Celebrating Moments at the Dinner Table with IKEA’s Together, We Eat Campaign – PLUS, IKEA GIFT CARD GIVEAWAY

Disclosure: I-C interviewed Katie Lee to facilitate our interview. IKEA provided a Bjursta table and two Terje chairs, as well as the gift cards to give away, to facilitate our post. All opinions are our own.

No matter how busy our lives, coming together over dinner to reconnect with our families proves essential to happiness and a sense of fulfillment. Over the dinner table, we share tidbits of our day, thoughts and observations, stories and good food. Whether from a recipe passed down for generations, or a new kids’ new favorite, the food we create, eat, and love becomes part of our family traditions.

To embrace these cherished family dinner table moments, IKEA U.S. announced the launch of Together, We Eat; a quest to find the 50 best stories behind family recipes, celebrating the power of connection that food and the activities around it – from preparing to serving to eating – can bring. From now through October 27, IKEA encourages Americans to share the recipes, and more importantly, the tales behind their favorite dishes, to demonstrate how the cooking and sharing of these meals have brought their loved ones together.

From Sunday dinners with Grandma’s famous meatballs to the first time Dad shared his secret BBQ recipe, participants can submit their recipes and stories on TogetherWeEat.com/contest under each of three categories: Wintertime Favorites (Cool Weather & Comfort Food Dishes), Serving Up Spring (Fresh Ingredients from Garden to Table), and Social Summer (Picnics, Cookouts, Reunions & More).  Fifty winners will have their recipes and stories featured, including three grand-prize winners who will receive a prize package including a $1,500 IKEA gift card, a trip for two to New York City for a photo shoot to be included in a future issue of O, The Oprah Magazine, an IKEA “Dinner Party Kit”, and a spotlight story on TogetherWeEat.com/contest. Forty-seven first-prize winners will each receive a $250 IKEA gift card. Visit the website for contest details, deadlines, rules, and important entry information!
We had the opportunity to speak with IKEA Together, We Eat Ambassador, culinary personality and television host, Katie Lee, who shared her personal enthusiasm for the campaign.

Katie’s grandmother was instrumental in her love of baking by involving Katie in the kitchen at an early age. Helping from her step stool, Katie loved baking biscuits with her grandmother, which she found similar to kneading Play-Doh! One of her favorite dishes was her grandmother’s peach cobbler, which Katie now makes for her family and friends. The dish remains very special and nostalgic for Katie.

Katie believes that because she was involved in helping prepare the meals, she was far less fussy about food than many of her friends. She suggests involving children in the kitchen by finding foods kids love, such as baked chicken fingers or tacos, and picking out an easy step of the recipe for the kids to take on. This could mean putting corn cereal in a bag for crushing, to use around the chicken, or helping prepare the fixings for taco night, then having fun assembling their tacos.

Lee insists having friends over for dinner doesn’t have to be fancy and served on fine china. People love connecting and spending time across a table, whether for a casual stew from the slow cooker or something more elaborate.

Katie loves the Together, We Eat contest from IKEA as it celebrates how food connects people. She gets to share her cooking stories all the time, and looks forward to reading similar stories from other families!

We can’t talk about IKEA without highlighting some of our favorite pieces of furniture from the company that helps us connect over dinners with our family.

When gathering around the table, we love it when we can host as many guests as possible – but living in an apartment, just don’t have the. I was excited to discover the Bjursta extendable table from IKEA in brown-black. This dining table with two pull-out leaves comfortably seats four adults with more than generous room, and extends to accommodate up to 8 when you need it!

Terje folding chairs in brown-black match the Bjursta table perfectly, and best of all, fold for easy, compact storage when not in use. At just $19.99, storing extra sturdy, high-quality chairs for dinner parties or get-togethers when I need additional seating proves an easy choice.

We hope that learning about Katie Lee’s inspiration, reading her tips for cooking with children, and seeing how IKEA furniture can bring families together over dinner will inspire you to enter this great contest.

To celebrate the Together, We Eat program among Mom Central readers, IKEA is offering three of our readers the chance to win a $100 IKEA gift card. Enter below for your chance to win!

IKEA Together, We Eat!

Mom Central