Wayfair Review and Giveaway!

Just in time for the holidays—wouldn’t you just love to get something like these Baker's Corner Play Kitchen items for your kids this season?  I think it would be great and I’d probably end up taking over playing with it myself! :)  I have a couple boys around here that would love to play in a kitchen of their own!  The generous people at Wayfair (formerly CSN Stores) have offered for me to review another product on their website and offer one to you as well!

One thing I’ve always wanted in my kitchen is a handheld immersion blender.  So a Cuisinart Smart Stick Hand Blender in Brushed Chrome is on its way for me to try out and there will be one on the way to one lucky Baking and Boys! reader (randomly chosen) as well!

I can’t wait to puree soup, make smoothies or pancakes and crepes without having to lug out my big ol’ blender every time!  Would you like one, too?

You have four entries to increase your chances of being randomly selected to win!

1—Besides a handheld blender of your own, what one other kitchen item do you hope to find wrapped up as a gift for you this holiday season?  Leave a comment telling me.

2—Become a fan on my Baking and Boys! Facebook Fan Page. (Link on the right.)  Leave a comment letting me know you’re now a fan!  Thanks!

3—Leave a status update on your own Facebook page about the giveaway and come back and let me know you did.

4—Like Wayfair on Facebook and come back leaving me a comment telling me you did so.

On your mark, get set, go!  The giveaway will close Tuesday, December 13th at 5 p.m. MST.  (Contest open to US and Canada residents only.)  A winner will be notified by email, so make sure I have a way to contact you.

Thanks to Wayfair for allowing me to do this review and giveaway!

TWD—Toasted Almond Scones and Giveaway Reminder

I made this week’s Tuesdays With Dorie pick of Toasted Almond Scones on Sunday.  They were chosen by Mike whose blog is Living Out West.  Love his blog.  Well done, always clever and great photos!

I was a little worried about making the scones because I already have a favorite scone recipe AND I knew Kevin and the boys wouldn’t eat them (annoying, huh).  So I decided to health them up as much as I could and still try to have them be good.  And it worked.  I think they are great.  I did talk Kevin in to trying one and the main thing he doesn’t like is the grainy/crumbliness they have from the almond meal.  (He doesn’t like cornbread for the same reason.)  He said he likes the flavor of them though.  He did also mention that they aren’t sweet enough (I explained to him that scones aren’t supposed to be.  But just to be nice and in hopes that he’d eat more, I drizzled a glaze on them.

Like I said, I really like them and although I did make them healthier, I still need  to not just be the only one to eat them.  There is still about half a dozen of them sitting on the counter.  Scones are definitely better fresh from the oven, too. 

 

My changes were that I used some almond meal I have instead of grinding almonds.  I only added 1/4 cup of sliced almonds to the dough instead of 1/2 cup.  I used skim milk instead of whole milk.  Though I did use cream as directed.  I used I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter instead of butter and I used whole wheat pastry flour instead of all purpose flour.  I brushed the tops before baking them with some cream and sprinkled some turbinado sugar on top as well as the sliced almonds.  The scones baked for 17 minutes.   They do have a little bit of a wheat taste from the whole wheat pastry flour, but it works well with the almond flavor.

Thanks, Mike!  Great pick.  Check out more scones at the TWD website.

If you haven’t already, be sure to check out the giveaway from CSN Stores I’m having on this link.  Last week in celebration of my Three Year Blogging Anniversary, I posted a $75 giveaway for anything you want at CSN Stores.  The giveaway is open until Wednesday, February 23 (tomorrow!) at 12 noon MST and you can enter up to three times.  Thanks, CSN!

What do you think of this---just in time for your shopping, gift giving, or gift-giving-to-yourself enjoyment, CSN Stores is once again providing me with an opportunity to have another giveaway—for a $75 promotional gift code to shop any of their over 200 online stores.  You could get anything from leather messenger bags to pet supplies, furniture, holiday decor, or my favorite—cookware and bakeware.  They have millions of products, so the possibilities are endless.  I could spend all day just browsing their online shopping sites.  We are getting the boys a puppy for Christmas, so I’m on my way right now to go check out their pet supplies.  Since I’m giving the $75 to one lucky reader, you get to shop for free!

You’re welcome! ;)  Happy Holidays!  Thanks to CSN Stores for including me in their Preferred Blogger Program and allowing me to have this giveaway.

How could you win?  You can enter up to three times by doing the following-- 

1)  Tell me what the number one thing on your holiday wish list is in a comment here.

2) Go to CSN Stores Facebook Page and “Like” them.  Come back to the comments and tell me that you’ve done so.

3) Follow my blog on the Google Followers over on the right column of my blog.  Comment and tell me you’ve done so, or if you are already a follower, leave a comment telling me that.

Three separate comments for three entries.  You have until Friday, December 10, 2010, 10 p.m. MST to enter.  A winner will be chosen at random and will be notified by email, so be sure when you comment that I have an email address to contact you.  (This giveaway is open to US and Canadian residents only.)

The awesome folks at CSN Stores have given me the opportunity to offer one of my readers $75 to use in any of their over 200 online stores. What do you think about that? As much as I dream of having a fabulous new table with upholstered dining chairs, that just isn’t something I want to spend money on only to have them ruined by four rambunctious boys. Know what I mean? Our kitchen has about a ten foot island in the middle with attached swiveling bar stool chairs all across it. They are ten years old and before we bought this house were not treated very nicely. (The family in the house before us had four teenage boys and a little girl!) They need replaced and are high on our list of things we want to get for our house. What would you pick if you had $75 to spend at Cookware.com. While we’ll hopefully be able to get the new chairs for the kitchen island soon, hands down my favorite place to spend too much time browsing and too much money is at CSN Stores’ Oh the kitchen appliances, tools, dishes, bakeware and on and on it would be so fun to have.

Want to have a chance to win the $75? Leave me a comment on this post telling me what you would buy if you were the randomly chosen winner. Check out CSN Stores and the millions of products they have to offer. You can enter until Friday, October 8 at 12:00 p.m. MST. Contest open to US and Canadian residents only. Make sure you leave a way to be contacted if you’re the winner. (Thanks, CSN Stores!)

And now—Tuesdays With Dorie for this week. Lynne from Honey Muffin chose Double Apple Bundt Cake (pages 184-185) and you can get this great recipe on her blog. The cake has apple butter in it as well as some grated apples.

I made homemade spiced apple/pear butter! Oh my gosh, it’s so good. A few weeks ago, I made some peach butter and thought that was really good, but in a taste test, I like the apple butter even more. I never realized how easy it is to make! When I decided on Saturday to make the cake and realized I didn’t have any apple butter, I decided to just make some, even though the only apples we had at the time were a few Red Delicious and a couple past-their-prime little Gala apples. I found this super easy recipe on Squidoo.com. I only made half the recipe, which meant I needed 2 1/2 pounds of apples.

I chopped and measured as I went and after cutting up the four sad, little Galas and three Red Delicous apples, I was still short a little, so I cut up two Asian pears I had and threw them in with the apples. This could not have been more simple. Into the crockpot the diced apples and pears went along with some cinnamon and freshly grated nutmeg. A little apple juice went in as well and the crockpot was set on low. I went to bed and the apples stewed all night. The recipe suggests not adding sugar until the apple butter is finished (or close to it) so you can test it’s sweetness. Well, after blending the apples in a blender and tasting it, I thought it was sweet enough and didn’t add any sugar. So this is also sugar free apple butter.

Easy, Sugar Free Spiced Apple Pear Butter, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!, adapted from Squidoo.com

3 red delicious apples, peeled, cored and chopped

4 small Gala apples, peeled, cored and chopped

2 Asian pears, peeled, cored and chopped

(2 1/2 pounds of any apples/pears you’d like)

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

3/4 cup apple juice

Combine all ingredients in a crockpot and cook on low for 10-12 hours with the lid vented slightly. Blend until smooth. Taste and add sugar, agave, or sweetener of your choice if desired. Mine didn’t need anything. If you use Granny Smith apples or another more tart apple, you will probably need some sugar.

You can also cook the smooth apple butter to the consistency/thickness you desire by leaving it in the crockpot a few more hours after it’s blended without the lid on, which helps remove more of the moisture.

I made the bundt cake and followed the directions exactly. I love when a bundt cake comes right out of the pan! I omitted the raisins and used walnuts. Interesting fact—kitchen scales are better for measuring ingredients. Example—one cup of walnuts. I normally just put them in a measuring cup to the top of the cup. This time I threw the cup on the scale just for fun and looked on the bag of walnuts to see that 120 grams equals one cup.

The cup was overflowing with nuts before it reached 120 grams. I went with the scale measurement. I prefer weighing ingredients in recipes. Just sayin’.

I called the cake done at 46 minutes. I gave it a light glaze made with about 1 1/4 cups powdered sugar and 3 good tablespoons of apple butter whisked together until smooth.

I served it with a little of the apple butter on the side (Dorie said. ;) and some chopped walnuts and homemade Concord raisins. (I left the raisins out of the cake because I knew the boys wouldn’t like them, but I would have liked them.)

The boys each ate a piece. We called Cindy and asked if she wanted some cake. She came over at 9:30 Sunday night after she got off work and took home half the cake. Yay for sharing! She also got to take home six cream puffs that I made.

Come back for the post to see if the cream puffs worked out better for me than the first week of French Fridays With Dorie last week when we made gougeres (cheese puffs) and mine had a few issues. Thanks for stopping by and be sure to tell me what you’d want to spend $75 on at CSN Stores if you want to be entered to win!

Cuisinart Pure Indulgence 2 Quart Ice Cream Maker Review from CSN Stores and Lots of Ice Cream! (Apricot Sorbet)

This review is a little overdue.  You’ll remember (I’m sure you all remember.  Hello?) it’s been almost a month since I posted about an upcoming review from CSN Stores.  They were so kind to ask me if I wanted to review one of their products.  I jumped at the chance to try out a Cuisinart Pure Indulgence 2 Quart Ice Cream Maker.

  

CSN Stores shipped this right out after I ordered it and it arrived in just a few days, sooner than I thought it would!  Boy, have I had fun with this thing!

I sort of feel bad that I already have an ice cream maker (sort of bad, but well, not really).  It’s smaller, like only half the size of this 2 quart one.  Do you realize how much fun it’s been to churn two different kinds of ice cream at one time?  I made all kinds of ice cream and we had some friends that were visiting Utah (or moved back like us) from Kansas over for an ice cream feast.  So fun to see our Kansas friends (Yes, I know, we haven’t even been gone for two months!) 

The first ice cream I made in the new ice cream maker was the Raspberry Chocolate Chip Ice Cream I made to go with my recent favorite Raspberry Chocolate Chip Cookies.

The ice cream maker churned away making a couple batches of my TWD pick for Chocolate Ganache Ice Cream.  Darn that stuff was good!

 

I love that the ice cream maker is so lightweight (minus the frozen bowl).  It also churns ice cream faster than my smaller one (which I do also like). 

Remember all the apricots I had recently?  With some of them, I made Apricot Sorbet.  I went with the recipe in David Lebovitz’s The Perfect Scoop ice cream recipe book, but adapted it by using less sugar and some agave nectar.  This sorbet is SO good and perfectly refreshing for those hot August days and nights.

Two pounds of apricots, pitted and chopped.

 

They are cooked in a saucepan with one cup of water and sugar (I used 1/3 cup sugar and 1/3 cup agave nectar).  After they cook for ten minutes or so, with intermittent stirring, cool to room temperature.

 

Puree the mixture in a blender (or food processor) until smooth.  Press the puree through a fine mesh strainer to remove any small fibers.  Oh, this is so worth every little step.  Stir in 3 drops of almond extract (or vanilla).  Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Realize at this point that you stupidly forgot to take any nice pictures of a beautiful scoop of this delicious Apricot Sorbet.  Sigh.  I’ll have to make it again!

I’ve also churned a few batches of my favorite Philadelphia Style Vanilla Ice Cream by David Lebovitz.  Although I have made it with vanilla bean, I usually just use vanilla extract.

When I made the Apricot and Cherry Crisp AND Apple Crisp a few weeks ago, I invited some family over to help eat it and got out all the ice creams I’d recently made.  There’s others I’ll post soon.

It’s all about the fantastic Cuisinart Pure Indulgence 2 Quart Ice Cream Maker I received from CSN Stores.  I’m happy they allowed me to review it and am excited to do more shopping with them.  With over 200 online stores and millions of products, you can certainly do “one stop” shopping with them.  They have hassle free returns and free shipping on almost all items.  I really was surprised at how fast they got my order shipped out.

Thank you so much, CSN Stores!

(Bluberry Ice Cream, Chocolate Sorbet, Nutella Ice Cream, Mango Sorbet—all to be featured soon!)

HEY ALL—Fallon over at Fallon's Cucina is having a CSN Stores $60 giveaway right now.  Head over there and leave her a comment to be entered!