I Am Burger Expert! December 9th Webcast to showcase The 5th Annual Red Robin Kids’ Cook-Off Championship

I am preparing my palette and elastic waist band pants for The 5th Annual Red Robin Kids’ Cook-Off Championship tomorrow, Thursday, December 9th. I’ll be joining other Red Robin judges and Colorado-based culinary experts on the judging panel for this year’s contest.  Yes, I, The Bantering Blonde, am a culinary expert of epic proportions… well, an expert in Burger consumption anyway!

10 kid chefs from across the country will compete in the fifth annual Red Robin Kids’ Cook-Off in hopes of having their burger creation named the next grand-prize winner. As part of the competition, all 10 kids will make their burgers for a panel of VIP judges and culinary experts. The winning gourmet burger will be sold in Red Robin® restaurants in summer 2011 to benefit the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children® (NCMEC) and featured in a free cookbook available online at www.redrobin.com.

To support the young chefs, Red Robin is featuring the 10 finalists on its website, www.redrobinkidscookoff.com, for fans to view, share with others and vote for their favorite kid-invented gourmet burger.  The kid chef with the most online votes will be named “Fan Favorite” at the Championship event.

By tuning in, you’ll have the opportunity to watch these 10 kid chefs prepare their gourmet burgers in an exciting ‘Iron Chef’-like competition, and see the grand-prize winner and Fan Favorite announced live!

About Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, Inc. (NASDAQ: RRGB)

Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, Inc. (www.redrobin.com), a casual dining restaurant chain founded in 1969 that operates through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Red Robin International, Inc., has been serving up wholesome, fun dining experiences in a family-friendly environment for more than 40 years.  Red Robin, the “Smiling Burger®” expert, is famous for serving more than two dozen high-quality, Honest to Goodness® gourmet burgers in a variety of recipes with Bottomless Steak Fries®, as well as salads, soups, appetizers, entrees and signature Bottomless Beverages™.  There are more than 430 Red Robin® restaurants located across the United States and Canada, including corporate-owned locations and those operating under franchise agreements. Red Robin… YUMMM™!

Minimum Requirements to listen to broadcast:

The Windows Media Player software, downloadable free from http://www.microsoft.com and at least a 56Kbps connection to the Internet.

If you experience problems listening to the webcast, send an E-mail to: webcast@multivu.com.

I Am Burger Expert! December 9th Webcast to showcase The 5th Annual Red Robin Kids’ Cook-Off Championship

I am preparing my palette and elastic waist band pants for The 5th Annual Red Robin Kids’ Cook-Off Championship tomorrow, Thursday, December 9th. I’ll be joining other Red Robin judges and Colorado-based culinary experts on the judging panel for this year’s contest.  Yes, I, The Bantering Blonde, am a culinary expert of epic proportions… well, an expert in Burger consumption anyway!

10 kid chefs from across the country will compete in the fifth annual Red Robin Kids’ Cook-Off in hopes of having their burger creation named the next grand-prize winner. As part of the competition, all 10 kids will make their burgers for a panel of VIP judges and culinary experts. The winning gourmet burger will be sold in Red Robin® restaurants in summer 2011 to benefit the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children® (NCMEC) and featured in a free cookbook available online at www.redrobin.com.

To support the young chefs, Red Robin is featuring the 10 finalists on its website, www.redrobinkidscookoff.com, for fans to view, share with others and vote for their favorite kid-invented gourmet burger.  The kid chef with the most online votes will be named “Fan Favorite” at the Championship event.

By tuning in, you’ll have the opportunity to watch these 10 kid chefs prepare their gourmet burgers in an exciting ‘Iron Chef’-like competition, and see the grand-prize winner and Fan Favorite announced live!

About Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, Inc. (NASDAQ: RRGB)

Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, Inc. (www.redrobin.com), a casual dining restaurant chain founded in 1969 that operates through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Red Robin International, Inc., has been serving up wholesome, fun dining experiences in a family-friendly environment for more than 40 years.  Red Robin, the “Smiling Burger®” expert, is famous for serving more than two dozen high-quality, Honest to Goodness® gourmet burgers in a variety of recipes with Bottomless Steak Fries®, as well as salads, soups, appetizers, entrees and signature Bottomless Beverages™.  There are more than 430 Red Robin® restaurants located across the United States and Canada, including corporate-owned locations and those operating under franchise agreements. Red Robin… YUMMM™!

Minimum Requirements to listen to broadcast:

The Windows Media Player software, downloadable free from http://www.microsoft.com and at least a 56Kbps connection to the Internet.

If you experience problems listening to the webcast, send an E-mail to: webcast@multivu.com.

Town Hall Children’s Theater Seussical Jr. Delivers Kid-tastic Performance

It was a lovely night on Main Street in Littleton, Colorado tonight – the tree lined streets have been transformed into a twinkly holiday wonderland!

We attended the Children’s Theatre performance of Seussical Jr. at the Town Hall Arts Center. This fun 60 minute production showcases the talents of several local children, teens and adults.  It’s the perfect length program for kids and the fast pace of events on stage kept my kids engaged and smiling throughout the whole performance.

Dr. Seuss fans will love following the adventures of Horton the Elephant as he searches for the lost “Who Clover” and protects/incubates an abandoned egg. Cast member Jona Alonza delivers the most animated and endearing performance of the evening in her role as the very silly, one-feather-tailed bird, Gertrude McFuzz.

The journey from the “Jungle of Nool” to “McEligott’s Pool” highlights Dr. Seuss character favorites such as The Cat in the Hat, Yertl the Turtle, and the imaginative boy Jojo. The colorful set and creatively adapted costume design was everything you would expect from a Seuss inspired production. This was a fun and kid-tastic outing that had us singing and quoting Dr. Seuss silliness all the way home. YOPP!

Thank you to the Town Hall Arts Center for inviting our family to review this performance, we truly enjoyed it!

Remaining Performances:

December 13, 20 & 21 – 7:00 p.m.

December 20, 21, & 22 – 10:00 a.m.

Location: Town Hall Arts Center, 2450 West Main Street, Littleton, CO 80120.

Cost: Adult: $15.00; Child: $10.00

Mom It Forward ~ Living A Life Unplugged

Several weeks ago I was contacted by a writer for Mom it Forward and asked if I would be willing to interview for the segment,  Moms Making A Difference.  I wasn’t sure what qualified me to be lumped into the same category as the many admirable women who’d been featured prior to me, but I was flattered and agreed to the interview.

On the day of my interview, I had a huge smile on my face as I realized the direction the interview was going to move in. I didn’t blog very much last summer because I was too busy living unplugged. We had such an amazing summer traveling, hiking, biking, and being outside together. We don’t even have cable television anymore. Thanks to Mom it Forward, I now have pretty darn good documentation of what the best summer of my entire life was like!

Click here to read my story, The Bantering Blonde Unplugs

Black Friday Brings Out Crazy Folk While Santa Sits Alone

Seriously? You’ve camped out since Wednesday, missed getting fat on turkey and pecan pie, for what?

Part of me wants to laugh at the news I’m reading, the other part just wants to cry.

You could not PAY me to shop at a Wal-Mart or a Target on Black Friday. These people have lost all sense of reality. Camping out, waiting in line, threatening to SHOOT someone?

“Everybody was cutting in line. But there was one girl who was threatening me, so I told her that I’d shoot her,” Lanessa L. Lattimore told CNN. “I’m not a violent person, but police charged me with disorderly conduct.”

Guess what I did on Black Friday? I took my kids to see Santa at The Cherry Creek Shopping Center. Guess how long the line was?

Just LOOK at how long the line was?

So, my kids not only got to give their wish lists to Santa and have their mom take a free, highly discouraged, picture of them on his lap…

We did it without being shot or trampled.

Awesome!

Chowin’ Down With @GlutenFreeGirl, Shauna James Ahern, at Udi’s Gluten Free Foods In Stapleton, CO

Did you know that “The Mile High City” is leading the frontier in gluten free product innovations and start ups with five gluten free companies headquartered in the region? I didn’t until today!

I was invited by one the most popular of these companies, Udi’s Gluten Free Foods, to sample some of their yummy scrummy gluten-free recipes and to meet nationally known author Shauna James Ahern. You may know her as @glutenfreegirl, author of the memoir Gluten-Free Girl, based on her popular blog, GlutenFreeGirl.com.  Shauna was kind enough to take a few moments to talk to me on video and share a bit of her journey after being diagnosed with Celiac in 2005.  She also spoke about Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef, a new narrative cookbook co-written with her husband, and Colorado native, Danny (aka “the Chef”).

Shauna is just as full of life in person as she is on her blog, so be sure to keep an eye on MomActive.com for the video, excerpts from the cooking demonstration, and more pictures of the amazing gluten free foods prepared by the chefs at Udi’s Gluten Free Foods in Stapleton.

MomActive will be covering the gluten free lifestyle, including an in depth look at Celiac Disease throughout the rest of November. If you’d like to share your story via guest post or appear on the MomActive MomTV webcast please email me direct at fiona.bryan @ MomActive.com. We would LOVE to hear from you!

General Motors 2011 Chevy Volt Electrifies

~Me and Volt~

Why yes, that was moi you saw behind the wheel of the new Chevy Volt this morning. And yes, that was my big geeky grin that blinded you as we drove by!

I actually drove the Volt. I can’t believe I’m typing it, but I drove the Chevy Volt this morning! I drove it down Colorado Boulevard, through my neighborhood, and on I-70!

I was tooling around on twitter last night and my bud Christopher Barger dm’d me on twitter. If you don’t follow @cbarger you are missing out; this guy is real peeps that “gets it”, and you know how I love my folk that keep it real!

Here’s what he wrote:

Hi there! Late notice, but are you doing anything tomorrow morning? Might have head of GM mktg in Denver tmrw AM, if so he should meet you.

Well, of course he should me! Right? If you are driving through Denver in a Chevy #Volt2LA you should meet me! Especially if you are the head of marketing for one of the worlds largest automobile manufacturers… just sayin’. I was flattered and really excited, not just to see Volt again, but to meet with the people making it happen. When you look at what automobile manufacturers have weathered in the current economy, you can’t help but cheer for the people moving things forward at a company like GM. So, the geeky marketing stalker in me got a kick out of the whole thang.

You might remember how excited I was this summer after riding in the back seat of the Chevy Volt at an event GM hosted at Blue Hill at Stone Farms in Pocantico Hills, NY. The Volt crew was an impressive team and they were really excited about their product. My whole view of GM flipped big time that day… but I digress…

The #Volt2la Guys

Have I mentioned how much I love the GM marketing/pr people? I love their energy, I love how much they believe in what they are doing. Forget that their newest product has world changing implications, these people are fun! My new friend Joel let me drive his personal Volt and, apart from an unfortunate parking incident that may have included a run in with the curb and a near miss with a lovely light pole, the Marriott is still standing. And yes, his car is still in tact!

The Volt is an incredibly nice ride. Obviously an electric engine runs much quieter and more smooth than a traditional gas engine but I didn’t expect to get a “luxury” feel while driving it. Back in the day, before 3 kidlets sucked my wallet dry and I didn’t need a car to haul a soccer team around, I owned a Lexus RX300. It was a smooth ride and had that “luxury” feel; driving that car was dreamy. Calm and dreamy – of course, the fact that I didn’t have three kids chucking half eaten Chipotle burritos across the car probably had something to do with that.

The Volt even has that calm and dreamy feel on the highway. It doesn’t rev and strain before acceleration, it just goes. There are three different drive modes: normal (which is the most energy efficient), sport, and mountain. The Volt guys were heading up “the hill” into the mountains today so we had it in mountain mode, but even then I perceived the acceleration to be very smooth and quiet. The Volt doesn’t need that revving sound to prove it is man enough to handle the road, it just does it.

Joel explaining center stack touch screen

I’ve been following renewable energy and vehicle electrification for years. Electric vehicles have been around for a long time but GM is the first to deliver a palatable solution to the general public. Some might say that Nissan’s LEAF really got there first with a 100% electric vehicle, but it only travels 100 miles on a charge and has that “look at me I’m driving the quirky looking car because I’m green” look. The Volt is unassuming and looks just like any other car on the road today, except that it happens to run on electricity. Technically the Volt is a Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) or as GM calls it, an “extended range electric vehicle”.  You’ll be able to drive 40 emission-free miles before a small gasoline engine kicks in to power a generator that delivers electricity to the car’s motor. So, not only does the Volt have a nice cushy feel and look good, it will go 340 miles on a charge.

In my opinion, some of us tend to trip over ourselves to be as “green” as possible and in the process we miss opportunities to just be better.  I think it is great that “Eco Joe” wants to live in an underground solar paneled home made of recycled Pop-Tarts, but it isn’t practical, nor is it necessary for our society to live that way. Today’s Volt is a step in the right direction and I have no doubt that this is only the beginning.

Denver Voters ~ Important ET Welcome Wagon Initiative 300

*In all fairness, I feel that I must disclose that I am drunk on the 900 chocolate confection treats I have imbibed on this Halloween night.

I’ve been looking over my Denver Mail-In Voter Ballot this evening….

Before you start chappin’ my ass over the fact that I’ll have to walk it in, let me tell you, I am no amateur. I am the Last Minute Sally of mail in votes. I know exactly where every drop off is and I also know where the “drive thru” drop offs are. I take my vote seriously. I take time to research my vote. I vote when I’m good and ready, and all studied up on whatever good fun our politicians have brewin’ for us.

These midterm elections are big time in Denver, in case you didn’t read my post the other day HERE.

My dilemma this evening falls into the … HUH? category.  Exactly, what does one consider when voting on the Welcome Wagon for ET? I mean, I am a lover of all life forms, and I am sensitive to any “cultural awareness” that ET would call for. I’m just sorta curious, though. Do we see a lot of ET around these parts?

The problem with an initiative like this is that I’m really having a hard time finding good data. There are no good studies to fall back on. No “Citizens for ET” or “Citizens Promoting Anti-ET Sentiment” coalitions to guide me here. WHERE is my PRO and CON for this? How can I be an informed voter without more information?

Apparently we’re missing all the government cover-ups, and this guy says that Initiative 300 will be good for Denver. Oh, and it won’t cost us any money. Well HELLS BELLS people!  It’s FREE, it might even be Buy One, Get One FREE if we vote it in and ET happens to be feelin’ welcomed! Especially if we have a protocol for handing their vehicles.

THE last thing I want is to be culturally unaware when ET arrives.

I’m a proud Denver resident, and I’m probably voting YES on Initiative 300.

Election Day Looms ~ Gubernatorial Goobers in CA and CO Getting Restless

I think politics brings out the worst in people. I hate watching grown people behave like jackasses during election season.

For example, this headline caught my attention today:

Brown says he’ll pull attack ads if Whitman does; Whitman refuses

For realz?

Yes, Jerry Brown has said he’ll stop personal attacks, but only if Meg Whitman does. He won’t pull up his big boy pants unless Whitman pulls up hers.

Tit for tat. Quid pro quo.

So, what does good ole Meggie do? Meg sticks her tongue out and says, “Hell, no jackass!”

This is exemplary of why people hate politicians, and why most sane people would never run for office. It’s a joke and it’s embarrassing. And since when is the race for governor a game of chicken?

I’m watching similar sandbox wars go on in my own state. The Colorado gubernatorial race is extra saucy though because three major-party candidates are running to replace Governor Bill Ritter. Dan Maes is running on the republican ticket, current Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper stomps for the democrats, and Tom Tancredo is running on The American Constitution Party ticket.

Tancredo jumped on board late in the game, after calling for the republican primary candidates to drop out. Republicans were thought to be in position to take back the governor’s mansion but the roster of jokers were apparently dragging those chances down.  Maes won the nomination and refused to drop out. Enter Super Tancredo to save the day!

I just read that Tancredo and Maes met earlier this week. The Denver Post reports that the two sat on a park bench for an hour and a half. I wonder if anyone remembered to bring the bread. Especially if they met at Wash Park, ’cause the Canadian Geese are going to stop pooping all over the paths if we don’t make sure they are given food and a reason not to migrate south….

I imagine the conversation went a little like this:

Tancredo: Hey Dan, that goose looks hungry. Got any bread?

Maes: I really think it’s up to private business to feed their own geese.

Tancredo: Yeah, me too. I was just testing you.  Wait, this is a city park…

Maes: yeah whatever. So wassup?

Tancredo: Well, I was thinkin’ this whole governor race thing is fun and all, but aren’t you ready to give up yet? Our peeps are pissed and they say that Hickenlooper will win if we don’t do something. If you need a job I could probably hook you up with something. Maybe you want to be in charge of the Canadian Geese problem?

Maes: Nah. I mean, even if I drop out my posse will throw another body in the race.

Tancredo: Well, that’s cool. I’m game, let’s get another body in there.

Maes: Nah

Tancredo: Ok. What should we talk about now?

Maes: I don’t think it’s the government’s job to tell you what we should talk about.

Tancredo: uh. Yah, so – I gotta go. I have this thing….

Last month I attended the “Putting Kids First” gubernatorial forum, hosted by the Children’s Hospital, with its partners the Colorado Children’s Campaign, EPIC (Executives Partnering to Invest in Children), 9News (KUSA) and Mile High Mamas.  I found it very interesting but to say it was a snoozer is giving it too much life. (You can actually watch portions of it here) Hickenlooper came off very casual and nonchalant;  I’m not sure he even answered one of the questions posed to him. I could be wrong though, because the tangent train had my head spinning. Dan Maes not only answered the questions, he actually stayed afterward to talk to those of us attending a luncheon.  Tancredo dissed the forum all together for a fundraiser and Hick slipped out before anyone even got a chance to even see him.

I find myself completely turned off by the election process. The headlines are annoying and the people are smarmy.  I can’t wait until next Tuesday is over and the rug rolls up on this edition of Romper Room.