Little City Kitchen Co. Blog

My stories about local food, fermentation, and formerly organic baby food
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Tales from the Birth & Baby Fair – Part 2

Welcome back for the second installment of the Birth & Baby Fair highlights.  Last week, I told you all about setup and how much everyone loved the baby food we sampled.  We pick up where we left off with last week’s blog, about the one part of the show that didn’t go according to plan…at all.

As most of you knew, I volunteered to lead a cooking workshop at the show and was SO excited about it.  Doing an off-site cooking demo was something that I hadn’t done before, so I planned it all out several days before the event (those who know me aren’t shocked by this fact…I’m a bit of a planner).

I had lists for the equipment I’d need to bring with me, the food I’d have to prepare ahead of time, recipe cards to print, etc…  I got my “Martha Stewart” on and came up with these cute recipe booklets that I was going to hand out at the close of the workshop.  You get the idea…I spent some time, maybe even too much time, planning the details.

I’m sorry, how many people did you say?

What you probably don’t know is that the organizer and I agreed on having a maximum of 12 people; three demo-stations with four participants at each…a totally manageable size.  You can imagine my surprise when I was told at 1:30pm, 90 minutes before my workshop, that 26 people were pre-registered!  Crap!!

I am a pretty cool customer in stressful situations, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t pretty freaked out.  I mean really guys, THIS was my big debut!!  I needed to regroup…

If I had the foresight to bring alcohol, I probably would have stolen a big gulp at that point.  But instead, I left the show, sat in my car for 5 minutes, and proceeded to re-write my entire presentation.

The workshop started at 3pm and from what I could tell, was a big success.  Minus a few electrical issues with my induction burners, the group was filled with rockstars that asked a lot of questions and actively participated in the demo.  And after the hour, everyone agreed they had so much more confidence around make their own baby food…mission accomplished.

I’ve posted some photos of the cooking demo on our Facebook page, so check them out here.

A Special Thanks…

So a special shout out and thanks to all the workshop participants (especially Rick A. who came to my rescue during my power issues!).  You guys were awesome!  I hope you found the workshop to be helpful and inspiring.   Send me some pictures and/or recipes of the baby food you make at home.  I’d love for you to share any of your comments or feedback from the workshop below too.

So aside from a few surprises, the Birth & Baby Fair was an overwhelming success.  Stay tuned for more information on where you can purchase Little City Kitchen Co. baby food in January.

First Taste Face

The results are in for our First Taste Face” contest. We had eight adorable finalists that competed, and what an exciting race it was!   I felt like it was the Kentucky Derby…Jade had a strong start in the beginning, and then out of nowhere comes Samantha Love.  In the end, the votes were so close (both had nearly 60 votes), I decided to make them co-winners!  So congratulations Jade Koch and Samantha Love Abellana.  Check out these cuties!

Jade, 8.5 months

Samantha Love, 8 mos.

First Taste Face Finalists at the Birth & Baby Fair: Vote here!

Congratulations to the eight finalist of the First Taste Face contest held by Little City Kitchen Co. at the Birth & Baby Fair.  We captured the best faces as these little ones tasted our baby food for the first time….what a bunch of cuties!!

Here’s how it works:

To vote for your favorite face, either leave a comment below, or visit our Facebook page and leave a comment there.  Friends & family are also eligible to vote, so feel free to forward to them.

The winner receives their choice of:
Complimentary cooking class of their choice
OR
A two-week supply of frozen baby food

The winning face will be announced this Friday, December 10th, so don’t wait to vote!

Vote now…winner will be announced this Friday!

And our finalists are…

(Click on each picture for a larger image!)

Star, 7 months

Kai, 8.5 months

Nicholas, 8.5 mos.

Jade, 8.5 months

Samantha Love, 8 mos.

Delilah, 9 mos.

Sean, 7 months

Devon, 9 months

Tales from the Birth & Baby Fair – Part 1

The Birth & Baby Fair has come and gone.  It was a whirlwind of a show, exciting from beginning to end.  There’s so much to say about the event, so much in fact, that I’ve decided to break it down into two separate posts.

First, a big shout out to all my new friends from the fair.  There were over 100 people that signed up to stay in touch with Little City Kitchen Co (and with no raffle prize to bribe them either!).  I enjoyed meeting all you guys at the booth and/or during the cooking demonstration.

Behind the scenes

For those of you that are new to the LCKC blog, welcome and let me tell you a little about it.  The blog started as my way of sharing the ups and downs of starting this company.  It’s brutally honest – if I have a bad week, I write about it.  If I have an exhilarating week, I write about it too, usually at 2:30 in the morning when I can’t sleep.  I always welcome your thoughts, so feel free to leave a comment on any of the blog posts.

Okay, back to the show…

Where do I even begin??  Car was loaded (sans the food) the night before…with not an inch to spare by the way.  Alarm went off Sunday morning at 6am and I got up without even hitting snooze once!  Totally excited.  Booth setup went smoothly.  I had a huge surge in pride as I unrolled the Little City Kitchen Co. tablecloth for the first time…  That’s it on the right – doesn’t it look great?

As you read in my last blog, the Big Debut, I had some questions about how much food to bring for samples…among many other concerns!  Turned out I made plenty of food <insert sigh of relief here>.  We started with the three most popular dishes: Cuban black beans, coconut brown rice and sweet potatoes, and Jewish potato latkes.  They looked every bit as beautiful as I had hoped!  Little baby hors d’oeuvres on a platter.

Doors opened at 10:00, and within 15 minutes we were nearly 3 deep at the booth.  There was huge excitement over the samples, especially the International flavors.  Throughout the show, the parent fav was the coconut brown rice, but the kiddos loved the Cuban black beans the best.  It took a little coaxing for some parents to try (gasp) baby food, but once they did, their eyes lit up, and they were sold.

Click here to view out all the pictures from the show, and hey while you’re there, you can select “Like” on our Facebook page to stay in touch too.

We had some great entries for the First Taste Face contest.  What a bunch of cuties.  Putting a few finishing touches on the pictures and will be publishing those soon.  Winner gets their choice of a complimentary cooking class or a two-week supply of baby food, so get your voting fingers ready!

The only unexpected twist at the show came around 1:30pm and had to do with my workshop scheduled for 3pm…  But you have to wait until Part 2 next week to read about that!

A special shout out to my two dear friends that helped me at the show: Lenard Dobrowolski and Kirsten Zazo.  There’s no way I could have done it without you both – I love ya!

Stay tuned next week for Part 2.