How to win a $70 CSN gift card.... Giveaway!!!

Although I truely love living in The Netherlands, because visiting wonderful places such as Paris and London is so easy, sometimes I wish I lived in the USA. Especially when Ashley of CSN Stores contacts me with the request to review an item from their stores or to host a giveaway. Oh, how I would love to review one or more items of their wonderful Le Crueset cookware.....

They come in lots of lovely colors and I'm totally smitten with the color Caribbean and in particular with this Le Creuset mortar and pestle.

Another great item to try out would be this ice cream maker by Cuisinart: just imagine how much fun I could have while churning me some home-made frozen yoghurt, sorbet or regular ice cream now that summer is upon us!!

But alas: CSN Stores only ship to USA and Canada...... So again I opted for giving away one $70 gift card to be spent at one of the CSN stores.

Would you like to win the $70 gift card? Here's what you have to do:
Visit one of the many CSN Stores and leave a comment on this post telling me what you would use the gift card on.

For extra entries:
For one extra entry: tweet about this giveaway and leave a link in a comment on this post.
For another extra entry: mention this giveaway on Facebook and leave a link in a comment on this post.
Followers get an extra entry, mention that you're a follower in a comment on this post.

Please note that each entry has to be submitted in a separate comment!
Also make sure that I have some way of reaching you in case you win, by leaving behind your emailaddress or your blogaddress in each comment!

Giveaway details:
Contest is only open to US and Canada residents
This contest ends on Thursday July 29th at midnight CET
Winner will be chosen at random via Random.com generator and announced here on Friday July 30th.

$70 CSN Gift Card Winner

And the winner of the $70 CSN Gift Card was also determined by using the Random Integer Generator:

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

6 

Timestamp: 2010-06-28 22:15:30 UTC

Comment number 6 was made by TeaLady: And You know I follow!!

Congratulations Tealady!! I do know that you follow!!! I will contact you via your blog!

Guess this Food Giveaway Winner!!!

A while ago I asked you all to Guess the Food above to win a surprise food parcel. Lots of you gave the right answere: it's Truffles!

To determine the winner of this giveaway I used the Random Integer Generator:

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

4 

Timestamp: 2010-06-28 22:10:58 UTC

The 4th comment was made by AppleC: It's a black truffle. Spain is one of the main producers of these little delicacies. Lucky you!

Congratulations!!

Giveaway: CSN $70 gift card

A while ago, back in March I hosted a giveaway for CSN Stores. This week I was once again contacted by Ashley of CSN Stores with the request to host another giveaway. Of course I'm more than happy to oblige!!! CSN has a lot of different shops filled with lovely items and I wish they would ship items to Europe, so I that I could shop with them. I'd love to buy some one of their platform beds as I love their designs and how the provide storage space underneath the bed!

This time around the people from CSN graciously offer one $70 gift card to be spent at one of their sites.

Want to win the $70 gift card? Here's what you have to do:

Visit http://www.cookware.com/ and leave a comment on this post telling me what you use the gift card on.

For extra entries:

For one extra entry: tweet about this giveaway and leave a link in a comment on this post.

For another extra entry: mention this giveaway on Facebook and leave a link in a comment on this post.

Followers get an extra entry, mention that you're a follower in a comment on this post.

Each entry has to be submitted in a separate comment!

Giveaway details:

Contest is only open to US and Canada residents

This contest ends on Saturday June 26th at midnight CET

Winner will be chosen at random via Random.com generator and announced here on Sunday June 27th

P.S. Don't forget to enter my 'Guess this Food'-Giveaway, deadline is Friday June 25th

Giveaway: Guess this Food!!!

Yes, it's time for another giveaway!! Last weekend I was in Spain and picked up some lovely goodies, one of which is pictured above and below. But what is it???

Guess what food you think is in the picture and leave me your answer in a comment. I'll pick a winner from the correct answers. Deadline is Friday June 25th, I'll post the winner on Saturday June 26th. Good luck!!!

Winner of the CSN Giveaway

A short post on this Sunday evening to announce the winner of the CSN Giveaway. The winning comment was number 8:

slush zei: I love the ramekins. I don't own any. Nor do I have prep bowls or mini bundts. lol

Now slush is actually Laurie of Slush a.k.a. out fearless leader over at Tuesdays with Dorie, so I'm very sure she'll make good use of both the pan and the bowls!!

Thank you all for entering the giveaway!

CSN Stores Giveaway

Update: the giveaway has been extended until March 27th!!

Most of you whom have visited my blog more than once know that I love hosting giveaways, so when Ashley of CSN Stores contacted me and asked me if I wanted to do a review or host a giveaway with either their bar stools or their cookware I was happy to!

CSN Stores is an online company that was began with two employees and one online store in 2002, now it has over 200 sites with more than 400 employees that sell almost anything from bar stools and cookware to toys and pet accessoiries.

Unfortunately I wasn´t able to do a review as CSN Stores only ship to US and Canada and I live in The Netherlands, but I can still give away two great articles to one of my lucky readers. Since I love to bake I picked out some items that I would love to have:

A set of Le Creuset Multi-Coloured Prep Bowls, made of silicone. The bowls are dishwasher safe and heat resistant, they can be used in the oven, microwave, freezer and fridge. The set includes a 1/4-cup Citrus Bowl, a 1/3-cup Cobalt Bowl, a 1/2-cup Kiwi Bowl and a 1-cup Cherry Bowl.

A Nordicware Multi Mini Bundt Pan, this comes with two each of these shapes: bavarian, star and festival muffin. The pan is made of heavy cast aluminium, it's non-stick and dishwasher safe and ovensafe.

Want to win the set of bowls and mini bundt pan? Here's what you have to do:

• Visit http://www.cookware.com/ and leave a comment on this post to tell me which item you would buy.
• For one extra entry: tweet about this giveaway and leave a link in a comment on this post.
• For another extra entry: mention this giveaway on Facebook and leave a link in a comment on this post.
• Followers get an extra entry, mention that you're a follower in a comment on this post.

Giveaway details:

• Contest is only open to US and Canada residents
• This contest ends on Saturday March 27th at midnight CET
• Winner will be chosen at random via Random.com generator
• I will send the winner an email, the winner then has 48 hours to respond by email or another winner will be chosen.
• Each entry has to be submitted in a seperate comment!
• If you don't leave your email adress in your entries, make sure that your profile is public.
  
  

Giveaway winner!!

So the winner of my giveaway is Steph of Obsessed with Baking. Steph could you please leave me a message or send me an email to let me know which Rookworst you would like me to send you?

Steph is an amazing baker, I have seen loads of great recipes on her blog and tried some too (e.g. these Cranberry Orange Scones I served at my 30th birthday party) I love her New Moon-inspired Werewolf Cupcakes, go check them out: aren't they the cutest???

This means that the 12th cookie for my 12 Days of Christmas Cookies is the NYT Chocolate Chip Cookie!!

Giveaway-update, 12 Days of Christmas Cookies and Cinnamon Sweet Potato Cookies

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!! Here in The Netherlands we don't celebrate Thanksgiving, but I really enjoyed looking at all the tastylooking dishes that everyone made!

With the help of my mom I was finally able to narrow down the 25 recipes I really liked for my 12 Days of Christmas Cookies to 11. Yes, that's right: 11. As I already mentioned here I would like your help to pick the 12th cookie! If you'd like to win a Rookworst, please go to this post and leave a comment telling me what cookie you think I should bake! Deadline of the Giveaway is November 30th!!

So without further ado, I now present you the cookies my mom and I picked for 12 Days of Christmas Cookies in no particular order:

1. World Peace Cookies
2. Snickerdoodles
3. Chocolate Malted Whopper Drops
4. Mexican Wedding Cakes
5. Brutti ma Buoni
6. Chocolate Crinkles
7. Stained Glass Christmas Cookies
8. Butter Pecan Slice and Bake Cookies
9. Chocolate Cornflake Cookies
10. White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies
11. M&M Cookies
12. ?????

So I had some sweet potatoes laying around, waiting for me to do something with them..... But what to do??? I had a craving for cookies and went looking on the Internet. Over at One Frugal Foodie I found one particular cookie that used cinnamon. This recipe was vegan and that intrigued me as I never made a vegan cookie before.


I was very curious as to how these would turn out as the recipe is vegan, dairy-free, egg-free, soy-free and nut-free. The cookies were a bit sticky and had a cakey feel to them, they were soft. As for the taste: I was pleasantly surprised!! The cookies were really good, my coworkers gobbled these down so fast that I wasn't even able to salvage one for my parents to try! The recipe can be found here, Alisa even gives several options for toppings and add-ins!

Rookworst Giveaway + recipe for Banketstaaf

So, it's time for another giveaway! Nothing to big, but it is typically Dutch: Rookworst!!! (source: wikipedia)

Rookworst ("smoked sausage") is a type of Dutch sausage in which ground meat is mixed with spices and salt and stuffed into a casing. Rookworst is a traditional ingredient in stamppot.

Contrary to what the name suggest, the modern rookworst is rarely smoked. To achieve the smoked flavour typical to the product, smoke aromatics are added to the product alongside the spices. The genuine old-fashioned rookworst is smoked over woodchips.

There are two types of rookworst:

1. Raw rookworst, which contains raw meats and has to be prepared properly. With the raw rookworst there is a distinction between coarse and fine variants
2. The most common form of rookworst is a vacuum packed cooked sausage. This sausage leaves the factory already cooked and only needs to be reheated in boiling water. This comes in three variations: Gelderse rookworst (porc), rookworst light (porc) and runderrookworst (beef).
   
   

I'm going to give away one of the nr.2 rookworst (250/275 gram) of choice: Gelderse rookworst, rookworst light or runderrookworst. All you have to do to to have a chance to taste this dutch meat is...... Tell me what cookie I should definetely bake for my 12 Days of Christmas Cookies, tell me in a comment under this post about rookworst and banketstaaf or just tell me what you think of the rookworst and banketstaaf! Deadline for this giveaway is November 30th, on this day I will pick a winner and I'll post about the winner on December 1st. This giveaway is open to all international contestants!

Now on to Banketstaaf: the banketstaaf is a traditional Dutch pastry made of almond paste (amandelspijs) and puff pastry usually served at Sinterklaas and Christmas. This time I used storebought amandelspijs, but you can find a recipe to make almond paste here.

Banketstaaf

360 gram puff pastry
300 gram amandelspijs (almond pastry)
1 lemon, zested
2 egg yolks
apricot jam or orange marmalade

Preheat the oven at approxiamately 392 degrees Fahrenheit (200 degrees Celsius)

Defrost the puff pastry, I used 8 pieces of 45 grams

Mix the almond paste with the lemon zest and one egg yolk.

Stack the puff pastry

Roll out the puff pastry into a rectangular shape


Take the almond paste,


wet your hands and shape it into a log

Put the almond paste on the puff pastry and wrap the pastry around the paste

Tuck in the ends and apply some pressure so they will stay in place

Brush the banketstaaf with the second egg yolk and bake for 45 minutes.

When the banketstaaf is almost done, warm some apricot jam (for a sweet layer) or orange marmelade (for a bit more bittersweet layer) in a pan.

Take the banketstaaf out of the oven and brush the warm jam/marmalade on top of the banketstaaf. Let it cool down and cut it into pieces.

Missing Cupcakes and update on Scott

Yes, I know it's the 15th of August. I had joined another baking group before I came up with my resolution to lose weight: MS Cupcake Club (or MSC). Betty of Eat My Cupcake had bought the book Cupcakes by Martha Stewart and started up a monthly group to try all the recipes.

This is our first month and I already feel like a loser: Betty picked Chocolate Salted-Caramel Cupcakes as our challenge and I haven't made them yet, here's what happened:

Wednesday was my day off and I had planned on baking the cupcakes that day. However my cat decided differently: right after breakfast Senna came and sat on my lap, while I was petting here I discovered a crawly creeper on her.... a flea!!! Eeeeekkkkkk......

Further inspection revealed that Scott seemed to have the same problem, so the rest of my day was spent running to the shop to get anti-flea medicine for both Senna and Scoot, but also Joey (my parents dog that had spent the weekend at my house while my parent were out of town), changing all the bedding, putting all the pets sof toys in a plastic bag and vacuuming the entire house.

On Thursday I called the vet because they were supposed to have the results for Scotts liver biopsy. Things were not good: it seems like Scott produces too much corticosteroids which means that he probably has Cushings disease. To determine for sure if he has Cushings we now have to do a urine test. So for the next three days (today is day 1) I have to collect some urine at 8 am and on day 2 he has to take medicine: 4 tablets at 12, 4 at 18 and 4 at 24 o'clock.....

I'm sorry to dissapoint those of you who came here for the Chocolate Salted-Caramel Cupcakes, they're not here... yet!!! I will definetly try to fit this in the next week and blog about them!!

My First Blogoversary: Favorite Things Giveaway

Yes, time flies: It's already been a year since I started blogging.Thanks to everyone who takes the time to stop by and read my blog! As you all know by now I love to share with everyone so I decided to have a giveaway with some of my favorite things.

My favorite chocolates: Milka Extra Romig & Milka Caramel, this chocolate is Swiss of origin and I'm sending you 100 grams chocolate with extra creamy praline filling and 100 grams chocolate with caramelcream and a liquid caramel filling.

My favorite candy: Zwolse Balletjes, this is an oldfashioned hard candy made in my hometown.

My favorite cookies: Verkade Fijnproevers Toffee Crunch, nice cookies with crunchy toffee and rice crisps, covered in chocolate.

Ofcourse I had to include something typically Dutch, what could be more Dutch than clogs?
The winner will get these cute stone clogs with Delft Blue design on them.

My favourite new herb to cook with: Lemon and Berry, great on fish

My favorite Dutch spices: Koek- en Speculaaskruiden, great to use in Pepernoten.

Dutch Sprinkles: 8 tiny boxes of 5 different variaties of sprinkles.

I decided to add one more favorite of mine to the giveaway... My favorite beer: Rose beer, this is a belgian white beer with raspberries that is actually coloured pink: a real girlygirl beer!

Here's how you can enter my giveaway:
leave me a comment on this post!

You can get extra entries by:

• by becoming a follower or letting me know you're a follower in a separate comment
• by blogging and letting me know in a separate comment with a link to your post
• by tweeting and letting me know in a separate comment with a link to your tweet
  

Deadline for this giveaway is: Friday, August 14th at midnight Dutch time.

PS - You don't have to have a blog to win!!! Just leave me a comment with an email address or some way to get in touch with you if you win.

Great giveaway over at Fabulous Finds: Last chance to enter today!!

They are giving away the most amazing cute shoes over at Fabulous Finds, go check it out!

The giveaway ends today so hurry up!!!