Showing posts with label Latest. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Latest. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Crushing On Lauren Brennan of Lauren’s Latest, a Giveaway and Chocolate Cream Pie

I’m so happy to share Everyday Ingredients, Extraordinary Meals: 30 Ridiculously Simple Family Favorite Recipes with you, and the chance to win a copy of your own. But first a love letter to it’s author, Lauren of Lauren’s Latest.

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When bloggers connect with their readers by sharing their life through cooking, magic happens. For Lauren Brennan of the food blog Lauren’s Latest, that recipe for success is one that’s propelled her to the top of the foodie blogosphere.

Lauren has a talent not all of us possess by making what she does look effortless. But I know the real deal, what’s behind her rosey glow and beautiful smile that creates an immediate, friend for life connection. I know the real secret to her success: Good, old fashioned, hard work is what’s behind this young wife as one of the web’s most creative content creators and comfort cooking powerhouse.

Chocolate Cream Pie | foodiecrush.com

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Like many bloggers, Lauren originally had a different career path in mind. She graduated from college with a Health Science degree and was a Developmental Specialist working with adults and children with developmental delays before becoming a stay at home mom to her newborn, now 4-year-old daughter.

And then the blog was born.

“In 2009, my husband needed to start an online business for a college class and couldn’t think of anything, so he made me a food blog,” Lauren explains. “I had mentioned it to him previously, but never thought he’d get me up and running, but he did.”

After starting her blog as her husband’s class assignment, Lauren posted random recipes when she found time in between taking care of her newborn daughter. She soon realized there were cooking contests that awarded great prizes to their winners and began entering and winning small prizes. Then in December 2010, she won a cooking contest that landed her on a Good Morning America cooking segment with Sandra Lee. After that, her blog grew by leaps and bounds.

I recently had the opportunity of working with Lauren one-on-one when she asked me to help bring her vision for an eCookbook to life, a trove of family treasures she hasn’t really shared on her blog because they are the recipes of her everyday family cooking. Simple recipes for simply extraordinary meals is how she described the idea. And that’s what the title of her book became. Sometimes you just don’t mess with a good thing.

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The kicker to this whole plan to launch an eCookbook was that she hatched this idea with an entirely different bun in the oven that had a due date that wouldn’t wait for any delays thanks to an eCookbook. Lauren was set to deliver her second child at the end of April, and actually delivered baby Blake the same day we launched her eCookbook. How’s that for divinity?

All of this could have made the experience of writing and photographing an ebook a bit more harried, a bit more scattered. But for Lauren it simply brought focus to her mission to deliver an ebook that reflected her love for inspiring others to cook simple, healthy meals for their families.

Not only does Everyday Ingredients, Extraordinary Meals: 30 Ridiculously Simple Family Favorite Recipes showcase great recipes but it also gives solid advice on which staples to keep handy in the pantry to create her family favorites, quick weeknight eats and heartier weekend wonders.

When I asked her which are her favorite recipes from Everyday Ingredients, Extraordinary Meals, Lauren replied as any mother would about her beloved children. “Do I only have to pick one? I had a hard time narrowing it down to 30,” Lauren exclaimed. ”I’m really proud of my Cinnabon knockoff recipe. I also really love my pizza dough recipe because it’s so versatile. And, my lemon cream tart because it’s so freakin’ delicious. And I’m OBSESSED with lemon.”

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Cinnabons

Choosing a recipe to feature from her gorgeously photographed ebook was a challenge, especially since I’ve been drooling over them for 2 months. But since I had never made pudding from scratch, and Smudge is always begging for pie, Lauren’s eCookbook-only recipe for Chocolate Cream Pie was beckoning me to fall victim to its chocolateness. 

And I was happy to do so. I only hope I do it it justice.

Chocolate Cream Pie | laurenslatest.com

Chocolate Cream Pie | foodiecrush.com

Chocolate Cream Pie | foodiecrush.com

Chocolate Cream Pie | foodiecrush.com

While I was prepping to make the recipe, of course I ran out of milk so I substituted half of the milk for cream since I had that on hand, ready to whip for the topping. It was perfect and heartily Smudge approved and I hope Lauren will be impressed with my substitution.

But before we get to the creamy center, first, a few words from Lauren who I thank for being a verified foodie crush.

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1. Describe your blog in 3 words:

Happy, creative, fun

2. If you could be one food blogger other than yourself, who would you be?
Probably Ree Drummond! I’ve always wanted to be on the Food Network, plus she lives with real life cowboys! Hellllloooooo chaps.

3. Which 3 blogs do you follow/are obsessed with/can’t live a day without?
Spoon Fork Bacon–I silently drool over all the recipes and photos!
Edible Perspective- I love Ashley’s photography and her recipe ideas are fantastic.
Kevin and Amanda- Since I’ve gotten to know Kevin and Amanda as friends, I love following their lives! Does that sound stalker-ish? Oh well!! Plus, I love ALL the recipes Amanda posts.

4. What is the one kitchen tool you could never give up?
My really sharp chef’s knife. It cuts like buttuh!

5. What dish are you obsessed with mastering that you just can’t get quite right?
Right now, I’m working on falafels! I’ve gotten them good, but not great. Still figuring it out…

6. What did you have for dinner last night?
Tacos!

7. What’s one secret talent outside of the kitchen nobody knows about you:
I can play the piano.

8. You’re happiest when cooking/eating:
Really, really good salad. Or warm brownies and ice cream. Or anything involving whipped cream.

9. You new eCookbook shares family favorite recipes that form the base of your weekly menus. Where else do you find your cooking inspiration?
Other blogs, Pinterest, pictures in magazines, new products featured at the grocery store….pretty much anywhere! Sometimes, I dream recipes too. The recipe that landed me on Good Morning America was a recipe I came up with in a dream! Weird, and kind of awesome.

10. The one secret ingredient to your success is:
Doing what I feel like doing and not caring what other people think. It’s taken me a while to get to this point, but now that I’ve had a second baby, I do what works for me. I’m not always on twitter or Facebook and I post two recipes a week. That’s what works for me. If people want to come along for the ride, then great! I’d love to have ya!

Follow Lauren on > her blog Lauren’s Latest  >  Facebook  >  Twitter > Pinterest

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To celebrate the release of Lauren’s eCookbook, I’m happy to share a giveaway with you to win your own copy, just check out the widget below for more info on how to enter/rules/all the gist.

Or better yet, buy yourself and your mom your own copies for Mother’s Day, and if you’re a winner, I’ll reimburse you for both copies making mothers everywhere very happy. Please read the complete rules found on the widget. Valid worldwide.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And now for that recipe you’ve been waiting for.

Chocolate Cream Pie

Featured from Lauren's Latest's eCookbook, Everyday Ingredients, Extraordinary Meals: 30 Ridiculously Simple Family Favorite Recipes, this creamy chocolate pie is easy enough to make any day of the week.

Ingredients

3 tablespoons cornstarch, sifted 4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted 2 oz. chopped bittersweet chocolate 1 9-inch pie shell, cooked and cooled Instructions

In a small pot, stir sugar, cornstarch and cocoa powder together. Whisk in milk and place over medium heat until mixture comes to a boil and starts to thicken. Once hot and thick remove from heat and stir in chopped chocolate and vanilla. Pour into pie plate and cover with plastic wrap. Be sure to place the plastic wrap directly on the filling. Refrigerate for 2 hours or until completely chilled and plastic wrap comes off clean. Cut pie into 8 pieces and top with dollops of cream and chocolate shavings and serve. http://www.foodiecrush.com/2013/05/laurens-latest-chocolate-cream-pie/

Thanks for reading and please keep in touch by subscribing to FoodieCrush and follow me on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest. This site includes affiliate shopping links of which I receive a small percentage of sales to allow me to create new and special content like this for my readers, so thank you for your support. All opinions are my own.

Share via emailTagged as: chocolate, chocolate pie, desserts and sweets, food blogger interview, pie


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Monday, May 27, 2013

Latest Free Craft eBooks

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Privacy Policy / Your California Privacy Rights
Revised and posted as of March 4, 2013

Prime Publishing, LLC ("Company," "we" or "us") reserves the right to revise this Privacy Policy at any time simply by posting such revision, so we encourage you to review it periodically. In order to track any changes to this Privacy Policy, we will include a historical reference at the top of this document.

This Privacy Policy will tell you, among other things:

Your California privacy rights.
How we collect information and what information we collect.
How we may use information.
How we may share information.
Your choices regarding the sharing of information.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT/YOUR AGREEMENT
Company websites are not intended for use by individuals under the age of 18 or those who are not legal residents of the United States. By using our website or submitting information to us, you consent to the Company's use and sharing of the information collected or submitted as described in this Privacy Policy. If you are not 18 years of age or older and a valid resident of the United States or you do not agree with the terms of this Privacy Policy, do not provide us with any information or use any of the products or services offered or provided on Company websites or through Company technology.

YOUR CALIFORNIA PRIVACY RIGHTS
Beginning January 1, 2005 under California's "Shine the Light" law, California residents who provide personal information in obtaining products or services for personal, family or household use are entitled to either: (1) a list detailing the categories of information shared and the entities to which such information was provided; or (2) to be notified of a mechanism by which a consumer may opt-out of having their information shared with third parties. We have elected the second option. To opt-out of having your information shared with third parties please write to us.

HOW DO WE COLLECT INFORMATION AND WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT?
We collect and combine personally identifiable information ("PII") and non-personally identifiable information ("Non-PII") through various sources, including those discussed below. For your reference, PII is data collected with an intention to specifically identify, contact or locate a person, including but not limited to name, address, telephone number, or e-mail address. Conversely, Non-PII is data that is not used to specifically identify, contact or locate an individual, including but not limited to zip code, gender, age, or IP address.

Distribution Partners
Website operators that license our ad serving technology pass information to us so that we may serve advertisements to you. The information passed may include, but is not limited to, your IP address, e-mail address, name, mailing address, telephone number, date of birth, and gender.

Offer Forms
We also collect information about you when you complete a survey or offer form on one of our websites or web pages. This information may include, but is not limited to: your e-mail address, name, mailing address, telephone number, date of birth, gender, and payment information; information about your background, interests, health, education, career goals, and shopping preferences; and any other personal information or unique preference information you provide to us or our advertisers.

Website Registration Forms
We collect information about you when you register on one of our websites. This registration information may include, but is not limited to your:
e-mail address
full name
mailing address
telephone number
date of birth
gender

Publisher Partners
When you complete a registration or offer form that is hosted by one of our website publisher partners on our behalf, the website publisher partner may submit all or a portion of the information that you submitted on the form to the Company. This information may include, but is not limited to: your IP address, e-mail address, name, mailing address, telephone number, date of birth, gender, and payment information; information about your background, interests, health, education, career goals, and shopping preferences; and any other information you provide to our website publisher partner.

Marketing Partners
We may receive information about you, including but not limited to your IP address, e-mail address, first name, last name, mailing address, and telephone number, from third party marketing partners that provide us with consumer data to manage on their behalf.

Automatic Information/Digital Identifiers
We may automatically receive and store certain types of information about you through the data sources listed above.

You may be familiar with the term "cookies," which are unique alphanumeric identifiers that store information on your computer. A cookie is placed on your computer when your web browser accesses our website. We use cookies for tracking transactions and the user characteristics explained in detail throughout this Privacy Policy. If you choose, there are utilities available for purchase from independent software providers to install on your computer as well as tools/preferences you can choose through most web browsers to make website visits anonymous. Of course, cookies let you have a more satisfying website experience, so we recommend that you leave them turned on.

We also collect information through our web server applications. This information includes your Internet Protocol or "IP" address, date/time stamp, browser type, and referring URL.

Additionally, we may use pixel tracking technology to track the completion of transactions with us or our advertisers, the source information for those transactions, and your IP address, date/time stamp, browser type, and referring URL.

Government Forms
The Company may be required to create, collect, maintain, and submit certain information required by the government, such as IRS Forms W-9 and 1099. This information, which may include your taxpayer identification number, will not be used, shared, transferred, or sold for marketing purposes.

HOW DO WE USE THIS INFORMATION?
We may use the collected PII and Non-PII for any legally permissible purpose in our sole discretion, including but not limited to those explained below.

Ad Serving
We may serve advertisements to you based, in part, on your IP address, the demographic and geographic information you submitted to the Company during the website registration process, and other socio-economic information, psychographic information, Internet behavior (i.e., browsing, search, shopping, purchase, and ad response behavior), and lifestyle information about you that we obtain from affiliated entities and from third parties.

We allow third-party companies to serve ads and/or collect certain anonymous information when you visit our Web site. These companies may use non-personally identifiable information (e.g., click stream information, browser type, time and date, subject of advertisements clicked or scrolled over) during your visits to this and other Web sites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services likely to be of greater interest to you. These companies typically use a cookie or third party web beacon to collect this information. To learn more about this behavioral advertising practice or to opt-out of this type of advertising, you can visit www.networkadvertising.org.

Pre-select/Pre-fill Offers
Our website technology may pre-select certain offers for you to view based on the demographic and geographic information you submitted to the Company during the website registration process. Additionally, this technology may pre-fill some or all of the offers' data fields with the information you submitted during the website registration process in order to prevent you from having to re-enter this information. We may not show all of the pre-filled data fields to you.

Upsell
We utilize customized post transactional or "upsell" technology to help advertisers generate sales, while providing you with a series of great offers we think may be of interest to you. The way it works is simple: once you purchase a product or service from one of our reward advertisers, you will be offered additional products or services that we think may be of interest to you. If you elect to purchase products or services from an advertiser in the post transactional channel, we will pass the information that you provided during the initial transaction to the subsequent advertiser, including but not limited to your credit card information. This information pass is done to enhance and simplify your purchasing experience. Your information will only be passed to an advertiser in the post transactional channel after you have elected to purchase their product or service. By electing to purchase their product or service you consent to the passing of your data to the third party advertiser in question.

Customer Service and Fulfillment
We may use your information to operate the website promotion, service your account and to fulfill rewards earned through Company websites. We may also use your information to verify your identity or claimed account status and, where we consider appropriate, investigate your compliance with the terms and conditions of the website promotion or any advertiser offer. We do retain customer service correspondence.

Credit Card Preauthorization
By submitting your credit card information to us or to one of our advertisers, you are authorizing the Company or its agent to periodically verify that your credit card account is valid and has credit available by charging, and thereafter crediting, a small sum to the card.

Marketing
We may use your information in our online (e.g., e-mail marketing) and offline (e.g., telemarketing, cell phone text messaging, skip tracing, and direct mail) marketing programs. If you would like to be removed from these programs please write to us.

HOW DO WE SHARE INFORMATION?
We may share the collected PII and Non-PII for any legally permissible purpose in our sole discretion, including but not limited to those explained below.

Within the Company
We may share information we collect with affiliated companies, including our parent company and other subsidiaries of our parent company, for use in their ad serving and marketing programs. This Privacy Policy does not apply to affiliated companies and their collection, use and sharing of information.

Vendors
We may share your information with various third party vendors that are not part of the Company, including but not limited to vendors that provide us with technology to deploy commercial e-mail, vendors that sell the products or services for which you have qualified through one of our websites, and shipping companies that we utilize to ship products to you.

Advertisers
When you participate in an offer by completing a form, we will transfer the information you submitted on the form to the applicable advertiser.

When you answer "yes" or "no" to a marketing or survey question, some or all of the information that you submitted during the website registration process will be transferred to advertisers that we believe may be of interest to you without providing you with another opportunity to review the information.

When you select "yes" next to an offer, we will transfer some or all of the information that you submitted during the website registration process to the applicable advertiser without providing you with another opportunity to review the information.

Ad Serving Companies
We may use third party ad networks or ad serving companies to serve advertisements on our websites. We pass information about you to these companies so that they can deliver targeted advertisements that they believe will be of interest to you. The information passed to these companies may include, but is not limited to, your IP address, e-mail address, name, mailing address, telephone number, date of birth, gender, and any other information you provide to us. Web pages that are served by these companies will state that they are "powered by" or "ads by" the applicable company and will contain a link to that company's privacy policy.

Google, as a third party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on our site.Google's use of the DART cookie enables it to serve ads to our users based on their visit to our sites and other sites on the Internet.Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy.

Marketing Partners
We may share, license or sell your information to third parties for various marketing purposes, including their online (e.g., e-mail marketing) and offline (e.g., telemarketing, cell phone text messaging, skip tracing, and direct mail) marketing programs. If you would like to be removed from these programs write to us.

Data Enhancement/Appending/Validation
We may use third party service providers to enhance our database with additional elements, including but not limited to age ranges present in your household, whether you own or rent a home, the length of time you have lived at your residence, whether you are a mail order buyer or responder, household income, and gender. Further, we may use third party service providers to append telephone numbers to other data points we have in our database. We also may use third party service providers to validate the data we have in our database.

Additionally, we may share, license or sell your information to third parties for use in their data validation, enhancement, information verification services, and, to the extent permitted by law, individual reference or look-up services.

Third Party Cookies

Notwithstanding anything else in this policy, we or a data provider we have engaged may place or recognize a unique cookie on your browser to enable you to receive customized ads or content.   These cookies contain no personally identifiable information.  The cookies may reflect de-identified demographic or other data linked to data you voluntarily have submitted to us, e.g., your email address, that we may share with a data provider solely in hashed, non-human readable form. To opt-out of these cookies, please go to http://www.aboutads.info/choices.

Governmental Agencies or Other Companies
We may share your information with law enforcement officials or governmental agencies: (1) in response to their request; (2) when permitted or required by law; or (3) to establish our compliance with applicable laws, rules, regulations, or guidelines.

We may store and share your information with third parties for suppression or opt-out purposes.

We also may share your information with third parties when: (1) trying to protect against or prevent actual or potential fraud or unauthorized transactions; (2) investigating fraud that has already taken place; (3) enforcing or applying existing terms and conditions and/or other agreements; (4) protecting the rights, property or safety of our websites, our users or others; or (5) responding to subpoenas, court orders or legal process, or to establish or exercise our legal rights or defend against legal claims.

In all cases, this information is not provided to these entities or persons for marketing purposes.

Right to Transfer
Should the Company choose to sell or transfer business assets, it is possible that the information we possess may be transferred as part of that transaction. The Company may decide to retain a copy of the information post sale or transfer.

COMPANY CUSTOMER CHOICES

Marketing Communications and Unsubscribe Information
By completing and submitting a Company registration form, you are consenting to receive marketing communications from the Company and its third party marketing partners. If, after you have shared your information with the Company, you decide that you do not want to receive marketing communications or newsletters from the Company and its third party marketing partners, you can discontinue the communications by clicking here and filling out our form. If you have registered or submitted information under more than one e-mail account, you must submit separate unsubscribe requests for each account.

Request for More Information
As it relates to marketing communications or any other questions you might have about our Privacy Policy, please write to us at Prime Publishing, LLC, 3400 Dundee Road, Suite 220, Northbrook, IL 60062.

WHAT HAPPENS IF I HIT A LINK TO ANOTHER SITE FROM A COMPANY WEBSITE?
Our websites may offer links to other websites. Other websites have their own terms of use and privacy and security policies. If you choose to visit one of these sites, you should review the policies that govern that particular site.

APPLICATION OF THIS PRIVACY POLICY
This Privacy Policy applies to all information collected by or submitted to the Company. Other affiliated entities of the Company may obtain information independently from transactions and experiences with you or from other sources. This Privacy Policy does not pertain to that information.

WHAT IS THE POLICY WITH RESPECT TO COMMUNICATING WITH CHILDREN?
We recognize the unique privacy concerns regarding children. We are committed to carefully protecting privacy where children are involved no matter the point of contact. In particular, our intention is to fully comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act ("COPPA"). Per COPPA guidelines, we do not knowingly collect PII from children under the age of 13. If a parent or guardian is made aware that a child under the age of 13 has provided us with PII through any point of contact, click here to contact us and we will delete the information about the child referenced from our files.

SECURITY
There is no such thing as complete security on the Internet or otherwise. The Company uses various security techniques on our websites to help protect against the loss, misuse or modification of information we've collected from you. When you access your personal information or transmit information to us, that information is stored on servers that we have taken steps to protect from unauthorized access or intrusion. While we strive to protect your information, the Company cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us. You acknowledge and assume this risk when communicating with the Company, its partners and affiliates.

LIMITATION OF LIABILITY
YOU UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT ANY DISPUTE OVER PRIVACY IS SUBJECT TO THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THIS PRIVACY POLICY, AS WELL AS THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THIS WEBSITE (INCLUDING LIMITATIONS ON DAMAGES). YOU AGREE THAT THE COMPANY'S LIABILITY FOR ANY BREACH OF THIS PRIVACY POLICY SHALL BE LIMITED TO THE VALUE OF THE TRANSACTIONS OR SERVICES PROVIDED TO YOU BY THE COMPANY TO THE EXTENT SUCH CLAIM IS NOT OTHERWISE BARRED BY OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS.

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