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 indeed food-related. I love eating pumpkin pie and/or apple pie (with ice cream) by the fire in the living room. One of the few times where I really felt like I could lay there forever. Super awesome memory and it’s one of my favorite things to do, still. A blanket on my feet and laying on my side in front of the fireplace w/ pie…I like.
My favorite holiday memory is my moms traditional English Christmas pudding. When I was kid I loved watching the flames flicker when it was lit on “fire” after being soaked in brandy.
My fav memory was my first Christmas in America. My parents did not have much money because they were students. But they managed to put many presents under the tree for me to experience the American tradition!
My favorite holiday memory was not a favorite moment growing up. Every Christmas morning, my dad would BLAST Luciano Pavarotti singing “Oh Holy Night”. That was his favorite singer majestically singing his favorite Christmas song. He loved to put on that record at the loudest volume possible and thought it was a wonderful way to wake up the family. Except when we were younger, my brother and I thought it was just a strange guys singing and the older we got, the more annoyed we got that we had to wake up so darn early instead of sleeping in. Bunch of grinches! But now that were all grown, just hearing the opening notes of that song bring back such a visceral reaction (in a good way). Although I won’t blast the same song to wake up my own kids (not very original), I do play it when we decorate the tree and I tell them the story (every year) and play their grandfather’s favorite Christmas song… Maybe one day they’ll carry this as part of their holiday memories.
Every Christmas my family would get together at my grandparents house in a small country town. I have countless memories from that place, but one that comes to mind was the year that my uncle hitched his horses to a big trailer and we all went for a hay ride after dinner and opening presents. The stars were out and we sang Christmas carols the whole way
Snow on Branches!!
The holidays growing up were pretty typical. When I was young, I’d stay up watching A Christmas Story on repeat until I couldn’t wait up for Santa anymore. Once I got too old to wait up for Santa, I continued watching A Christmas Story on repeat because Santa or no Santa, that is a great movie and a fantastic tradition.
I got to open one present on Christmas Eve (usually the biggest one) and the rest Christmas morning, and while my family only consisted of my parents and myself, it was usually just my mom and me since we owned a restaurant, so my dad was always there; except for Mondays. On Monday’s he’d spend hours in our kitchen at home, trying to teach me how to tie a rotisserie chicken or how to make stock with it’s bones, but as a kid, I showed little interest.
As I grew older, I formed a passion for cooking, and as my dad got older, he formed a passion for messing with me. After he retired and I graduated college, all I wanted to do was learn his recipes. I’d beg him to teach me one of the classics and he’d promise to teach me after I got back from lunch with my mom or meeting up with a friend. Almost every time I’d come back and he’d be so far into the prep, he’d just respond with, “I’ll teach you how to make _____ next time.” I started to realize that he was keeping his recipes from me! I think it was payback for spending so many years not interested in the art of culinary technique that now that I was ready, pen and paper in hand, eager to scribble down just one classic Chef Paul recipe, he was able to hold it over my head.
This went on for years, I started following other culinary idols, even started a food blog of my own and sent him the link. That holiday I went home like I do every year, I was sitting in my room, listening to the faint sound of Christmas music playing from the kitchen. Come Thanksgiving our local radio station plays non-stop Christmas music and you can be sure that it stays on our kitchen radio all through Christmas Day. My dad walked in and said, “Are you ready?” I remember not knowing what he was talking about, no context, nothing. “Come.” It was all he said as he walked towards the kitchen, and I knew – it was time! I grabbed a scrap of paper, a pen, and ran after him. When I got to the kitchen he was already grabbing canisters out of the pantry, without as much as a, “Are you ready?” he started. “First you add the flour, 2 cups, then you add the chopped walnuts, sugar, butter..” It was all happening so fast, finally! But wait, how much sugar? “Hold on dad, repeat that.”
He turned to me with a straight look on his face. “Hold on to what? Chef Paul doesn’t wait. I hate to wait.” And then he continued on. It wasn’t until we were rolling the dough in cellophane that I realized, we’re making his Walnut Sables! Every year now that I come home, he lets me in on one more recipe, it’s become my new favorite Christmas tradition. One might argue it’s even better than A Christmas Story on repeat.
My beloved aunt visited but planned to return home a couple of days before Christmas. But then a surprise snow storm arrived, bad delayed her flight which meant she spent Christmas with us! It was a gift to us both!
My mom’s side of the family usually gets together for Christmas and one of my favorite times was when we all stayed at a cabin in Oregon. My cousins and I got to go snowboarding down the slopes and we would always end the nights playing card games with the aunts and uncles.
My favorite holiday memory was waking up early on Christmas morning to see all the homemade cookies eaten and get a personalized note/poem from Santa (a.k.a. my father). I would anxiously wait for hours until my whole family woke up and I was finally allowed to open presents