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 would probably be decorating the Christmas tree with my parents and sister. We’d listen to Christmas music and sort through the boxes, reliving the backstory associated with all of our ornaments. We’d laugh about the ugly ones or look at each other, confused, trying to remember others.
It’s hard to pinpoint just one favorite winter holiday memory. But the one consistent that always comes to mind is FOOD! It was never the holidays without loads of yummy goodies. My first kitchen cooking experiences happened around Christmas. I remember making sugar cookies with my mom. It was the first time I was left to my own devices to be creative and use whatever cookie cutter or decorating topping I wanted. I also remember the sugar cookie dough tasting amazing and being chased out the kitchen for eating too much cookie dough!! And it wasn’t just goodies my mom created. I remember helping my dad make homemade eggnog and learning the delicate art (or that it was even possible!) of separating the egg whites and yolks. This year I will be spending Christmas with my fiance’s family for the first time. They don’t really have the same Christmas food traditions of my family. So this year, my fiance and I are going to introduce that tradition because it’s just not Christmas without all the yummy goodies!
Helping my Dad stuff and then carve the turkey when it’s ready!
All of my favorite memories are of the first snowfall of the season. It’s so peaceful and magical. :)
One of my favorite memories is when I was a little kid. I am the youngest of three and I definitely got picked on a lot by my older siblings (as I’m sure most babies of the family do!). One Christmas Eve, when I was eight, my parents went to bed but my siblings and I stayed up late playing games, shaking presents and watching It’s A Wonderful Life. It was a special moment for me because it made me feel closer to my siblings than I had before. Luckily, we all have a strong bond now that we’re older and all grown up :) But back then, it meant a lot to me and it’s something I’ll never forget!
My favorite holiday memory is wrapping gifts with my mom. She used to go all out – she would get multiple gifts for her kids (me included, but I wouldn’t get to wrap those), our family, teachers, friends, anyone in our lives that has recently said hello, basically. I was the only one of my siblings who loved to wrap and who shared my mother’s love and excitement of gift-giving. We would make hot chocolate, light a fire and sit on the floor in the family room when no one was home and wrap and talk and laugh.
My family is scattered all around the world, so we rarely see each other during the holidays (always fly off-peak season)! But 5 years ago when my dad was sick, everyone came to Texas. We had 22 people in the house, and it was amazing. It was chaotic, but there was always laughter and good food (grandma’s cooking for the win). It was the best way for my dad to celebrate his last Christmas.
One day, maybe everyone will be in the same country and relive the happiness of spending the holidays together!
My favorite winter memory was going to Disneyland for the first time for Christmas as a child! To be at the most magical place on earth on Christmas Day was so breath taking because of all the amazing decorations and everyone there was so festive!
Growing up, my mother made over 40 different types of christmas cookies each year.
She’s pared it down to around 25 now, but it’s still the main holiday tradition in our family.
Years ago, it was my grandmother, mother, sister and I helping. As a tiny tot, my main jobs were breaking up Hershey bars, grinding nuts and cutting circles of waxed paper. As I grew, so did my responsibilities – rolling out dough, cracking eggs into the mixer and dishes. So many dishes.
Now when I come home for Christmas, my husband is right there with us in the kitchen, baking and frosting up a storm.
The cast may have changed, but our sweet family drama is still going strong, some 35 years later.
I’m not too religious, but I’ve always loved the midnight service. Holding candles and exiting the church onto the streets of New York with a crowd of other joyous people just seems to be what christmas is all about.