Winner of Foodie Freebie Friday: Trader Joe's!

It's finally Foodie Freebie Friday! It's been a long week and I hope you're ready for the weekend! I, for one, will be busier than usual. I've got a special 5 course dinner I'm making for 10 guests on Saturday (all of which will be blogged very soon!) and Sunday I'm teaching my monthly ethnic cooking class where we're spending the day making various types of Lumpia or Filipino eggrolls.

Thankfully this will be one of the last busy entertaining weekends I have... with just one more left that I'm hosting next Saturday. Things are slowly getting packed and ready for our move which we're so very excited about! As promised, here are pictures of our new home which I've made into a slideshow. If you are ever visiting Chicago, please let me know! I'd love to meet my readers in person and I enjoy sharing all my food favorites of the city!...

Now as you can probably see, our home is not for those who have a fear of heights and thankfully we don't have that fear. However in the kitchen, I have my share as do many of you that posted on my Foodie Freebie Friday question of the week! There are quite a few things out there that intimidate us in the kitchen including yeast, seafood, making candy, deep frying, sauces, over or under cooking and handling raw meats, and even the innocent egg (raw, in recipes, or meringues). These are all very valid fears and many I feel the same with. Probably my biggest fear was yeast, just like many of you. However after I got over it and worked with it a few times, I wonder why I let it get the best of me for so long. I passed up so many wonderful recipes using yeast and now I find myself trying to go back and make them now that I feel more confident using yeast in recipes.

So I pose this challenge to you... for whatever culinary fear you have, I challenge you to face it within the next 30 days. Try baking a bread or even cinnamon rolls from scratch using yeast. Maybe make a shrimp or tilapia dish if you're hesitant with seafood. Do you have a fear of frying? Then splurge a little bit and fry up something (since everything is better fried in my book!). Whatever it is, I encourage you face what intimidates you in the kitchen... and I hope you report back. The worst thing that can happen is that it doesn't turn out, but you will feel better knowing you attempted it! Okay... so who's going to be receiving a box of goodies from Trader Joe's?

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31

Timestamp: 2009-03-06 12:28:52 UTC

Comment #31 comes from Tiff who said:

I love Trader Joe's. I have a fear of making risotto! It sounds like you have to have a lot of patience to stir the liquid in over a course of time. I can't even make regular rice very good, so I haven't thought about trying risotto (even though it sounds good).
March 2, 2009 2:49 PM

Congratulations Tiff! I hope you have your list of food likes and dislikes ready so I can start shopping at Trader Joe's for you! Please email me at itsjoelen@gmail.com so I can confirm the mailing address in which to have your Trader Joe's goodies sent to.

Thanks again to all those that commented and stay tuned to the next Foodie Freebie announcement on Monday,March 9, 2009! Don't feel discouraged if you haven't won yet - I have a whole year's worth of freebies ahead and next week is one that you won't want to miss!