The KFI Platinum Cookware show took place this past weekend. It was a lot of fun to meet so many listeners and new friends. I really enjoyed myself. Of course, it’s hard not to enjoy yourself when people are handing out free food.

If you didn’t get a chance to meet Bill and I at the show, here are a couple of photos of Bill running the cooking demonstration. In typical Bill form, he was shouting and bouncing all over the place the entire time (despite his microphone). He nearly lost his voice altogether, yesterday.

Also, if you missed the event, then you missed your chance to taste our favorite Celebrity Foods. I’m sure that they’d setup a tasting for you, if you give them a call, though. Call my contact there — Jim Miller at 888-632-5746. Tell him that Marjorie told you to ask about getting an after-event sample.

I will joining Bill at the KFI Platinum Cookware show to represent Celebrity Foods.  I’d love to meet some of my readers and Bill’s listeners, as well as share some Celebrity Foods samples with you.  You’ll even be able to see our cookware in action — preparing more Celebrity Foods, of course.

Here’s a clip from Bill’s show that mentions it:
Listen to the Show Clip
Here’s a link to more info on the show: http://www.platinumcookware.com/

The latest edition to the Handel clan: Toyota Highlander Hybrid.

The loving husband that he is, Bill decided to make us lunch the other day, and it was delicious!  Of course, it’s not that hard, with Celebrity Foods-quality products. 

We enjoyed wonderful chicken kebabs, fresh and delicious salmon fillets, and perfect French-cut string beans.  It just takes a few minutes – you pull the package out of the freezer, throw it in the oven, or on the stove for a few minutes, and presto! 

Now, if you’re one of those people that turns your nose at the idea of frozen food, then you’ve got it all wrong.  This isn’t the frozen food of our childhood that just ends up bland and soggy.  Celebrity Foods uses some sort of vacuum sealing and flash freezing process, and everything comes out tasting totally fresh.  It’s the same process that several gourmet restaurants use to preserve their foods.  We once brought some several-month-old hamburger patties out for a BBQ, and guests swore that they were the best burgers that they’d ever had.    It’s really just amazing.

This was our first time with the kebabs, and they were outstanding – if you want to give Celebrity Foods a try, they’ll assign you a personal food consultant that will plan customized menus for you.  Make sure that you tell them to include some kebabs in your order.  Mention me, and they’ll give you some of my favorite desserts for free.

Anyhow, here are some photos of Bill cooking.

I was just organizing some family photos, and I thought I’d post a couple of our trip to China in January.

Handel Family on the Great Wall of China

Handel Family on Hong Kong Harbor

So, like thousands of listeners do every day, I was listening to Bill’s show the other morning in my car, and suddenly, it wasn’t Bill’s voice anymore – it was the dead pan voice of a woman talking about some food delivery service. Oh wait… it was my voice. I cringed. It wasn’t very good. I really wasn’t doing the product justice, my feelings weren’t coming through.. I mean, I really do love Celebrity Foods.

So, I called my girlfriend Ilene and told her, “Ilene, I just listened to my commercial for Celebrity Foods, and it sounded awful. Why do I sound so blah, when I’m not?” Ilene didn’t know, either. She asked, “Well you do love the product right? I mean, you’re always talking to me about, and my mouth waters just thinking about the cheesecake.” I told her that of course I did. I mean, we’ve been using Celebrity Foods for years. We love it, we’re completely satisfied and happy with it, the service is great, and we tell everyone we know that they really must sign up for it. So, why can’t I just say that on the radio? I just freeze up in front of the microphone.

When I picked up Barbara and Pamela from school that day, I told them that I wasn’t happy with the commercials, but they can only be so empathetic because they definitely have the Microphone Gene. Bill and the girls are constantly full of energy (and opinions), and they freely share it with the world. On one hand, I envy that, but on the other hand, we can’t all be good at everything. There are plenty of things that I do better than Bill, after all – not to mention, people don’t call in and yell at me every morning.

I’m a fairly reserved personality and always have been. Over my 20 years of marriage to Bill, I’ve come out of my shell a lot —, I’ve had to in self defense. At the end of the day, I’m a little disappointed that I wasn’t able to explain this product on the radio like I’d meant to, but I have to say that I’m greatly relieved to hand the task over to a very capable spokesperson (Bill) who will definitely do it justice.

Now here’s the great part about this whole process – while I’ve confirmed that I don’t have a radio voice, I’ve learned that I do have an online voice. I believe that the official term is Blogger, and as such, I will continue to share more information about the Handel family with you right here at meetthehandels.com.

So, Bill… you can’t fire me, because I quit… or rather, I have been promoted to the… er… Internet Communications Director for the Handel Family. And seeing as it’s Friday, my first order of business will be to file a gripe for Friday Gripe Night (in the Morning): “What’s the deal with a loud-mouthed radio guy going on the air and talking about his wife’s commercial? Shouldn’t he be covering the news or something?!”

Marjorie “Blogger” Handel, signing off.

P.S. Just for fun — Here’s my last commercial followed by Bill’s replacement spot… What more can I say…

Marjorie’s Commerical

Bill’s Response/Commercial

So, as I said before, we’ve been ordering Celebrity Foods for years, and we love them so much that I recently started doing radio ads for them. As you can imagine, the perk of advertising a gourmet food product is getting delicious food. So, I was very excited when our most recent order came in.

Celebrity doesn’t just ship their food to you, they actually send a driver to deliver it and put it all away in your freezer for you! Our driver is Adrian, and I can only assume that he dreads visiting the Handel House. First of all, we make him fill two freezers — we have to order enough food to accommodate the fickle taste buds of two picky daughters and Bill. Then, after packing and organizing it all away for me, I make him explain what it all is. Adrian is a good sport, though, and he seems to know his product very well. I get hungry just listening to the descriptions: baby back ribs in tangy barbeque sauce, oven roasted pork loin with marmalade glaze, and don’t forget, chocolate mousse pie with real whipped cream (he actually has to pack three freezers, if you count the small freezer for dessert items). Mmm.

I usually try new items in every delivery. This time I ordered some beautiful marinated kebabs. They were gorgeous — they looked like a floral arrangement.

Celebrity gives every client a personal food consultant. When you first sign up, they come to your home or office and map out all of the products that are best suited for your family’s taste and diet. My consultant is Jim Miller, and he definitely gets a 10 out of 10 for figuring out what my family likes to eat. I imagine that all of the consultants are just as good, but you can call our guy (Jim) at 888-632-5746.

Anyhow, here are a couple of photos of the delivery and Adrian the Delivery guy walking me through it. I should probably add “posting photos of him on the internet” as one more reason that we’re his favorite home to deliver to.

So, why did I decide to start a blog? Well, one reason was to share family secrets — products and services that we’ve discovered and can’t live without

It’s always been our family’s policy to only recommend products that we really believe in. For years, Bill refused to promote any products on his show, fearing that it would be a slippery slope into having to sell people junk that he didn’t believe in. Over time, he’s taken a new approach: he (and I) are willing to promote products on the air, but only if we actually use them, love them, and regularly recommend them to our friends. So, here’s where I’m going to share my first recommendation with you:

Celebrity Foods New York Cheesecake is the world’s BEST cheesecake.

About a week ago, we were with some friends at an Academy Awards dinner party. We had volunteered to bring a dessert, and I didn’t have time to make anything or get to the bakery. My saving grace was sitting in the freezer, though. We had a New York Cheesecake from Celebrity Foods sitting in our freezer (we try to always keep one on-hand, in case of emergency). I was a little worried, though — we hadn’t had a dessert emergency for months, if not a year, so this was an old cheesecake. I decided to chance it, though — Celebrity does a really great job packaging their products, so I wasn’t too worried about freezer burn, anyhow. So, we were off to our party, cheesecake defrosting along the way.

Dinner was wonderful, and then someone said, “Time for cheesecake!” (Okay I admit it, great freezer packaging or not, you get a little worried when you’re bringing year old cheesecake to a dinner party!) By now the cake was thawed, and it was quickly sliced up and dished out. I searched my friends’ faces for a reaction when they took their first tastes. As soon as she finished her first bite, a friend across the table from me said, “Marjorie, where did you get this cheesecake? This is the best cheesecake I’ve ever had!” So I told her, I got it from Celebrity Foods — we’ve been ordering our food from them for years.

And guess what? I’ve decided to start advertising for them. I will be recording radio commercials this weekend to tell all of Bill’s listeners about how much we love the products and service.

Yum.

Hello, world, and welcome to our family’s official weblog. I’m Marjorie Handel, wife of KFI radio host Bill Handel, and I’ve decided to put together a website that offers a sneak peak into the life of the Handel family. Not that you needed one — Bill does a pretty good job of broadcasting our lives every morning.

This blog will be a little different than the info you’ll hear on the radio, though. This is where you’ll be able to find out more information on how we live our lives, and where you’ll get to actually see some of the things that Bill’s talking about. You’ll also be able to hear my side of the story, for a change!

So, stay tuned…