This site is moving to a new location!

Same stuff, different host site. I’ve decided to switch over to posterous for numerous reasons. The new url is www.emilyrforrest.posterous.com, or you can still get there by just visiting emilyrforrest.com and you will be automatically forwarded.

Thanks for staying with me!

The premise: Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays you can learn how to make the perfect pizza from the famous pizza enthusiast himself. First you’ll make the dough from scratch, and then learn all of the steps from the sauce to the cheese and toppings that will make you a master pizza chef. Classes are 4 hours long for a price of $150, however everything you’ll ever need is provided for you.

I’m so intrigued by this idea that I even started following Pizza a Casa on Twitter @PizzaaCasa in the hopes there will be some special giveaways or inside information that can get me a discount! I think making gourmet pizzas would be a really impressive meal to serve at a dinner party because it’s just not one of those meals that’s often homemade.

Who wants to go with me?

One thing I learned from this experience is back up your data, constantly. Don’t be an idiot like me.

I also learned to be more positive. I cried like a baby in front of the genius bar and everybody stared. But then I realized that it could be worse because luckily I have amazing friends who are willing to share their class notes, photos can be found on Facebook, and music can be replaced. On the bright side Apple has the most amazing customer service so within a few hours I was all set up with a brand new harddrive for my old baby, which I’m giving to my little sister, and I bought a new baby, a MacBook Pro!

So, learn from my mistakes! Go buy an external harddrive right now!!

I went with one of my best friends, Amanda, who in my opinion is a PR superstar, and who like me is really interested in all things social media. I also had drinks with some other Boston University PR students whom I knew from Twitter and class, but had never had the chance to speak to in person. The event was a wonderful networking opportunity because I had some great conversations with a few communications professionals from the area who work at interesting companies like HubSpot and Kel and Partners.

I took away two important lessons from last night:

1. Social media is an awesome networking tool. Going into the event I didn’t know if it was going to be weird to strike up a random conversation with a person I knew from Twitter, but it wasn’t even a little bit. I would never tell somebody I recognized them from their Facebook page, but I had no problem striking up conversation with some Tweeps. A couple people even told me that they knew me from my twitter handle. Everybody was open to conversation, and over the course of a few hours I gained a few new followers. Awesome!

2. People are nicer than you think they are. As a senior searching for a job (any employers out there?) I’ve come across a lot of successful professionals who have been more than eager to help me make connections in the communications industry. Before I started job searching I had this idea that people were too busy for me and nobody wanted to help me. I was so wrong. Of course there are people who have no time for college students, but the majority of the people I’ve spoken to remember how stressful looking for a job is, and are more than happy to hand out advice and sometimes even useful contact information. Last night was a great example of this. Specifically I met one girl who I felt I really connected with and who offered to take a look at my resume. She recently graduated and works at a local marketing & public relations agency. She’s just one example of a person who has gone out of their way to make my job search a little easier.

So, to summarize social media is the best way to network and people will be nice to you! Just remember to be confident in your abilities and present yourself as a knowledgeable and dedicated individual. If you’ve got a passion don’t be afraid to reach out to other people who share it, and social media websites like Twitter and LinkedIn are the best ways to do it!

Lastly, a quick shout out to Eric Leist who put together last night’s event and totally rocked it!

Can somebody please buy me Rocco DiSpirito’s new cookbook Now Eat This!? It would make the perfect graduation present for those of you looking to spend only a few dollars (exactly $12 on Amazon).

I saw Rocco’s cooking demonstration last October when I went to the NYC Food Network Festival. I wasn’t a big fan of his before then, but his demonstration seriously blew my mind. First of all he’s a yummy man who makes yummy looking food. Hello muscles. But, more importantly he’s smart – Boston University alumni – and he’s health conscious! You may recognize him from NBC’s reality show The Restaurant, the 2008 season of Dancing With The Stars, or his appearances on The Biggest Loser. Maybe from Rocco Gets Real on A&E but I’m pretty sure that show bombed.

During the demonstration Rocco prepared (aka his assistant prepared)  two recipes from the new book which at that time was still under construction. The first one was penne ala vodka in which he substituted low-fat greek yogurt for the cream and the vodka. Let me tell you it looked good enough to eat. Unfortunately there were no samples. Rocco recently said this to O! Magazine about using greek yogurt in his recipes, “Yes. Greek yogurt is amazing. Butter has 1,600 calories a cup; cream has 800 calories a cup. Zero percent Greek yogurt is 85, I think. … We respond to rich, thick, creamy textures, so how do you get that without adding fat?” Greek yogurt, duh Rocco.

He also prepared his faux-fried onion rings with smoky mayonnaise. My stomach growls just at the title. These onion rings were baked instead of fried but I could hear them crunch all the way from my seat when he took them out of the oven and let one lucky lady bite into them.

Every recipe in this book is under 350 calories! If you’re a cheater like me you can go to Amazon and view most of the pages of the book before you order it.

My question is Rocco, when are you coming back to television? Perhaps you’d like to team up with Jamie Oliver and create another Food Revolution for people who don’t understand British accents. You have a reputation for being a jerk, I know, but your cockiness would make you a great television host! Maybe Two Minutes To Win It could be your next gig? Extreme Kitchen Makeover? All bad ideas?

My next question is, has anybody tried this book? Please review it by leaving comments!

Now I have one more reason to love Jennifer Hudson! She’s the new face of Weight Watchers!! Jennifer has always been opened to speaking about her weight issues, and I totally respect and admire her for that. She had to gain 20 pounds for her role in as Effie in Dreamgirls where she definitely proved that sometimes big is beautiful, but since then she’s shed a reported 60 pounds! You go girl!

For those of you who don’t know me as well or haven’t read my previous weight-loss focused blog Emmay Eats, I’ve been a dedicated weight-watcher for the majority of my life. A self-admitted chubby child weight watchers taught me that there is no such thing as “bad food“, only portion control. In high school my mom lost 20 pounds on the program and she’s looked great ever since! It seems like Jennifer has had a similar experience as she told the press at an event last Thursday, “I am enjoying the weight loss because I’m doing it the right way — I feel empowered with what I’ve learned, everything from portion control to what foods will help keep me satisfied. I can follow the plan no matter where I am, still enjoy my favorite foods and even use the iPhone app to track my points.”

You can read Jennifer’s New blog, Jennifer Powered, on the Weight Watcher’s community here.

Also, here is one of the new Weight Watchers commercials that I found on YouTube. There are several others so I just picked my favorite! I can’t wait until I see this aired on TV.

I hope that Jennifer’s commitment to a healthy lifestyle is as inspiring to you as it is to me!

Lately I’ve been seeing these strange posters all around my campus for student programs. Finally it clicked with me that these posters are all related to each other because they all advertise buzzcampusinfo.com on the bottom. I checked it out and it just so happens that these posters are advertising a free screening of Toy Story 3! Who would’ve guessed! This is an example of positive buzz because it’s something unique and creative, and it definitely got my attention.

I wonder if there are more posters around campus that I have yet to see. I’m going to keep my eyes on the prize.

Jamie Oliver has been making a big splash with his new show “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution” on ABC.

The premise: Jamie takes over the kitchen at one elementary school in Huntington West Virginia, a place the CDC recently named the most unhealthy place in America, and tries to teach the school how to feed the kids better food. On the first episode the lunch ladies were completely opposed to Jamie’s meal ideas because they claimed unless they serve processed and frozen foods there was no way to produce enough food to feed all of the kids. Jamie claimed that kids want to eat healthy, but after preparing marinated chicken legs and fresh salad the kids basically threw his idea into the garbage.

I think this show is a great wake-up call for parents to see what schools really are feeding their kids. The question is will they care? At home the kids are basically getting the same types of fried foods so for Jamie to really start a revolution he should probably be starting with the parents instead of the school administration. In my opinion the people who are going to watch this show are people who are already keyed into the issues, not people who need the most help.

Maybe you agree more with Ricky Gervais, a fellow British comedian who has been slamming Jamie’s revolution all over Late-Night television. Gervais recently went on the David Letterman show and said the following. Although I think he’s mostly full of BS, I had to post the video because it’s hilarious! You can read more about what Gervais said here.

Tonight’s menu included:

Chopped liver, hummus with roasted pine nuts & cru de te

Honey dates from Northern California

Chicken soup with homemade matzah balls

Ina’s Beef Bourguignon

Roasted white & green asparagus

Passover chocolate torte with raspberry sauce, fresh whipped cream (note: photo is not the original but basically an exact replica)

Chocolate-dipped macaroons

Unfortunately this was my last year celebrating the holiday with my Boston family as next year I’ll hopefully be in NYC. I’ll miss the good conversation and political arguments, but really I’m going to miss the perfectly cooked meat and delicious desserts.

If you’re celebrating the holiday this year the chocolate torte and beef bourguignon are the most delicious kosher-for-passover recipes I’ve ever tasted. While the original beef recipe calls for bacon, you can substitute with turkey bacon as my family did or of course just leave it out.

A sweet & healthy Passover to you all!

This is a really cool idea for all the candy-lovers and science-buffs out there, and I also think little kids would eat this stuff up (no pun intended), but since I’m none of those this product seems pretty weird to me. I drink way too much coffee, but I’m so addicted to it I’ve come to love the taste. If I’m going to get a nice hot cup of hazelnut joe, my favorite, I want to savor every sip and not send it sailing down the back of my throat. Maybe that’s just me. I can see the value of this product for college students on the run who stayed up all night and need a quick burst of caffeine, but I’m not giving up my Starbucks anytime soon.

What gets me is that the company claims on it’s website that the inhaler can help you lose weight. Their product slogan is “the taste of chocolate without the calories.”  I guess they’ve got a point, that if I’m a choco-holic and I start to inhale the taste of chocolate rather than eat a few bars every day I could lose a few pounds, but really I would like somebody to go on the inhalation diet and let me know the results.

According to the HuffingtonPost.com the company is currently working on an inhalable three course meal. Sounds strange to me, but maybe you’d like to try it? What are your thoughts? Have you inhaled any coffee lately?