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 was spending Christmas at my uncle’s house one Christmas and listening/watching in amazement as reindeer pranced on the rooftop (my dad and uncle) and sparks flew off the roof as Santa’s sleigh magically took off in flight (my dad and uncle throwing matches from the roof). Oh to be young and ignorant again ;)
My favorite holiday memory was a few years ago, 2010. I grew up in Minnesota but had spent the autumn in France working as an au pair. It was an incredible experience, but I was incredibly lonely in France. When I came home for Christmas, there was 3 feet of snow on the ground and i was so so so happy to be with my family again. on Christmas morning we woke up, opened presents and met up with my cousins to go sledding. It was something we’d done many times before, but that year was special to me.
One of my favorite holiday memories is the year I learned there was no real Santa. My mother probably told me out of convenience, but I didn’t mind at all. That year I got to be her special assistant as she shopped for my younger brother and help wrap all the gifts. I still love wrapping gifts a little too much and spend way too much time making everyone of them look perfect and unique.
Christmas with my family hanging out by the tree with homemade eggnog.
My favorite holiday memory is when I was a child and my brother and sister and I would try and sneak downstairs to catch Santa in the act of delivering presents. We would never stay awake long enough to catch Saint Nick in the act, or our parents would find us and send us back to bed. It was fun trying to outsmart and out-hide them.
My favorite holiday memory is driving around to see all the holiday lights around town. My family is Jewish, so we never had a tree or lights at our house… but that didn’t mean we didn’t absolutely LOVE the atmosphere and getting in the holiday spirit. There’s one house in particular that always has the most amazing decorations, and it’s our must see every year. Is it creepy that we drive past this house annually? Maybe. Probably. But I wouldn’t have it any other way.
My favorite holiday memory isn’t technically on Christmas but, just after Thanksgiving Day. My Dad grew up in Chicago so, every year we would go up north to visit all our family there. On each visit, we make sure to go downtown to see the beautiful window displays, see my Dad’s old stomping grounds, and eat delicious food. On one occasion in particular, my Dad wanted the day to end with us in Chinatown eating at his favorite dim sum place. He kept going on and on about how great it was, how much we would love it, and how he wanted to show it to us. After a long and very cold day, we took the ‘el’ to Chinatown to explore, shop, and finally eat dinner. Well, by time we get there, it is already dark (sunset at that time of year is around 4-4:30), it’s raining, and it is very windy. So windy, that it made the rain ‘bounce’ and hit us in the face. Yep, we were wandering around with it raining up, while my Dad tried to retrace his steps. He couldn’t remember the name of the place so, we couldn’t call, and it was pre-smart phones so, no-go on looking it up. We were cold, wet, hungry, and ready to call it quits on the whole deal. Just then, we saw a small shop ahead. We couldn’t quite tell what type of place it was (restaurant, retail shop, etc) since the glass plating was fogged up, other than it had an open sign. We thought, we’d check out this last shop and if it isn’t the one, we would go home, get a pizza, and call it a wash. When we walked in, I remember two things: it was warm (thank goodness!), and it was a restaurant (yay!!). There was no one else there and the owners couldn’t have been more thrilled to have business with the weather being so bad. They took our soggy jackets, mittens, and hats and laid them out to warm up, and served us hot oolong tea. We were so tired, cold, and worn from the day, that tea felt like the greatest gift we’d gotten all day. We ate some of the best food, and joked about how terrible our search went. We were probably a little delirious from the ordeal but, couldn’t stop laughing about how terrible it was that it was raining up! And, I may be biased but, that was some of the best dim sum I’ve ever had. Once we were full, dry, and warmed up, we layered back up, thanked the owners for their hospitality and headed home. Ever since, we’ve tried to track down that restaurant but, with no luck. At the time, we didn’t know where exactly we were since we were so exhausted and forgot to ask the name of the place. But, I will always have fond memories of that place, the kindness they bestowed upon us, and the warmth of that moment. To share such a funny, and almost beautiful, memory with my family is something I will never forget. I became an instant oolong tea fan after that moment, and every time I have it, the scent brings me back to that memory.
Happy Holidays!
I carry on the tradition of pull apart coffee cake from my mom (a great cook) who carried the tradition from her mom (also a great cook). The kids ask every year – as if I’m going to forget – if I’m going to make it. We go through our stockings while it’s in the oven, have breakfast, and then tear into the presents!
Christmas mornings at my grandparents and all the crazy cousins, aunts and uncles. We still make the sausage breakfast strata casserole every year.
My favorite holiday memory is when I was little and my parents were keeping me and my siblings up really late on Christmas Eve so that we would actually sleep through til the morning (we would always get up in the middle of the night). It probably wasn’t that late but it felt like about 3 am (it was probably ~9 or 10 pm). While we were all in the family room, someone knocked on the front door. When we opened up the door, there wasn’t anyone there but there were a few black trashbags filled with presents from Santa. He apparently couldn’t come in because we were all still awake so he dropped the presents off at our front door!