Mother's Day & Market Day

Since Mother’s Day became a national holiday in 1914, tradition suggests that it’s mom’s day off. But a Market Day online survey found that of those families that celebrate Mother’s Day at home, 38 percent of moms will prepare their own family’s Mother’s Day meal this year. The online survey was conducted with more than 945 respondents.

If you think the economy is contributing to the rise in keeping mom in the kitchen to conserve expenses, so far that does not seem to be the case. In fact, 73 percent of respondents indicated that the economy will not affect their Mother’s Day celebration this year at home. However, for the 27 percent who are feeling the economic pinch, 51 percent will not opt for restaurant dining or will go to a less expensive restaurant. This despite the fact that Mother's Day is the busiest day of the year for restaurants.

This is not to say that moms will be doing all the food preparation at home themselves since 34 percent will get help from family members, and 19 percent will enjoy their meal prepared by a spouse.

For moms who do prepare Mother’s Day meals, 42 percent prepare dinner, equal to the 42 percent that prepare a lunch/brunch.

A family-oriented trend is that 46 percent of moms indicated that in the past, their kids helped prepare a special meal for them on Mother’s Day. Of these kid-inspired meals, 62 percent served mom breakfast (45 percent were served in bed). Fourteen percent helped make dinner, while seven percent helped make a cake, cupcake or cookies.

Kid-prepared meals for mom seem to be a newer tradition, since only 39 percent of today’s moms say they prepared a meal for their own mothers. Most impressive, is that 73 percent of spouses or partners either played a very involved role or supervised the production of the meal. A brave 27 percent let their kids manage the entire preparation.

Mother’s Day continues to be a special time for women family members as evidenced by the 56 percent who consider the day a time for the women in their family to bond.





About Market Day

Market Day, the Original Fundraising Food Cooperative®, is the nation’s largest food fundraising company. In addition to its flagship monthly food program, Market Day offers a variety of fundraising options including a gift brochure, restaurant-quality desserts, beverages, cookie dough, and a gourmet food catalog. Market Day is dedicated to providing high quality products at a value, and its consultative approach provides custom fundraising solutions for organizations across the country. Since its inception over 30 years ago Market Day has helped raise more than $450 million for kids and communities. For more information visit www.marketday.com.



Join me on Saturday, March 28th at 11-2 at Citizen's Bank Park in Philadelphia for Gourmet Women & Wine. I will be signing copies of my best selling book The Basic Art of Italian Cooking. Look forward to seeing you then..

Join Me April 4th at Whole Foods in Jenkintown for a book signing and The Basic Art of Italian Cooking Cooking Class-Cooking on A Budget! Email events@marialiberati.com


Mangia Bene, Vivi Bene
Maria
http://twitter.com/marialiberati
http://www.marialiberati.com/blog2

San Valentino and more....

Thanks to everyone that attended my roundtable interview and discussion on Athena Isle at Second Life. That was my first experience on Second Life and a fun one!!

In honor of San Valentino, here are two more recipes from my upcoming book

The Basic Art of Italian Cooking-Holidays and Special Occasions (copyright 2008 Maria Liberati) to be released later this year..

Let me know how you celebrated your Saint Valentine's Day. San Valentino represented love, so you can celebrate this day with any one special in your life-your friends, your parents ,siblings, somoene that is special in your life..

Cocktail di Mare (seafood Cocktail)

*6 jumbo shrimp(steamed)
*12 large scallops (steamed)
*2-3 drops of Tabasco sauce
*6 tablespoons of olive oil
*1 tablespoon of vodka
*2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice
*6 hot red peppers
*10-12 leaves of romaine lettuce
*1 tsp of powdered red pepper
*2 tsps of salt
*6 shish kabob type wooden sticks

Place on sticks first-one scallop then one shrimp (vertically) then one scallop. Repeat using all 6 sticks. In small bowl place vodka, salt powdered red pepper, lemon juice, Tabasco sauce , olive oil. Beat wit ha fork until all ingredients are blended.
In tall glass, arrange a few lettuce leaves on side of glass. Alternate in each glass, 3 hot red peppers and 3 shish kebabs. Drizzle sauce on top and serve.


Cuori di Pane

*Pre made pizza dough-1/2 lb (uncooked)
*3 tablespoons of flour
*2 tablespoons of dried tomatoes
*1 tsp of Sapori D’Italia Spice Blend or Rosemary
*4 dried red peppers
*3 tablespoons of olive oil
*2 tsps of chopped scallion
*

Drain dried tomatoes and chop into small squares. In separate bowl, crush 3 dried red peppers with wooden spoon, place in chopped dried tomatoes, chopped scallops. Blend. Place ball of pizza dough in bowl and work in mixture. Knead pizza dough for 5 minutes until all ingredients are blended into dough.
Dust wooden board with 1 tablespoon of flour. Place pizza dough on top. Flatten dough to about 1/8 inch thickness. Cut with cookie cutter in shape of heart.
Place sheet of baking paper on cookie sheet. Place hearts on baking sheet. Crush remaining pepper in small dish, mix with ½ tsp of Sapori D’Italia or Rosemary. Drizzle hearts with teaspoon of olive oil and sprinkle remaining crushed pepper mix on top. Let hearts sit for 30 minutes. Then cook in oven preheated to 450 degrees or until crisp and golden (about 15 minutes).

Hope you will join me....

Contact: Lauren Scher
1-800-581-9020 x100
primamediapublicity@yahoo.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE………

Celebrity Chef Maria Liberati Appearing Live in the Virtual World Second Life

Celebrity Chef Maria Liberati will be a special guest of the Second Life Writers Club in an interactive 3-D event on the popular virtual world Second Life on February 13th at 3pm EST, 1 PM PST. Audience members can participate by setting up a free Second Life account at http://www.secondlife.com then going to http://slurl.com/secondlife/Second%20Shores/51/50/23 to access the live event.
Ms. Liberati or M1 Dreamscape, her Second Life moniker, will be discussing her bestselling book The Basic Art of Italian Cooking as well as her life in Italy and healthy Mediterranean recipes. The interview will take place on Athena Isle owned by Second Life personality Cybergrrl Oh and will be conducted in a text format which allows Ms. Liberati to answer questions posted by Second Life residents in attendance. The event format will be an intimate roundtable discussion with a 40-seat capacity to give attendees unique access to converse with Ms. Liberati.
A former supermodel, Maria Liberati's passion for fashion gradually switched to food and the Italian way of eating while she traveled the world modeling. Missing the simplistic and natural recipes of Italy, Ms. Liberati began formally studying the Art of Italian Cooking in Italy. She regularly consults with food companies, does special guest appearances at culinary events, TV programs, magazine interviews and features throughout US and Italy, as well as consulting for many food companies. Today, she shares her love of Italian foods through numerous public appearances, her blog, podcasts (www.marialiberati.com), and best selling books, which are a compellation of recipes and heart-warming stories from her life. Currently Ms. Liberati divides her time between Italy and the United States and is working on her second book.

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