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...
My summer stress is what to made to eat of us and my in-laws,Pork is such a great meat,it came be fixed so many ways,love the ideals you give me ,liked your Face Book page so I can get your latest tips &tricks,thanks
What stresses me out is the unpredictable weather in my area. The temperature can drop suddenly and the winds can pick up and blow everything off the table.It can be very difficult to plan.
The timing of the prepping the food and the grilling…making sure it is all done around the same time.
Mosquitos and the heat……we are lucky enough to have both here in Texas! And like all things Texan, we do them large! :-)
Two stressors for me – the first is figuring out what to make (and how much!) to make sure everyone will be happy. The other is cleaning up afterwards since I don’t have a dishwasher!
I’ve been enjoying your series and actually have a party on Thursday. Your ideas have really helped calm me down. My one stressor is that people will be “bored”. I’m good with cooking and decorating and dreaming up a theme. But people mingling, finding something to talk about, and getting along are all things out of my control. I feel like if good mingling doesn’t happen, it’s all my fault and the party will be a flop.
For me, its the preparing. I find it hard to know what I need. Also, how much do I need to feed this many people is difficult for me.
Thanks for the chance,
Mary
ladefly@aol dot com
Ugh…my biggest stressor with summer entertaining this year is the financial part. My husband was laid off in February, so trying to plan gatherings on a shoestring is more challenging. Even delegating & pot-luck don’t take into account all the little hidden expenses when you’re reeaaallly counting your pennies. But it doesn’t stop me from having people over. Where there’s a will – there’s a way!
Thank you for this opportunity! I would say I fall into some of the things you have addressed…worrying about things “being perfect” and not focusing just on the people. Once everyone arrives and the conversation starts I forget all about that and relax and have fun! If I can only stop stressing in the hours before they arrive! Thanks again!
I am a relative new follower of your blog, but it is fast becomming one of my top favorites. Thanks first for sharing the pork and apricot receipe…looks so yummy, can’t wait to try it.
For me living in the hot and humid south I would have to say mosquitos and humidity keep us from eating and entertaining outside as much as we’d like. But early spring and fall we take advantage of the outside as much as we can. I’ve enjoyed getting your ideas on easy, but gracious ideas.
Thanks Sandy!
shared on facebook.. http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1356080459
What a gracious giveaway.. Thanks for hosting and thanks to the Pork Board too! The challenge of summertime entertaining here is heat, heat and more heat. There actually comes a point in the spring (we’ve already past it) where it’s too hot to sit outside in the evenings. So sad. We’ve tried misters, but who wants wilted hair.. So we do mainly spring and autumn on the patio (where it’s really 10 degrees cooler than the outside temp)… I would love to win this giveaway! wow.
What stresses me out about summer entertaining? Everything! My house isn’t big enough. My cooking isn’t good enough. My guests won’t have fun. I’m trying to change those attitudes. I promise.
The sun stays up later in summer so you can see all the dog hair on the floor – even though I just vacuumed.:-)
First, what a darling group of “girls”! I bet the restaurants were happy to see y’all coming! Truthfully, summertime entertaining doesn’t stress me out—I love it because it can be as simple or as complicated as I want to make it. I have done table settings with individual favors and centerpieces or hotdogs on paper plates. We (and our guests) seem to enjoy it either way! It’s all about the joy of sharing time and experiences and people seem to sense that. Great giveaway and great series of posts.
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.