Have Your Inner Chef Pampered

Julie Baker, a local Pampered Chef consultant, gave Laura's guests insight into her favorite PC products - and how they make a busy mom's life easier.

by Laura Weisskopf Bleill

I have never been a big entertainer, but after having two small children, birthday parties have become the extent of our entertaining reportoire.

So when the opportunity fell in my lap to have a Pampered Chef party, I thought, what do I have to lose? It would be a fantastic, easy, fun way to bring my friends under the same roof. And how great is a party when you a) don’t have to prepare the food or b) provide the entertainment? And — as an added bonus — you can SHOP!

So on one of the coldest, snowiest nights of the year, I gathered friends from different walks of my life (mostly other Chambana moms, with a dad in the mix) and we settled down to watch local Pampered Chef consultant Julie Baker show us how to make a cake in the microwave. YES, I said in the microwave.

For those of you who don’t know, Pampered Chef has a very real Chambana connection. Pampered Chef founder Doris Kelley Christopher graduated from the University of Illinois and her name is on a building there. Ironically, one of my guests works in that building.

A mom of two from Mahomet and former teacher Baker, (her name automatically qualified her for the gig, I kidded her) also made us delicious peanut butter cookies (see recipe below). She patiently answered our questions and gave out door prizes. In lieu of some of the regular hosting benefits (which are fairly generous), I opted to have money donated to a pet cause. So my friends knew that while they were spending their good money on products to help keep their families well-fed, they were also helping out.

The party was a great success. Perhaps the weather helped — everyone was tired of being cooped up and isolated, dealing with sick children, and freezing our toes off alone. And in these times when we’re looking for ways to keep our families efficiently well-fed — and healthy — some new tips and products never hurt.

Here’s the easy peanut butter cookie recipe that Julie shared with us:

1 cup of sugar
1 cup of peanut butter
1 egg

Roll them in a ball, and then roll them in granulated sugar. Flatten them criss-cross with a fork. (Julie dispensed them beautifully into a beautiful flower shape using the Pampered Chef’s cookie press.) Put them on an ungreased cookie sheet and baked them in the oven for 10 minutes at 350 degrees.

Do you have a favorite Pampered Chef product?

Related posts:

1. Holiday Baking: Chocolate Crinkles