Sometimes I get PR pitches for some really crazy things:
Sex oil?Check.
Adult Incontinence Underwear?You betchya.
Dog butt cream? Sure why the hell not? I’ve got dogs. They apparently have been living without butt cream for way. too. long.
In this laundry list of PR pitches I have not once, in all my eight glorious years of blogging, ever been asked to review a cookbook. If you read this blog than you know I don’t pride myself on being a great cook. Sure I cook morning noon and night for the mini’s but it’s not even close to what they get from the Chef. They’ve often told me in the midst of a school night dinner that they would prefer to go to our restaurant. Harsh.
I thought to myself how does one actually review an entire cookbook? Do I cook from it every night? Do I make a couple things and review them? I mentioned to the bestie that someone wanted me to review a cookbook for the blog and I had no idea how to actually do it. She offered up her services as cookbook reviewer and a new blog segment was born! Everyone, meet AK. AK, meet everyone. AK has been my bestie since 1st grade. She is my rock and my sanity and is also a fantastic cook. She has made each of the minis birthday cakes since they were born and we try to make family dinner together with our kids at least once a month. She rules and really there is no better person to review a cookbook than her.
Every now and then the Chef & I get to let loose and partake in some adult activity. Last week the Chef talked me into going to see one of his favorite bands, Sleigh Bells. The band had eaten at the restaurant and gave our entire staff tickets to the show. We called our babysitter and headed downtown to House of Blues:
Alexis, rockstar extraordinaire leading lady of Sleigh Bells enjoying some Noodlecat
The Chef & his Widow
Raging
Alexis sends Chef some love
The show was AMAZING times infinity. Alexis is by far the best front women of a band I have seen in I can’t tell you how many year. Her voice is wicked powerful and the show she puts on is so ROCKSTAR. I must admit that when I first heard Sleigh Bells album I wasn’t impressed but after watching and listening live I can declare myself a fangirl! If you like rock & roll and you like drum & bass/techno/dubstep then Sleigh Bells is for you. Check ‘em out!!
Have you seen any good shows this summer?Any shows coming up that can’t be missed?
I fell in love with an aperitif in Italy and there is no going back. Between the hours of 5 and 7 the cafes and patios in Italy are filled with a sea of sparkling orange. Having thrown Campari to the wayside, the Italians now indulge in my new favorite summer beverage, The Aperol Spritz:
The Chef & I have teaching bartenders all over CLE how to make a spritz
Bloggers can be such vain mo fo’s and I’m no exception. Most of my vanity gets lost in translation, partly because I have no time for it and partly because the mom in me secretly wants to wear sweatpants and wife beaters all day. Every now and then the vain girl inside of me wants to look hot. I want heads to turn when I walk into a room and I want the Chef to do a double take and then ask me for my number. Looking good has always made me feel good and the month that the Chef went away, I definitely did not look good.
While the Chef was in Italy for a month I turned into that girl. I wore yoga pants in public and didn’t put on makeup once. Seriously, not once. I think I even managed to go old school hippie and skip the shower for multiple days. No need to shower if I’m not getting any ya know? By the time his trip was coming to an end, the minis and I began to get ready to meet him. As I started packing for our trip, I noticed what a hot, hot mess I had become. My eyes were dark, my skin translucent, and my hair looked like a bad ombre job. I was most definitely not scoring a 10 on the hotness scale.
I decided I need to get beautified. I needed my swagger back before I could see the Chef.
Awhile back I got a message from Christine who runs Skin Deep. Skin Deep is a studio that offers all sorts of permanent makeup and paramedical procedures including breast cancer areola restoration. Christine was curious if I had ever considered getting eyelash extensions. I replied with a ‘whatinthehellareeyelashextensions?’ Turns out eyelash extensions are individual eyelashes glued to your own eyelash that last about a month and make your eyes look like they always have mascara on. They look like falsies but you can’t feel them at all. Being the lazy vain person that I am, I agreed to test them out for my trip to Italy. I headed to Christine’s studio, Skin Deep and went for it.
A few hours later and my eyes were no longer my own:
Please ignore my dark circles. Sleep was limited that month.
The lash extensions took about 2 hours but have lasted the entire month of June. We left for Italy the following day and the while we were travelling didn’t I apply mascara once. All I did, was brush and go. The eyelash extensions that Christine gave me were super duper convenient, beautiful and fun. I would easily get them done again for every single vacation we take. Hell, I might even start getting them normally. 22 days after Christine gave me eyelash extensions and I look like this. Not bad right?
still with the dark circles jeesh, do I ever sleep?
Christine of Skin Deep Permanent Makeup*** has generously offered all of you good people $50 off of an eyelash extension service. All you need to do is mention Chef’s Widow when you make the appointment. Christine is also donating a full eyelash extension to one of you lucky readers in the form of a fabulous giveaway!!!
To enter all you need to do is tell me your most INDULGENT beauty treatment or service in the comments. I will pick a winner this Friday. Good luck bitches.
****Besides from donating this awesome giveaway Christine also does really amazing work for breast cancer survivors. From Christine:” The most important work I do is tattooing aureolas for women whom have lost theirs due to mastectomies. It’s such a terrible thing when these brave women believe they are deformed after surviving such an ordeal.”
Since I started blogging well over a hundred years ago, I have received thousands of requests to promote products on this blog. At the beginning getting free shit was totally cool but then I saw how there really was a price. By reviewing anything sent my way I could possibly alienate the people who come here everyday to ready my brand of crazy.
No bueno.
So I stopped with the random reviews of stupid crap and promised myself to only review things I really could stand behind. Then I got asked to have a potato chip party.
I don’t do potato chips.
I make potato chips from scratch and I sure as hell don’t buy ‘em.
When Shearer’s contacted me to host a potato chip party, my immediate reaction was absolutely not. How could I have a party where I served food that I don’t even have in my house. I wrote back explaining my view on potato chips and why I couldn’t take part. I soon received an email explaining that not only was Shearer’s a local company but they were also the greenest food plant in the world. She obviously had done her homework when choosing bloggers. It’s very hard for me to say no to a company that takes environmental stewardship seriously.
I accepted the challenge and started planning a party. I knew my girl OhMommy had accepted the potato chip mission so I inquired How about we do a blind wine tasting party and have potato chip palette cleansers? Can’t get much classier than that…
She was OBVIOUSLY in.
Our Share the Shearer’s blind wine tasting party was an absolute success. Everyone loved the wine and the chips were gone within no time at all. I even ate some!
One of the things I miss most about living in New York City is the plethora of amazing events geared towards children. When we lived there all I had to do was open a Time Out Kids or hop onto Go City Kids to find many options for whatever day I was looking to do something in the city with the boy.
Even when we were in NYC briefly last fall, I went out to GoCityKids and found an amazing puppet show blocks away from our apartment, the next day we walked to Prospect Park and went to the Zoo, the day after that we went to storytime at Brooklyn public Library. I never once had to worry about what to do with the kids. It was AWESOME.
Our restaurant rocks man. Not only do we serve kick ass food but the majority of our staff are seriously the most creative people in the CLE. Nathan and David, our most dedicated lunch servers, show us that they are for reals, the funniest people that work out The Greenhouse Tavern.
If you don’t know The Lunch Servers be sure to friend them on the FB or check them out on the YouTube. They are freakin’ hilarity.
