LoveFeast Table

Lately we have had the travel bug bad.  Granted, we have had a get-away weekend with the GE Momsperience. But, for us that never cures the fever it actually infects us with more need to roam.  Kristin likes to think we’re nomads or gypsys at heart!  We don’t let much stop us from travel.  We have 9 kids between our two families.  Every couple of years we find time to go with just the 4 of us.  This past year we went to Cancun.  Did we ever tell you about the time we went to Italy with a baby?

Did we ever share about how we made it into Rome?  Even though Devon, Kristin’s husband promised not to go over 100 miles an hour?  Even though we didn’t know where our apartment was?  Even though our tiny car barely made it down the tiny streets?  Did you know that our inside joke is to hold your nose like this when you’ve just about had enough?

On that trip we found out that Devon is a multi-tasking driver that can ramp a curve to switch lanes, avoid crashes involving motorcycles and semis and site-see while driving fast enough to keep up with any Italian.  And my husband Todd, can pick up any language instantaneously and therefore can speak perfectly fluent Italian when seeking direction from locals.  Kristin and I can provide a sound track worthy of any high flying roller coaster ride.  It was a joint effort.

Our thrill ride into the city of Rome landed us with a lurch almost miraculously on a sidewalk of a street right behind this wonder at the perfect time to meet the landlord of our rental apartment.  It stands my hair on end just to think about it.

What are some of your favorite travel memories?

The red penguins are on the move everywhere at the 21c Museum Hotel.  They greeted us at the door, welcomed us to the GE Momsperience and loitered in the lobby, restaurant and everywhere in between.

They get around those penguins.  One night plumb tuckered out after some fancy hat making they wandered around (or were they carried?) until they found themselves a place to rest.

Meanwhile, while the penguins were getting comfortable, the LoveFeast girls were downstairs at the 21c Museum Hotel with Aaron, the evening security guard, enjoying the contemporary art museum and getting an escorted tour of art that might not be as handy to view if your are not of the right sex.  Such as, visiting the mens’ restroom to see art that can only be seen from the user-friendly side of the urinal.  Just sayin’, we needed an escort to feel OK about crashing the mens’ restroom and Aaron was our man.

We were getting to know Aaron as we walked the rooms and galleries at 21c and were exchanging the friendly facts that one exchanges in those situations, like yes, we have 9 kids between us, where you are from (Minnesota and Maryland) and yes we co-blog.  And, then from Aaron that he had been in the army, had lived in many places, and that Lady Gaga was a really a down-to-earth cool chick and that a red penguin almost made it onto Justin Bieber’s bus.  Then suddenly as we were standing there we saw something shift in Aaron’s eyes and his comfortableness with us dissipate.  Suddenly he began walking backwards away from us and we heard him utter, “oh, you’re thooossee bloggers” and disappeared leaving us to fall into the elevator laughing as the doors closed.  We head back to our room, amused and kind of weird-ed out.

Arriving at our room, this is what we found.  Birds in our beds.  Birds in our derby hats!!

OK, in a normal less sleep deprived frame of mind we might have thought other bloggers might have done this prank.  Maybe the sign about twitter attached to one penguin might have been a clear giveaway.  But, there were other facts to consider.  We had been tweeting quite a bit with 21c Museum Hotel and we had just been with Aaron the security guard who had backed away from us with some kind of secret.

At 2:30 a.m. our conclusion was drawn.  We had been punked by the 21c Museum Hotel!!  To our sleep deprived minds there was only one choice and one choice only…we must punk them back!

And, like anyone else would do, we spent some time (we could sleep later!) dressing them in something that would be appropriate if they were to visit the spa.  Again, this made perfect sense at 2:45 a.m.

First a quick drop of joe and an orange envelope tucked in a pocket with a message for the front desk.

The penguins leave our room…

and wait for the elevator to take them downstairs to the lobby.

They seem to be getting along, although they are quiet in the elevator.  We speculate they might be a couple.

Turns out that we found out via twitter our real pranksters were the bloggers of Mommy’s Camera and Creative Kristi with a little help from Aaron, the security guard.  But, again, like I said at 3:00 a.m. there was no turning back.  We were headed for the front desk.

Here’s where we show the 21c Museum Hotel how to punk and what real-art-meets-pop-art-meets-real- tired-mama-fake-performance-art is all about.  Take that!

Word is they are training other birds in so the penguins can go on vacation.

Can you spy who with your little eye?

This is where we’ve been hanging around the last few days.  It’s the stables at Churchill Downs where we’ve been sipping on mint juleps.  Well, not just that, lots of other things too~

We’ve also been hanging out with red penguins, GE Appliances and other bloggers this past weekend for the first GE Momsperience.  GE Appliances hosted a fabulous weekend for a group of bloggers and their guests.  It was a time to learn more about the brand, share ideas and start a conversation.  We had a creative itinerary full of time to meet, mix, share and learn.  We had a wonderful time and have stories to tell!

We stayed at the 21c Museum Hotel.  The hotel was just the right environment to feel that perfect mix of being well taken care of and getting your creative juices charged.  The hotel holds a contemporary art museum that is open to the public 24/7 and a wonderful restaurant called Proof On Main.  We fell in love with the red penguins which are the the hotel’s “mascot” of sorts.

Kristin flew in from Baltimore and I flew in from Minneapolis.  As soon as we arrive we settled in the bar at Proof for lunch.  It was good to be together in real life again!

The LoveFeast gals took a little break that afternoon to work on their brand new web site.  We were multi-tasking to the max, catching up, meeting new friends, making plans, reviewing fonts and meeting with our graphic designer.

The official GE Momsperience began that evening with introductions and apps’, art, drinks and hat-making!

Tomorrow we will share what the next day’s agenda brought us…time at the GE Monogram Experience Center and Churchill Downs.  With hats in tow the evening ended…it was going to be a whirlwind of an experience and we had just begun!

We’d love to hear your GE Momsperience story too!  If you were on the GE trip link your post and share your story!

The LoveFeast girls have found themselves in Louisville, Kentucky.  We’re here at the inspiring and modern 21c Museum Hotel.  The hotel is truly a place to get your creativity peaking.  We’ve had delicious meals at the hotel’s restaurant Proof on Main, lively conversation with smart women, fine dining, hat making and interacting with the art that surrounds the spaces.  We’ve got some stories to tell already. We’ve friend-ed one of the bartenders who has spilled some restaurant cocktail recipes for LoveFeast ~ perfect timing with our summer “theme-making” underway.  We can’t wait to have our Monogram Experience tomorrow!!  We’re already amazed at how GE Monogram has tapped into such creativity and  inspiration to provide such a memorable experience ~ filled with possibilities!  So ~ hold onto your hats and keep and eye out for red penguins!!  With those two combination and the LoveFeast girls in town ~ anything can happen!!

That’s were you can find me ~ under the umbrella over to the left on that bank of lounge chairs.  It’s one of my favorite spots in the world.

Poolside at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel is one of my favorite places to rest and relax.  It seems to be the only place where I can get a book read or be caught red handed with my own plate of wings.

One theory for it’s high ranking in my places of zen, might be due to the architect who designed this place or the relaxed and intimate yet luxurious vibe.  Another theory is, I’m usually san kids and my husband is in business meeting.  So, it’s just me, the sun, a good book and time.

Sometimes I change locations to be closer to the music and the action ~ the action being the waterfall off the pool slide.

The rooms are lovely.

And, last time this delicious box of chocolates was given to me ~ best chocolates ever ~ happiness in a box.

I’m going to be having this for breakfast at least one morning.

This salad is definitely something to look forward to.  It is a bowl full of health ~ so delish and satisfying.

Even though I was dining alone, I didn’t hardly mind or notice.  (Picture by my waiter at Frank & Alberts.)

Which I really kind of wasn’t, because the staff at Frank & Alberts is so personable and attentive.

Another reason I didn’t feel alone ~ I as twittering the whole meal.  When you’re dining alone, you tend to turn to your twitter peeps.

Yes, I’m looking forward to a little R & R and wonderful poolside refreshment.  If you need me ~ I’m only a tweet away!

Do you have a spot that you really like to unwind at?  A favorite hotel, restaurant, coffee shop or place to visit?  What is your favorite getaway?  We’d love to hear your get-away ideas!

On our family’s spring break vacation we got a chance to go back for a short visit to the Children’s Home & Community Center.  Kristin,  Devon, Todd and I got a chance to visit the Center back in October of last year when we took our trip to Azul Sensatori.  You can read a little about the history here.  Then, a few months later, Todd and I, along with some of the folks from the company he works for, came back in February and shared a wonderful meal of empandas and gave away some books to the surrounding community.

On this visit, I was anxious to show my kids a little bit of what we had experienced.  We had brought some books, toys and candies to give away.  I wanted to be able to give them an opportunity to see what we had gotten to see, expand their understanding and maybe get a chance to do the same.  I wanted my kids to remember their full stacked shelves of books.

When they saw this.

When we got to the Community Center, we discovered that the local pastor who oversees and works on this project, was there.  He gathered the chairs around and began to tell our children about the history of the area and this project.   Part of me was anxious to get going.  I had heard this story before.  I was anxious for an experience.  Something more tangible for my kids to do.   It didn’t quite work out that way.

Part of coming to another culture is respecting it.  Of listening.  Of knowing.  So, my kids listened to the stories of this elder.  Stories about the jungle and machetes, tigers, people and how he came to share his story with the people who lived in this area.  This was not a movie.  This was someone’s life.  This was about someone who has given up his life for greater purposes.

After we listen to the history and story, we got some refreshments from the canteen by the pool.

The pastor walked us around the grounds so that we could see the progress.  This center is going up year by year, brick by brick as funds are available.

We stopped for a picture.

We looked at the upper level addition, on top of the future kitchen.

Can you imagine this is a kitchen for a community?

This is the blank canvas waiting to be made into something.  This is what Kristin and I see when we look at this.  We know, step by step, anything can happen!  That has been our journey on this blog.  When we see this empty cinder block shell, we see potential, we see ideas!  We hope you stick around and dream with us!!  It may be some time down the road ~ but we hope to help see this room through, into it’s future!

Then, we took a walk around the shanty town.  There is rubble from the clearing and building everywhere.

We didn’t have time to give out our books or toys.  That wasn’t what happened this trip.  They would be given out by the Mexican church that reaches out to this community.  That wasn’t my original plan.   Turns out this visit was about looking, listening and learning.  And, it was about knowing.  And, even if that wasn’t my plan.

I am sure it was meant to be.

Just a couple of weeks ago our family went on Spring Break in Cancun, Mexico.  We made it there in first class style although we almost didn’t make it on the plane.  After a long day at the Minneapolis airport, flight delays, potential missed connections and several phone calls our family went from a flight through Detroit in coach to 6 first class seats on a direct flight to Cancun.  Oh, and did I mention that after we got our direct flights my husband briefly misplaced his brief case with all our passports in it?  What a day!

All to finally get to a place where we could get a little sand and sun, smiles and splashes!

And, a little time for some hammock blogging~

That’s not all we got to do ~ we stopped for a visit here!

Did you go for a Spring Break trip?  Where does your family like to get away to?

When you see this kitchen, what do you think about?

Being in a baking cook-off?  Piling up your fresh vegetables, sharp knives and flavorful herbs to get started making an amazing meal?  Does it make you want to experiment, try new recipes or risk it all in an “iron-chef” type cook off?  Or does it simply want to make you renovate your current kitchen?

This is the GE Monogram Kitchen at the GE Monogram Experience Center in Louisville, Kentucky.  It’s a theater for the senses!  It is a 10,000 sq.-ft. complex filled with an array of stimulating and appealing spaces.  These spaces have been designed to showcase the latest in innovation with their GE Monogram appliances.  Are you hungry yet?

Guess what?  We’ve been invited to visit!  But, that’s not all!  We are allowed to bring a guest with us…all expenses paid.

This is what we know about the trip…We will be arriving in Louisville, Kentucky on May 15 and returning home May 17.  We are promised a luxurious learning experience.  (They used the word luxurious a number of times to describe this trip.)  The GE Momsperience will have experiences around the themes “Biggest Challenges in the Kitchen” and “Entertaining Made Simple”.  We will also be exploring some of Louisville’s hotspots.

Like we said, we get to bring a guest with us!  That guest will have all their travel plans taken care of by GE’s concierge.  Your travel expenses, hotel and food will be covered by GE Appliances.  We don’t know about you, but we are already (mentally) packing our bags and looking forward to a weekend full of new experience!

Please check your calendars and if May 15-17 is open for you,  leave a comment and tell us how you make entertaining simple.  We will choose one guest to join us at the GE Momsperience 2011 Getaway.  We will be running this giveaway until April 19.

While we were in Mexico we had some great food.  Some friends told us about an amazing Italian restaurant a couple of blocks off the main shopping street in Playa Del Carmen.  So, one evening we took a cab from our hotel into Playa.

First, we walked the main street.  We enjoyed the lights, shopping and street performers.  We tried on hats everywhere we went.

Eventually we walked to our restaurant, Il Pescatore.  The minute we walked in, I felt transported back to Italy.

We were welcomed, kissed and greeted as if we had met before by the proprietress who took our orders and told us exactly what we wanted.

We hadn’t ordered the suggested homemade linguine in a truffled cream sauce but, but she brought it to us anyway.  “You try it, you’ll love it!” she said.

The colors here in the picture, don’t contrast in a way to explain to you how colorful the flavors of this dish.  But, let me tell you, it was heavenly, heavenly!  The fish in a lemon wine sauce was sublime.  The linguine in truffles, like I said, heaven.

Oh, but I digress…we began with one of my favorite Italian starters.

And, guess who we coincidentally bumped into?  Our friend that suggested Il Pescatore and her table of friends.  There is nothing more Italian than a table of friends sharing a table of good food.

Like a lot of hidden treasures, you have to step inside and taste to know.  If you are ever in Cancun or Playa Del Carmen it would be more than worth the cab ride to visit this Italian gem.  I can’t wait to go back!

Da Ileana Il Pescatore, Itallian restaurant in Playa Del Carmen,( Av. 10 Norte N. 308 Esq. Calle 24)

Back in January, my husband and some of our friends were in Mexico for a business trip for the company they work for.  A group of us flew in a day early to visit the same Children’s Home & Community Center that Kristin, Devon, Todd and I had visited in October.  We began our visit by gathering to hear the story of how the jungle was cut back and the foundation was laid both literally and relationally with area Mexican churches who support and partner in this Center.  And, now how a squatter village community has sprung up around it.  While we listened, a group of ladies that support this work in this community made empanadas.

The Community Center does not yet have a kitchen.  So, they made lunch in a cinder-block unfinished future community room.

They made an assembly line of chopping and preparing vegetables, meat and dough.

Then, they pressed out each ball of dough into a flat tortilla shape.

The empanadas were filled with the prepared meat.

Then, they were layed out ready to be fried over a single hot plate.

Then, the ladies put two empanadas on each plate.  I was impressed to see each plate was garnished with lettuce, a sprinkling of fresh sweet onions and a spoon of red sauce.

We all got in line to distribute the plates to the community we had invited to have lunch.

There were lots of happy children who enjoyed the hot lunch with their friends.

We enjoyed the chance to peek over the shoulders of the ladies and see how they were doing it all.  They made 500 empanadas that served probably a couple hundred.  It was truly one of the most delicious lunches I have had.  Of course there were some jokes and some dares that ended in some really hot, hot peppers being consumed.  It was a gift to be present.  We served.  And, we were served.  We gave books and a meal.  We were given a meal and memories.  One of the ladies who made the empandas gave Karen, one of our friends, the tortilla maker from the day…

when the ladies made us all empanadas.

Around the food blogs, here are a few recipes I found for empanadas:  Food For My Family ~ Traditional Chicken Empanadas, Nook & Pantry ~ Pork Picadillo Empanadas, Big, Bold, Beautiful Food ~ Filipino Beef Empanadas