Frigidaire and Jennifer Garner Team Up to Get Kids Cooking!

One of the most important things to me as a mom is making sure my kids have healthy, nutritious, homemade meals to nourish them as they grow. And since kids learn by example, they've developed a love of cooking from watching me cook in the kitchen over the years.

Now, I have a new tool at my disposal to help them learn more cooking skills thanks to the Frigidaire Kids' Cooking Academy. Frigidaire teamed up with actress Jennifer Garner to help families in preparing nutritious foods together with this online school that features daily tips, fun recipes and how-to-videos hosted by Chef Mary Sue Milliken.



Not only is the school free to join when you visit Frigidaire.com, but Frigidaire will donate $1 to Save the Children for each person that joins to help ensure that children across the world have access to healthy food.

And there's something in it for you as well beyond having fun with your children while learning new skills. Everyone who participates will be entered for a chance to win the daily prize (a kid's apron set) and the grand prize (a new Frigidaire Double Oven Range that offers more room for preparing healthy meals and snacks!).




I plan on making the "Apple Cinnamon Hand Pies" recipe with my fiance and our kids this weekend. I watched the instructional video and it looks like a fun way to teach our kids how to cook. And getting them to eat fruit is an added bonus!



I also want to try the "Cauliflower Popcorn" recipe with them since getting them to eat vegetables is even more of a challenge.

With all of this cooking comes added dishes to wash of course, and as you might remember, I am part of the Frigidaire Dishwasher Test Drive program with Mom Central. But due to my recent move, I no longer have my beloved Frigidaire Professional Line Dishwasher so I will have to settle for the dishwasher that's in our townhouse rental to handle the clean-up from all of our fun recipe making.

I won't mention what brand I have here in our townhouse, but I will tell you it's not Frigidaire. And I can't express enough how much I miss the performance of my Frigidaire dishwasher. Not only does it not clean as well, it's not as quiet and holds less dishes and silverware, which means running more loads, wasting energy and more of my time. I really miss Frigidaire's SpaceWise Organization system, which had adjustable racks and the "Largest Silverware Basket" feature. It really, really made a difference in how many dishes I could load in one wash.

As soon as my fiance and I are in our new home (hopefully by the end of the year), I am going to make sure we have a Frigidaire dishwasher there!

In the meantime, I'll suffer through the extra dishwashing so that my fiance and I can cook up the fun, healthy recipes from Frigidaire's Kids' Cooking Academy with our kids!

Note: Follow these links for more information:

• Make Time for Change by Frigidaire - Facebook
  
• Frigidaire - Facebook
  
• Save the Children - Facebook
• Make Time for Change - Twitter
  
• Save the Children - Twitter

Disclosure: I received a $50 gift card to facilitate this review as part of the Frigidaire Test Drive program.

Working Class Premiere

Thanks to the great ladies at the One2One Network,I had the privilege of previewing CMT's first ever sitcom, "Working Class." The show stars beautiful Melissa Peterman and fabulous Ed Asner...a perfect combo if you ask me!



Peterman plays Carli Mitchell, a single mom from a rough and tumble background, trying to give her three kids a better life by moving them to an upscale suburb. She quickly finds that making the transition to “the good life” is harder than she thought.

She's unwittingly befriended by her cranky neighbor, Hank (Asner), her only “career” prospect is a glorified deli job at the local grocery store, and the man she falls for not only already has a girlfriend – but he’s also her boss, Rob (Patrick Fabian). With her ladies-man brother, Nick (Steve Kazee), to help her out (when he’s not acting like one of the kids himself), Carli faces the challenges of parenting, dating, and making friends in her new community by doing more with less, staying true to herself and approaching each day with a touch of working class.

My fiance and I watched the preview of the pilot episode and loved it! It was cute, quirky, and funny and the chemistry between all of the cast members is spot on!



My favorite character is definitely Carli. She is down-to-earth and finds herself in embarrassing situations that we can all relate to. Here are some behind-the-scenes videos of Peterman and Asner on the set of "Working Class:"





Tune in to CMT on January 28, 8 pm EST to see the premiere of "Working Class" and check out the show's website here.

HGTV Premiere Week Giveaway Winners

Congratulations to Nancy and Lorena! Their names were selected at random via Random.org as the winners of the HGTV Premiere Week Giveaway!

Stay tuned for more great giveaways to come!

Random Acts of Zhu

"It's better to give than to receive." It may be cliche, but I couldn't agree more! And thanks to ZhuZhu Pets, I was able to do just that through an amazing charity program called "Random Acts of Zhu."



Dozens and dozens of ZhuZhu Pets, the number one toy of 2010, arrived at my door for me to donate to the charities of my choice (those are just a small portion in the photo above). My fiance and I took our daughters to our local police and fire departments to personally donate the toys and the remaining ones went to a local prison ministry. We donated more than 100 ZhuZhu Pets in total!

Here we are with the Leesburg Fire Department:



Think about how frightening a car accident, fire or other emergency can be for a child. Being able to give them a toy can be a valuable distraction, and that's why we chose the Leesburg Fire Department as one of the charities. (Many thanks to DJ and Jim for being so accommodating to us!)

Here we are with the Leesburg Police Department:



The Leesburg Police Department has several community outreach programs, including Recreation Outreach to Community Kids (R.O.C.K.) which is a free service that provides positive recreation and leisure activities to area youth through after school and summer programs.

We loved the sound of such a program, especially after learning that it's proven to reduce crime in our community so we requested that the ZhuZhu Pets be used for R.O.C.K. We also encouraged the use of the toys for any other needs that may arise in the department such as emergency/domestic calls. (Thank you to Officer Tidmore and the volunteers with the Law Enforcement Explorer Post 1041 for being so wonderful to us during our visit!)

The local prison ministry received the remaining ZhuZhu Pets after a request went out for toys for children of prisoners. We were so happy to be able to respond to the request and help in giving these children a happy Christmas!

ZhuZhu Pets was also kind enough to provide me with their new line of Kung Zhu Pets and accessories for review so stay tuned for a post about these fun toys soon!

And remember...your local charities need help year-round, so please do all you can to support them today and every day!

HGTV Premiere Week Giveaway!

Celebrate the new year with two fabulous shows on HGTV: Cash & Cari and Selling New York!

Cash & Cari is a brand new show while Selling New York is celebrating its second season. And both have the fun, vibrant feel that HGTV is known for!

Here's a synopsis for each show:

Cash & Cari





Whether it's a vintage Chanel gown left behind in a disused dry cleaners or a limited-edition pink vinyl copy of Michael Jackson's Thriller, or a Capo di Monte porcelain statuette, antiques dealer extraordinaire Cari Cucksey is always on the lookout for the undiscovered diamond in the rough. Cari travels the country to estate sales, flea markets, attics, garages and anywhere else that peaks her interest in search of obscure pieces to restore or flip for profit. Premieres Monday, January 3 at 10/9c on HGTV.





Selling New York




They are assertive, razor-sharp, and always compelling real estate brokers, in the country's most competitive market. In a city of over 8-million people, where the average sale price is over 2-million dollars, the competition to seal the deal is stiff. Now, catch a rare glimpse into a world where a solid reputation at the top of the real estate food chain involves swimming with the sharks, going head-to-head with the best, and rubbing shoulders with the wealthiest and trendiest of New York's social, political and artistic elite. This is SELLING NEW YORK. Premieres Thursday, January 6 at 9/8c on HGTV.



I can't wait to tune into both shows starting TONIGHT with Cash & Cari! As if the fun of both shows isn't enough, HGTV is offering readers of So a Blonde Walks Into a Review a terrific prize pack to celebrate premiere week!



One TWO lucky readers (U.S. residents only, please) will win each of the prizes pictured above, including:

• 1 HGTV Red Can Koozie
  
• 1 HGTV Ocean Blue Mug
  
• 1 HGTV Canvas Visor
  
• 1 HGTV Multi-Colored Roll-Up Tote

To enter, simply leave a comment on this post letting me know what you love about HGTV or why you would like to win.

Be sure that there is an email address for you that I can find, or your entry will have to be disqualified.

By entering, you automatically agree to all the rules and disclaimers listed here. Please also see my disclosure policy here.

You can receive additional entries by doing one or all of the following (one entry, one time, for each step):

~Twitter with a link to this post. Then leave a separate comment here with your Twitter link. Feel free to use the Twitter share button at the bottom of this site.

~Blog about this contest with a link to this post. Then leave a separate comment here with the link to your post.

~Follow this blog. Simply click on "Follow this blog" found near the top of the sidebar to the right (under "The Blonde"). Then, leave a separate comment letting me know you are following.

~Post the button below on your blog and then leave a separate comment here letting me know it's posted and where. Here's the code for the button:



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~Add So a Blonde Walks Into a Review to your Technorati Favorites (just click the button below and follow the simple steps). Then, leave a separate comment here letting me know you've added this blog to your favorites:



Deadline to enter is 11:59 EST, Monday, January 10, 2011. Winner will be selected at random using Random.org. Good luck!

Note: Thank you to HGTV for providing the prize packs for this giveaway.