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!
Family and when you get to spend the holidays with then. It is so special and brings so many warm memories back. So when you don’t get to spend the holidays with them you have these memories in your heart.
Several years ago we met our daughter and husband on a barrier island off North Carolina. We expected cool weather on the the beach, but the week started with snow! It was a surreal sight but so welcome for Christmas! Each day the weather warmed but it was so fun gathering sea shells, taking long walks along the shore in our fleeces and hats, buying fresh shrimp and cooking them, playing board games, drinking coffee and hot chocolate and laughing and sharing stories! On New Year’s Eve, 3 out of 4 of us ;) made a polar bear dip into the ocean! What a way to end one year and begin a new year! A precious memory forever!
Oh I have so many! Lying on the floor as a child and then with my own children gazing up at the tree on Christmas Eve, (while we were all supposed to be sleeping) and sharing special memories.
I have so many memories! One special one is late on Christmas Eve when we were supposed to be sleeping, we would sneak out lie on the floor close to the Christmas tree and look up at the lights. We would whisper and share special memories!
My wife convinced our daughter that our pets could talk at midnight on Christmas. Try as she might, she could never stay awake long enough to find out what they had to say.
I loved lighting the Chanukah candles. The whole ritual of it. Choosing the color combinations. The prayers. Arguing with my brothers about whose turn it was to light the match. Actually, I was afraid of lighting the match, but I tried to keep that flaw to myself. But, after a few minutes the whole family would disperse. My brothers to watch TV. My mom to knit, or fold clothes. My dad, well, I have no idea. So for many years I sat at the kitchen table, watching those candles burn down to their tiny nubs and then, one by one, extinguish themselves. I learned a lot about observation, absorption and being truly myself, during those quiet evenings alone in the kitchen.
My favorite holiday memory is when my older brother was in junior high and had been chattering some crazy talk about there being no such thing as Santa. On Christmas morning I remember walking in to the living room with my brother and my mother. Santa had indeed come as presents were scattered under the tree, the screen of the fireplace was open and chimney ash soot boot prints were all over the carpet where Santa had walked. My brother was surprised and interestingly so was my mother. She seemed very shocked and maybe even a little angry with having to clean up. My father just though it was all very funny.
When I was little, the best parts of Christmas for me was getting to open the presents with everyone else in my family. But we have moved back and forth a bit and my parents finally decided to settle down in Texas. With that being said, we were away from our other family members and didn’t really celebrate Christmas like we used to. But, I believe that food always has a magic to bring people together. Even though we didn’t have any decorations in the house or any Christmas spirit to be exact (it’s more lively during Chinese New Year than Christmas), I still wanted to have a proper Christmas dinner with my parents. So, two years ago, I decided to make Christmas dinner for my family, and while it was a pain to do everything myself, it was one of the most rewarding and best Christmas memory for me. It was my dad’s first time eating Chicken Marsala and he loved it. His reaction and eagerness to keep eating was one of the best Christmas gifts I have ever received.
I remember getting dressed up and going to my Grandmother’s house on Christmas Day. My sisters and I would sing Christmas carols in 4 part harmony just like The Lennon Sisters. (Google them)
My first Christmas alone was last year. I was dog-sitting a chihuahua and terrier named Trinket and Truffles, respectively. I referred to both of them as Triscuit throughout and found this hilarious. The three of us went outside for a pee (or rather, they did; I just held the leash) and I realized as soon as the door shut that I’d locked us out. We walked through the Chicago winter to the nearest open restaurant (a nearby Chinese joint) and called for a locksmith. The owner was nice enough to let the dogs wait inside with me – and that’s saying a lot since they were not well-behaved animals at all.