Today was The Big Event, aka the reason that I am in New York City. The event was held at the breathtaking Mandarin Oriental Hotel right in front of Central Park:
We were on the 35th floor, and the views were magnetic to all of our over-eager blogger cameras:
Only problem: The dang glass (note puzzled looks and wrinkled noses). After we all tried shooting at different angles, with and without flashes, sideways, and using our invisibility cloak and STILL not being able to get rid of our reflections, we finally realized what we needed to do to satiate our photographical needs: cover the reflection with ourselves.
Uh, duh.
There we about fifty of us, almost all women, except a couple outliers: 
Isn’t he precious? He tried hard to steal the spotlight with his cuteness factor – he tried so hard that he exhausted himself and totally missed the event due to an unavoidable nap.
Our host was Euro-Pro, a company that I have become very impressed with over the past two days. They are a family owned business specializing in very original ideas in cleaning and kitchen products. What really impresses me is how genuine they are in pursuing and trying to gain feedback from consumers like us, and using that information to come up with new products that fill existing needs, rather than spending all of their time in advertising and convincing people that they need their product.
They had so many of their company’s executives there, as well as several from their marketing company, Alpaytec, all intent on investing in quality time with us and listening to ideas and feedback.
The main unveiling at the event was the Ninja. And wow – it is going to make my life so much easier! If you’ve been reading for any length of time, you know how much I love juicing fruits and veggies, and especially making them into smoothies (mostly just the fruits – I’m not daring enough to try to feed Chris a carrot and spinach smoothie – no need to waste perfectly good vegetables.) You may also remember that I bought a new blender in the attempt to actually CREATE my smoothies, as my old one wouldn’t crush ice.
My new one wasn’t much better – I am always finding myself shaking it, beating it, opening and rearranging it, and in general strong-arming it into simply doing what it says it will do and CRUSHING ICE.
It especially refuses to crush ice without a liquid accompanying the ice, which makes my smoothie making MUCH more complicated.
But get this: I personally tried it out, so I can vouch that I:
– Put JUST Ice Cubes (no liquid) in the Ninja,
– Pushed the button for MAYBE 15 seconds at most
– NEVER had to shake, beat, or otherwise manhandle it,
and ended up with snow:
I am in LOVE.
Dear Blender-that-I-paid-twice-as-much-for-as-a-Ninja-costs: I hope that you can find a loving new home via E-bay.
Our celebrity chef, Robin Miller (who was quite hilarious and entertaining, by the way,) also showed us a lot of other uses for the Ninja that REALLY speed up food prep:
In just a one hour demonstration, she made 7 or 8 different items, including chicken salad, salsa, smoothies, sorbets, pasta sauce, and Mushroom Soup, all of which we got to eat later at an amazing lunch:
The sorbet, of course, was my best friend.
I will be making me some sorbet. Very soon. I bet sorbets make a great side item for smoothies.
We also got to see all of their steam cleaning and vacuum products, 
Which were also super-cool. I had no idea that you could steam clean and sanitize your floors and counters using no cleaning chemicals at all – obviously I am WAY behind in my cleaning technology.
All in all, the event concluded with a bunch of Moms drooling all over cool new toys that will supersize our Mommy-Quality-of-Life – yes, we were completely starstruck by the Ninja and it’s steamy friends.
And finally, to make the event all the sweeter, I got to connect with some bloggers that I’ve worked with at 5 Minutes for Mom, but have never met in real life – Shera from A Frog in My Soup and Lisa from Crazy Adventures in Parenting:
And, of course, our token napping baby, who TOTALLY wants to be a Ninja when he grows up, too.
The Ninja can be viewed in more detail at www.ninjakitchen.com
Blogger Integrity Information: Although my travel and accommodation is being provided by the host company for this trip, they are not paying me for or requesting that I blog about their product. All opinions that I have shared or will share in the future are my own opinions.
what a fun time. Glad you approve of the Ninja. When does it hit stores, so that us regular people can purchase it?
Hey Karen!
They are now available – you can click on the link where I said "Ninja" or just go to http://www.ninjakitchen.com.
What fun! I love Shera…she is the sweetest. I am still so jealous that you got to go to New York…and that hotel looks BEAUTIFUL! And I want the Ninja!!!!I love your outfit by the way!!
Yumm-o! So, does this mean you will use your Ninja to make chicken salad now? You totally need to learn! ; )
Great post about the Ninja event! I'm looking forward to getting mine in the mail! It was a fun time… great meeting so many bloggers, too!
It sounds like everything was so great. I am glad you had a good time plus got you a new toy. Where do you get those things?
It was nice to meet you IRL instead of just at Sayitfacetoface. I agree with everything you said…except you left out the yummy chocolate dessert.
I'm wishing I had some of those products right now since our dog spilled a flower pot on the hallway rug.
AWESOME!
Also please post the pictures in the Ninja costumes. Thanks.
;)
My mom has one of those steam sharks! They're amazing!
Looks like you had a ball!
It was so great to meet you yesterday! Next time you're in Atlanta, we should hang out or go to the next Dragon Con LOL. Fun Fun! ; )
Ooohhh. I think I might want a Ninja! I made chicken salad the other night and it took forever using my mini-chopper. I think I salivated over your picture of the sorbet. Have fun!
dude. I want one. . .almost as much as I want a steam mop! bring on the giveaway : )
Oh, I am sooooo jealous!!!!
Wow, that food looks amazing! I'm interested to see if the Ninja works out in an everyday kitchen. I always see those infomercials and the products seem like they do so much and make such a difference, but then they end up living in a cubbord and coming out once a year. Keep us posted on if your Ninja becomes a successful part of your kitchen!
I was wondering what all that ninja talk on Twitter was LOL Now I know! That thing looks so cool, I want one! Will check out the website :)
The Ninja sounds really cool, I might need to put that on my Christmas list!
My mouth was watering just looking at all that yummy food, since you're getting a Ninja maybe you could try out some of the recipes for our small group to try out :)
Dude! I just checked it out and was stoked that they had them BOGO then that smile turned into a frown when I saw shipping was almost $30 :( But I still may have to have one…
I want the Ninja AND the steam cleaner. Do they make the shark or is it another brand? Do you get to try the steam cleaner? I have read reviews of the shark saying that it was kind of flimsy. I would love to get your feedback.
Oh, also, you've got to check out this post http://www.onefrugalfoodie.com/2009/08/16/true-blue-smoothie/. I wrote my own post with my modifications http://allaccesspasstojack.blogspot.com/2009/09/all-about-eating.html. You really really can't taste or see the spinach. Chris would never know. :)
OMG the pictures! The recap! Fanfriggintastic!!! I miss you, lady! It was SO great to hang with you! We have got to do that again, it was entirely too much fun. We need Robin Miller to show up, too. I'm still holding out hope they accept my added bit on the paper we handed in, and they send her to me for a week HA! {giggle}
Whoa! Girl, look at you and your Mommy blogger self! You are rocking this thing. AND major thanks for the Ninja heads up. I'm in love with it and off to order today.
Im so jealous! That sounds soooooo much fun! How do you get to do these cool things?! Still waiting on the "how to take your blog to the next level post".
fun!
we have a shark steam mop and LOOOOVE it!!!
actually SCOTT is the one obsessed with using! :) I LOATHE cleaning floors, so he ends up doing that dirty work!
the Ninja looks great tho!
Okay, so should we be looking for you on the Ninja infomercials that are sure to hit televisions soon? Haha! I definitely want one! One look at those margaritas on the website and I'm in love. :)
Oh I knew that was Lisa's baby! I recognized him from Type-A!!
I want a Ninja right now and I'm going to throw a tantrum.
Are you going to BlogHer? Cuz I love you. (blogger love not wrong love)