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The reason I started this blog was to promote family activities through books and cooking. But in reality it was about finding ways to bond with your children and to create family memories that they would cherish as they got older. Doing it with books and food was just one way I like to do that with my family.

However, there are other activities, like taking trips together. So as I prepare for another weekend of camping hell, I repeat what my husband said to me the other day, “Camping is not about you having a good time. It’s about creating memories for the children.”

And it’s true. Some of the fondest memories I have with my parents and sister are our vacations to the Florida Keys, and the road trips my mom took us on to Virginia and Montreal.

Memories and bonding – could your family use some? Well, maybe it’s time to think about taking a family vacation. Now I know money is tight. However, Beaches Resorts is holding a WonderFALL Celebration during the off-peak season months of September and October. Not only do you get to enjoy everything Beaches offers year-round, but you can SAVE up to 45% off published rates and get two Nights Free on stays of seven nights or more. 

Yes, I know the kids will be back in school. But you can take school work with you. After all, the first month or two of school is a refresher course on all the things the kids forgot over the summer. (This is what my son’s teachers told me. And another reason to get your kids to read, read, read this summer.) You have nothing to lose – only memories to gain.

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Welcome to A Readable Feast’s very first contest! I’m giving away copies of Fodor’s Walt Disney World® with Kids 2006, Fodor’s Around London with Kids, 3rd Edition, and Fodor’s Around New York City with Kids, 3rd Edition.

To tell you the truth, the only reason I’m giving these away is that I’m not going to any of these places in the near future. Now if they had sent me the Denver or Chicago books (hello BlogHer 2007) there would be no way I’d give these up. The  books are chock full of money saving tips, ways to beat the crowds, and great things to do as a family. The London and New York books are mini-sized and easy to carry around in a diaper bag, backpack or purse, too.

Here are the rules:

1. If you have a blog, post about my contest on your site. You have from today until August 9 to do so.Then come back here and post the weblink (the link to the actual post) in the comments section below along with your email and blog addresses.
2. If you do not have a blog, no problem! Just leave your name and email address in the comments section below.
3. If there is a book you especially want or don’t want, please let me know when you leave your info in the comments.
4. I will pick the three winners’ names out of a hat and will contact them via email for their names and mailing addresses.
5. The winners will be announced on this blog on Friday, August 11.
6. Please do not enter this contest if you are unwilling to email me your name and mailing address. Of course, I will not release your private info to the public.
7. This contest is open to readers in the continental U.S. and Canada only.
8. This contest is also open to ClubMom bloggers.

If you have any questions, email me.

(Thanks to Kristie Wells for the beautiful picture of Grace with the newspaper story about Blogher.)

What follows is a very long post about BlogHer ‘06. While usually I’d blog this at my personal blog, A Mama’s Rant, I feel an obligation to my editors at ClubMom who gave me the pass to the conference and to my fellow ClubMom bloggers as well. I’ll come back to books and food tomorrow.

BlogHer ‘06 was amazing. And I’m still exhausted. That’s what 13 1/2 hours of sleep over 3 days will do to you. (When Arianna Huffington in the closing keynote talk mentioned that sleep deprivation is a huge issue, I had to laugh.)

First, meeting many of the ClubMom bloggers, as Amy has already documented so well, was thrilling. These women are smart, fun, silly, serious, haughty, goofy, lovely, warm, generous and every other adjective you can think of to describe a group of awesome women. There’s great joy in finding such like minded people who 1) know what a blog is, 2) can have deep conversations about blogging, politics, motherhood, and business plans, and 3) can have a lot of fun too, like the me. you. me. discussion and drunken yoga at 3 a.m. (I think it was Jenny of Big Slice, but it was dark out.)

But there’s sadness, too. I have a lot of acquaintances but few deep friendships outside of my family. There’s very few women I’ve met in my life that I truly click with. Several are in the Chicago/Milwaukee area, one in San Diego, and a couple down in Denver. With one exception, many of the women I’ve been hanging with locally don’t "get it" whether it’s about blogging, motherhood, politics, feminism, music, or education. And my girlfriends who do "get it" are far, far away or too busy to get together except for a couple of times per year, if that.

I have so much more in common with the women who attended BlogHer (those at ClubMom and women who blog elsewhere) than I do with people in my neighborhood, and that really pisses me off. Yet, through ClubMom and BlogHer I have access to virtual sisterhood of like minded souls who I hope to keep meeting and working with in the future. Maybe one of you will move to my neighborhood, too. (Yes, Genuine is only a mile away, but he’s a fella and his kids all have cooties. Mrs. Genuine’s cool though.)

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I thought I’d leave you with a few recipes, cookbooks, and Denver Post articles to enjoy while I’m at BlogHer.

First there’s these recipes from Fix-it And Enjoy-it Cookbook: All-purpose, Welcome-home Recipes. I adore the sweet potato fries sold at a local Cajun restaurant. If it wasn’t for the fries I don’t think we’d eat there as much, so I’m thrilled to find a recipe to make them at home.

Yam Fries
Kathy Keener Shantz, Lancaster, PA

Makes 6 servings
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Baking Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

1. 2 Tbsp. olive oil
2. 1 tsp. salt
3. 1 tsp. pepper
4. 1 tsp. curry
5. ½ tsp. hot sauce
6. 4 medium-sized yams, sliced like French fries

Directions:

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine oil, salt, pepper, curry, and hot sauce.
2. Stir in sliced yams.
3. When thoroughly coated, spread on lightly greased baking sheet.
4. Bake at 375° for 20 minutes, or until tender.

(Photo courtesy of b. decot.)

Yam fries would be a great side for barbeque or steaks on the grill. And speaking of grills, have you ever tried to make peach melba on one? Check this decadent recipe out! (Don’t know about you, but my local Safeway has peaches on sale right now. We always have oodles of raspberries in the fridge, too.)

Grilled Peach Melba
Stacy Schmucker Stoltzfus, Enola, PA

Makes 4 servings
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Grilling Time: 5-10 minutes

Ingredients:

1. 4 large, unpeeled peaches or nectarines
2. 2 tsp. sugar
3. 2 cups red raspberries, fresh or frozen
4. sugar, optional
5. vanilla ice cream

Directions:

1. Halve and pit peaches or nectarines.
2. Press fresh or thawed raspberries through sieve. Save juice and discard seeds. Sweeten to taste with sugar, if needed.
3. Grill unpeeled peaches cut-side down for approximately 2 minutes. Turn peaches over. With cut-side up, fill each cavity with ½ tsp. sugar, and continue grilling until grill marks appear on skins.
4. Serve immediately with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and drizzle with the raspberry sauce.

(Grilled Peach Melba picture courtesy of Everyday Food on PBS.)

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Like many families living on the Jersey Shore, we vacationed up and down the East Cost. In the winter months, we’d drive down to Key West, Florida, and stayed at the Southern Most Inn. (As it’s name says, it’s the southern most motel in the Continental U.S.) In the summer months, we’d head as far north as New Hampshire, with occasional jaunts into Canada, including a memorable trip to Montreal and Quebec, too. But for some reason, we never vacationed in Maine. The scary thing is - in more ways than one - that what I know about Maine comes from Stephen King novels. Ah ya.

My husband Paul is attending a chemistry conference in New Hampshire soon and is flirting with the idea of going up to Maine. So now I have Maine on the brain. Luckily I had a copy of The United States Cookbook : Fabulous Foods and Fascinating Facts From All 50 States by Joan D’Amico. For ages 9-12, the book is a mixture of kid friendly recipes, food trivia, and facts about US state history.

Did you know that Maine is the country’s number one supplier of blueberries and lobster? That at one time lobster wasn’t considered a delicacy but a "junk fish"? And that this month there’s a Clam Festival in Yarmouth, where they serve at least 5,000 gallons of fried clams, 13,500 Lime Rickey’s, 6,000 lobster rolls, 2,200 pancake breakfasts and 1,500 shore dinners? Geez, when’s the next flight out?

But you don’t have to go to Maine to enjoy great seafood. In fact, we had a wonderful clams and mussels steamed in wine, and a shrimp and lobster boil at Paul’s 40th birthday a couple of weeks ago. The amazing thing was that the meal was cooked up while we were RV camping up in the mountains. Here are some photos:

The clams and mussels

The boil

The final product (I forgot the onions)

Happy campers (Nathan, Lucie, Sadie and Jenny)

The kids were so hyper after the meal (they mostly ate the corn, potatoes and a few shrimp) it took awhile to get them to go to sleep. Luckily I had brought along some Little Bear books to read. However, I wish I brought this book instead, Grace for an Island Meal. One morning in Maine, a little girl and her family travel to a small island. They gather wild berries and mussels for the evening meal. Family and friends come together to eat, giving thanks for the simple pleasures in a day outside.

We were in the Colorado mountains, and not in Maine, but families and friends coming together to enjoy a fantastic seafood meal and each other’s company rang true.

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