Merry Christmas Week to you and a Giveaway!

Well it is officially Christmas week and what better way to kick it off than with a gift for my readers?  Tetley tea has recently come out with a line of herbal teas called Colour Therapy using specific blends of teas and colours to help enhance or change your mood or well-being.   With the stress that the holidays can bring I figure what better gift to give than teas that can help Soothe (light green; ginger mint with lemongrass), Calm (turquoise chamomile and spearmint) and Cleanse (yellow; lemon balm, honey, nettle and elderflower) in the aftermath of the holiday craziness.

I was sent a sample of the Soothe tea.  It's light green canister is packed full of refreshing ginger and mint aromas with the slightest hint of lemon balm.  The tea itself is lovely and actually is quite effective in it's promise to soothe.  Last week was crazy stressful for me, I was applying for a grant for a short film I am producing, trying to finish Christmas shopping, planning for our annual Christmas party, all while trying to keep the house in order and care for our dogs.   I'd be up super early and not get to bed until super late, so when my container of soothe tea came I decided what better way to put it to the test than trying it when I really needed some soothing.

And the Winner is....

The ever fabulous Paula from the fabulous bell'alimento! If you've never been to her blog do check it out, she makes amazing Italian food and is doing the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge so there's tons of delish homemade bread on there too. Miss Paula will be getting the OXO Cherry & Olive Pitter and 3 jars of my jam to test out and give me some honest feedback!

Paula was comment # 9 which was picked through random.org's random number generator:

Because I love that this contest got me some new people commenting, I'm going to send 2 more jars of jam to....drum roll please.....Tiff! Check out her adorable munchkins over at her blog.

She was also chosen through the random number generator.

Ladies, email me your mailing addresses at piccantedolce [at] gmail [dot] com and I'll get your prizes in the mail.

Enjoy!

What I've been up to and a GIVEAWAY!

So I've been a bit lax in posting lately. Work has been busy, life has been busy, I've been lucky enough to have lots of visitors lately and finally it's been so hot that cooking is the last thing on my mind. The other thing distracting me is the fact that when I have felt like cooking it's been jam, not just any jam but delicious gourmet jam with local fruits. I have been spending nights dreaming up new and tasty flavor combinations and in the last 3 weeks have made 7 different jams. I'm a bit out of control. The reason I haven't posted any of my recipes is that I am in the development stages of trying to get my own little line of artisanal jams going. It may not be something that is up and running until next spring/summer when all the delicious fruits are back in season, but right now I am developing recipes and am optimistic about the reactions I have been getting. There is still a ton of work to do and it is going to take alot of time and effort, but I can't wait. I'm excited to be starting something that involves my love of cooking and a potential way to earn a living. I know it will be slow going but I love the prospect of where it could all go! Don't worry though, I am still cooking and over the last few days have amassed quite a few recipes to post, I also got some amazing treats in this weeks Mama Earth basket that I can't wait to play around with. Stay tuned!

To make up for the lack of posts I have a giveaway. This is a tool I never knew I needed until it ended up in my stocking last Christmas, the OXO Cherry & Olive Pitter. I know cherry season is coming to a close, at least up here it is, but this tool is excellent for pitting olives as well. It's so handy and cuts down tremendously on the mess you make while pitting cherries or olives.


Along with this fabulous kitchen tool, I'm also going to send 3 small jars of my jam only if the winner promises to share some honest feedback with me.

How do you enter this giveaway? Simple just post your favorite kind of jam in the comments below. Winner will be selected randomly Thursday after midnight PST. Don't forget to tell your friends!

My First Blogoversary and my first Giveaway!!

UPDATE!! MARIA FROM TWO PEAS IN THEIR POD WAS THE ENTRY NUMBER PICKED BY RANDOM.ORG . CONGRATS!!

Hi there my fabulous readers! Today is the 1 year Blogoversary. Back then the site was called Cooking with Jen, which I relaunched in November 2008 as Piccante Dolce. I never thought I'd make it doing this a year or that it would have grown as much as it has. To take a page from the wonderful Susan at She's Becoming Doughmesstic I thought I'd put together a list of some of the things I'd done or accomplished over the past year, in no particular order

Baked bread – after many failed attempts. Still need to post this since it's something the boy gobbles up before I can photograph

Made pasta – without a pasta machine - this is recent and will be posted soon!

Perfected pie crust – finally!!

Submitted a recipe to the Food Network Ultimate Recipe Challenge

Submitted 2 recipes to the Tillamook Mac & Cheese Contest

Placed in the Safeway Cheese Champions contest for my Raspberry Mascarpone French Toast Strata. Stay tuned for the cookbook on sale this July in your local Safeway!

Won the Foodtv.ca Cooking Club Challenge with my sweet potato version of Michael Smith’s gnocchi

Went from being a self-proclaimed non-baker to a good baker who has even developed her own cake and pie crust recipes

I bake with the fabulous ladies over at You Want Pies With That and just won my first challenge for my peach pie.

Participated, twice in Taste and Create

Had a two photos posted on Food Gawker and one on Tastespotting

Made some fabulous blogger friends all across the US and Canada. If you're even in TO stop by for a glass of wine!

There you have it twelve accomplishments, one for every month in a year. To help keep me honest here are a few of my goals for the upcoming year:

Actually make a dent in the cookbook I want to write

Have some of my baked goods and other creations sold at local cafes

Enter the Shelburne Orchards Apple Pie contest in September

Host more giveaways

Make homemade ice cream, without an ice cream maker

Make homemade marshmallows and graham crackers


Now on to why you are really reading this post, the Giveaway! For my blogoversary I wanted to do something special for my readers, especially my loyal ones who faithfully read and post comments, you are the best! And for the new ones, take it as a bribe of sorts to keep you reading :)

I recently became a TasteBook affiliate (see the little widget over in the left sidebar). TasteBooks are these fabulous cookbooks that you can customize with your own recipes or search some of the great sites they partner with like Epicurious, AllRecipes and many others. I put one together for my dad for his birthday with all of my grandmother's recipes. I also created a Piccante Dolce TasteBook with 40 of my favorite recipes from the blog and some that haven't been posted yet for you to purchase and there's even room to add some of your own recipes.

But, I'm digressing...in honor of my blogoversay I decided to give to one lucky reader at $25 TasteBook gift certificate!

I'm sure you're all wondering how do I win this fabulous prize? Well, for a chance at the TasteBook Gift Certificate all you need to do is post a comment below. What specifically do you need to post, you ask? Quite simply what do you think makes the most perfect s'more?

You may have already guessed that my goal of homemade marshmallows and graham crackers will be used for gourmet s'mores and to help me jazz them up a bit more I'd like to know what you think should be in there to make them even more special? Over on twitter @jo_jo_ba suggested a slice of banana which I think sounds divine. But I know you guys are creative so I want to hear your thoughts.

UPDATE!! DEADLINE EXTENDED TO MONDAY AT MIDNIGHT EDT!! The winner will be chosen randomly after midnight EDT Sunday June 21. So post your comments below. For an extra entry tweet about the contest with a link to this post and come back here to post again telling me you tweeted.

Good luck!