isn’t an ugly meltdown. I feel like I spend my time watching/monitoring them, rather than enjoying myself and my guests.
What is it about summer entertaining that stressed you out? Flies and mosquitoes are the things that stress me out when trying to entertain outside in the summer.
I don’t worry about much during the summer, if the weather or bugs are bad, we can always move indoors. I can always turn up the air a few degrees to handle a crowd. Food can be stored in the fridge after dinner and a dessert or fruit that is stable can be left out for noshing. The worst part is when planning a large group making sure that not too many are away on vacation or coaching their kids teams. I live in the Midwest and Summer is much easier than trying to deal with winter storms!
I’m stressed about not having enough room, and about the kids. I have two toddlers, and I shy away from entertaining in the evenings because of the meltdowns that inevitably occur around bedtime, when everyone is tired.
Something that really stresses me about summer entertaining? Probably the fact that it’s nice to host a summer event outside. While I do enjoy the outdoors, and don’t get me wrong, love summer activities outdoors – eating outside isn’t one of those activities. We recently did a large outdoor picnic for my husbands work – tons of food sitting on picnic tables for people to devour.. and apparently the flies felt the food was there for them as well. That has to be the most annoying thing. Swatting flies away while you’re trying to enjoy some delicious pulled pork, burgers or potato salad. I suppose you could host it indoors, but I don’t have a very large house – and I’d be afraid our friends’ children would break the things in our home.
There are many other things that stress me out about entertaining – but that’s one of my biggest stresses/pet peeves.