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 mother’s side of family always get together at my grandmother’s house (now my uncle’s) on either 28th or 30th of December. We make fresh mochi for the new year from scratch. We cook mochi rice outside, make round mochi and also square ones by flattening a large sheet of mochi while it’s hot. After we are done making mochi, we eat some mochi for lunch. It’s the best. We usually make ones with kinako, sweet red beans and karami mochi the one with daikon. Karami mochi is my favorite. I moved from Japan to Philadelphia 9 years ago and I’ve never had store bought mochi before in my entire life. I’m going home with my husband and daughter in a week and I can’t wait to see my family and make mochi soon. and this time, my 3 year old can eat mochi!
My parents live 2 hours away and when the came to visit for christmas a snow storm hit and they had to stay for a day or so. I really enjoyed it because we rarely get to see each other, they work and I work so our schedules barely ever meet so we can see one another. Maybe this year it’ll snow on christmas again! :)
Favorite holiday memory is knocking over the Christmas tree when I was 8. Climbed on the banister and with a flying leap I took that tree down! I honestly just wanted to get near the angel on top of the tree, but after the 3 stitches on the bottom of my lip I gave up. Santa still came!
My favorite winter holiday memory is when my whole family gathered together for a hot pot feast while the snow fell outside. Dressed in pajamas, we cozy around the table for the ultimate hot and spicy broth simmering delicate morsels of everything yummy. After we fill our bellies, we settle down to play mahjong for a few hours and end the night with steamy sesame filled dough balls. YUM!!
Favorite holiday memory is getting promised to be able to play in snow with Grandpa on Christmas since it was snowing all Christmas Eve. I was 6 and so excited to show my granddad the snow I ran outside (it was in Colorado) past my mom and basically hit the packed waist high snow with a wumph and doubled over. It hurt a lot and I cried a lot over presents and hot chocolate but my grandpa eventually coaxed me out of the house with cookies. My parents still tease me about it to this day but I always remember it as my favorite for some reason!
When I was very young, my mom and dad took very special care to leave evidence that Santa had stopped at our house the night before. They left all sorts of tracks in the yard (where we left treats for Santa’s reindeer), and dropped 2 Sega games and a puzzle just off the edge of the roof over the porch – after mussing up the snow, of course!
Inside the house, they tracked mud from the chimney to the tree across the room. It felt like magic – it was so amazing to wake up to! Looking back on it as an adult, I can’t wait to do the same for my kids someday.
This is so awesome! :)
Growing up, my parents didn’t put up trees, garlands or lights but that’s why I ALWAYS loved going to my aunts house every year. They would have a beautifully decorated tree, with a warm, blazing fire, and all our presents for each family member under the tree. While my parents were busy laughing and munching on the appetizers, I was busy trying to find which one was mine – ha! My favorite winter holiday memory though is when we actually opened the presents — my uncle would sit us on his knee. With a smile he’d say, “Merry Christmas” and then, suddenly… I would fall!
He lovingly dubbed it Santa’s Trap Door.
Call me naive but I fell for it every year.
Now they have a son, so the favor is being returned :’)
My brother and I have a very strained relationship which has been pretty rocky over the years… but I still remember one Christmas morning when we were both in high school when we took our family dog out with our mom to a local park – I don’t know what it was about that morning, but we all had the best time together taking our silly dog down slides, running around the grass, and just enjoying the sheer emptiness of that park since all the families were still inside. It was so great and still gives me warm fuzzies inside when I think about it!
My favorite winter memory is getting bundled up and driving around at night when I was a kid and looking at the lights. It is such a peaceful thing to do during the holidays. I still love looking at lights with my children.
My favorite memory was one year when my kids were little they wouldn’t go to sleep and there mamaw went outside and shook sleigh bells they jump in bed and went to sleep fast