Tag Archives: giveaway

14 December, 2011  |   54 Comments

Cook without a book (from a book!)

Congrats to Heidi, commenter #10 for winning the book. Hooray! Hooray!

Meal planYou’ve seen my food planning.
You know what we eat.
A big hunk of animal protein, veggies and a starch.
But mostly the animal protein.
Just like mom used to make.

But if you look at my cookbook collection, you wouldn’t know that’s how I cook. There are vegan cookbooks, raw food cookbooks and all the juice fasts you can shake a dehydrated veggie cracker at.

To date, not one of these cookbooks have broken us from the mostly animal protein routine.

But then, Jane Maynard invited me to dinner at the hippest San Franciscan pizza place with some smartypants food bloggers and a famous cookbook author to celebrate the release her new book.

I may have had to promise my husband a full week’s worth of the good kind of favors –the toddlers, they are a handful these days — but it was worth it.

So what I’m saying is I have a book for you.

It’s called Cook Without A Book and it’s chock full of good stuff from Pam Anderson, the famous cookbook author. Not the other one. Although I hear that Pam Anderson doesn’t eat meat. So there’s that.

This cookbook makes me happy because it helps me sneak good meals in to creep our family closer to better health. To date, my manfriend and lady toddlers didn’t notice the vegetarian sloppy joes and well, let’s just not talk about the Great Fruit Pizza Overdose of 2011.

Would you like a copy of this cookbook too?
Leave a comment with your favorite one-word meatless ingredient.
(Bacon and codfish don’t count. Arugula does.)

I’ll pick a randomo and the rest of you shall weep bitter tears.
Just kidding.
The rest of you will get a Christmas postcard from me.
If you’re interested.

Pam Anderson and her daughter Maggy Keet are just the best kind of people. I’ve been searching the internet to try to find a way to join their family, but just not finding many options for me. This cookbook giveaway is as close as I can get.

Regardless. Comment! Meatless ingredient! Christmas postcard! Go!

5 October, 2011  |   386 Comments

Epiphanie Bag Giveaway

Take advantage of my wee, beady traffic.
Take advantage of it.
Get an Epiphanie bag from me.
I have one to give away.

"inside

It’s only because I like you that I will wrap this thing in a box, add some special notes and treats and mail it to your house. It’s only because I like you that I think you should have it.

My friend and twinsie and Mighty Summit roommate Maile Wilson makes these bags. She’s wise in the ways of production and business.

She’s also really smart about beauty.
And how to be kind to people.
She’s a kindness savant.

I do ask something of you, though.
To win, I need you to comment with your favorite autumn memory.
And your email address.
But I won’t use your email address for anything unscrupulous. Promise.

Do that, and you super awesome chance of getting a free camera bag.
With treats and notes.

UPDATE: Entries closed! Choosing now and will let the winner know and announce tomorrow.

27 September, 2010  |   Comment

Wine questions, answered.

Wine coaster

All the books have been claimed!
I’ll follow up with those of you that forgot your home addresses this week.
Thanks for sending me your questions!

This question showed up several times, so I’ll just hit it up first.

Question

What’s the deal with the different glasses for different kinds of wines/beverages?
Do they really make a difference?

Answer

The deal is part marketing, part truth. They do make a difference, but only to a point.

1. If you can’t afford to break the glasses, don’t buy them. I break roughly twelve wine glasses a year, so if they’re $80 each, I can’t afford that. You are probably more careful than I am, so pick the price you can commit to wine glasses and work from there.

2. I like my wine glasses to have big bowls. No matter the shape of the wine glass, the mouth should be smaller than the bowl at the widest point. This keeps the aroma in the glass. You can maximize the flavor of wine by aerating it. (Aerating: Swirling it in the glass.) If the glass is too small to swirl your wine in, you might miss out on some more nuanced flavors.

Aerating wine isn’t just for weinerheads, we can all learn from a little swirling ourselves (more on this later this week).

Wine Women and Shoes, wine3. You really don’t need to buy smaller glasses for white wines and larger glasses for red wines. Since both kinds of wines do better after swirling, from a factual perspective, it’s perfectly fine to serve both colors in the same glass. However from an aesthetic perspective, I prefer smaller wine glasses for white wines – in my mind, the smaller glasses make white wines taste a little better. Again, this is only in my mind.

3. My personal preference is for clean, clear glasses that aren’t etched or colored. That way you can really see what you’re tasting. Crystal glasses are a little fancier than regular glasses, but you don’t really need them. We have a set of crystal glasses for dinner parties and special occasions linked to below.

4. As well, I like to have a stem on a wine glass. The stem does two things, you can hold the glass without warming your wine too much and it allows you to swirl your wine easier.

5. I also think it’s worth the storage space to keep champagne glasses on hand. The narrower bowl lets you hold the glass and not warm the wine. As well, by having a smaller surface area, it keeps the bubbles going a little longer.

Cheers!

Our dinner party glasses?
For white wine, I love my Spiegelau White Wine glasses.
For red, I love my Spiegelau Burgundy Glasses.

I try to be oh, so careful with these glasses, but that doesn’t stop me from breaking them regularly. Sigh.

Our everyday drinking glasses?
Wine glasses from Target or Ikea. Same goes for the champagne flutes. Champagne is celebratory no matter the quality of the glass.

Personally, I love those tiny tumblers that old Italian men drink out of. I’m fancy like that.