4th of July food fun- An Exchange program

If there is one positive things to come out of this blogging, I have made friends I never would have "met" otherwise. I started my personal family blog in the fall of '07, and have loved reconnecting with old friends and getting to know some new ones.
Even though I am new to the cooking blog scene, there have been several people that found me and continue to check in and actually leave comments! One sweet friend is Sonya. She is an American living in The Netherlands, and has a cooking blog. She found me and started commenting, so I started reading her blog. She does a great job of learning and bringing in the Dutch culture, but she frequently laments how hard it is to get good American items. They are either not available or ridiculously overpriced. She drives to Germany just to get chocolate chips!!!!
So I proposed an exchange. I would send her items I could get here easily and cheaper, and she would send me fun Dutch treats. Let's be honest- I will more than likely never make it to The Netherlands, but now I feel like I have!!! I sent her a package last month, and I just got my package of Dutch treats a few days ago. I had my family over last night to do fireworks (we live outside city limits), and we opened the box and tried all the treats. It was so fun! We pretty muchly enjoyed everything, and it is interesting to see how other people eat.

Our package of goodies!!

Sonya's 2 favorite cookies from The Netherlands.
I loved the waffle cookies with a caramel-like filling.
Lots of yummy lollipops for the kiddos to eat. Even the brown salty caramel lollipops weren't that bad. Apparently, they are crazy about salty treats over there.
A cola flavored lollipop

My sister made the awesome brownie burgers that I saw on Bakerella. She did a GREAT job- they looked perfect and they were so yummy!! I want to do those myself, and the yummy sugar cookie fries.

Here's the Story...

of a blog called iCook. (Are you humming the Brady Bunch theme yet?? Sorry...)

Anyway, here's the story of how iCook got it's name. I had been toying around with the idea of a cooking blog for a long while. Like, at least 6 months. But I wanted a good name, something that I thought of, that was original. So, I stockpiled ideas for this "cooking blog idea" and knew that eventually something would come together.
Fast forward to August. My family are huge sports fans. NFL is my favorite, by far, and by August I am getting so excited because football is about to start!!! My husband and I added the HBO channels just to watch Hard Knocks, because they were following around the Dallas Cowboys and filming their training camp and pre-season football games. Terrell Owens is a wide receiver for the Cowboys and he came up with his own line of shirts and handed them out to the team at training camp. Here is the website for the shirts. They said things like, iBlock, iSack, iRun, iPlay- all football terms and things that football players do. Well, I LOVED these shirts. I love T.O. and think he is great- he was super funny on Hard Knocks. So I told my husband I wanted a shirt that said iCook. Because that is what I do. Definitely not iRun... Then, a lightbulb went off- iCook!! That's it!! The name of the cooking blog!!! I finally found it, all thanks to T.O. (that's what they call Terrell Owens). So, my sweet husband surprised me and actually ordered me one of the shirts. I had to share with you. Here is my shirt and that is the story...

The front, iCook

the back, to please

(it's t.o. to be like Terrell Owens initials, but it reads like the word to- that T.O., he's so clever...)
I Cook To Please!! I hope I am pleasing to you readers. Please feel free to leave a comment or suggestion anytime- whether I know you or not. That is the point of this blog- to reach anyone and everyone. Feel free to post a link to this blog from yours, I don't mind a bit!! I had in mind some recipe sharing when I started this blog- I have seen other cooking blogs that do a recipe swap, but I'm not so sure about all the details, so I need to do some research first.

Remember: giveaway coming soon.. I am so excited to be able to give you a little something. I will give you a hint: this gift keeps on giving...for a whole year!!!