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!
I live in Southern California, so Christmas has traditionally be warm and sunny. When my sister and I were little, we begged and begged my dad to take us to build a snowman. Rather than driving up to the mountains or going to the city-sponsored “snow” event, we went on a multi-hour excursion to buy snow spray paint and chase after tumbleweed in the desert. We came back victorious (and full of splinters) with two extra large tumbleweed balls , hosted them onto a stick, spray painted the snowman and propped him up. A few days later the Santa Ana winds kicked up and blew him away, but it’s an experience I’ll never forget. Needless to say, we never asked to build a snowman ever again.
One year I had lost my bunny to a dog and that year my brother got me another one. I spent the whole day caring him around the house.
My favorite holiday memory is sitting around the fireplace eating mini hotdogs that my Grandmother would make religiously. We called them “Little Frankies” and they were the perfect treat, cooked simply in the oven and served with spicy brown mustard and ketchup. For dessert we would have mini ice cream cups from Friendly’s. Memories from my Grandmother’s simple food makes me miss her and the holiday feeling that we had in her house so many years ago.
My favorite winter holiday memory is making potatoe latkes with my mom. Every year we sit around peeling the potatoes and talking about everything under the sun. We laugh we joke we bond and eventually eat delicious fried potatoes. I’ll always remember these times fondly.
We used to go to a Christmas Eve party ever year at a beautiful house in a canyon outside Salt Lake City. I loved bundling up and staring out at the lights as we were driving through the snow.
Favorite Christmas Moment – Seeing my father for the first time @ my age of 21.
My favorite holiday memory: Last year, my sister and her family came home at Christmas for the first time since she beat breast cancer. So everything we did—from the massive appetizer feast (where I literally ate myself sick) to Wii dance battles to everyone failing to stay awake until midnight NYE—seemed a lot more meaningful than in the past.
I think my favorite holiday memory was the one we made this year with our kids. I have always wanted to pick out our own tree and chop it down, it’s something I wanted to do as a kid, and this year we found a small farm nearby and picked out our tree and cut it down. It will definitely be a new tradition for us!
I remember finding a Super Nintendo with my cousins in our basement the night before Christmas and we were so excited! That was also when we learned there was no Santa but the gift was so cool, we didn’t care!
Some of my favorite memories are getting to light the menorah and decorate the christmas tree for the holidays. Growing up in a multi-religion household = double the holiday traditions and spirit.