So I worked a half day and came home to meet my lovely wife and headed to Animal Kingdom to the Harvest Festival. It was a bit crowded in the parking lot upon our arrival. We walked around the store for a bit, because we did not see Sandra Lee. There were several vendors with tables talking about their businesses. There was even a vendor selling meat, which I felt was quite odd at a pet store. A woman from the Le Fontane Ristorante was there representing her restaurant and handing out samples of one of their dishes. I tried the pasta with Butternut Squash and walnuts. It was pretty tasty. The pasta was cooked to Al dente, the squash was slightly sweet, the walnuts gave it a nutty finish and also helped the texture of the baked dish. It would be something I would eat again. Maybe we will make it and blog about it!
After waiting for a bit, Sandra Lee appeared from nowhere at the front of the store. We went in line and waited patiently for our turn. Luckily we didn’t have to wait very long. She was very gracious and shook our hands. She signed our cookbook and took pictures with each of us. She is very nice. We had a very different experience at the Alton Brown book signing in NYC at Union Square’s Barnes and Noble. Maybe it was Alton, maybe it was the city vibe, not sure. But this time it felt very relaxed and Sandra Lee was very down to earth and very concerned about the welfare of the animals. Had a great time!
AIMEE: Here’s the story behind this! My boss at the Yorktown Pennysaver asked Rachael & I (Supergirls!) to research some local Events to form a lead list for our Classified department to call for our special Holiday Events Directory. Rachael was busy doing something else so I said I’d get a start on it. I went to a local radio stations website that’s known for having a What’s Going On page where a lot of people post about their events, fundraisers, holiday sales, etc. I printed out a list of them and while I was reading I saw that someone posted about the Animal Kingdom USA in Brewster having a Harvest Festival fundraiser to benefit the their Wildlife Rehabilitation program and that Sandra Lee would be there doing a Q&A and book signing. I was excited because it is not often television stars come and hang out locally. So after a short time, Rachael took one of the lists I printed out and the Harvest Festival happened to be on hers. She called and talked to a woman named ‘Lisa’ who I think was in charge of setting up the event. Lisa told Rachael that Sandra Lee is a bird-lover and she must’ve brought one of her birds in to Animal Kingdom and needed some help with it. Well, apparently they did a great job because from what I understand – Sandra wanted to repay Animal Kingdom for their kindness and so she said she’d come and help them out with the fundraiser.
Kevin & I watch Sandra Lee often on the Food Network and because I’m not in any way a professional chef (not to mention really lazy) I love the idea behind her semi-homemade creations and entertaining! I told Kevin about it and we were excited to attend, but more than anything, I thought it would make fantastic coverage for our blog – I really wanted to bring something to the table that was not only fun to read but full of great photos as well. We saw some incredible looking owls while we were there. The larger of the two (shown with Lisa) is the sister and the smaller is the brother.
As Kev said up above, Sandra Lee was so laid back and down to earth. She was all smiles and talking to everyone. You could tell she has an unconditional love for animals (as well as food). She was working the room with such ease, getting people to purchase raffle tickets with all funds benefiting the Wildlife foundation. We were 3rd or 4th in line to step up and meet Sandra. The woman in line in front of me had a very young daughter in her arms who was fussing a bit and when Sandra laid eyes on the baby, she was giddy. Mother and baby took photos with Sandra and it was completely endearing to see her interacting with other young children in line. She even had a lengthy conversation with a young teen about the best way to make a sauce. When it was our turn, I introduced both Kevin and I and it all happened so fast and we were both a little star struck. I think I mentioned the blog but to be honest, I don’t remember! She saw I was holding one of her books to be signed and she whispered to me that the book I held (Weeknight Wonders) was one of the two best books she put out. The second one being Semi-Homemade Cooking 2. She happily signed our book “To Aimee & Kevin. Enjoy!” with her signature kind of scribbled beneath.
Okay, yeah, I was definitely star struck ..hahaha! After both of our photos were taken with her we stepped aside to let the next person speak to her and we went to purchase 15 raffle tickets for the CAT BASKET they were raffling off. She must’ve over heard that we were buying so many because she put her hand on my arm as we were leaving to say a big thank you for purchasing so many. It was really a very successful visit for Kevin and I and I’m quite proud that we went out and accomplished what we set out to do for personal wants but also for the good of the blog.
I’m hoping to submit an additional guest blog about our visit with Sandra Lee on lohud.com – I’ll let you all know how that pans out!
That’s all for now guys and gals! We hope you enjoyed this latest installment of Eats and Treats. It was definitely an amazing TREAT to see Sandra Lee today! Please don’t forget to LIKE us on Facebook and follow us on Pinterest and Twitter (links below and to the right)
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XOXO!
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