October 24, 2009

We’ve talked a lot about Las Vegas this past week, but we’re not quite finished yet!  We have more to tell you!

On our last night in Vegas, we had free tickets to see “Zumanity; The Sensual Side of Cirque du Soleil”.  And, sensual it was! Wowee!  We’ll be reviewing the show shortly, but here’s a little sneak peek at the real BigSis and LilSis playing around in the Zumanity gift shop.

This shop was full of fun items: t-shirts, masks, sunglasses, and also lots of sketchy stuff that we WON’T show you!

Don’t forget to come back for the Zumanity review in our next post.  Pssst…here’s a secret.  It’s going to be a video!  Our first video ever! 😀

PS: Just a reminder that BigSisLilSis is still PINK for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Don’t forget to support your local breast cancer charities!

~LilSis

October 23, 2009

As LilSis and I were rushing out of Caesar’s Palace toward the Las Vegas airport the other day, we stopped at Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill for a quick but really delicious lunch at the bar.

The bar at Mesa Grill in Las Vegas

We wanted to try Mesa Grill the last time we were in town, but never got there, so we were determined to work it into our schedule this time around all of the BlogWorld stuff.  We were super-happy that we were able to squeeze in a speedy lunch at Mesa Grill as we were scrambling out of town.

Initially, we had an awesome impression of Mesa Grill.  The decor was absolutely beautiful with copper, wood and glass elements working perfectly together in the dining room.  Secondly, we were greeted by a very friendly, professional and helpful bartender.  So far, so good!  We’re happy.

We’ve been pretty disappointed with the service recently at most hotels and restaurants in the city.  We don’t know if it’s because we’re women or that we’re straight or that we’re forty-something, but 95% of the service has been horrible, so Mesa Grill was a breath of fresh air.  Not hating…just being honest.

Now, on to the food.  We like to try several things at a new place, so we split three appetizers.  Here’s what we got:

• Grilled Asparagus Salad with Wild Mushrooms ($14) Mixed greens, grilled asparagus, pecans, Maytag blue cheese, wild mushrooms, and Red Chile Mustard Vinaigrette.

• Sophie’s Chopped Salad ($10) Chopped romaine, tomatoes, chickpeas, kidney beans, kalamata olives, cubed cheddar cheese, and crispy little squares of  blue corn tortillas with balsamic vinaigrette.

• Wild Mushroom Quesadilla with White Bean Hummus and White Truffle Oil ($14) Housemade tortillas filled with sauteed mushrooms and really good cheese (whatever it was), with a big dollop of garlicky white bean hummus on top, and drizzled with a spicy chile sauce and truffle oil.

We absolutely loved all 3 of these dishes, as well as the jalapeno cheese bread, and agreed that it was one of the best meals we’d had in Vegas.  We ate every crumb and almost licked the plate!

Was it fancy?  Not really.  But was it well-executed, flavorful, creative, and even delicious?  Was it served in a gorgeous comfortable setting by friendly, well-trained people?  Was the service quick and efficient?  Were the prices reasonable?  Oh, heck, yeah!

Mesa Grill Dining Room

We loved Mesa Grill and will absolutely go back the next chance we get.  It was totally our kind of place.  Way to go, Bobby Flay.  You’ve done a great job with your decor, your menu and your staff.  We’re impressed!

~BigSis

October 22, 2009

Have you ever heard of Fatburger? Or maybe a better question would be “have you ever eaten a Fatburger?” I had never even heard of Fatburger until we saw The Fatmobile that was stationed inside the Exhibit Hall at BlogWorld in Vegas.

I was surprised when I put my zip code into the search box on Fatburger and found out that there are two locations within 30 minutes from my house. You can also go to a Store List where you’ll find their locations listed by state.

Fatburger Fatmobile

Just take a look at this burger! I’d be lying if I said that I wouldn’t love to sink my teeth into this 24 oz. Triple King cheeseburger!  (Maybe just one nice BIG bite!)

I rarely eat hamburgers, but don’t get me wrong, it’s not because I don’t love them! I’m just really having to watch my calories and fat intake these days. If you’re thinking you might want to give one of these a try, take a peek at the Fatburger Nutritional Facts first. And notice that there is no info on the Triple King!

Could you eat this Fatburger Triple King?

On the last day of BlogWorld, as we were browsing through the vendor booths, BigSis and I happened to walk by the Fatmobile as they were having a Fatburger eating contest. As you can tell by the photo, by the time we showed up on the scene, most of the contestants were slowing down a bit.  I wish we could have gotten a photo of the winner but there was quite a crowd of curious spectators surrounding this Fatburger eating contest.

1 chewing, 1 contemplating, 1 looking to Heaven for help

I was lucky enough to try a tiny sample of a Fatburger. (Okay, I’ll be honest, I had two.) As most of you probably know, BigSis doesn’t eat critters, so she couldn’t enjoy one of the tasty little treats. First, and most importantly, the beef was very lean and grilled perfectly. I also love that they toast their buns. Not everyone likes a toasted bun on a burger, but I do.

Call me weird, but I like mayo on my burger so I wasn’t totally in love with their sauce. It reminded me of the Jack in the Box secret sauce that seems to be something like ketchup, miracle whip and sweet pickle relish all mixed together, but I could be wrong. I also prefer dill pickles instead of sweet ones, so I did scrape most of that off of my tiny bite.

I might have a different opinion if I had been able to taste a bite of a Triple King. If I’m going to eat a burger, I’d rather have it smaller in size but still a double because I prefer to have more meat than bun.

Bottom line, Fatburger still gets a thumbs up from me. I can’t say that I’ll be eating them often, but I may take HayHay for a Triple King one day for a treat.

~LilSis

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 15, 2009

Today is a big day for us!  This morning, I’m hopping on a plane to meet BigSis in Vegas, where we’ll be attending the BlogWorld & New Media Expo 2009. We’ve been planning this trip for months so we’re really excited that the much-anticipated day is finally here!

We’ve been studying like crazy to prepare ourselves for all that we hope to learn this weekend at the Expo. And, we’re secretly (ok, not so secretly now) hoping to meet Darren Rowse, the infamous ProBlogger. I’d also like to meet the zany, Jenny of The Bloggess. And, we’re both curious about Anthony Edwards being a Keynote Speaker.

We’re going to be extremely busy with morning til night sessions and plan to crash a few ‘After Parties’, so if something exciting happens, you can bet we’ll be Tweeting about it! If you aren’t already following us, just go to the right sidebar and Follow BigSis and LilSis. We promise not to bore you with what time we get up, what we eat for breakfast or what time we get in from the casinos; just maybe a couple of quick Tweets about our adventures and misadventures!  We’ll also be putting up our photos on flickr.  You can find our photostream at www.flickr.com/photos/bigsislilsis.

And, if time permits, we’ll throw up a post or two from Vegas so stay tuned for more on our BigSisLilSis adventure @ Blog World in Vegas!  Look out Vegas; here come the sisters!

~LilSis

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 13, 2009

Just in case you missed the news at the beginning of the month and are wondering about the pink text, we are going Pink for October to show our support for breast cancer awareness.

While out shopping, you will have noticed by now the abundance of pink products being sold at most retail stores. Since the Susan G. Komen for the Cure is an important cause to me, I buy pink products from the companies that are giving their profits to that charity. Not that the other charities aren’t completely legitimate, it’s just a personal choice. I found this post on the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Message Board and felt it was important enough to pass along to our readers.

Susan G. Komen for the Cure suggests consumers use care and consideration before buying pink products.

October 6, 2009

DALLAS–(Business Wire)–From grocery stores to home improvement centers, pink ribbons and labels adorn everything from candy to vacuum cleaners to raise awareness and money during the 25th annual National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. But with so many “pink” marketing programs out there, how can you be sure your money (or how much of it) is going where it should?

Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the world`s leader in the fight against breast cancer, suggests people ask a few questions before picking one product over another.

“Selecting the right program is a personal choice based on your interests, your passions and a cause that is important to you,” said Katrina McGhee, vice president of global partnerships for Susan G. Komen for the Cure. “You work hard for your money, make sure your purchases have the impact you want.”

Whether a program offers to donate a portion of product sales or requires consumer participation in exchange for a donation, Komen’s objective is that all programs that benefit Komen are meaningful, educate women and men about breast cancer and generate funds which Komen devotes to research and community outreach.

In order to determine if a cause-related program, promotion or project is one that you would like to support (or is worthy of your support), Komen suggests consumers ask five key questions.

1. Is this company committed?

Read the product packaging and promotional materials or display and visit the company Web site to make sure the company is credible and committed to the
cause.

2. How is the program structured?

Transparency is key. Is the company clearly stating how the money is raised and how much will be going to charity? For example, if it’s a donation per purchase, ask how much of purchase price goes to charity-is it two percent or 10
percent-or some other amount? If there is a minimum contribution guaranteed by the company, what is the amount? Is there a maximum donation that will be made by the company?

3. Who does the program benefit?

Does it support a well-managed, reputable non-profit or fund? Again, we recommend that consumers read Web sites. Komen makes it very clear on our site who we are, how we structure programs and how the monies are used. The Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance is one resource for information on non-profit organizations if you are unsure (visit www.give.org.

4. How will the organization that benefits use my money?

It should be abundantly clear where the monies go. What organization will they support? Will the dollars generated go to research, education, community programs or all of the above? Komen is very specific about our programs, activities and grants awarded to support our mission to eradicate breast cancer as a life-threatening disease. View Komen’s most recent Annual Report.

5. Is the program meaningful to me?

Is the program supporting a cause you believe in or have been touched by? Based on the details of the program and the potential for dollars to be raised does the program make sense to you? Selecting the right program is a personal choice based on your interests, your passions and a cause that is important to you.

~LilSis

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