Urban Sparrow
It’s been a long year so far. Who am I kidding, it’s been a long 6 months. This week is the first week I have felt somewhat pulled together. The first week where everyone is healthy, my laundry isn’t overflowing, my bills are all paid and the house is clean.
After the Harvest Festival in October, the holidays pushed me into overdrive. I made 3,000 cookies in less than 10 days for some clients, it was Pixie’s birthday, Christmas, New Year’s and then I had to go on an iodine free diet to follow up on my never-ending past of Thyroid Cancer. For a month I couldn’t eat anything with iodine (aka flavor) which basically means I could eat tomatoes and steak (which are both a hundred times better with salt). Since I didn’t feel like I was eating really good food, I wasn’t inspired to cook. And what i did come up with, wasn’t worth posting as it would have been so much better with salt. Hence the lack of recipes on here. But my scan came back with great results and I was feeling healthy. For a short time. And then… my body shut down on me. I had a serious stress overload and I ended up having emergency surgery (we’ll leave it at that). That was about a month ago and like I said, I am finally feeling healthy, pulled together and ready to come back with renewed energy to Mommy Bistro.
While my life was unravelling, a wonderful company put a large smile on my face and brought tears to my eyes by making me a custom, beautiful necklace. They captured me SO spot on. They included my family, my past and my future all in a simple and elegant piece. I wear it almost everyday and as it hangs over my heart it gives me a little added strength to conquer everything I come up against. I am constantly stopped and complimented on the necklace and I thank Shawn and the Urban Sparrow team for creating this gorgeous piece of jewelry for me. It could not have come at a better time in my life. They specialize in tons of different hand stamped necklaces and bracelets. I suggest you click your way over to Urban Sparrow and place an order for your mom, sister, friend, or wife.
Here is some information about their company:
“We specialize in creating hand-stamped jewelry for women who have a sophisticated fashion sense. We firmly believe that the way to happiness is in celebrating our individuality.
We welcome you to join us on our wonderful journey, embrace the beauty of life and make a statement with Urban Sparrow!
All jewelry is stamped by hand and represents a unique piece of individual craftsmanship. Custom orders available upon request.”
You can also call them at:
805-732-8369 or
805-558-6245
Ventura County Harvest Festival
I am so very honored to be a part of this event! Please come down and visit me. On Saturday I will be making Bourbon Chicken with caramelized shallots and roasted garlic mashed potatoes. On Sunday, I will be serving up a Harvest Salad with arugula, oven roasted tomatoes, wilted mushrooms, burrata cheese and shaved parmesan with a truffle oil drizzled over the top. I will be hosting cooking demonstrations on Saturday and Sunday at 1:00 PM. I will also be handing out my thanksgiving recipes and tastes of my food. I hope to see you all there!
Happy New Year!
Let’s be honest. The holidays are a time of complete and utter chaos. Between shopping, parties, school parties, shopping, cooking, winter break, family, shopping and regular life – it’s a lose your mind time of year. But it’s the best time of year (especially for shopping š ). And as a result, I had to ride the amazing wave of holiday life and let Mommy Bistro take a nap for a few weeks. But I’ve missed her. And I’ve missed YOU! I’m back with a recap of my life from the last few weeks, some resolutions, and some questions for the new year.Ā
It’s My Birthday and I’ll Give YOU presents if I want to
Yes sir, today is my birthday. Well, that’s a white lie. It was actually on August 24th but due to the state of health in my household, I spent 6 hours in the ER with my little angels on my birthday. Everyone is finally feeling healthy again. So, I say today is my birthday because we are finally going to celebrate my birthday tonight. Good friends, good food, healthy kids and….cocktails. I was fine skipping my birthday this year but Ryan insists I get one year older. Meanie.
Parents Magazine Best Food Blog Nominee!
I’m speechless.
Best Food Blog nominee?? I honestly do not know what to say. I mean, I won’t lie. I totally broke out in my best 80’s dance moves in my kitchen. Granted the music to Rapunzel was on and well, that always gets me movin’.
If you would (pretty please with sugar on top) go to
http://blog-awards.parents.com/blog-awards/mom_blogs/432-mommy-bistro
and vote for Mommy Bistro!!!
Oh and keep your peepers open cause the next giveaway is just around the corner!!
And the winners are!
Buggies is sitting in my lap and she just helped me go to random.org to find our winners of the Silpat giveaway. And the winners are:
(Drum roll please! Oh who am I kidding…I want a whole freaking rock band playing for this!)
Post #5: Heather: Okā¦.I over boiled water. Or I burnt the toast. Ha ha!!!!! I really enjoyed your new blog. Love it!!! Canāt wait to try out the recipes.
Post #9: Shannon: I would have to say mine would be when I was making coffee cake at my moms for Christmas morning. Apparentely I didnāt bake the coffee cake long enough so the inside was all gooey! Oh well, we could still eat the outside:) I love your blog Jess and canāt wait to make some of those yummy dishes. Love ya!
Post #13: Ginger: Ah, I love silpats!
My biggest kitchen disaster in recent memory was when I misread a recipe and whipped egg whites with the sugar instead of by themselves for a big baking project. I didnāt want to risk messing up the whole thing so I ended up dividing four more eggs and starting over.
Aside from the waste in yolks, it turned out ok cause I baked the original egg whites/sugar into meringues!
CONGRATULATIONS LADIES! You’re my first ever giveaway winners. Sheesh, I’ve got a tear in my eye….
Silpat Giveaway – Update!
Seriously people? You ROCK! My site had so many responses that I had to up my bandwidth. I really don’t know if I want to go streaking or…um…puke? Over the amazing response. If you had any issues uploading your kitchen disaster story, please try it again. I don’t want anyone to miss out on the Silpat giveaway!
Also, I’ll be releasing a new recipe Saturday morning for you to make Sunday morning as we wait for the Silpat giveaway results. It’s my amazing breakfast sandwich….Morning Glory. I know I’ll be making them in this house Sunday morning!
Thank you from the bottom of my toes for the responses. Keep cooking friends!
Silpat Giveaway!
Well, it’s here. My mommy/cooking blog! Oh my gosh. I’m nervous. What if no one likes it? What if people think my recipes are junk?! What if IĀ spent all these hours pouring my recipes and rants online and no one will ever look at them? EVER!?! It’s too much pressure!
So, I’m resorting to the last true tool a mommy has to guarantee her kids listen. Bribery.
That’s right, I’m gonna reel you in. Here’s my bait, people. I’m giving away 3 silpat baking sheets in honor of my new site being all grown upĀ and out there for the world to see!
First off, if you don’t know what “silpats” are, then you are more in need of my blog than ever. They will change your life…for baking. YouĀ can do a million things with them. Make cookies, bake veggies, make cinnamon rolls, use them as a blanket. Ok, that last one I only triedĀ once after a long night of baking and I was just going to close my eyes on the kitchen floor for five minutes, so stop judging me Ryan—-sorry.
I’m just saying these baking mats are a must for your kitchen. Which is why I am giving them away.
Here’s how it works. You add a comment below in response to this question:
“What is the biggest kitchen disaster/mistake you’ve ever made?”
Three winners will be selected from the comments, utilizing the “true random number generator” at random.org and announced Sunday afternoon.
And now, I’ll get the ball rolling with my biggest kitchen disaster story ever. Enjoy: