The Pampered Chef

I hosted a Pampered Chef party last night – it was just for fun.  I do like their products, but I find them extremely over-priced.  My experience of working for a company that imported goods from China doesn’t help these opinions; that’s when I got to see how inexpensive plastics can really be.  But anyway…  we did have fun.  And an interesting note for all you stoneware fans out there – stoneware is an imposter!  If you’re not familiar with Pampered Chef parties, I’ll give you a run-down of how it all went down…

When you agree to host a party, you choose one recipe to make with all the victims, I mean, friends, you invite to your party.  I, being pregnant, could not resist the sound of the chewy caramel brownies.  We were having a grand old time, measuring things, chopping things, and spilling ingredients all over my living room, until the consultant proceeded to burn the brownies to a crisp!  The smoke alarm went off and scared the kids and everything!  Which brings me to the subject of the mythical stoneware, noted for its ability to cook things evenly.  Guess what?  The brownies did burn edges first!  So much for that theory.  My husband, ever the conspiracy theorist, was wondering if she didn’t burn the brownies on purpose trying to gain sympathetic orders from my victims, errr, guests.  But, once we saw the effect of the stoneware, this theory was proven incorrect by the sheer failure of the purpose of the stoneware.  Needless to say, I will not be choosing any stoneware items with my party-hosting credit!  And I have to admit, the brownies were a big disappointment.  Not at all cuz they were burned, but because they were TOO sweet and rich for my tastes, however pregnant I am.  I did feel badly for the consultant; but stuff happens, gotta chalk it up to gaining experience.  Overall, I would recommend hosting one of these parties.  It’s fun to get together with your victims, I mean your friends and family and cook.  You have to be a little bit willing to stand up for yourself though – the consultant WILL pressure you to invite tons of people, call them all constantly to remind them to come, and will also try her darndest to get YOU to be a consultant yourself!  And since my “excuse” of having 3 kids 8 yrs and under PLUS 1 on the way wasn’t really good enough – I had to “just say no” in the end – good luck to you!  So as long as you can deal with the peer pressure involved, it is definitely worth a try to host a Pampered Chef party.  And thanks to all my suckers, I mean, my guests who ordered things – that was really nice of you and I appreciate it – we had fun!