#SoLetsPigOut Summer Potluck! (plus Sticky BBQ Korean Chicken Wings + a Mighty Nest Giveaway)

#SoLetsPigOut kicks off with Korean Chicken, a MightyNest Giveaway + an interview with Gina of So...Let's Hang Out! | www.thepigandquill.comA little over a year ago, I fell in love with a girl in stunner shades. It was on the internet and things got weird fast. She asked to see my kitchen. I made her some steaks. Chris was concerned.

Ya’ll have met Gina from So…Let’s Hang Out, right?
(If not, she let me pick her brain pretty good in fun interview below. If you want, you can jump there now.)
(Oh ok, giveaway people, here’s a jump to the free MightyNest stuff, too.)

Today I’m super excited because Gina and I are joining forces to celebrate summer with a collaboration we’re calling #SoLetsPigOut (because we’re just that clever). All week long, we’ll be bringing you jointly-tested recipes perfect for summer shindigs, pool parties and other alliterative awesomeness plus hefty giveaways for some of our favorite kitchen essentials. And because just two girls getting interweird 2gether can be kinda sad, we’ve roped 25+ of our closest bloggy friends into rounding out the week with a #SoLetsPigOutPotluck featuring dozens of brand spankin’ new recipes.

It’s all for you, guys. Janet Jackson even said so.

Sticky BBQ Korean Chicken Wings | www.thepigandquill.com | #glutenfree #paleoish #soletspigout

To kick off today’s monster post, we’re sharing a recipe for these Sticky BBQ Korean Chicken Wings that is so clucking clutch, it might just change your summer cookouts for good. It starts with a spicy-sweet marinade loaded with umami and ends with two delirious ladies making endless wang jokes. (Seriously, we should probably not be allowed in the same room together ever again.) Somewhere in between, we added some sticky dates to the mix. Have you dated any chicks lately? It’s a good time. Head over to Gina’s for the full recipe.

Speaking of Gina, I thought it’d be fun for you to get to know Gina as well as I have — or at least as well as you can get to know someone on the internet in 15 questions or less. (Online dating, much?) It’s not quite the same as you being right there with us as we planned this week’s worth of recipes, sweating and swearing over a hot kettle grill in Gina’s front yard. But that’s probably for the best. Because then we’d have no friends. At all. Ever.

Take it away, Gina!

15 Questions with Gina Marie from So...Let's Hang Out | www.thepigandquill.com | #soletspigout

Curious about the girl behind the bangs? You should be. On top of being a cutie patoot, my #SoLetsPigOut cohort is a dang sassy wordsmith, a freer of gluten and is nearly always game to compare notes on our deliciously nineties upbringings. If you don’t fall in love with her in 15 questions or less, you’re proooobably a robot incapable of experiencing complex emotions. (Sors.) Oh yeah, and Gina interviewed me on So…Let’s Hang Out today, too! It’s raw and real and, unsurprisingly, weird. Check it out!

1) What inspired you to start So…Let’s Hang Out?
I was looking for a way to stitch all of my creative bits together into a fun and soul-feeding activity. For me this would include: writing, photography, food, art, and exercising an excessive use of puns and pop culture references.

I basically just wanted a space to use my creative brain, write some words, and to make some tasty eats. Honestly, I didn’t think that anyone was going to read this thing except for my loving mother and maybe my husband. Whoops. No, but really… it still blows my mind when I think that there are people taking time out of their day to come over to my site, read my words, and high-five over all the foods. It’s been awesome and majorly unexpected. So, thanks guys. I like you.

2) If you could have dinner with ANY three people, who would they be and why? They can be living, dead, fictional, holograms, cartoons– it’s a fantasy.
I know I wrote this question, but it’s extremely difficult. I’d like to have lots of dinner parties with lots of people. Maybe not the holograms because that seems next level creepy. Also, can holograms even eat? I’d cook an entire meal and they’d just sit there all glowy and freaky-like. No thanks.

Okay, so I am going to go with Ella Fitzgerald because I absolutely adore her. Her music speaks to my soul, and I basically want to just give her a hug and make her do some after-dinner karaoke with me. I’d also invite my Great Grandma Naki. She passed before she got a chance to meet my fat little baby face. Everyone always has the BEST stories about her and tells me how funny and loving she was. I’d love to hear that laugh that my family talks about in person. Third… hmmm. This is a toughie. Probably Christopher Guest. I am obsessed with his movies. When I was in high school it was a serious dream of mine to be cast in one of his films. Okay, maybe it still is.

3) How would you describe your cooking style?
In two words: “Put Some”. This is how I was taught to cook. My grandma and my mom never used exact recipes. The recipes were more like a list of ingredients. If you ask my grandma how much garlic or shoyu goes into a recipe she will tell you, “You know.. just PUT!” So, I tend to fly by the seat of my pants. When I became a food blogger this had to change slightly (okay, a lot). My “putting” had to translate into measurements. So, I still put… but, I just do it into a measuring cup first. Other than that, I just love food. I especially love food that does a body good. For me that means no gluten and not a ton of refined sugars or processed junk. I love meat. I can really groove out with salad or a plate full of veggies. Oh, and sometimes I’m naughty and dip peanut butter cookies into pots of dark chocolate or accidentally (on purpose) put bourbon in all the things.

4) What’s your spirit animal?
I’d like to think that it’s a polar bear, but if I’m real with myself it’s most likely a Shetland pony with extra flowy locks… and, the heart of a lion, the wings of a pegasus and the personality of Garfield (the cat, not the late president).

5) If you only had three words to describe yourself what would they be?
Loyal, Honest, Loving (I think I just described a dog… should I go back and change my spirit animal question?)

6) Do you consider yourself an introvert or an extrovert?
First can I just say that I’m kinda creeped out by words that end in “vert”. It just feels creepy coming off my lips. Vert, vert, verttttt. Shudder. But, that being said…

I think I’m one of those weird ambiverts. A little from both columns. When I am at a party, in a business situation, or chatting it up online, I present like an extrovert. But, I also really love my alone time and usually take some time for myself to recharge my batteries after an intense social situation. Also, I’m no stranger to a lil’ social anxiety. I don’t think that’s very extrovert-y.

7) If you could only eat one thing every day for the rest of your life, what would it be?
I think it might be ahi poke. My Hawaiian roots rule my stomach pretty hard.

8) What’s your least favorite food?
This is a hard one. I feel like I have the fat kid problem of pretty much liking everything. I tried to eat snails once on a cruise ship. That wasn’t great. If you don’t have your sea legs, and you’re feeling kinda green… maybe don’t order the snails. Rookie mistake.

Or, I usually take issue with any and all airplane food. That stuff is stage five creepy. Why does that ham have an iridescent sheen to it? *Gag* Why does almost everything on the plate smell like old people? I just… No.

9) What’s your blogging process like? (Alternatively phrased: How much bourbon goes into Gina before she decides it’s time to make a cake?)
Hah! Are you kidding me? I’m such an old lady. If I had to day-drink every time I made a cake I would probably just fall asleep by 4pm in my jeans on the floor. Hangovers are so real once you approach 30. But, let’s just pretend that I have to shoot a thimble of bourbon before each recipe creation. I like the idea of drinking out of a thimble. This is getting weird…

I actually wrote an entire post on my writing process. You can check it out here. There’s a photo of me with coconut flour in my bangs– AKA my natural state. As far as recipe development, I just let the seasons and my taste-buds lead the way.

10) What scares you?
When I get the flu, look it up on Web MD, and it tells me that I am going to die in the next thirty minutes. That’s always unsettling.

As a child I was afraid of men with mustaches. It was the 80’s. Not a great time to have a facial hair fear.

Oh, and then there are the REALLY scary things such as: Losing a loved one, city driving, heights, small spaces, and the basic human fear that I’m not good enough (whoa, that got real).

11) Kill Boff Marry: Rocky (of Three Ninjas fame, duh), Corey Matthews, Steve Hale. (If you even think about opening a new tab for Google, we’re breaking up.)(I’m totally not suggesting you boff underage kiddos.)(Ok but seriously, look at Rocky all grown up. Ehhhhh?)
I think that if I answer this question I’m going to end up on a government list somewhere as a pervert. Ugh… vert. These options scare me. I feel like I’m having a Tiger Beat nightmare. I think I’m just going to answer JTT for all of them. Because if I boffed him, I’d have to kill him. Oh, wait… that wasn’t an option.

12) That one movie you can’t help but drop everything and watch when it’s on cable…
Forgetting Sarah Marshall. It’s almost always somewhere on cable, and I cannot resist the funnies. Even if it comes with bogus commercials. Ooooh, or how about The Switch? For some reason I feel the need to watch that movie over and over. Fertility party and all.

13) It’s the future. That kid that sees dead people is a robot that loves or some shit in the longest movie ever made except for it’s real life and gluten has been all backassward engineered into the most whole and nourishing form of nutrition available to yooman kind. What do you reach for first?
This is officially the most confusing thing you’ve ever typed. But, to recap…by some weird miracle gluten won’t make me crap my pants anymore? Cool. Hmm… I wanna say something flakey like a croissant, but I think my heart of heart knows I would go ape-nanas on a bag (or four) of King’s Hawaiian Sweet Rolls.

14) What’s the last thing you regret Googling?
It was an image search for “Friday Memes.” There’s a surprising amount of genitalia photos as memes. Not just normal genitalia either… like… for lack of better descriptors, I’d call it “angry” genitalia. Just don’t google it. Sometimes the internet is the scariest.

15) Your young adult soundtrack in three songs – go! 
Your high school years: Fast As You Can (Fiona Apple)
Your college years: Hey ya! (OutKast)
Your ohshitImdonewithcollege years: If I Was A Boy (Beyonce)

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How smitten are you? I <3 her lots. Almost as much as you love giveaways.
(See what I did there?)

Giveaway! Enter to win more than $225 of kitchen essentials from MightyNest! Enter by 7/31/14 | www.thepigandquill.com | #soletspigout

We’re going kind of big tiiiiiiime with today’s giveaway from MightyNest. What sense does it make to commit to high standards in food if the tools you’re using to prepare, serve, and store it are leaching toxic chemicals into your tasty noms? MightyNest’s safe, environmentally responsible products are the perfect complement to any mindful kitchen. What’s more, through their MightyNest for Schools fundraising program, they donate 15% of your purchase to the school of your choice! Gotta love that.

Lucky for you guys, one #SoLetsPigOut reader is gonna win more than $225 in portable serveware essentials from MightyNest! We’re talking lidded glassware, stainless steel lunch containers, freezeable cooler bags and so much more. Literally everything you could ever need to potluck (or pack lunches) like a pro. You can enter here.

(Giveaway closes on Thursday, July 31st at 11:59pm PDT. Open to US residents only — sorry friends abroad!)

Rad, right?
Also — phew.

That’s it for my portion of #SoLetsPigOut Day 1 — but there’s lots more fun to be had (like those chicken wangs and my interview with Gina) over on So…Let’s Hang Out, today too. Head on over and poke around. Gina won’t bite.

Until tomorrow!
Em

P.S. Don’t forget to enter! 🙂

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Sticky BBQ Korean Chicken Wings | www.thepigandquill.com | #glutenfree #paleoish #soletspigout

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19 Comments on “#SoLetsPigOut Summer Potluck! (plus Sticky BBQ Korean Chicken Wings + a Mighty Nest Giveaway)”

  1. You guys are fun. I’m glad we found each other on this Internet thing. Can’t wait to post my recipe on Friday …. let’s hope I finish my illustration on time!!! :-/ but seriously so excited.

  2. I want to drink things when I see this photo. Also, crap, I botched my twitter name in the entry to win… but ya know, I did like you both, I think! And wait, I DO like you both… SO LET’S PIG OUT FOREVER!!!

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  5. That pic of you two! Adorable! Thank you for bringing Janet Jackson back into my life because I really needed Janet dancing in ripped jeans for my Thursday. Can’t wait to see all the fun recipes 🙂

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