If you Host a Show in February you can earn 60% OFF one of these fantastic Stoneware Host Favorites…

#1371 Large Round Stone with with Handles – $32.00

#1445 Large Bar Pan – $34.00

#1350 Rectangle Stone – $28.00

But be sure to spread the wealth! Your guests have a great opportunity to earn free rewards. When guests order $60 or more they can choose one kitchen essential FREE!

I know most of you think that you can’t find the time for hosting an event BUT having a Pampered Chef Show is SO simple. Your job is easy: invite your favorite people to your home to hang out and eat free food. That’s it! As a consultant I work with you to choose a recipe. I then prepare all the materials, groceries and amazing kitchen products and bring them to your home. I even bring my own table to cook on if necessary.

You and your friends can snack and enjoy watching me cook like an Iron Chef while giggling at my witty report. Then you can enjoy the prepared dinner or dessert and pick out your favorite items. Remember there are always birthdays and holidays that you can get prepared for early. I then provide a full service checkout.

I guarantee that a few hours out of your night will certainly be an exciting, fun and strangely relaxing time for you and your friends. And who doesn’t love to eat? Hey I can always make something with chocolate! So please, take a look at your calendar and pick a date this month of when you want to hang out with your best friends and eat free, Delicious food!

Visit My Website

Brandy Pate
Pampered Chef Consultant
Birmingham, AL
brandy@cookingwithbrandy.com
www.PamperedChef.biz/CookingBrandy
(205) 706-9145

Brandy Pate presenting Delicia Poole with her Birthday Cupcake

Earlier this month my friend and coworker, Delicia, was celebrating her birthday.  She had mentioned that she was interested in hosting a Pampered Chef Cooking Show, so I suggested that we have a Pampered Chef Birthday Bash at the office.  We invited everyone from the office to enjoy a free lunch and watch a short presentation of a Pampered Chef recipe. 

It was a pretty simple affair.  A few friends of Delicia’s volunteered to bring in snacks, drinks, etc. Liz brought in samples of some Pampered Chef sauces including the Raspberry Habanero Sauce and the Spicy Pineapple-Rum Sauce. Since we chose a Mexican theme, I made enough Easy Chicken Fajitas and Cheesy Chicken Tortilla Soup for everyone the evening before the party. The day of, we set up the room with  food on one side of the room and my Pampered Chef presentation table on the other.  At lunch time, the ladies (and a few men) in the office joined us in the conference room to eat and watched as I quickly made the same Chicken Fajitas in the Deep Covered Baker (#3300) cooked in the microwave. 

I spent Saturday, October 30th at the Oak Mountain Elementary School’s Fall Fun Festival.  They had tons of families there participating in games and crafts. Jim ‘N Nick’s was serving pulled pork sandwiches and chicken fingers, which were delicious.  Zoey and Adam were able to come up for a short while to have lunch and play some games. 

I met some great ladies in the vendor hall that all shared similar stories to mine. Some of them had day jobs or were hard-working at-home moms that ran these independent businesses for extra cash, community, and fun.  When I first arrived, I realized that I had forgotten to bring my table.  This lovely woman next to me offered to let me borrow an extra table she had in her car. Throughout the day I learned that her name was Katie DeSocio with Silpada and is super nice.  She had a ton of discontinued jewelry marked down and I wanted to take one of every piece home. If you love Silpada high-end, hand-made jewelry, you should definitely check her out.

I also met another very talented “new friend”, Nancy Pierce with Creative Memories. Since my sister and I have a history with digital scrapbooking, Nancy and I had a lot to talk about. We shared past and present projects and creative memories scrapbooking ideas.  She was really interesting and knowledgeable about the product. I saw that she had some Disney products at the table and I couldn’t resist. I am really looking forward to creating some new albums and maybe a few cards and calendars for gifts this Christmas.

All-in-all the day was great for meeting new people but, unfortunately I didn’t get any shows booked. I did hold a raffle for a $25 Pampered Chef gift card and some nice women left me their contact information. I do need one additional show booked before November 24th to hit my four show goal.  I would have counted yesterday as a show, but I didn’t receive any sales. If you or anyone you know is interested in hosting a Cooking Show or having a simple Catalog Show in your office, I would really love to do that for you. Feel free to contact me any time.

So I have decided to devote some time to my passion for cooking in a serious way.  I decided to become a Pampered Chef consultant.  I have been doing catering and writing on my blog, twitter, Facebook etc. but I have been missing out on cooking for people. And yes, I cook for my husband and baby every day but I mean for people that don’t live in my house  People that love food but don’t really think they can do it in their own homes. I want to have the opportunity to make people happy with a delicious plate of food while teaching them that it is simple to have these types of meals in their own home.  I have contemplated going to culinary school or running a full time catering business but I honesty don’t want to have a job/hobby that takes up so much of my time. Working 70 hours a week never really appealed to me. Especially, when I already have a full time job at a publishing company and a two year old baby girl at home.  I want to still LOVE cooking at the end of the day. That is why I chose Pampered Chef. 

I can have the hours I want, book as many shows as I feel I can handle and still have the benefits of sharing my passion for food with those I love.  I had my director, Brandi Osbourn at my house last Thursday for a cooking show along with a few close friends. She talked and cooked in the living room while we all devoured the appetizers I had laid out.  I sat there commenting, laughing, testing and tasting and I had the best time.  I had been thinking about becoming a consultant for a while but I hadn’t committed.  Then someone complained about chicken tenders and how they don’t like the tendon that runs down the middle.  Without missing a beat, I explained in 30 seconds how to get rid of that tough tendon and still have your chicken tender fully in tact. Let’s face it, I love to cook and I am full of weird cooking knowledge from extensive hours of Food Network TV watching.  My girlfriend pat me on the back and called me the “food guru”.  I thought, you know what, let’s give it a shot, I can do this.  I love food and I was a theater major – cooking in front of people should be a breeze.

That evening I told Brandi I wanted to join her team and I signed up for Pampered Chef. Then comes the hard part.  Now I have to book shows.  I am not a pushy salesman. I try to ask friends and family but I don’t want to guilt anyone into anything.  I want them to want to do a show and not feel obligated out of blood relation or friendship.  My tactic is to spoil people with food.  For those of you who know me, I can cook.  I am sure that I have fed you something in the past that you thought wasn’t that bad, right? So, here is my proposition, invite some friends over (remind them to bring their wallets please) and let me come cook for you.  No obligation to buy anything, but believe me, won’t be able to resist.  Remember, what your friends buy all goes to helping you get free stuff.  That’s a bonus, right?  Pampered Chef has a fantastic Host Reward Program set up to reward you for hosting a cooking party.  If you host a show in the month of October, you as the host save 60% on cookware.  That is a great deal for their cookware because it is a great quality product with a lifetime guarantee.  I have two pieces of Pampered Chef cookware, a sauté and a sauce pan that I bought in 2002 and they are still my “go to” pieces in the kitchen.

This is my first month so I need to be able to book at least four shows in the next few weeks. I am counting on each of you to help me get those shows completed as well as get some experience with cooking in front of people I know.  Brandi says she has done this for over five years and still gets nervous each time.  I am good with scripts but improv was never my forte. I am hoping that the spirit of Julia Childs or Jennifer Paterson fills my heart and I do a great job for you!  Please find some time in your busy schedule and book a show for me.  I would love to share some good times and delicious food with each of you.

To book a Pampered Chef cooking show or catalog show, please email at brandy@cookingwithbrandy.com or call me at the number below.

Brandy Pate

brandy@cookingwithbrandy.com

205-706-9175 (mobile)

Birmingham, Alabama

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To bring in the new year, we are offering our friends and family a chance to win two movie passes to Rave Motion Pictures.  All you have to do is donate $1 or more to Hope for McKenna between January 1st – 31st, 2010 and your name will be entered for a chance to win.   A name will be chosen on February 1st and the winner will be contacted via email.  That individual will receive two gift certificate movie passes valid at any Rave Motion Picture nationwide. To find a theater near you please visit Rave’s theater location finder. All proceeds during our “Who’s Up for a Movie?” fundraiser will go to benefit Hope for McKenna. Click the Donate button below to make a secure donation online.

The tickets are valued up to $10.50 and have no movie restrictions. Though we appreciate your enthusiastic participation you are only eligible to enter the drawing one time.  All individuals that donate to Hope for McKenna in January will be entered into the drawing unless they specifically request exclusion. Any donation amounts exceeding $1, though much appreciated, do not qualify applicant(s) for multiple entries into this contest. If you have any further questions regarding this fundraiser, please click here.

Wow! Thank you to those of you who participated in the bake sale. Not only did we sell all the goodies but some of my wonderful co-workers also made monetary donations to Hope for McKenna. The first day we made $151! To make the day even better, I had requests for more cookies.  I spent Wednesday evening making 8 dozen cookies to take to the office the following day.  I made Chocolate Chunk Pecan Cookies, Chocolate Chip Cookies and Reese’s Chewy Chocolate Cookies. Only downfall was that the plastic Christmas containers were smaller than the 1st round so I could  only fit 8 to 12 cookies in each depending on the size of the cookies. I did make some cute “thank you” labels for each container. We had the potential of making about $80.  I thought it would go well because while I was baking, my friend, Beth called and her husband insisted she buy the Chocolate Chunk Pecan Cookies right then and there.  I hoped the rest of the items would sell well but figured whatever didn’t sell could be gifted to family and friends.

Well guess what, between sales and monetary donations made by family and friends, we made a whopping $310 overall!

At the end of the day that is quite a significant amount of donations for only two days of work.  I look forward to finding other ways of raising money for Ms. McKenna. Both my sisters, McKenna’s mom, Tracy and our older sister Danielle are working hard to try to raise money over the next year.  We have hand crafted paper products, hand-made clothing accessories and raffles ongoing.  Look for future posts on these items.

***If you know of any great fundraising ideas, please send them our way.  It is so easy to just ask, ask, ask but it is more fulfilling to give something heartfelt in return for the donations.***

Thank you again to all that support Hope for McKenna.  Hopefully, in the near future, we can spread the kindness our family and friends have shown us to another family in need. 

Thanks,

Aunt Brandy

December 22nd, we held a bake sale fundraiser at my office to help raise additional funds for Hope for McKenna.

We sold three tubs of Chocolate Chunk & Pecan Cookies (18 count)  as well as three take-out boxes  of the Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies (6 count). I made them all with Nestle brand chocolate chips.  I also had a tree-shaped, glass candy canister filled with various Christmas candy such as Snickers, Whoppers, Chocolate Crisps, Hershey’s chocolates and cherry cordial Hershey’s kisses.  We also sold a coffee mug filled with Hershey’s candy and some chocolate angels.

Thank you for all your support during our efforts to raise money for McKenna.  Our goal is to help alleviate the financial burden that her 6 surgeries in the past two years have created.  Any money  that we raise above and beyond her medical expenses will be donated to a cleft palate association chosen by the Conrad family. 

Thank you again for your support.

Brandy Pate

Another wonderful, food-related page by Danielle.  She writes: Despite having just given birth two weeks earlier nothing can keep Aunt Brandy out of the kitchen. So when Maxx and Lexy came to visit, that was the perfect excuse for her to get in the kitchen and make brownies! And of course, the kids happily obliged! August 2, 2008.”

I love this scrapbooking page by Danielle.  She wrote: “Will someone please tell me what I did to piss off the cake gods? Last year, the kids’ cake was left on the radiator and melted. For Maxx’s birthday this year, they raked their fingers through the icing and for Lexy’s birthday, I put the ice cream cake in the refrigerator instead of the freezer, and it too melted into a big pile of goop.  It’s a damn good thing they still taste good.”