Role Mommy Recommends

Like Her, Like Me

Thanks to the folks at Got Milk, I'm going to be participating in a really wonderful campaign - sharing what makes me and my now teenage daughter so much alike. Today we share how we start our morning together - me with coffee, skim milk and a splenda and her with cereal, milk and a glass of orange juice. I can't believe how fast my daughter has grown and am so impressed with her every day. Take a look at how we bond over breakfast and then let us know how you connect with your own daughter.

This post was sponsored by Got Milk!

Posted in: Blog, Role Mommy Recommends, TV on 05/21/2012

Taste of Home Kicks Off Search to Find Mrs. Holiday

I don't know about you, but I am completed addicted to singing shows, dance contests, modeling competitions and food challenges but with the TV season ending soon, I have to say I'm going to be suffering from some serious overnight star withdrawal. Good thing I just found out about a new competition hosted by Taste of Home that even I can enter. I mean I do make a scrumptious Thanksgiving turkey and a mean matzoh ball soup!

The craftiest, most creative and culinary-savvy woman in America will get her due when Taste of Home crowns its first-ever Mrs. Holiday as the brand's holiday spokesperson. The entertaining brand will be going where no publishing company has gone before in this search for the best holiday cook in America--- and the winner, appearing as the magazine's spokesperson, will win $50,000.

Taste of Home's search for Mrs. Holiday isn't just another talent competition--it's a new kind of pageant that showcases the women who make the holidays spectacular for all of us.

Recognizing the enormity of the holidays to peoples' personal lives and the U.S. economy, Taste of Home has begun a nationwide search on Facebook.com/TasteofHome to identify candidates for the position of Mrs. Holiday, a spokesperson role at the company, which includes a $50,000 payment. "Mrs. Holiday will be a new type of pageant queen," said Taste of Home editor-in-chief Catherine Cassidy. "She's an advocate, an ambassador and an inspiration who cooks for her family to bring everyone around the table at the holidays. She's got memorable recipes combined with a celebration attitude."

To audition for the role of Mrs. Holiday, women age 18 or older must visit Facebook.com/TasteofHome to enter a virtual pageant. There they can submit a video entry of no more than two minutes to show/tell us how they bring the holidays to life and convince us why they should be Taste of Home's Mrs. Holiday. They also should submit a signature holiday recipe in 200 words or less. The full entry rules and instructions are provided at Facebook.com/TasteofHome. All entries will receive a free chocolate chip cookie recipe as a thank you for auditioning.

Posted in: Role Mommy Recommends on 05/17/2012

Don't miss your chance to win up to $2500 in prizes!!!

Adpropo is a new social and entertainment site that allows consumers to have fun, receive value, and collaborate with brands - when and where they expect it. Adpropo asked consumers how YOU feel about ads, something that doesn't show up very much in all the research around online ads!

Adpropo is in its beta phase, testing out some different ways to provide fun & games with brands. There are four main elements of the site:

PLAY: Live online Treasure Hunts for cash and prizes, games, contests and more.

SHARE: Idea Labs encourage consumer interaction and collaboration with brands. A Message Center allows consumers to sign up for the brands that matter to them and then receive info within a designated on-site Inbox.

WIN: Incentives include virtual points, cash prizes, gift cards, and support of great charities based on participation. As the site expands, so will the prize and support opportunities.

CHANGE: adpropo is all about changing how consumers learn about brands (to a better way for the consumer). Plus, by tying cause support to activity, adpropo would like to change the world!

How can you check it out?

Check out the list of Treasure Hunts by clicking on that tab - those are the most interactive and have the biggest prize opportunities! Sign up early for any that you can make - they all happen LIVE and online, and registration closes at Go time.

Go onto the detail page and click the red Register button (you have to be logged in to the site)

Read the information provided

Show up a couple minutes early to make sure your clock isn't different than the site clock - and to review details and make sure you are set to go.

The next Treasure Hunt is scheduled for:
May 16th at 9 PM ET for $2,500 in giveaways (THIS Wednesday)
(Keep your Facebook page open to adpropo because some trash talk / updates might just break out during the events!)

Go to the Games section and try out the picture puzzles and trivia challenges. The Idea Lab is the place for sharing ideas and feedback - the site is brand new, so help get some conversations flowing.

Good luck and have fun!

Posted in: Role Mommy Recommends on 05/15/2012

10 Unforgettable Moments

And in a flash, it was over. After a year of planning, stressing, kvetching and kvelling, the day my family had been looking forward to is officially behind us. My daughter's Bat Mitzvah was truly one of the most amazing memories in my life. My friend whispered to me at our reception that this would be one of the 10 best moments ever and you know what? She was totally right. I remember lots of memories from my life so far and here's just a few...something tells me I'm going to have a lot more than 10 moments to share.

1. 1984-1986 - High school performances with my lifelong friends who got to celebrate with me at Becca's Bat Mitzvah as we laughed and reminisced by the chocolate fountain I never did get to try.

2. September 11, 1992 - The first moment I met my husband - I had just moved into Manhattan and I had been set up on a blind date with him. He rang the bell, I opened the door and there he was. This super cute guy who was funny, smart and was really into me. The rest as they say is history.

3. December 24, 1995 - The night we got engaged - my husband pretended to get us pulled over by a cop. He made me get out of the car, he opened the trunk and there were dozens of roses and a box with a diamond ring. If you're wondering what happened next, I said yes and we raced to both our parents houses to share the great news.

4. August 18, 1996. Our wedding day - truly a fairytale experience. I remember the rabbi re-telling the story of how we met and saying how we were fated to be together (the yiddish saying is Ber-shert). Best reception ever at Temple Israel in Lawrence. We never did get invited to another affair there and I was totally bummed because I always wanted to taste their food.

5. Our Honeymoon in Italy - I never will forget the two weeks we shared traveling from Venice to Florence to Rome to Positano. Sure it was stressful - like the time I left my father in law's video camera on a water taxi in Venice, or the morning I made my husband drag our suitcases through the train when they announced a track change in Italian, but overall, it was also filled with romance, laughter, great wine and some of the best dishes and desserts we had ever sampled in our lives.

6. July 1998 - Moving into our first house in New Rochelle. We thought it would be a "starter" house but instead, it has become the one place our kids will fondly remember as their childhood home.

7. April 4, 1999 - Giving birth to Rebecca Drew - it took over 36 hours but it was well worth the wait. A beautiful baby girl who continues to amaze us year after year.

8. May 13, 2002 - The birth of our beautiful son, Dylan - who arrived three weeks early while I was coordinating the finales of CSI, The Amazing Race and The King of Queens.

9. November 2010 - My husband and I celebrating our 40th birthday with close friends and family at Mickey Spillane's in Eastchester.

10. May 12, 2012 - Rebecca's Bat Mitzvah - she chanted like pro, amazed us all and looked so beautiful. Plus the day couldn't have been more picture perfect - 77 degrees, sunny with an absolutely gorgeous setting at the Surf Club. I am so proud of everything our daughter has accomplished so far and can't wait to see what life holds in store for her.

So there you have it - 10 moments I will never forget. Much more to come. Good thing I don't get my son's Bar Mitzvah date until next year!

Posted in: Blog, Role Mommy Recommends on 05/14/2012

Tweet Why Your Mom Deserves Verizon's "Perfect Day" Prize

Enter your mom to win verizons perfect-day-giveaway!

Verizon Wireless wanted to do something special for moms for Mother's Day. So instead of giving away what they thought moms want, they actually asked moms for their input. And the one thing most moms would love is a day off, with maybe a manicure and a nice dinner out.

Verizon listened and came up with a huge giveaway you can nominate your own mom for!

The Perfect Day Giveaway Sweepstakes Grand Prize Package includes: a manicure, pedicure, massage, facial, laundress, house cleaning, and dinner/restaurant voucher or gift card for $350 (approximate retail value: $1,350).

Does your mom deserve a special day of pampering? I know my mom does.

The Contest begins on May 10 at 12:00 a.m. ET and ends on May 11, 2012 at 11:59 p.m. ET.

How to Enter Verizon's Perfect Day Sweepstake:

Follow @VerizonWireless on Twitter. Then simply tweet out a message that makes a positive statement about your mom for Mother's Day in the following format:

My mom is the most incredible woman I aspire to be. #PerfectDay @VerizonWireless

Your entry must include both #PerfectDay and @VerizonWireless to be entered in the contest. You can enter 5 times per day during the contest (max 10 times).

The grand prize will go to the best tweet of why your Mom deserves the #perfectday. So tweet away to enter your mom for this amazing giveaway!

{Prizes: ONE (1) GRAND PRIZE: Perfect Day Giveaway Sweepstakes Grand Prize Package. Prize package includes: manicure, pedicure, massage, facial, laundress, house cleaning, dinner/restaurant voucher or gift card for $350 (terms and conditions of voucher or gift card apply) (selected by sponsor in its sole discretion). Approximate Retail Value ("ARV"): $1,350. Official Rules. This is a sponsored post.}

Posted in: Blog, Role Mommy Recommends on 05/10/2012

Project You Mother's Day Edition Has Arrived!

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's Super Mom. Okay, not exactly! Thanks to Katie Schlientz, Jeanne Muchnick, Danielle Feigenbaum and several incredibly gifted writers, we're thrilled to share our latest edition of Project You Magazine.

From a celebrity interview with "Five Year Engagement" stars Emily Blunt and Allison Brie to must have gifts and book picks and graduation party ideas from the gals at PartyBluPrints, we've got something for everyone in this issue. Take a look...

Open publication - Free publishing - More beth feldman

Posted in: Blog, Role Mommy Recommends on 05/09/2012

Inside Out Beauty with Dr. Aaron Tabor

So there he is, Dr. Aaron Tabor, the creator of the Inside Out Beauty Program. He looks pretty good, right? That helps, because you don't want the inventor of your anti-wrinkle cream to look like a Shar-pei dog. Can I get a Holla on that?

Dr. Aaron Tabor in his own (or his publicist's) words: A graduate of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Dr. Tabor has devoted his career to researching and developing scientific and medically-based anti-aging solutions. His ground-breaking natural skin care therapies and weight control products help women achieve total health, wellness and beauty from the inside out.

Very promising and well-worded, but it doesn't really give you a feel for this man's passion and depth of knowledge (did you know that there are 1200 chemicals banned for use in cosmetics in Europe as opposed to our 10? How scary is that?) Sitting with Dr. Tabor and discussing the dilemmas/delights of the aging process gives you a sense that a man has finally figured out what women go through. Remarkable. Perhaps it's because, as Dr. Tabor says, he went into his line of work to "help my mother manage midlife." A man who loves his mother and knows how to use kiwi seed extract to combat undereye circles? Love.

Dr. Tabor's approach is "inside out beauty"; a 50/50 split between internal supplements and external creams and serums. I loved this immediately, because, my passion for Twizzler Pull'n'Peels aside, I'm all about healthy food and the notion that what goes inside shows up on the outside.

So I've been a test tube monkey, faithfully taking my supplements and slathering my creams for a week and a half now, and the sixty-four thousand dollar question (an idiom, not the price of Dr. Tabor's products) is: do they work? Well, as with anything, time will tell. But I will say that I've seen a difference in my skin. For real. Am I imagining it because I want so much for it to work? I don't think so. Within a week, I saw change, small, but still promising. So I'll check back in when I've used the products for a month and let you know.

If you want to check out Dr. Tabor's goodies, go here, the newly re-launched site Healthy Directions. A leading health publisher and provider of proprietary, doctor-formulated nutritional supplements, skincare and weight-loss products, the site has has redesigned to provide consumers with targeted, doctor-guided information on common health conditions.

Disclosure: I was given Dr. Tabor's products to test. I was not compensated for this article. All opinions are my own. Including the opinion that a man who loves his mother and wants to help her age well is a good egg.

Shari Cabelin is the founder of Dusty Earth Mother and New Jersey editor for Mommy Poppins.

Posted in: Blog, Role Mommy Recommends on 05/08/2012

Must See Movie: The Five Year Engagement!

There's nothing better than watching a romantic comedy that literally makes you laugh until you cry. And this spring, the film that will leave you in stitches is "The Five Year Engagement." Jason Segel and Emily Blunt star as Tom and Violet, a newly engaged couple who leave their seemingly perfect life in San Francisco behind when Violet convinces Tom to give up his job as a sous chef so she can pursue a fellowship at the University of Michigan. When he's forced to take a job at a trendy sandwich shop (there aren't any chef jobs up for grabs in Michigan), Tom's life begins to unravel as the pair continually get tripped up on the long walk down the aisle. For anyone who lives for inappropriate comedy - guilty as charged - then "The Five Year Engagement" is definitely the must see wedding film of the season. The film opens in theaters nationwide on Friday, April 27.

Take a look...

I recently got the chance to meet two of the stars of the film, Emily Blunt and Alison Brie and they confided how they managed to keep it together despite the fact their co-stars oftentimes had them in hysterics.

From a cringeworthy scene where Violet gets shot in the leg with a crossbow, to several improv moments featuring Jason Segel and Chris Pratt that had them rolling on the floor, it's hard to believe Emily and Alison held it together. So how did the they keep a straight face while filming alongside two of the funniest young actors on the planet?
Emily Blunt: We didn't. Alison's a pro. She works on "Community" and she's surrounded by funny people all the time but I have no self control. But Alison out of the whole cast was the best at not breaking and I was by far the worst.

Alison Brie: But when I break it's the worst because I start crying immediately and Emily would look over at me and would say "stop crying, you're always crying."

Guess which scene caused Alison and Emily to completely lose it...

At the beginning of the film, Suzie is a hopeless screw up who gets knocked up after a one night stand with Tom's cheesy best friend (played by the hilarious Chris Pratt), while Violet seems to have the perfect life after Tom proposes to her on a rooftop and the pair have a picture perfect engagement party. But before you know it, Suzie and Violet's roles switch completely. Here's their take on both their characters:
Alison: The entire character changes during the course of the film. Suzie is a disaster but as her life progresses, she becomes more responsible by circumstance.

Emily: Tom and Violet keep getting it wrong and life keeps getting in the way of making things perfect. It's interesting how the dynamic shifts between them.

While Tom's life falls apart after he moves to Michigan and loses himself in tacky sweaters and deer hunting, Violet has finally found a career she loves which inevitably drives a wedge in their relationship. When asked what she thinks can keep a couple together, Emily shared this candid response:
Emily: Life is complicated and it's shape shifting all the time and you have to be able to roll with the punches. Something that I found hard to learn as a British person was communication. It's a word that we all are terrified of in England. I think if you're in a relationship, you have to talk to each other and you have to be forever generous and I think the best relationships that I've seen of my friends and hopefully that I'm in is that you don't clip each other's wings. You have to really empower the other one to be everything they can be.

If you're looking for something fun to do this weekend, then I have the solution - take your partner or your best girlfriends to see "The Five Year Engagement" - it's from the producers of "Bridesmaids" and trust me when I tell you it's the funniest comedy of the season! To find out more about the film visit the official Five Year Engagement website and visit Tom and Violet's hilarious wedding blog.

Posted in: Role Mommy Movies, Role Mommy Recommends, TV on 04/25/2012

Women Who Inspire Me

Thanks to Mary Lou Quinlan, author of the soon to be best seller, "The God Box," (you heard it here first folks!) I had the opportunity to attend the Matrix Awards in New York City. If you've never heard of the Matrix Awards, it is one of the most inspiring awards ceremonies a woman can ever attend in her life. The room is filled with hard working individuals who have not only broken through the glass ceiling but managed to do what they love while raising families, combatting stereotypes and forging ahead while being leaders, visionaries and team players who have earned the utmost respect and admiration from their peers and colleagues.

The Matrix Awards is a ceremony for women who pursue careers in communications - from journalists, to publicists, to broadcasters and actresses, it's the Emmy's mixed with the Pulitzers - it's glamourous and smart - just the way I like it!

What I absolutely love most about this luncheon are the incredible speeches that are given by both the presenters and the attendees. Some of the esteemed presenters included Barbara Walters, Lesley Stahl, Meredith Vieira, Katie Couric and Rocco Dispirito. To me, the most impressive presenter was not a celebrity but Deputy Chief Theresa J. Shortell - one of two Deputy Chiefs in the entire New York police department who introduced Matrix winner Glenn Close. There wasn't star power in the room yesterday but women power. Women who were capable of taking over the world!

Just take a look at some of these inspirational quotes that I captured from the day:

What was so amazing for me was listening to Matrix Award winner Peggy Noonan. Noonan is one of the most prolific speechwriters of our time - crafting some of President Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush's most memorable phrases in history. Watching Peggy Noonan on that stage took me back to the speechwriting class I had taken in college and the required reading was Noonan's book, What I Saw At the Revolution - which I read in 1990. From that moment on, I knew I wanted to write, pursue a masters degree in journalism and become a storyteller. Every career experience I have had in my life has made me what I am today. I'm still growing and have a lot more things I'd like to accomplish but seeing all those women gathered together yesterday made me realize that when we work together, we can achieve the unthinkable.

Some more incredible quotes from the day:

Have you ever been inspired by another woman? What piece of advice did she share that you truly took to heart.

Posted in: Blog, Role Mommy Recommends on 04/24/2012

National Food Blogger Bake Sale!

Bloggers without Borders is working in partnership with Share Our Strength's Great American Bake Sale & Gaby Dalkin on this year's National Food Blogger Bake Sale, taking place on Saturday April 28th! With nearly 1 in 5 kids in America struggling with hunger, it has never been more important to increase access to feeding programs that can help kids connect with the food they need to thrive. Last year they raised $25,000 through 26 bake sales. This year, they have set a challenge: to raise $50,000! Let's help them out!

With just $1 connecting a child to 10 meals, you can help Share Our Strength ensure that the more than 16 million kids facing hunger today never go hungry again.

Here's a list of bake sales that are already taking place. If you're interested in participating in a bake sale, please reach out to the host. If there isn't a bake sale taking place in your area, maybe you'd like to host one!

The first step in hosting a bake sale is registering at www.GreatAmericanBakeSale.org/signup. Registering will get you access to online fundraising tools and they'll send you a poster and informational booklet. Additional tools and resources can be found in The Bake Sale Resources Center. They've got top 10 tips for your bake sale, flyers, stickers, pricing tips and much more!

Once you've done that, e-mail Gaby Dalkin (whatsgabycooking@gmail.com) & Sarah Peppel (sarah @ peppel .com - on behalf of Share Our Strength) with the following information:

Name
City/State
Blog
Preferred Email address

FAQs
General questions about Great American Bake Sale can be answered through our FAQs.

Posted in: Blog, Great Causes, Role Mommy Recommends on 04/11/2012