It’s giveaway time! It’s a massive one guys and I’m pretty excited! For the past week or so I’ve been featuring recipes using Staub, Shun, Cuttingboard.com, Finex, and Kitchen Aid and now’s the time to finally bundle everything up and give it all away. Well, not literally, because you’re actually going to win new items, so there’s no real bundling, just figurative bundling.
win this staub!
I hope you’ve been following along – so far I’ve made Slow Braised Japanese Chashu Pork, Mini Puff Pastry Roses, Caramel Corn and Rice Krispie Mix, and Mint Snowman Marshmallows, but with these giveaway items you can make pretty much anything, which is perfect for the holiday season.
win this shun knife and cuttingboard.com boo’s block!
I love food – as I’m sure you know – and one of my favorite Christmas memories is of me, my brother, and Christmas chocolates. As little kids, come the first of December, we would get chocolate advent calendars. I still see them around now: those thin cardboard drugstore boxes featuring a Christmas picture with tiny numbered windows and chocolates hiding behind them. My brother and I lived for that moment at the end of the day when we got to pry open the cardboard for our long awaited treat. Our eager fingers would melt the chocolate ever so slightly as we tried to eat our chocolates as slowly as possible.
win this finex cast iron pan!
One year, we got it in our heads that we didn’t want to wait. We snuck our calendars down to the basement – it was cold and dark down there and I didn’t like it but my brother convinced me it was the best place to hide – and ate every single chocolate. We ate the entire month of December. And the thing is, we did it in a gentle, artful way where we could close back the windows so that at a casual glance, you couldn’t tell that the calendar was ravaged.
win this kitchen aid!
Maybe it was the sugar-high making us crazy, but we totally thought we got away with it. That is, until it was time for our nightly ritual with our parents. Needless to say, there was no chocolate treat that night. Or the next night, or the next. But, it was okay, because come Christmas morning, there were still presents under the tree. Apparently, our chocolate binge didn’t leave us on Santa’s naughty list, which was a huge relief, because, presents.
These days I’m more into giving than receiving so I couldn’t resist putting together this giveaway for you! I wish I could send everyone a Christmas present but since I can’t, I thought I’d do the next best thing and giveaway some of my favorite things. So, let me know your favorite holiday memory and maybe you’ll be the lucky reader who wins! Good luck!
Giveaway: I’ve teamed up with some of my favorite brands to do a massive giveaway. One lucky reader will win:
Staub 4 Quart Round Cocotte
Shun 6-inch Dual Core Utility Knife
Cuttingboard.com Boos Block Walnut 20×15 Cutting Board
Finex 10-inch Cast Iron Pan
Kitchen Aid Artisan Design Series 5-Quart Stand Mixer w/Glass Bowl in Pearl Silver
To enter: Leave a comment on the blog with your favorite winter holiday memory. I want to hear ALL the details! I’ll randomly choose a winner and notify them through email. Open to US residents only. (Sorry international friends, only American companies agreed to this one!) If you’d like some extra entries use the widget below to follow me on Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest. Contest ends December 21st at 12pm PST. Good luck!
The giveaway is closed! I’ll be announcing the winner in the next week or so after reading through all of the comments. Thank you everyone who entered! There are some beautiful memories here!
Update: Congrats Chelsea, you won! Look for an email from me shortly!
My favorite holiday memory is always decorating the tree at my parents’ house with my grandma Betty. Once we had up all of the ornaments, we would sit on the couch and just admire all the lights. We still do this, but now my mom, my sister, and I drink champagne while we admire our hard work! Thank you for the giveaway!
My favorite winter memory is more of a tradition. Each year my mother makes homemade baked ziti and lasagna for Christmas Eve. We only get it once a year, which makes it very special. One year as teenagers, my siblings and I were being particularly troublesome so my mom bought a store-bought lasagna as punishment. Boy, did we learn our lesson having to wait another year for the dish. On Christmas Eve we all gather around to enjoy the warm dish until our bellies are singing with joy, and then we go drive around the neighborhood with hot cocoa and look at holiday lights. Afterwards we do a pajama gift exchange. Everyone gets new pajamas to wear as we gather and watch “the Grinch,” which reminds us to be giving and that change is possible.
When I visited my 100 year old Great-Grandmother for Christmas, she would insist on doing everything the way it had been done when she was a girl. Along with insisting that our entire family sing ancient Christmas carols, this meant she required REAL CANDLES on the Christmas tree. We would always arrange several buckets of water near the tree in case anything caught fire, and my fire-phobic sister would sit as far away from the tree as possible. One year, my young cousin accidentally bumped into a candle and it fell sideways onto a delicate paper ornament, which immediately erupted in flames. While the rest of us panicked and my mother ran for the fire extinguisher, my uncle (who was closest to the tree) quickly grabbed the flaming ornament with his bare hands and dunked it into a water bucket. After a few stunned moments, my entire family broke into laughter, including my great grandmother. She then made a joke reprimanding whoever thought it was a good idea to have real candles on the tree. She’s no longer with us, but memories of big family Christmases spent with her are some of my fondest.
My mom wasn’t the best cook so our Christmas dinner would consist of either delivery pizza or take out fried chicken. Either way it was my favorite meal of the year as I knew I would be able to open presents immediately after we finished cleaning up.
My favorite holiday memory is decorating my living room with my little sister when we were kids. We had posters of Santa, dusty pinecone lights, expired candy canes, snowflake window decals… it was a blast hauling the big cardboard box from the basement every year.
My favorite holiday memory in the recent past is hopefully not too materialistic, but it was the year that I got my first Cuisinart food processor! For years I would pass over making certain recipes that called for using a food processor. I was missing out on so much deliciousness! If I won this giveaway, I could add some much needed pieces to my kitchen. Thanks for the opportunity, Stephanie!
One of my favorite traditions has to be our yearly Christmas brunch with friends. We rotate houses and eat delicious food and we’ve been doing it ever since I can remember. Now the kids are 5 out of 7 graduated, nearly 6, and boyfriends and girlfriends are present! It’s such a blessing to celebrate together even though we barely see each other throughout the year due to changes in lives and busyness and all. I love being family with friends.
I live 2500 miles from my family…on top of the distance, I live on an island in the middle of the Pacific! I love it but being away from family is hard. My favorite winter holiday memory was last year when my family flew out to spend New Years with me island-style. It was so nice to have everyone around!
My favorite holiday memory, is finally, after all the exams are over and everyone in the family is off work… my sister and I would spend hours tobogganing. We would hike out to this one huge hill at the local golf course and spend all day there. And then come in for hot chocolate :)
My favorite holiday memory is every year making cinnamon rolls for my family on Christmas day and then having bagels and smoked salmon as well – with some capers to top all of it off!