Fourth Annual Spreading Smucker’s® Traditions Recipe & Essay Contest

Now you all know I don't like or know how to cook.  I think I've made that clear plenty of times.  However one of the things I do love, besides eating, is sitting in the kitchen whenever my mom or grandmother are in front of the stove making one of their deliciously scrumptious meals. With my mom she'll go into detail about how to do this and that, and I'll just watch her move so effortlessly about the kitchen and click with everything around her.  It's as if the spoons and spices just flow right to her and she knows EXACTLY what's she's doing.  Half the time she's not even looking! And the best thing about my mother is that she makes all types of foods from Spanish, to Italian, American and so much more.  She has a passion for it all.  

Now my grandmother, her specialty is Spanish, Puerto Rican, food.  From Pernil to Arroz con Gandules, this woman cooks it up.  And whenever I'm in the kitchen with her, she talks to me about each ingredient she's adding in, and always manages to tell me how she learned how to use them all.  She'll start talking about how her grandmother taught her this, or how her mother or even her sister taught her that.  Just today she was making chicken and was telling me how she learned it from a lady on TV years ago; she gets inspiration and lessons from everyone and everywhere.  One of my favorite and probably the memory I'll take with me forever, is making Pateles with her.  Now if any of you have ever made Pateles, you know it is a tiring process that takes DAYS! Yes, you have to buy the stuff, start peeling bananas, bleeding out those little red seeds, then smashing and grinding the bananas, washing and prepping the leaves, etc.  By the time you're ready to eat them, you're over them completely.  BUT, working with my grandmother on these delicacies, has always been interesting and an eye opening experience.  Listening to her stories and her telling me how to do this and that, is always a little treat for me.  So while I'm not a chef, I LOVE watching the women in my life cook and talk to me about their recipes with such love and devotion.

So what's a perfect time to bring up families and special recipes and combining the two?  Now, during Hispanic Heritage Month, and Smucker's® is going to help!  From now until November 16th, Smucker's® invites you to visit their site, www.smuckers.com or www.smuckersenespanol.com, to enter and share your original recipes using at least 1/4 cup of  any of their Smucker's® jams, jellies, preserves or fruit butters, plus an original essay of 200 words or less (in English or Spanish) about how the recipe is a part of your family's traditions and how it makes family celebrations, special.  Then in March 2012, five contest finalist will be selected and flown to New York city for a live recipe demonstration and judging, where one will win $20,000 towards a dream family reunion!  Doesn't that sound amazing! How incredible that a family recipe could possibly win you such a wonderful gift with and for your family!  And Hispanic Heritage Month is a perfect time for this contest, as Latinos all over the country are celebrating their history and culture together.   Hmmm, I wonder how a Orange Marmalade would mix in with Pateles.

For Official Contest Rules visit www.smuckers.com or www.smuckersenespanol.com.  Open to legal residents of the 50 United States and D.C., 18 years and older.  Void where prohibited.

So stop reading, and start cooking and writing!  Good luck to all of you.

Happy Blogging All!

Disclaimer:  While Confessions Of A Latina Loquita did receive Smucker's® products, it did not receive any monetary compensation for this post.  Participation is completely voluntary and all opinions noted in the above are my own opinion. 

10th Annual Jif® Peanut Butter Contest

I think it's safe to say that I hate to cook.  In fact, I'm not really even sure I know how to cook.  You're talking about a girl who could easily ruin boiling water.  Yes, readers, it's that serious.  So in the times I've had to fend for myself, I have had to find simple yet fulfilling things that I can munch on to feed my little belly.  One of my favorite dishes is the classic Peanut Butter sandwich.  Yes, just peanut butter.  Ask anyone around and they'll tell you that I am a fiend for peanut butter.  I mean what's not to love.  It's salty, it's sweet and it hits that hunger spot almost immediately.  In fact, when I get hungry right before bed, I just take a spoonful of peanut butter and it completely settles my hunger pangs.  So when I was approached to talk about this contest, I jumped at the chance.


For the past decade, The J.M. Smucker Company has held the Jif^® Most Creative Peanut Butter Sandwich Contest, and this year they continue with that tradition.  Now through October 12th 2011, children ages 6 to 12,  can enter to win a $25,000 college fund all by becoming culinary geniuses and using their creativity with one of the simplest ingredients we find in our kitchen: PEANUT BUTTER!  Also to mark the 10th anniversary of the contest, this year's Grand Prize Winner will also receive an additional $10,000 for educational products.  And when they say creative, they certainly mean it.  Last year's winner, Margalit M of Raleigh, NC, 8 years old, created "Wushu Chicken Tacos".  It combined a drizzle of spicy peanut sauce made with Jif Creamy Peanut Butter with chicken, asparagus and squash wrapped in a tortilla.  Now that sounds AMAZING!


Submissions of each imaginative recipe can be entered at www.jif.com and www.jifenespanol.com or by completing the downloadable entry form available on both websites.  All sandwiches will be judged on creativity, taste, nutritional balance, visual appeal and ease of preparation.  So leave the idea of perfection behind, because this is all about kids using their noggin's to be truly unique and inventive!  Qualified entrants, who submit their entry in the first six weeks of the call of entries, will receive a Jif Back to School gift pack while supplies last - provided the entry is submitted online or postmarked by September 1, 2011 and received by September 8, 2011.  Ten semifinalists will be posted on both websites to take part in a nationwide online vote in January 2012.  Anyone aged 13 and older can vote to help select the five finalists, who will go on to compete in New York in March 2012!


Entries for the Jif^® Most Creative Peanut Butter Sandwich Contest must be postmarked by October 12, 2011 and received no later than October 19, 2011.  Online entries must be submitted by 11:59 a.m. on October 12, 2011.  For complete details, official rules and the entry form for the tenth annual contest, visit www.jif.com and www.jifenespanol.com.  The Jif^® Most Creative Peanut Butter Sandwich Contest is open to legal residents of the 50 United States and D.C. between six and 12 years of age by October 12, 2011.  Void where prohibited.


And there's more!  This year they'll also be conducting a separate contest which invites peanut butter fans across America to enter the, "That's Why I Choose Jif" essay contest.  Fans will enter for a chance to join the judging panel at the final event in NYC, where five kid chefs will contend for the grand prize.  Fans of peanut butter can visit www.jif.com to submit an essay of 250 words or less in the "That's Why I Choose Jif" essay contest, describing how they make the best choices for their families and sharing why they choose Jif Peanut Butter.


Entries for the "That's Why I Choose Jif" essay contest must be submitted online by 11:59 a.m. on October 12, 2011.  For complete details, official rules and to enter, visit www.jif.com.  The "That's Why I Choose Jif" essay contest is open to legal residents of the 50 United States and D.C, 18 years and older.  Void where prohibited.


I think that this is a great contest and a great way to spend time with your children and show them that there is more to life than eating out and watching TV.  I always say kids nowadays need more guidance and quality time with the adults in their life, and I think a contest like this provides a great opportunity for just that.  So log on to the links and get involved.  You have nothing to lose, but maybe just a lot to gain.


You can find Jif^® on Facebook or visit www.jif.com or www.jifenespanol.com for more information, tips, recipes, contests and promotions.


Happy Peanut Butter Dreams & Blogging!


Disclaimer:  While Confessions Of A Latina Loquita did receive Jif products, it did not receive any monetary compensation for this post.  Participation is completely voluntary and all opinions noted in the above are my own opinion.