Product Placement Wednesday - Graeter's Ice Cream

So for my fabulous readers in Ohio (especially anyone from Cincinnati), Graeter's Ice Cream is old yet delicious news. Founded in 1870 in Cincinnati, OH, Graeter's is a family owned ice cream business that makes ice cream using the French Pot process. Here are some details from their site regarding this process:

Graeter’s has perfected our traditional French Pot process, making the world’s finest ice cream just two gallons at a time. It’s the only way to achieve the irresistible creaminess that is Graeter’s.

Our secret recipe of fresh cream and egg custard is gently swirled along the chilled sides of a slowly spinning French Pot Freezer. As the creamy blend thickens, a blade softly scrapes the sides of the pot, folding the ice cream into itself. Then we add the fresh ingredients to complete our unique flavors.

The gentle folding process prevents air from whipping into our ice cream and accounts for the extremely dense and creamy consistency. Where a typical pint of ice cream can weigh as little as 8 ounces, a Graeter’s pint weighs nearly a full pound! Graeter’s ice cream is so rich and creamy that we have to pack every pint by hand.

Graeter’s is famous for the massive chunks of chocolate found in our signature chip flavors. We
create these unique chips by pouring our own specially prepared liquid chocolate into the French Pot just as the ice cream is finishing. A paddle is then used to break up the frozen layer into the randomly sized chunks of chocolate.

You might be wondering if Graeter's has been around for so long and even Oprah raves about it why am I featuring it on Product Placement Wednesday? Of course because I have exciting news! Graeter's is now available in California! Apparently the squeaky wheel gets the grease as Los Angeles fans have been requesting it at Ralph's stores. Not to worry if you don't live in LA, it is available at other Ralph's stores in California too.

Don't live in California but want to get your Graeter's fix? Check out their seachable site here. If your town has a market owned by Kroger, you are in luck! If you live in Delaware, DC, Hawaii, Maine, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, or Vermont luck is not currently on your side. I would suggest begging your local stores to start carrying it or have it shipped directly from Graeter's.

If you have not tried Graeter's I say there is no time like the present. People are fanatics about this ice cream and there is a reason for it. I once helped plan a bar mitzvah and the family shipped about 20 pints in from Ohio. When the product was not delivered correctly and the ice cream was somewhat melty, Graeter's shipped an entirely new order free of charge. I heart good customer service.

Wondering which flavor to try first? I suggest one of the Signature Chip Flavors. Black Raspberry Chip is a little bit of heaven and like no other ice cream out there. That is my personal go to but having had the opportunity to sample a variety of flavors I can promise that there is not a bad apple in the bunch. They even offer sorbet for those that prefer a dairy free option.

Once you try it, let me know what your favorite flavors!

And the Oscar for Best Oscar Party Goes To...

Me! Of course you shouldn't be surprised since I am the one handing out the award. So as you probably guessed, this is the recap of my annual Oscar party - 9th annual to be exact. Unfortunately there are not a lot of photos as we were all too busy eating and drinking to be bothered with picture taking!

Invitations

As per usual, I used Evite for my invitations for ease of use, friendliness to the environment, and cost. I like the survey tool and that invitees can post on the "wall" of the invite. This event was a potluck so it allowed guests to see what others were bringing to the event. The other site I recommend is Paperless Post however this is not a free site and does not feature the same survey tools as Evite. If those aspects are not an issue for you and the look of a more traditional invitation is preferred, this site is for you.

Cuisine

As I mentioned, this event is almost always a potluck with everyone bringing an appetizer and bottle of bubbly to share. This year we had a lovely array of tasty treats to enjoy! Some of the items included hot wings, gourmet cheese plate, spinach & artichoke dip, hummus, veggies, baked havarti, arancini (Italian rice balls), and several miniature sweets. One of the most memorable items were the special Oscar themed cookies Audra brought to share. There were cookies for each Best Picture nominee as well as an Oscar. If you want to purchase similar cookies cutters, the slate can be found at CopperGifts.com and the statue at CheapCookieCutters.com (Note: There used to be better statue cutters out there but the Academy forced the sites to take them down. If you're crafty, you can always make your own pattern from an image online.)

Beyond all of the great food provided by my guests, I offered a Individual Mini Pizza station and a Shot Glass Ice Cream Sundae bar.

Individual Mini Pizzas

This recipe is modified from the Personal Pizzas recipe in the Better Homes and Gardens New Junior Cookbook (1979 Edition). I will list the recipe as written and note my changes in parenthesis.

Shortening (Did not use)

All-Purpose Flour

1 Package Refrigerated Biscuits - Qty 10

1 8 Oz Can/Jar Pizza Sauce (Also offered pesto)

1 4 Oz Package Shredded Mozzarella Cheese - 1 Cup (Offered Quattro Formaggi & Fat Free Feta in lieu of mozzarella)

Suggested toppings: Sliced Pepperoni, Sliced Hot Dogs, Chopped Green Pepper, Pickle Relish, & Sliced Olives (Offered Corn Salsa, Turkey Bacon, Cilantro, Sweet Balsamic Onions, Chives, & Pepperoncicis as toppings however you can use whatever you have on hand and think your guests would enjoy.)

1. Pre-heat oven to 425. Grease 1 or 2 baking sheets with shortening. (Used foil and no grease on baking sheet.)

2. Sprinkle cutting board with flour. Pull biscuits apart. Put 1 biscuit on the floured board. Use rolling pin to roll out biscuit till it is a circle 4 inches across. Put on baking sheet. Repeat with the remainder of the biscuits.(In order to make smaller pizzas, each biscuit was cut in half and rolled out to approximately 2 inch circles. Be sure to roll the biscuits as thin as possible as they tend to puff up while baking.)

IMPORTANT NOTE: From here on is the recipe as written in case you wish to follow it exactly. Rather than pre-top the pizzas, I par-baked them and allowed my guests to top them and finish the baking process in a toaster oven during the event. One issue that I had was that they didn't remain as flat as I would have liked. When making them per the instructions, that was never an issue due to the toppings weighing them down. An alternative you may wish to try is to use a Pie Weight Chain during the par-baking. The pizza "crusts" were par-baked for approximately 5-7 minutes. After guests created their own pizza masterpieces, they were baked in the toaster oven for another approximately 8 minutes.

3. Spoon about 1 1/2 tablespoons of the pizza sauce onto each biscuit. Spread evenly over the biscuits. Sprinkle each with about 1 1/2 tablespoons of cheese.

4. Let each person put favorite toppings on 1 or 2 pizzas.

5. Put pizzas in oven and bake until the crust is brown. This will take 10 to 15 minutes.

6. To serve, use a pancake turner (does anyone still call it that?) to put hot pizzas on plates.

Makes 10 (or 20) pizzas.

Shot Glass Ice Cream Sundae Bar

Your Favorite Ice Cream(s) (I used Dreyers Slow Churned No Sugar Added Vanilla.)

Your Favorite Toppings (I used Hershey's Chocolate Syrup Lite, Hershey's Classic Caramel Sundae Syrup, Fat Free Reddi Wip, Lingonberry Jam, Kahlua, and Chopped Peanuts.

1. Using a melon baller, scoop ice cream into shot glass.

2. Add toppings.

3. Repeat to try different flavor combos!

Libations

The Oscars are not complete without lots of bubbly! Thankfully with everyone bringing at least one bottle, we had plenty for everyone to enjoy. Unfortunately none of us are bringing in the big bucks so it was all Cristal and Dom. We enjoyed a variety of international sparkling wines with a few options to dress up your bubbles if desired. Choices included frozen berries, lingonberry drink concentrate and elderflower drink concentrate. The lingonberry and elderflower drink concentrates were both purchased from IKEA though the lingonberry can also be found through Amazon. The elderflower is a bit more difficult however St. Germain elderflower liquor is an excellent though more expensive substitute. When using the concentrates, I recommend cutting them on a 1-1 ratio with water. The pure concentrates do not seem to mix as well with champagne.

Costumes

This was not a costume party exactly but it was a pajama party. The Oscars are such a long show that enjoying it in comfy clothes just makes the night more enjoyable. Plus it is a nice foil to how the stars are dressing at the actual Oscars.

Decor

My apartment is small so I don't decorate for this party. If you are hosting your own Oscar party in future years, there are many sites with decor ideas. Or let me know what type of Oscar party you are throwing and I can give you some suggestions.

Games

What's an Oscar party without an Oscar pool? We stopped putting money on it and now it's just for bragging rights. We also played the third annual Thrillist Oscar Bingo. While this year's bingo cards were not as "accurate" as previous years, it was still a fun way to pass the time between boring speeches.

You know it was a good party when there is Kahula running down the front of your liquor cabinet and everyone is moaning about how much they ate. With next year being the 10th annual event, I am going to have to raise my game!

PS - What do you think of the new background for the site? I'm trying a new look out and would love your feedback!