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 first Christmas with my partner and inviting my parents, instead of going “home”.
My favorite memory is that my mother (who has now passed) used to put those Yes-and-No books with the amazing marker that would make words and pictures appear at the end of our bed after we had fallen asleep on Christmas Eve. She was convinced that it bought her an extra 15 minutes of sleep on Christmas morning. I do it for my own kids, not for the extra sleep, just so they know how my mom used to make me feel. Happy Holidays!
my favorite memory took place just 2 years ago. I don’t have a lot of family here. My daughter has a husband, her dad, her hubbys parents etc. So, she and I celebrated Christmas Eve and she made her rounds on Christmas day. It made for a lonely day for me. A dear friend and coworker of mine knew I was not looking forward to the day at all. Well, he came over that morning…bearing wonderful gifts and took me to his house where we spent the day watching movies. I will never forget his kindness and thoughtfulness. It is a favorite memory of mine always.
My favorite memory involves unsupervised Christmas gifts, a roll of Scotch tape, and a perfectly placed living room chair. I may or may not have hidden behind that chair, pulled the gifts over to me, and carefully unwrapped them. I also may or may not have rewrapped them and slid them back under tree once I knew what was in the boxes. Unfortunately the family caught on and started hiding my gifts in the trunk of the car. ;)
i made donuts for chanukah this year, and my husband took one out of my hand as i was eating it. golden.
The Christmas memories that I cherish most involve my family celebrating Christmas Eve in true Polish fashion. We would have our aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents over and the meal was completely vegetarian from the clam chowder to the pierogi (sauerkraut and cheese, never meat on this occasion). But the most special part was before we ate. Everyone would get a piece of oplatki–pieces of the unconsecrated/unblessed Communion wafer (host) printed with scenes of Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus. You would offer your oplatki to someone, who would break off a small piece, while you wished them something good (health, success, etc.) Then you would reverse the process. Everyone had to exchange oplatki and wishes with everyone else–it was very touching to have the adults listen seriously to the sentiments of the children and vice versa. Then, we would eat, though my poor mother would be stuck in the kitchen, frying batch after batch of pierogies. The meal ended with kolachky in all different flavors (because one uncle liked apricot, another prune, my father preferred raspberry, and my mother wouldn’t disappoint any of them). This memory is especially dear to me since my parents are no longer with me, but I still feel the warmth of their love and hospitality when I remember these Christmas Eve celebrations.
One Christmas Eve, I convinced my brother, sisters, and cousins that the radio tower light outside of my Aunt’s kitchen window was actually Rudolph’s nose blinking in the dark! Despite the light having been there for years, we scampered up the stairs to listen for hoof and sleigh sounds on the roof. Christmas is lovely as an adult, but truly magical as a kid.
Cooking with my mom! We love to plan what we will have to eat, shop for the food, find new recipes…all of it!
My favorite holiday memory was our first Christmas as parents. My son was about 3 months old and we took him to visit family. Even though he was small, having a child made the holidays even more fun and memorable.
Every year we cut down our own Christmas tree on a farm, usually the week following Thanksgiving. I love it because we can spend hours walking through the farm, hot cider or cocoa in our thermoses, debating the merits of each tree.