Archive for the 'Miscellaneous' Category (215)

Fall Wine and Cheese Tasting Party Winner!

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The winner of the Fall Wine and Cheese Tasting Party sponsored by Alouette® is:

#211 Joanna: I love sipping cocoa and snuggling in a blanket while watching movies!

Me, too! And congratulations! To claim your prize package, please contact me at Rebecca@ezrapoundcake.com.

Thanks to everyone who entered and to Alouette® for all the fun stuff!

Fall Wine and Cheese Tasting Party Giveaway!

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Thanksgiving is six weeks away.

Are you still there? Do you need a minute?

I KNOW.

Deep breaths.

A few weeks ago, Corrinne from Alouette® contacted me about doing a Fall Wine and Cheese Tasting Party Giveaway to help promote their new mantra: “Slow Down and Savour.”

Nice idea, but I didn’t want to do a chintzy giveaway.

So, Corrinne gave me a rundown of the prize package, valued at a decidedly un-chintzy $150.

We’re talking …

•A Mariposa two-toned, white teak and bamboo cutting board with two swivel-style drawers

•3 stainless steel cheese tools: cheese fork, hard cheese knife and cheese spreader/knife

•3 stainless steel wine tools: corkscrew, bottle stopper and drip ring

•4 cheese markers with pen

•10 customized cheese rating cards

•10 customized pens

•Alouette® coupons for FREE Baby Brie Wedges, 100% All-Natural Soft Spreadable Cheeses and Fresh Cheese Crumbles

•Alouette® recipe cards

•365 tips on how to “Slow Down and Savour”

I can testify to the quality of the above items, because I received them myself in return for hosting this giveaway, and YOU WILL LOVE THEM. Having the wine and cheese tools stored inside the cutting board is unbelievably handy. A bottle stopper? Always wanted one. And I’m a sucker for the Alouette® Garlic and Herbs spread.

To enter, please answer the following question in the Comments section: Read More…

Just pretend she’s an apple dumpling.

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I know, there should be a pear muffin or a watermelon cobbler up there. But She Who Bore Me has been asking WHEN, WHEN, WHEN I’m going to post a photo of my new niece, Laney Katheryn (aka Ladybug or Bug), so here she is.

When I went to my sister’s house to take the photo, I was fully prepared for your typical blotchy, chapped, slightly crusty newborn with hair in all the wrong places who gradually cutens up. But this is Laney at 3 days. Absolutely lovely. The sort of bewitching baby who smells like lavender and makes your ovaries quiver, and suddenly paying $25 for a pair of shoes the size of cricket seems like exactly the right thing to do. The sort of baby who should have an animated bluebird singing on her shoulder and fairy godmothers granting her wishes, but she seems perfectly willing to make due with us. Especially if we keep her fed.

Welcome to the world, Laney!

And she shall be called … Soy Edamame!

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First, a big wet thanks to all 100+ of you who so graciously entered the “Name My Niece!” competition. I can’t wait to give my sister the list of names, including favorites like Twitter, Tsunami, Rhubarbara, Yummy Sprinklina, Wisteria Flame, Dulce de Leche, Mango Orange Slurpee, Athena Starfruit, Vynilla Beanie, Daisy Croshay and Vaselina Erotica.

But the winner (selected via Random Integer Generator) is Cathy of The Tortefeasor, who offered Soy Edamame with the following explanation:

Soy Edamame, nickname Edda. Added bonus is that “Soy” = “I am” in Spanish, so name has multiple levels of meaning: “I am Edamame.”

I. AM. EDAMAME!

Congratulations, Cathy! You have a $25 gift card for See’s Candies® coming your way. Just e-mail your address to me at rebecca@ezrapoundcake.com.

Win it! See’s Candies® $25 Gift Card

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Shiloh. Jermajesty. Suri. Zuma. Ickyd. Apple. Celebrities don’t give their kids names that require a last initial on the first day of school. They name them after cities and board games and pieces of fruit.

What you see at the top and bottom of this post are photos taken of an assortment of See’s Candies®. Chocolates and caramels. Brittles and buttercreams. Maples, mochas and marzipans. A variety of lovely, old-fashioned candies with a surprise inside each one.

What do these things have to do with each other? Well, I’ve mentioned before that I have six (SIX!) pregnant friends. One is my sister. A few days ago, she decided to list all of the reasons why she couldn’t name my unborn niece after me, ranging from (accidentally!) shutting her finger in a car door when we were kids to the whole banned-for-life-from-the-Waffle-House thing. Hey, I never said I was a role model. So, in lieu of giving her an Atomic Wedgie, I’m asking you to help me give her the Celebrity Baby Name Treatment.

It’s time to *NAME MY NIECE* for your chance to win a $25 gift card from See’s Candies®.

Read More…

Hot, Crusty Buttermilk Biscuits

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Last week, I read that you should only have biscuits once a year. From a nutritional standpoint, I’m sure that’s true, but since when do the rules of nutrition and “should” apply to biscuits? I can only assume the writer’s never had the pleasure of waking up to a fresh-from-the-oven, hot homemade buttermilk biscuit, split and dripping with butter and honey, oozing strawberry jam, or packed with sausage or country ham. Pure soul food.

My latest biscuit obsession is Scott Peacock’s recipe for Hot Crusty Buttermilk Biscuits. They come out of the oven golden on the top and bottom, tender on the inside, with a nice snap from the outside crust and a little tang from the buttermilk. I can’t wait to try his suggestion for topping one with “sautéed asparagus and mushrooms and a runny poached egg.” Oh, that’s living in the high country.

You’ll notice a few unusual things about the recipe. Read More…

O-bama Tree, O-bama Tree

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So, this has nothing to do with food, but if you’ve been following me on Twitter, you know that we decided to magically transform the Christmas tree into an Inauguration Tree. It has red, white and blue twinkly lights. Red, silver and blue ornaments. Red, white and blue star-shaped garlands. Flags. A patriotic pinwheel doing star-duty at the top. Because we’ve got Inauguration Fever!

Oh, and there’s a unicorn.

The unicorn was inspired by Chris Bishop’s “Barack Obama Riding a Unicorn” T-shirt, possibly the greatest and best T-shirt ever created. Read More…

We Have a Winner!

The winner of the La Cense Beef™ Giveaway is the one, the only A. R. Ambler!

Congratulations, A.R.! Just shoot me an e-mail at Rebecca@ezrapoundcake.com to claim your prize.

A big black-eyed-pea-breathed thanks to everyone who entered. See you for the next one!

Last Day to Sign Up for the La Cense Beef™ Giveaway!

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Sign up here by 11:59 p.m. CST today to enter our La Cense Beef™ Giveaway!

The prize is 100% grass-fed beef (one petit sirloin and two burgers) shipped directly from their Montana ranch to your home.

Saveur says La Cense produces “some of the most extraordinary steaks we’ve ever tasted.”

Curious?

Hungry?

Get the details here!

Prince’s Hot Chicken Makes List of “100 Southern Foods You Absolutely, Positively Must Try Before You Die”

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I was all set to publish this post about Prince’s Hot Chicken, when I found out that a relatively new magazine about the South – called, God help us, “Garden & Gun” – has just launched a website including a list of the 100 Southern Foods You Absolutely, Postively Must Try Before You Die. And the first photo in the gallery is from Prince’s Hot Chicken.

John T. Edge writes, “I fear the apocalyptic burn of the skillet-cooked and cayenne-swabbed chicken dished by Andre Prince Jeffries the way I fear the wrath of the Lord. So should you. One taste of a Prince’s drumstick rouses me from a twelve-pack stupor.”

Amen, Brother.

I was going to tell you about Prince’s, because a.) we’re starting a tradition of going to Prince’s for a post-Christmas cleansing, and b.) one of my New Year’s resolutions is to graduate to the “medium.”

Read More…