She Scribes

Are you a fan of the “Twilight” series? Do you have a craving for more “True Blood” episodes on TV? Or do you love the classics like Star Wars? What is YOUR “guilty pleasure”?

What I mean by ”guilty pleasure” is not chocolates or wine or a foot massage (although those DO sound nice!), but rather books that have just the right amount of fantasy, romance and excitement to act as the perfect antidote to the craziness of the real world and life’s adult-sized problems. 

The Twilight series has certainly peaked people’s interest in paranormal romance, science fiction and fantasy and opened the door for books that, although considered “young adult fiction,” are now widely read by many, many adults.

The numbers don’t lie:  a recent survey revealed that 47 percent of 18- to 24-year-old women say most of the books they buy are classified as young adult (YA). In fact, nearly one in five 35- to 44-year-olds say they most frequently buy YA books for themselves.

If  you  secretly LOVE to curl up with a great book teeming with romance, faeries (or vampires or angels or ghosts or mindreaders!) and teenage angst – you are NOT alone!

As a response to the groundswell, the Smart Chicks Kick It Tour was created.  The twelve-city, two week tour features eighteen of today’s most buzzed writers of young adult paranormal romance – from international bestsellers and award winners to the genre’s hottest newcomers. 

Featuring six to nine Chicks at every venue, the author line up in every city will be different so no two events will be exactly the same. Here’s the link to the tour information, including dates, times, locations and who will be appearing at each stop: http://www.smartchickskickit.com/schedule.html.

You can also learn more at the official website and on their blog, 

www.smartchickskickit.com

http://smartchickskickit.blogspot.com

The tour kicks off on September 13, 2010.

In conjunction with the Smart Chicks tour I have three books I can offer to one lucky reader. The books will all be from  from authors appearing on the tour. You can check out the books from the Smart Chicks here: http://www.melissa-marr.com/_SCKI/ (just click on the posters – they will enlarge for better viewing of the book covers). The books will be random based on availability.

To enter please comment on what is your favorite genre of book to read? Do you like true crime stories (I do!), horror, fantasy, biographies… What is your “guilty pleasure” when it comes to reading?

For extra entries you can do any or all of the following. All options are found on the right side bar. Please leave a separate comment to let me know what you did.

- Subscribe to She Scribes.

- Connect with She Scribes on Google Friend Connect.

- “Like” She Scribes on Facebook (click on the Facebook button then click on “like” on the next screen).

- Follow She Scribes on Twitter.

This giveaway is open to both US and Canadian residents and will end on September 17, 2010 at 11:59 PM EST. The winner will be chosen at random using a random number generator from all eligible entries. The winner will be contacted via e-mail and will have three days to reply with a name and mailing address (no PO Box) or a new winner will be chosen.

Other great giveaways are found on the right side bar under “Win It”.

Kimberly

*I was not compensated in anyway for this post. I posted this information for the benefit and enjoyment of my site readers.

I’m on a roll today! First I had a back to school money saving tip quoted on the Woman’s Day Magazine website. Now I have an interview I did for Thrifty Divas posted on their website.

If you would like to check it out you can read the interview at http://thethriftydivas.com/?p=14427. I was asked questions about blogging such as how to get products for giveaways, reviews, how I got started and what a typical day is like.

I would love it if some of my readers could leave me some “comment luv” on the interview post. I would appreciate that a lot.

You should also check out Thrifty Divas at www.ThriftyDivas.com. They have a HUGE list of freebies, couponing 101, plenty of printable coupons, and so much more. Its well worth the visit, especially when you can save a few dollars too!

Kimberly

When it comes to packing lunches for my kids I am usually limited to a few things since they are overly picky: low-sodium bologna, honey maple ham, honey maple turkey, cheese or good old PB&J. I wish I could get them to try something different.

Thankfully my husband is a wee bit more flexible. I’m able to add on a few extras to his sandwiches such a sweet peppers, onions, lettuce and other tasty toppings.

Personally I enjoy sandwiches. I don’t think people really give them as much credit as they should. When people think “lunch” they think salads, soups, fast food or ”meals”. If you think about it a sandwich CAN be a meal that will really fill you up, if you add more to your sandwich then a few slices of meat.

If you could create your dream sandwich, what would it be like? Would it be piled high with a variety of meats? Would you top it off with some cheese? Would you add some color with a variety of veggies? Or how about adding some ingredients like hot peppers to kick it up a notch?

Mazetta is currently having a contest that ends on Labor Day (HURRY!) where you can win a whopping $25,000 if you can create the most unique sandwich recipe.

The contest is called Mazetta’s Make My Sandwich contest. The only requirement is that the recipe must use at least a minimum of two Mezzetta, Napa Valley Bistro and/or Kona Coast Brand products. You ca view the product here, http://www.mezzetta.com/mm5/merchant.mvc.

For the past couple of weeks I have been trying to create a great sandwich recipe utilizing Mazzetta products. I have tried different combinations but my problem is the bread. I can’t seem to find a break that “works” with my ideas. Rolls work better then the breads but I think I need to make these sandwiches as paninis.

Mazzetta sent me some of their DELISH products to play around with and to see what I can come up with. I honestly want to enter the contest. $25,000 would come in handy.

So far my best recipe that I have come up with. I wanted to add a picture but I don’t have one because I am not keen on the rolls. I JUST got a George Forman grill which I could use to make paninis on. I just need to figure out what bread works best for making paninis. Would anyone know?

Aside from the bread issue this is what I have so far…

- Italian Roast Beef (made with basil, oregano and garlic – our local deli sells it – so good!).

- Thinly sliced Mozzarella cheese

- Peter Lugar Steak Sauce (BBQ sauce might work too).

- Mazzetta Deli Sliced Roasted Sweet Red Bell Peppers

- Mazzetta Deli Sliced Jalapeno Peppers

- Mazetta Italian Castelvetrano Green Olives

Directions:

- Dice up a few of the Mazetta Italian Castelvetrano Green Olives and set them aside.

- Put some Peter Lugar steak sauce into a pan and gently warm it up (warm – NOT HOT).

- Toss the roast beef into the pan with the Peter Lugar Steak Sauce for just a minute or two to warm the roast beef.

- Add in the diced Mazzetta olives.

- Place a scoop of the roast beef mixture on a roll (or bread of choice).

- Top with a couple of slices of thinly sliced mozzarella cheese.

- On top of the cheese add some Mazzetta Roasted Sweet Red Bell Peppers and and a few slices of  Mazzetta Deli Sliced Jalepeno Peppers to a bit of a “kick”.

Serve with a side of Mazzetta Pitted Calamata Olives if you like.

See… my recipe SOUNDS good and so far the prototypes have been good, with the exception of the bread! That is why I am thinking of making this as a Panini, however I don’t think I should warm the roast beef and sauce before I do that since the grill will warm them up instead.

I really wanted to have the bread situation taken care of so I could have taken a photo of my creation.

I have enjoyed working with the various Mazzetta products. The Deli Sliced Roasted Sweet Bell Peppers have been by far my most favorite product. These go great with everything! They are great on top of steak, chicken and tossed in salads. I think these are a very “flexible” product. You can use it in many recipes, even recipes you might not other wise think would need roasted red peppers. My husband has been putting them on top of his Genoa Salami sandwiches with a dash oil and vinegar dressing and he says it really makes the sandwich.

I’m tempted to use the roasted red peppers in meat loaf.

I’m not a huge fan of olives but I will eat them if they are cooked and mixed up with other ingredients. My husband and kids can’t get enough of olives. They love them! My kids couldn’t get over how HUGE the Castelvetrano Green Olives are. My kids are also not used to green olives (they usually only eat black olives). So this was a treat for them. My family was happy to eat them right out of the jar.

They LOVED the Pitted Calamata Olives. They tell me that they taste like the kind we get at fancy restaurants. My husband and my kids were eating these straight from the jar too. I found it rather amusing that they were popping the olives in their mouths like they were candy.

I was very happy with the Deli Sliced Jalapeno Peppers. I thought they would be overly spicy but it turns out that the kind we have are “tame” and not as spicy. They still have a bit of a kick to them but NOT a hot, spicy kick.  Aside from topping off a sandwich I haven’t really come up with more creative ways to use these. If anyone has some great recipe ideas  for sliced Jalapenos please feel free to comment and let me know.

The Sweet Cherry Peppers were a surprise to me. They are HUGE! I was reading up on the Mazzetta website and I see that you can stuff them and serve them on an antipasta plate. That would be interesting. I have never stuffed a pepper before. So far I have been slicing them up and adding them to various things like chicken salad and elbow macaroni salad. They are the perfect extra addition to add a bit more taste (and color!) to these otherwise lackluster foods. I think they go GREAT in macaroni salad.

Mezzetta carries a lot of imported and domestic olives, peppers, pickled vegetables, Teriyaki Sauce and more. They also have some great recipes on their website, www.Mezzetta.com. You can also find them on Facebook, http://www.Facebook.com/Mezzetta and Twitter, http://Twitter.com/Mezzetta_Foods.

To enter the Make My Sandwich contest please visit www.MakeMySandwich.com. Remember it ends on LABOR DAY!!! Its a fun way to try and win $25,000 and a trip to Napa Valley. There are also $1,000 runner up prizes to be won too.

Kimberly

*I received free product samples in order to do this review. There was no compensation. The opinions expressed are my own.