Wedding Crates + Barrels [Please Vote!]

Written by on in Guest Bender, Tidbits and Treats

Hello peaches!

I swear I must have food on the brain 24/7/365. As I was making dinner tonight, I decided it might be fun to address all of you by food nicknames for a while. We’ll see how long this lasts ๐Ÿ˜‰ Do you like peaches? I feel as though I may alienate any male readers with this new endeavor…

So here’s the deal:

Bobby and I have entered Crate & Barrel’s Ultimate Wedding Contest!

It would mean so much to us if you would go and vote on our behalf. In fact, it would be a dream come true ๐Ÿ™‚ If you aren’t ready to click over just yet…here’s our official entry:

Becoming Mrs. Jenn Krenn

Our love story.

Who knew school uniforms could be romantic? Bobby and I met during our sophomore year high school English class: I was arguing FOR school uniforms while he was arguing AGAINST. Our bickering โ€“ and flirting โ€“ made us fast friends, but I was convinced that was as far as it would go. Seven years, four diplomas and one engagement ring later, I’m ready to walk down the aisle with the guy who has seen me at my best and my worst (which I argue is not often). Call me biased, but I think Iโ€™m the luckiest girl in the world.

Three important details about our Ultimate Wedding.

Our wedding is about the numbers: 1. My dad is the oldest of 10 kids with 20 cousins on his side alone. The Ultimate Korducki-Krenn Wedding would ensure that all of our loved ones are present. 2. Our special day will be in sunny Scottsdale, Arizona on 10.16.10, our 83-month anniversary (and one month before the โ€˜seven year itchโ€™)! 3. Bobby proposed on the 1st hole of our favorite Chicago golf course three days before my 22nd birthday. The wedding reception will be held at the โ€œ19th holeโ€ clubhouse of our favorite Scottsdale golf course.

Our everyday dream day.

Wake up at 9:00 a.m. on a sunny, warm Chicago day (you said it was a dream!) for an 18 hole round of golf โ€“ loser buys brunch. Eat a delicious meal โ€“ Bobbyโ€™s paying โ€“ of oven-baked omelettes and blueberry pancakes from Walker Bros. Original Pancake House. Meet up with friends and family at a Northwestern Wildcats football game (Go Cats!). Following victory, head to Benihana and enjoy chicken fried rice and raspberry sorbet. Come home, open a bottle of red wine and watch episodes of The Office, Lost and 24. Did I mention we love food?!

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I think that this is Crate & Barrel’s first major endeavor into the power of social media and word of mouth self-campaigning. So…here goes! I would be honored if this blogging community — all the friends I have made and all of my lovely readers — would vote at least once on my behalf. All you have to do is visit this link and add your email address: Becoming Mrs. Jenn Krenn.

If you’re on Twitter, it would be a HUGE help if you could RT the following:

RT @EatingBender Let’s call it #jennkrenn! Your vote for our dream wedding would mean SO much to us. Click here: http://bit.ly/cCAlD5!

Last but not least, I would be forever grateful to anyone who is willing to link to this blog post or directly to the contest link on their blog: http://www.ultimateweddingcontest.com/entries/21473

I know I’m asking a lot, but if you have the time and are willing…THANK YOU!

I promise I won’t devote this long of a post to it again, but I will be including the link every now and then just in case ๐Ÿ˜‰ We are absolutely giddy over the possibility of us being chosen for the finals!

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As if this post couldn’t get any more special to me, I would like to bring in a very special guest blogger this evening. He doesn’t have a blog (though maybe he should?): BABY BENDER!

This was completely unexpected. When it popped into my inbox last night, I could not stop laughing. Papa Bender may know how to cook, but the photo quality could use some work ๐Ÿ˜‰

Still, I just can’t see not posting it. So bear with the blurry and washed out images. I hope it brightens your day just as it did mine. Those of you who know a bit more about my brother will definitely see the humor in his language. He’s quite the comedian.

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๏ปฟ๏ปฟGuest Bender: Baby Bender

Hello Bloggers. I am Eric, Jennโ€™s little brother. You can call me โ€œBaby Bender.” My dad and I (โ€œPapa Benderโ€) were bachelors this weekend and I am starting to learn to cook. Nothing fancy and my sister will cringe, but itโ€™s a โ€œguy foodโ€ weekend with Baby Bender in charge of the menu. We are having hot dogs on Saturday with ribs and chicken on Sunday. Let me share with you our weekend dinners.

Saturday night, I cooked some hot dogs. It is important to start with good meat, even if itโ€™s hot dogs. You can see me here with some Chicago all beef hot dogs. These will be good.

Papa Bender likes to cook hot dogs and brats in a little beer (he is from Milwaukee) before putting them on the grill. The hot dogs will cook for 5 minutes in the beer/water mixture before I put them onto the grill. This gives you a moister hot dog and keeps it from getting burnt on the outside and uncooked on the inside when it is grilled. In case you are wondering, I did not drink any beer as all of it went into the cooking pot.

I have learned to like vegetables and tonight I am cooking some zucchini and onion with a little olive oil, sea salt and garlic. This is a good combination and my dad always wants us to eat our vegetables.

I had my hot dog with cheese (I have Cheesehead roots) and my dad had his with pickles. We both had a Caesar salad to go with dinner.

Finally for dessert, I had some ice cream. Itโ€™s probably not very healthy, but I like to take an extra scoop when my sister isnโ€™t here.

On Sunday, we had some ribs and chicken. We rubbed some spices into the ribs and let them sit overnight in some BBQ sauce. I will slow cook them at 175 degrees for almost 3 hours before I put them onto the grill. Then they will fall off of the bone.

The chicken breasts are marinated in a touch of olive oil and some Italian spices and then added to a dish with spaghetti sauce, chicken broth and Parmesan cheese. These will be baked at 350 degrees for one hour. There is a lot left over which is by design โ€“ so we can enjoy it during the week.

Add a baked potato and the broccoli that is always nearby in our house, and you have a very nice meal to start off the week.ย  Just what a growing six footer needs!

All in all a fun guys weekend with good down home basic food a 16-year-old can love.

Baby Bender

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You officially know more about me and my family in one post than I ever thought would be possible. I hope I still have readers after this one ๐Ÿ™‚ Can I count on your vote?

More guest posts and fun to come this week!

Abrazos,

52 Comments

  6. Ah!!I love little bender’s guest post!!! Great JOB!!!

    And you totally know I voted for you…and might have done some finagling on several computers in our house to vote more…and clear cookies…but you didn’t hear that from me!

  9. Ooo, glad Mara gave me the idea to vote with multiple email addresses (I was sad I could only have my one vote haha). I love how when your brother mentions that your dad likes to cook the hot dogs in beer, he just explains it be saying he’s from Milwaukee. Got to love Wisconsin ๐Ÿ˜€

  10. Of course you have my vote! Will do it right after this. ๐Ÿ™‚

    Hello Baby Bender! You did a great job with your post, and although I’ve never had cheese on a hot dog and am from New England, I do have an authentic cheesehead!

  11. ah sister girl when I first read “baby bender” I definitely thought you had a bun in the oven!!

    now I have a serious question – how many times can we vote?! I’ll do anything in my power to help the most generous and kind-hearted human being I know win her dream wedding! you deserve nothing less ๐Ÿ™‚

    love you!! xo

  12. voted girl! I hope you guys win! That would be awesome ๐Ÿ™‚

    and I LOVED this post from your brother – he should have his own blog ๐Ÿ˜‰

  14. Just voted. Hope you win!

    Sorry we didn’t connect this weekend. I overslept quite a bit on Sunday. Let’s try to squeeze in a phone call soon.

    LOVED LOVED this post by the way. I liked hearing from Baby Bender.

  16. Holy cow! When I first heard about “Baby Bender” I thought you were pregnant! Hehe! Then I realized that would not be Baby Bender, but Baby Krenn ๐Ÿ˜‰

    I Re-tweeted…I am voting…I’m rooting for ya!

  20. Loved this post. Baby Bender/Eric is the best and I look forward to grilling w/ Papa Bender someday.
    I voted from all 6 of my different email accounts! I encourage you all to do the same! I don’t think they send you spam but if they do, you can always unsubscribe! I hope you win!!

  23. I voted. Can we vote everyday or just once? If it is daily I will be glad to do it if you remind us! Good luck to you!!

  24. Wow, I LOVED reading your story. I know I’ve said it before, but I am so happy for you, Jenn.
    PS 83 months?! I just had my two month anniversary yesterday!

  25. I voted Jenn and I’ll be tweeting it up soon. How many times can we vote? Daily?

    Oh man, Baby Bender is quite the comedian. I enjoyed reading his post immensely. I liked the part about taking an extra scoop of ice cream when you aren’t around. ๐Ÿ™‚

  28. OMG jenn this post is amazingggg!!!!!! I AM voting for u right nowww and your lil bro is the BEST ๐Ÿ˜€ Ahhhh i hope u get it, you guys really deserve it.

    • Um, how about YOU’RE amazing!! Thank you for the sweet comments about the contest and my bro ๐Ÿ™‚ You’re such a sweetheart. OMG it’s February!! Do you know what this means?!

  29. I am in that contest too, so sorry, cannot vote for you especially since you have more votes then me. I cant fathom how people have 1000 votes already. It’s all about how many people you know.

  32. You’ve got my votes and retweets and all! Love the way you presented you and Bobby’s story!

    Hi Baby Bender! Great guest spot, I should let my brother post sometime ๐Ÿ˜‰

    • Hurray! I’m so happy to hear that — I just voted for you, too ๐Ÿ™‚ You’re up to 116 now. Go girl go! I’m so glad they changed the rules because that was absolutely ridiculous. I’m sure people were making up emails. I hope they do something about that. GOOD LUCK!

  36. Voted, you now have 246! GOOD LUCK! I hope they get rid of all those cheaters with the incredibly high votes, that suspiciously stopped multiplying when they changed the voting.

  37. Three cheers for Baby Bender! I think it’s awesome that your family is getting in on the guest posts ๐Ÿ™‚ And good luck in the dream wedding contest.

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