So we decided to cool our 4th of July down with some amazingly easy dishes that will spark an East Coast Vibe for your Red, White and Blue Holiday!

We couldn’t think of anything more American & East Coast than the famous Lobster Roll Sandwich!
I tend to be more of a purist when it comes to the Lobster Roll. I don’t want to add to much to the mixture since it would overpower the flavor of a sweet lobster. So try out our Lobster Roll  for your 4th of July. Also I love the fact that the buns have a dual purpose here.  For the kids we served the buns up with hot dogs which made this an easy meal to accommodate adults and kids.

Going with our Red, White and Blue Theme we experimented a bit and came up with a our newest creation Blue Cheese Fritters that are an adaptation of rice balls. Add a green salad with a lemon vinaigrette and your food menu is complete.  To finish this off set up a number 3 bucket with ice, beer and wine and you are so set for your holiday. Grab some sparklers and set out for the fun!

ShareThis

Panaderia’s are the closets things to bakery heaven in my opinion, but then again I was brought up visiting these establishments since birth.  When my parents would take me to visit relatives we would go by the Panaderia. When people were coming over we would go to the Panaderia, on the weekends, guess what, Panaderia.

I don’t visit these bakeries as much anymore, so when I walked into one locally here in Houston, TX, it pretty much took over my senses. My eyes, my nose,  everything. I could not focus on what my friend was saying at the time. I was completely overwhelmed by all the display cases that held some very fragrant baked goods. I did the only think I could and clicked away on my phone and took some pictures of the cool space.

I love the whole process of collecting my pan dulce at the Panaderia. You walk around with a round flat tin pan and a pair of tongs. When you see something you like, you grab it and place it on your pan. Before you know it, your pan is piled high and your wondering who the hell is going to eat this.

If you get a chance and you can visit one in your area, you must. The beautiful Panaderia in these pictures is called El Bollio Bakery, located at:

2517 Airline Drive
Houston, TX  77009

ShareThis

                                      
I made fresh Pico de Gallo today and it was so good. Seriously, the aromas alone when making this is almost enough to satisfy. I actually went to the grocery store today and got all the ingredients to make pico de gallo. It is one of the easiest things to make on earth, but I don’t really spend much time in the kitchen, so this deserves a blog post. 

Every holiday I visit my family, and most of them include homemade pico. My family is really good at cooking and getting everything together, so when I help it is with dishes like this. Throw in a mini-chopper and I am very happy to oblige.

If you have never made fresh Pico de Gallo, DO IT. Salsas in restaurants and store bought fresh/ready-to-eat pico can be good, but does not compare to your very own.  So when your in the mood for chips and dip, bbq, or need something to go along side your Spanish rice, this is perfect.

Try it out and make your own concoction. Size of tomatoes, hot and spicy, with lime or without. Anyway you like, just do it, your kitchen is going to smell fabulous!

Ingredients:

2 ripe tomatoes

2 jalapenos (depends on hot you like it, start with one)

1/4 yellow onion

1 clove of garlic

1 lime

1 handful of cilantro

2 pinches of salt

I use an electric mini-chopper and throw in tomatoes and cilantro. Once it is chopped and looks diced, empty out into a large bowl. Next up, chop up the jalapenos, onion, and garlic.  Remember on the jalapenos if you don’t want it too hot, you can take out the seeds. Squeeze lime juice and add salt to taste. Stir it up, chill, and eat! Serves a few.

ShareThis

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

When you become a fan of OPMOM you will be entered to win a $50 Visa Gift Card to use on whatever you wish! Just login to Facebook and Become a fan of OPMOM!

Details:
Become a fan by June 28th and you are entered into the giveaway.
We will randomly pick the winner on June 29th.

Spread the word, we need the help!!

Best,

The OPMOM Team

ShareThis

As Father’s Day approaches,  June 21st to be exact, we thought we would share five great ideas to get your wheels spinning!

If you are looking for creative gift wrap check out Heidi’s gift wrap collection featured to the left. We are in love with her collection and ideas, so go see!

.
1. The Serial Reader: For the dad who loves to read, check out the Kindle ($359). With the 3G wireless feature you can download books right from the Kindle, anytime, anywhere; no monthly fees, service plans, or hunting for Wi-Fi hotspots. Some books include the new text-to-speech feature, this baby can read every newspaper, magazine, blog, and book out loud.

2. The Photographer: We posted this one for moms, but we think it is great for the photo savvy dad who loves to snap pics too, we suggest the Eye-fi Card ($59-$79). All you have to do is put the card in your digital camera and all of your shots are loaded straight to your computer without ever having to lift a finger. It’s like magic. If he has a flickr.com account, the pictures can also be uploaded there too. We think this is a hit for all tech savvy dads.

3. The Aspiring Chef: Jacques Pepin More Fast Food My Way ($20.16) is a great recipe book to give for Father’s Day. We love Jacques style and his recipes are amazing, this particular book is full of easy quick meals with a french twist that he can try out on you!

4. Starting the Green Journey: For the Dad that is interested in making a difference. The Blue Avocado Mavons have developed a line that also fits dads! Give him the gift of green with this Blue Avocado Solid Kit System.  Their Solid Kit™ ($69.99) includes everything from large multi-use bags, totes, to ventilated produce bags. You have two colors to choose from. All of the bags are responsibly manufactured with recycled material and a carbon footprint label. By carrying their system, an average shopper can replace up to 1,000 plastic bags every year.

5. The Wine Aficionado: For the Dad who loves wine, try this Legnoart Grand Crue Sommelier Corkscrew ($48.60). It is a beautifully designed piece by Enrico Albertini that any Wine Aficionado would love to have. Top your gift off with a bottle of wine to complete this fab Father’s Day surprise.

ShareThis

One way to do this is to setup a family computer center. Have a location in your home that is not in their room where they can work on the computer. Next have safety software put on your computer that will help you monitor your child’s activity and give you some control on what they are seeing and doing online.

The OnlineFamily.Norton software is one of the best I have seen. I love that you can create individual profiles for your children. With these profiles you can tailor each child’s settings, from how long they spend on the computer to which sites are off limits. The Norton Safety Minder reports your child’s Internet activity to the OnlineFamily.Norton site where you can view each child’s profile and receive alerts if anything looks strange.

To get started all you have to do is register an account which only takes 2 minutes. You can access the reports on your child’s activity at work or on the go all you need is the Web. Each child will have a separate user account on the computer that gives them access to the computer.

Check out this video so you can see how this works in action!

ShareThis

We were struggling to understand what was wrong with good old fashioned email or even the telephone as forms of communication.  And then my brilliant husband uttered the words that almost never come out of his mouth “I don’t get it.”  That was when I knew we as parents were in trouble – if we didn’t get it then, how were we going to get it in another four or five years when our boys would be participating in the latest social media sites?  So I decided to join Facebook myself to try and get a grasp on this whole social media thing before I was hopelessly behind.

My first move after setting up a very conservative and sparse profile for myself was to friend my teenage nieces, nephews and cousins (i.e. request that I be added to the list of people who could view their Facebook posts) - at that time they were pretty much the only people I knew on Facebook.  Somewhat amused and often shocked by my presence in the teenage realm of Facebook my young relatives accepted my friend requests posting remarks on my “wall” like “It’s pretty weird having my auntie on Facebook.” 

What I found in their profiles seemed pretty typical of teenagers – strange postings on their walls from their friends with cryptic lingo that I wasn’t nearly hip enough to understand and funny pictures that would someday make great fodder for rehearsal dinner slide shows (I downloaded some myself).

Unfortunately those pictures weren’t always so funny – well, not to me anyway.  These are good kids, but they are teenagers after all and as such they sometimes make some of the same mistakes that we made.  I took my share of very silly pictures in the mid to late 80s (pretty tame in comparison to what you see from some kids these days), but those pictures had little chance of ending up anywhere besides a forgotten scrapbook or in the trash as I got older and wiser.  Now in the age of Facebook, pictures can get downloaded, Photoshopped and posted all over the internet in seconds. 

Teenagers are wiser now than they used to be when it comes to cyber-stalking, but what about their real life friends and acquaintances?  Some of my young relatives have over 700 Facebook friends – I find it hard to believe that anyone can implicitly trust that many people.  Case in point, one new term that has made its way into the lingo of social media is “cyber-bullying.” Yes, it’s not bad enough that kids have to worry about caddy former friends spreading rumors around the lunchroom - now they get to worry about unfriendly classmates viciously attacking them online for a much larger and more permanent audience to see. I once got a friend request on Twitter (another social media site) from a young man who had created a web site with nude photos of his former girlfriend after a nasty breakup.

 While it can be damaging enough for these kids to have risqué photos published on the web now, the longer lasting worry is how they will affect them when they are ready to apply to universities or for a job.  One of the first places employers go to learn about what job candidates are really like is the internet often starting with Facebook.

But, I’ve also learned through my Facebook adventures that there is some good news too.  Facebook can be a great place for teenagers (actually all of us) to not only communicate with each other, but to also learn about marketing themselves for when they are trying to get into that Ivy League school or find a job in a very competitive market.  There are a lot of teenagers out there doing great things with their lives like excelling in team sports and extracurricular activities, volunteering and starting businesses.  Facebook is a great medium for organizing activities and marketing themselves if used responsibly.  So instead of trying to ban your kids from Facebook, consider embracing it with some general guidelines like the ones below: 

1. Lists - Users can compile lists among their Facebook friends and use those lists to dictate who gets to see what.  Personally, I allow only my family connections to see pictures of my children and personal contact information on Facebook. See the privacy settings here

2. Professional profile pictures – Most Facebook users allow the general public to see their profile picture to help potential friends find them.  Posting a conservative or professional looking profile picture sets a good first impression.

3. Grandparent test – Only post status updates, videos, and pictures that are appropriate for a grandparent, teacher or potential employer to see.  Your teenager might think twice about posting that skimpy bikini picture if she knows her grandfather might see it.

4. Friend relatives –Encourage your teenager to at least friend an older relative or trusted family friend if you are not going to insist they friend you.  My young relatives probably get annoyed with me when I leave disapproving comments on inappropriate pictures (encouraging their removal), but I’m pretty sure some day they’ll thank me for caring enough to risk their anger.

For more information about teens online visit the OnlineFamily.Norton site at check out topics on Internet Safety and your Teen.

Misty Khan is a mother of 2 and the CEO of Advena Artemis LLC. You can learn Business Tips from Misty at Arrow-Tips about Business Planning & Process, CRM Implementation & Optimization, and Project Management within different industries. 

ShareThis

Mommy & Me is the premiere shopping and lifestyle event for families. We heard the Woodlands, TX event in April was the place to be. There were scores of organized activities for children ages 1yr-13yrs, tons of shopping, spa, pampering, and interactive activities for mommy too.

View pics from The Woodlands, TX Mommy & Me

.

When: Saturday, June 27th, 11am-2pm

Where: Sugarland Community Center

226 Matlage Way

Sugar Land, TX 77478

.

Admission is $5 for a family of 5 or less.

(Partial proceeds will benefit Cancer Counseling.)

• Complimentary food and beverages

• Fun gift bags and fabulous door prizes

•

OPMOM will be there with our signature drink… The Italian Wedding Cake Soda. This drink is DELICIOUS, and your tummy’s won’t want to miss this!

Page Parkes, Center of Modeling and Acting will be hosting a model call from 10:30 am -12:00 pm

For more info call:
(832) 431-8184 or email shop [at] mbellishonline [dot] com

•

ShareThis

Recipe Makes 1 Drink

3 ounces of cream or vanilla cream soda
2 ounces of pineapple juice
1 teaspoon of chocolate martini syrup
Serve over crushed ice

It appears we can create all kinds of edible and drinkable goodness from our collection of Italian Wedding Cake recipes.

This time around we have created and perfected an Italian Wedding Cake Soda inspired by the Italian Wedding Cake Martini.

We will be serving these up at Sprout Day this Sunday, May 31st. Stop by from 2-4pm and hang out, drink up, and set your eyes on the new Sama Baby summer collection. We hope you can make it and have one with us!

This is a great summer treat for the kids, especially when you top it off with white chocolate shavings and a yummy piece of pineapple. ENJOY!

ShareThis

The facts:
- 90% of middle school students have had their feelings hurt online.
- 75% have visited a Web site bashing another student.
- 40% have had their password(s) stolen and changed by a bully who then locked them out of their own account or sent communications posing as them.
- Only 15% of parents polled knew what cyber-bullying was.

SOURCE: wiredsafety.org

We have all read about it and listened to it on the news about kids being taunted online. The statistics show that Cyberbullying is the #1 issue online for kids today in Middle School and High School.

So as our children venture online or if they are already there then we need to be aware of the signs of Cyberbullying. Signs of victims can include a change in behavior or attitude. For example if you child uses instant message and starts blocking friends or not using it as often then you will want to talk to them about it.

Which leads me to the next thing, talk to your kids! Make sure you understand where they like to go online and who they socialize with just like you do in their offline life. The more active you are about keeping a regular dialog with your children you will be in the loop on whatever is happening to them online.

Bullying in any form can result in long-term psychological harm such as low self-esteem, depression, anger, poor academic performance, truancy, and, in some cases, violence against self or others.

If you child becomes a victim of Cyberbullying then here are some things that you need to do.

- Keep hard copies of messages and posts
- Contact the service provider through their IP Violations letting them know what is happening
- Block the communicators so that they cannot reach your child
- If it is believed to be someone from school then you will need to engage help from school officials

A good way to be in the loop about what is going on in your child’s life is to keep the computer in a centralized area and put service like Onlinefamily.Norton.com on the computer to help you monitor what they’re doing and who they are talking to. Establish rules in your home about email, IM, and private information and what is appropriate. Tell your children about the grandma rule that Marion Merritt from Onlinefamily.Norton.com talks about - that if they don’t want grandma to see it then it probably shouldn’t be out there.

For more information on Cyberbullying visit the Norton Library of Cyberbullying

ShareThis