Underwriters Labratory and a Side of Safety

Ever wonder what the tag on your lamp with UL on it means? It means that product has been independently tested for customer safety, simply put it's a safe product to use. I was an odd child, but we know this, I used to check things in my house for the UL tag when I was little. I was fascinated with them, I also liked the swirl in the top of peanut butter.

When I was contacted by the lovely Danika and asked if I might be interested in a UL cooking and safety contest pre-BlogHer Food I was totally interested and stretched my trip out just a wee bit longer so I could join in. I'm so glad I did! It was an absolute blast.

We were whisked away to an artists loft where we sipped a little wine, met up with our cooking teams of other bloggers and learned some safety tips. Like watch your cords, don't let them dangle over the edge of the counter. Always unplug your immersion blender before cleaning it! Cut with your fingers bent under and your knuckles towards the blade instead of finger tips. Heat a pan without oil, then add oil and your _______. Put a wet towel under the cutting board to keep it from slipping. All great tips, they made me wonder how many of those do I follow in my home. Yikes!

A couple things I do practice regularly in my home are my 'mama cooking zone' and 'wash your hands is the first step to cooking with me'. The mama coking zone is the area in front of the stove and 5 feet in either direction, no children, pets, toys, nothing is in that area. It's just too easy to miss something in that area and hurt or get hurt. The hand washing is real hand washing, no alcohol gel and get under your fingernails! I may forget a cord but those are two I'm pretty religious about.

The cooking contest was tonight. We were a team of 6, Me, Kristen Dine and Dish, Maria Two Peas and their Pod, Pam and Maggy Three Many Cooks and The Ivory Hut. AKA The Sizzling Sisters! We rocked the competition. Actually we better than ROCKED it we WON it. Yes we WON. We were so stoked to win after a dismal beginning where we waited and waited for the other teams to pick through the ingredients they wanted to use. But after feeling down, Kristen said hey screw it! stay positive! So we planned a kick ass meal while waiting and by the time we got to choose up, we had our meal plan down.
The only ingredients we HAD to use were:

• fennel in the appetizer or salad--we made caramelized onions and fennel on cucumber crostini w topped by a pan roasted grape tomato
• halibut--ours was a simple pan fried halibut on steam seared asparagus with a roasted red pepper pesto 
• baked Alaska--ours was put together in the freezer and the got knocked over! tragedy averted when some smart lady suggested skewering them, refreezing them and covering them with meringue-I used a sweet little torch to brown them up

caramelized fennel crostini

pan fried halibut

All in all a fantastic evening spent with great new blogging friends and topped off with a great prize. Thanks Underwriters Laboratory, I'll be looking for those tags again and DEFINITELY reviewing my home safety skills.

Peace and Love--