October 21, 2009

What a time we had at BlogWorld!  We won’t bore you with all of the blow-by-blow details, but we’d be crummy selfish friends if we didn’t share the highlights of the conference with you!  You can go to our flickr photostream to see more photos.

• It was incredible to be involved with the new Guinness World Record for the most social mentions in 24 hours.  The goal was to raise money for cancer.  For every tweet, facebook update or blog post mentioning #beatcancer, 1¢ was donated by ebay/paypal and Miller/Coors.  Over $70,000 was raised.  That’s over 7 million mentions in just 1 day!

Jermaine Dupri at BlogWorld

• The keynote panel on “New Celebrity” was moderated by Brian Solis and featured Robin from the Pussycat Dolls (?), producer and Grammy winner Jermaine Dupri, singer Matt Goss, Don Lemon from CNN and Anthony Edwards.  Quite a diverse group, wouldn’t you say?  That diversity ended up with a bunch of sparks flying around that we could have done without.  On the positive side though, Anthony was totally likable, and spoke sincerely and passionately about his cause Shoe4Africa.  Very smart of him to make friends with a bunch of big-mouths like us bloggers!

Anthony Edwards at BlogWorld

• We were really impressed with what Chris Brogan had to say.  Just wisdom from this expert; no BS!  We need to read his New York Times Bestseller “Trust Agents“.

• The final keynote session was moderated by Guy Kawasaki with Jenny the Bloggess, Kevin Pollack, and Chad Vader.  It was pretty funny, although I’d say a few too many f-bombs for my taste.  But Jenny was hilarious and totally held her own as the only woman on the panel!  Check out her stories on the alien apocalypse and William Shatner.  Go Jenny!

• We had a chance to chat with Lou Mongello from wdwradio, and got some great input on wherever the heck it is that BigSisLilSis are going.  Thanks for your thoughts, Lou!  All the best to you with wdwradio.com.

• And lastly, we had the awesome opportunity to meet Darren Rowse.  Yes, THE ProBlogger!  In person.  😀   Woo hoo!  Seriously, we didn’t want to leave BlogWorld without meeting Darren because of the enormous respect we have for him, his expertise, and the way he conducts his business…with total integrity.  So we send a HUGE thank you to Darren for kindly tolerating our gushing, and giving us some extremely valuable input that we’re going to be acting on asap!  THANK YOU!

Oh, and the big surprise that we mentioned yesterday?  It’s a direct result of the ideas and encouragement from Lou and Darren.  Whatever could it be?  😀

~BigSis

October 20, 2009

We’re back!  We both flew back to our homes last night after 4 days at BlogWorld in Las Vegas, and you can bet that we have lots to tell you about that long weekend!

Can you even begin to imagine how much stuff it takes for 2 blogging women to get through 4 days of work and fun in Las Vegas?  These photos will give you an idea of what our room looked like!  Just imagine a bomb going off in both our suitcases!

Here’s the bathroom we shared at the Renaissance…

Vegas Bathroom Mess

and the desk we shared when we moved over to Caesar’s Palace…

Vegas Desk Mess

Somehow we managed to pack all that cr*p back into our bags and get home with it all, plus a bunch of business cards, marketing materials from vendors and swag from the show!

We’re going to have gobs more on BlogWorld this week (plus a big surprise) so don’t go anywhere!

~BigSis

October 16, 2009

LilSis and I are still in Sin City, so we’re super excited to have an awesome guest poster today!  SAA is a coworker of mine, and she had the incredible opportunity to see U2 live in Dallas the other day.  Call me jealous!  She’s agreed to share her experience with us all, so take it away, SAA!

Photo by SAA!

It’s hard to describe a concert experience like U2’s 360 Tour in the new Cowboys’ Stadium Monday night.  Was it epic?  That’s close, but it falls short.  Life changing?  Well, I don’t want to be dramatic…but that might be more like it.

The story started when I lucked into a last-minute ticket for the Dallas stop on U2’s 360 Tour on Monday.  Basically, a friend figured out he wouldn’t be able to make it because of work, and $65 and 24 hours later I found myself a mere ten yards from the 2-inch platform shoes of Bono himself.  Yes, Bono wears 2-inch platform shoes because, yes, he has a bad case of Short Man’s syndrome.  But I digress.

If the Cowboys’ Stadium isn’t staggering in and of itself, walking inside and seeing the towering, alien-like 360 Tour stage will make your jaw drop (see http://360.u2.com).  Add 70,000 people and the era’s greatest (arguably) rock band, and, well…the phrase “life-changing” doesn’t seem as dramatic.

I could try to go into detail about what it felt like when The Edge strummed the first note of With or Without You (my personal favorite), or when Bono made eye contact with me from only eight feet away and I went weak in the knees, or when the stadium sounded like it was about to burst during Where the Streets Have No Name.  But I’d be setting myself up for failure.  Words just can’t do it justice.

I will say that U2’s old stuff will always be nearer and dearer to my heart than their more recent songs.  They actually opened with two songs I didn’t know from their newest album, and I had the sinking feeling that the concert might be a let-down.  But, happily, the set list only got better from there.  BigSis had predicted that Bono would find a way to throw in a political issue, and she wasn’t wrong: before the concert started, event staff passed out rather creepy masks of Aung San Suu Kyi (picture here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:U2360-Suu_Kyi-tribute.JPG), an imprisoned Burmese democracy advocate, for those of us on the floor to wear during Walk On.  But really, Bono wasn’t preachy about it, and it was a worthwhile issue.  I can’t say I’d personally like for thousands of people to be wearing my face on a mask, but maybe that’s just me…

Unfortunately, time won’t permit a longer post.  But I will leave you with this advice: if the 360 Tour is coming to a city near you, go.  It will be something you tell your kids and/or grandkids about some day.  Thank you, BigSis and LilSis, for the posting space.  And, in the spirit of U2, walk– err, blog on 🙂

October 14, 2009

I made apple butter at Christmas for several years because Daddy liked it.  I’m not sure if he especially loved my version as much as his favorite store-bought brand, but he always acted like he did.  Apple butter still reminds me of him whenever I think about it or smell it or taste it.  I haven’t made it in a long time, and it’s kind of bittersweet to make it now knowing I can’t take him a jar of it.

But I did make apple butter again for the first time since he’s been gone.  I had 6 giant Fuji apples left after the Gooey Apple Cake/Cobbler stuff, and didn’t want them to go to waste.  I was super busy on Sunday getting ready for our BlogWorld trip, so I didn’t have time to fuss around with a boiling, spitting, scorching pot of apples on the stove.  The solution?  My underutilized crockpot, of course!

I added a cup of water to the apples to get them started, but I’ve seen crockpot apple butter recipes that don’t use any water at all, and I suppose they might  take slightly less cooking time.  My apple butter was in the crockpot on high heat for 10 hours, and then the next day I still wanted it a little thicker so I simmered it on really low heat on the stove for another hour.  Just cook it til it looks the way you want.

The flavor in this is exactly the way I wanted it.  I love that it’s not very sweet, and has the zip of the lemon and the perfect blend of incredibly flavorful spices from Penzeys.  I think Daddy might like it too.

Crockpot Apple Butter

6 large Fuji apples: peeled, cored and chopped
Juice of 1 lemon
1 cup water
1 cup brown sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp cloves
Healthy dash of salt

Place all ingredients into crockpot, and mix together. Cook on high heat until desired thickness is reached; probably 10-12 hours.  Use a stick blender for a smoother consistency if you wish (I wished).  Best served on a big steaming buttered homemade biscuit!

Note:  I plan on finishing this up within the next few weeks and keeping it chilled, so I didn’t worry about the whole canning/processing procedure.

~BigSis

October 12, 2009

I made the grievous error of going to Sam’s Club the other day when I was really hungry.  You know how that goes…you buy everything you see.  Weird thing is that this time I was just buying massive quantities of produce instead of the junk that usually calls your name when you’re shopping hungry.  So I ended up with – among other things – a nice big bag of 8 Fuji apples.  Could I ever in my life eat 8 apples before they went bad?  Heck, no.  I don’t know what I was thinking.

I did have to get thinking about how to use all those apples when it became clear their number wasn’t diminishing on the counter.  The first thing that came to mind was an apple cake since it’s fall now.  I grabbed my King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion and chose their Apple Cake.  Bad thing is it only took 2 of the apples; good thing is they didn’t have to be peeled!

The cake is gone now, and I’m still not sure if it came out right or not.  I really need to email the folks at KAF.  The recipe called for a little over two cups of flour and a couple of sugar, but the only moisture was from 2 eggs and a soft stick of butter.  When the recipe said to turn the batter into the pan, I didn’t have batter.  I had a sandy sugar/flour mixture that looked more like a shortbread crust than a cake batter.

I scoured the internet, looking for a clue as to what might have gone wrong, if it did.  I couldn’t find any online recipe corrections, or anyone discussing any issues with this recipe.  So, not knowing what else to do, I went ahead and baked the apple sand, hoping for the best but expecting a mess.

Apple Cake…as it should be?

I baked it for 45 minutes as directed since I had no idea of what it should look like once it was done.  As the apples cooked, they gave off some moisture of course, and the pan did start to look a bit like a cake.

In the end, when it was done and cooled, the cake was gooey and I presented it to my coworkers as an “Apple Cake/Cobbler/Sort of a Thing” that should be nuked for a few seconds and eaten warm.  The flavor was really good, but the appearance was a little…ummm…rustic?  The whole cake was eaten, but in all honesty, some of my coworkers would eat cat food on a cracker.

I’m still wondering what happened.  I did leave out the crystallized ginger since I don’t like it, the raisins since I’m allergic, and the nuts since I was out, but I don’t think any of those changes could have caused the weirdness I experienced.  Other than that, I’m 100% sure that I followed the recipe exactly.  If I messed this up, or if it’s supposed to be this way, that’s ok.  I just want to know!  Have any of you tried this recipe?  If so, how’d it come out?

Super Gooey Apple Cake

BTW, if you do the math, I still had 6 apples to deal with so I made a batch of crockpot apple butter last weekend.  Guess how that came out…

~BigSis

October 10, 2009

I happened to find this random product at my favorite natural foods store, Natural Grocers/Vitamin Cottage.  It’s called Stonewall’s Jerquee, A Vegetable Protein Product.  I bought the Cajun Bacon flavor honestly expecting that it would be horrible, and when I opened the package, I had one thought…cat treat.  It looks like cat treats.  And it smells kind of like smoky cat treats.  😀

Cat treats or People snack?

So far, my expectations were not very high.  How about the ingredient list?  Defatted soy flour, water, yeast, extra virgin olive oil, soy sauce, garlic, onion, cayenne, and sorbic acid.  Not a bunch of junk that I can’t pronounce or decipher.  Ok, so maybe this won’t be so bad?

Now for a bite.  The texture is very chewy; a texture I can’t remember getting in a meatless product.  I like it!  And the taste?  Very spicy and peppery with a little smoke and saltiness.  I’m surprised that I’m enjoying this odd little snack, but I really am!

Stonewall's Cajun Bacon Jerquee

I’ve bought Stonewall’s Jerquee twice now, and I still like it. I’d like to try some of the other varieties next time. And guess who else likes them?  Gabriel!  The cat who won’t even touch the Thanksgiving turkey doggie bag that SisMama sends to Ashy Poo begs for a taste of this spicy soy bacon treat!

Overall rating: 4 stars out of 5 on the Sister Scale.  Stonewall’s Jerquee doesn’t really remind me of bacon, but I like the originality, the chewy texture and the spicy flavor as a little tidbit.  Nice job, Stonewall!

If you can’t find these snacks locally, you can order them on Lumen Foods web site.  Next time I’ll give you the veggie scoop on Morningstar Farm’s faux bacon strips.

~BigSis

October 8, 2009

I had to respond to your post yesterday, LilSis.  Being 3.4 years older more mature than you, my essential list needs to be 30 instead of 3, but I’ll try to limit it.  😀

First off, mascara has to be one of the 3, since my face feels bare and featureless without it.  I’ve tried the cult-favorite Maybelline Great Lash, and I just don’t like it.  I need more oomph than that.  My favorite is Loreal’s Voluminous.  It gives me volume and thickness, and doesn’t flake, smudge or smear.

My number 2 pick would have to be a good lip balm.  I can’t STAND dry lips, in fact I’m a little obsessive about it!  My current inexpensive go-to is Aquaphor in a tube.  I apply it in the morning and at night after brushing my teeth.  It does a good job of keeping my lips chap-free and prepped for lipstick or lip gloss.

Last but most importantly, I have to have an excellent facial cleanser.  The key to keeping my skin out of the weeds (ie: broken out) is to cleanse deeply and faithfully.  I can’t get by with those little wipes you use, LilSis.  I need something serious to keep my skin clean and my pores clear.  My current favorite is Serious Skin Care’s Glycolic Cleanser.  It’s serious, for sure!

That’s my top 3 list.  If I could add a few more, I’d include Relastin Eye Silk, Tazorac Retin-A,and Urban Decay 24-7 Eyeliner in Underground and 1999.  And MAC eye shadow, powder and blush.  And Prescriptives foundation.  And Borba Shimmer Contour Cream.  And L’Occitane Almond Supple Skin Oil.  And Essie Nail Polish for pedis.  But I’m really not high maintenance.  Really!  You don’t think that’s a lot, do you??

~BigSis

October 6, 2009

When was a meat-eater, I loved the aroma and the flavor of bacon but almost never ate it because of the high fat content.  Now that it’s been over 15 years since I ate anything with a face or parents, I have to admit that I still like the smell of it.  I can’t stand the odor of barbecue or any other meat item, but bacon is the exception.  I don’t eat it, but I do enjoy smelling it. I’m a little bit ashamed to confess that, but I have to be honest.

I know that lots of vegetarians are disgusted by the meat analog products that some of us eat, because they’re too similar to real meat.  I totally understand and appreciate that viewpoint, but soy, wheat and mushroom burgers, patties, etc., don’t personally offend me.

Back to the bacon.  I don’t think it’s the pig itself that smells so good; my theory is that it’s the smokiness of the spices.  If it’s true that the spice combo creates the aroma, then is there a product out there that would fill the bacon-shaped hole in a vegetarian’s or vegan’s diet?  And even if you’re not a veggie, perhaps a bacon-flavor substitute would appeal to you for health reasons because of a lower fat content?

So I proposed a challenge to myself.  Try to find a delicious vegan bacon-flavored item.  Sounds simple, right?  Let’s see!

The first contender is Bacon Salt.  I’ve been hearing buzz about it for months and months, but never ordered it.  In addition to online availability, you can now buy Bacon Salt in some retail stores.  I got my 2 oz jar of the Original Bacon Salt at Kroger for $4.99.

Bacon Salt

First off, there are lots of ingredients in Bacon Salt.  The first is sea salt, then garlic, paprika, onion, and corn syrup.  It also contains corn cereal (?), natural hickory smoke flavor, natural butter flavor, partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, artificial flavors and some other things that I’m not familiar with.  So, my initial reaction is: too much stuff, some of it not good for us.

Secondly, there’s the aroma.  Sniffing the jar, I wasn’t bowled over.  It smells a little weird and fake-ish, with a mostly smoky odor.

Lastly, how does it taste?

• Tasting it plain out of the jar, it definitely tastes artificial to me.  I get the salt, garlic, paprika, onion and a little sweetness, but mostly I taste smoke and not in a great way.  Even faux bacon bits taste better alone than this.

• I also tried it sprinkled on some raw almonds that I had sauteed in a little butter for a few minutes.  The flavor of the salt was better on the almonds than it was on its own.  It reminded me a little of the smoked almonds you can buy in a can, but not as good.  The smoke flavor wasn’t offensive on the almonds, but I wasn’t really reminded of bacon either.

• The final taste test on a faux BLT was the most successful for Bacon Salt.  I spread a little mayo on some whole grain bread (you could use vegan mayo, of course), and added fresh tomato slices and shredded lettuce.  The Bacon Salt was sprinkled fairly generously over the veggies.  Dare I say it?  It was pretty darn tasty!  I almost got a touch of bacon-iness, without any of the odd artificial flavors.

The verdict:  2 stars out of 5 on the Sister Scale.  I wouldn’t buy Bacon Salt again because I just don’t think it’s good for me since I try not to eat things I can’t pronounce.  It is horrible?  Absolutely not.  Is it as great as the hype?  Nope.

So, the search continues for a great vegan bacon-flavored item.  I truly hope you find some value in this challenge, because tomorrow morning I’m going to have salt bags under my eyes like crazy!

Next time…vegan bacon jerky!

~BigSis

October 4, 2009

Summer is gone for most of us, and has taken swimsuit season away with it for a few months. However, being the well-groomed, sophisticated women that we are, we still have to shave our legs, right? We can’t let a ding dang forest grow on our legs just because we aren’t going to the pool, or running around in shorts.

I do it every morning whether I’m wearing a skirt or not; it’s just part of the daily routine. Over the years, I’ve tried bunches of different shave creams and gels, and have a real favorite line that you might not know about since I find it frequently in the men’s shaving section.

The best shave gels on the market, in my opinion, are made by Aveeno. I like two of them equally well. The Positively Smooth Shave Gel has soy and emollients, and is supposed to help you shave less often and get fewer nicks, cuts and razor bumps, which makes sense as using shave gel is one of the tips for getting smooth armpits as mentioned in this article. It has a very light and pleasant fragrance.

The other gel I like is the Therapeutic Shave Gel. It contains oats and allantoin, and is formulated for sensitive skin and is supposed to soothe and moisturize easily-irritated skin. It is fragrance-free.

You can find these at most discount stores and drug stores for under $5 usually. I find them both to work extremely well at what they claim to do. They are both moisturizing, and provide a close irritation-free shave without the red bumps. I don’t know if the Positively Smooth Shave Gel does reduce hair growth or not, and it doesn’t really matter to me. It’s an excellent gel and smells great.

Since I’ve found these two shave gels, I’ll never go back to the strawberry-kiwi or peach-mango scented gels…you know the ones I mean! They aren’t nearly as nourishing to the skin as the Aveeno line, and don’t cost much less.

Shave on, girls! If you use these gels, let me know what you think about them!

~BigSis

October 2, 2009

I happened to find a bag of Coconut M&Ms at a random Kroger a couple of weeks ago, and decided to make cookies out of them.  I love M&M cookies!  I think it’s because our grandmother in west Texas would make a batch whenever we came for a visit, and I just have warm memories of her with M&M cookies.  We only had one grandmother, and she was a good one!  😀

For an excellent cookie recipe, I looked to Anna the Queen of All Cookie Madness, of course!  She didn’t let me down.  She recently did an M&M Cookie Roundup, and linked to a chocolate M&M cookie recipe from One Ordinary Day.  I made a few changes to that recipe, and came up with these beauties.

Chocolate Coconut M&M Cookies

(Adapted from One Ordinary Day)

2 c flour
3/4 c unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Penzeys Natural Cocoa)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c butter, softened
1/2 c shortening, at room temperature
2/3 c granulated sugar
2/3 c packed light brown sugar
1 tsp mexican vanilla extract (Penzeys Mexican Vanilla, of course!)
2 large eggs
1 bag Coconut M&Ms (1 cup for the batter plus the rest for the cookie tops)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Combine flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in a small bowl.  Whisk to combine.

In a large bowl, beat butter and shortening with sugars and vanilla until creamy.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each one.  Beat flour mixture into butter/sugar mixture, in 2 or 3 additions.  Stir in M&Ms with a wooden spoon.  Drop by tablespoons (I used a tablespoon-size cookie scoop) onto ungreased cookie sheets.  Add a couple of M&Ms to each cookie.  Bake for 9 or 10 minutes.  Cool on cookie sheet for a minute or two, then remove to wire rack to finish cooling.

Makes 3 dozen cookies.

These were delicious, chocolatey, almost fudgy cookies.  The flavor of the mexican vanilla was awesome with the cocoa and the coconut.  The Coconut M&Ms worked beautifully!  Everyone gave them a big thumbs-up!  The cookies were best the first two days; after that they started to dry out a little bit.  Now there are only crumbs left and a couple of empty cookie containers…

One of the things I adore about M&M cookies is how the M&Ms that touched the cookie sheet have gotten all crispy-ish and kind of caramelized on the backs of the cookies.

If you see Coconut M&Ms, grab a bag and turn them into these scrumptious cookies!

PS:  We’re going pink for the whole month of October for Breast Cancer Awareness, so enjoy the pink type!

~BigSis