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 favourite Christmas memory was when my family along with 2 other of our family friends went to Hawaii together! Before Christmas day we would prepare and shop for secret santa gifts for each other and then on Christmas open them. It was so fun to see everyone’s reactions and most of all to spend time with our close friends and family!
my favorite holiday memories were those spent with my parents and brothers on a cruise every Christmas. Growing up Jewish, Christmas always consisted of Chinese Food and Movies; coincidentally, my parents also got married on Christmas Day- our Cruises over Christmas became an annual tradition and it was a time my family bonded and celebrated together and really got to enjoy the holiday season
Being from an immigrant family, we had our best Christmas in 1981 , when we didn’t have anything and our church sponsors brought us our Christmas tree. Was so appreciated by my family in this new country. The true spirit of brotherhood and love. love your blog Stephanie!
Just like my grandma did 40 years ago, I tell my kids my hands are old and dry when they ask why the (Italian) S-cookie dough doesn’t stick to my hands but it does theirs when rolling it out. Wow. It really is a full circle.
My favorite memory is coming home after a day of skiing on the mountain, snow, lot’s of snow, and hunkering down with family for dinner while Christmas music hummed in the background.. My mom doesn’t cook, let me repeat, DOES NOT COOK but luckily I have adopted a love of cooking. I don’t have food memories as a child but rather being with family and the laughs that that undoubtedly brings. I think the best part of the holidays is embracing past traditions, weather that be food, movies or games and mixing that with the new changes that life always offers. Living in the present but remembering the past. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
My mother used code names on our presents instead of our real names. My favorite memory is us kids trying to guess the which code name stood for us.
My favorite holiday memory is pretty general—Christmas at my grandma’s. Nothing beats the spread of Italian food and the house filled with family. I’ll miss it this year, spending the holidays with my husband’s family!
I loved decorating the Christmas tree – from untangling all the lights to gently unpacking each ornament and being reminded of all the memories behind each one!
When my sister and I started getting older my mom transitioned to decorating our full-size tree with beautiful themed decorations. My favorite holiday memory is getting to decorate the small (1-2′) tree with my sister using our handmade or other silly ornaments. We got to make that tree our own.
My favorite winter holiday memory demonstrates my grandfather’s love of pranks. Christmas was his favorite time of the year and his only request was that the girls wear red and everyone be together. My family would go to their house after opening presents at our own homes to have brunch and open gifts with them. Each year, my grandmother would put $50 in our stockings. That year, my grandfather took out the $50 bills after she went to bed and replaced them with $1 bills after she went to bed. We all opened our stockings and saw the money, but no one complained and everyone said “Thanks!” One of my cousins quietly commented that things must be hard this year. After we were all finished opening presents, my grandfather told us that our grandmother was very cheap that year, but he had gotten us some extra cash and handed out the $50.