This is why when the people at Tate’s Bake Shop contacted me about doing a giveaway on Dine & Dish for a collection of cookies and their cookbook by the same name, I was all over it. The owner of Tate’s Bake Shop, Kathleen King, started selling cookies at her family farm stand at the age of 11. That little farm stand has now turned into a full fledged bakery and is known for being one of the very best in The Hamptons. How about that for following your passion? Rachel Ray and Ina Garten, along with many others, have sung the praises of Tate’s Bake Shop so it seems as if Kathleen’s dedication has paid off indeed.

Lucky for you, Dine & Dish readers are going to get the chance to win a collection of cookies from Tate’s Bake Shop and their Tate’s Bake Shop cookbook. The prize package includes packages of each oatmeal raisin, white chocolate macadamia nut, and chocolate chip cookies. To enter the giveaway:

• Leave a comment on this post letting me know what you are doing right now in your life to live your dream? If you aren’t living your dream, what’s holding you back?
• For an additional entry, head over to the Tate’s Bake Shop Facebook Page and become a fan. Once you’ve done that, return to this post and leave a comment letting me know that you are a Tate’s Bake Shop fan.

The giveaway will end at midnight on Wednesday, December 15th. At that time, a winner will be chosen at random and notified.

Tate’s Bake Shop is also offering Dine & Dish readers a 10% discount on any purchase from now through December 31st. To redeem the discount, use the code “cookie” at checkout.

The post Tate’s Bake Shop Cookie and Cookbook Giveaway appeared first on Dine and Dish.

“I’ve been thinking for a while about having my first giveaway on the blog!  I have no sponsors, so it’s totally a me-loving-to-give-things-away-to-people thing.  Plus, giveaways always seem so awesomely fun on other blogs.  But, I don’t know the first thing about any logistics of running a blog giveaway and can’t seem to find anything on Google about it, so I was hoping that you’d be willing to give me a few tips?  Mainly, what rules and legal things do you think I should be aware of?  And, how do you think I could garner enough entries to make the giveaway be worthwhile?”

Such a great question and I can’t wait to read everyone’s answers in the comment section. I think giveaways can be a lot of fun too and it is a great way to show your readers how much you appreciate them. Everyone loves free stuff!
First, you need to figure out what you want to giveaway. That is important and will become the cornerstone for the way other parts of your giveaway are handled. As far as logistics, a few things you’ll want to consider:

1. How do you want people to enter? I usually do the leave a comment on the giveaway post as an entry and let the Random Number Generator choose the winner, but some people do where you can get extra entries if you tweet it, subscribe to your feed, get email updates, become a Facebook fan, that kind of thing. I am not organized enough to keep track of all that, so that is why I just do “leave a comment” or answer a question, etc. as an entry. Make sure you stress that if they enter, they MUST leave a way for you to get a hold of them so you can notify them if they win. You wouldn’t believe the number of people who forget to include their email address! Just saying “Katherine” and “I’d love to win this” gives me no clue about who you are in the big old blogosphere.
2. Do you want it to be open to everyone, or only readers in the US or your geographic area. This is basically to cover where are you willing to ship the prize to.  If it is a gift certificate or something, this doesn’t really matter, but if it is something heavy to ship, then it could be an issue. Also, customs could be an issue, so you really have to consider this carefully.
3. Since it is a sponsor free giveaway, you will just want to put somewhere in the post a disclaimer like “I love <whatever you are giving away>… the company in no way sponsored or is representative of this post. I’m doing the giveaway out of the goodness of my heart to show you all how much I appreciate you”. Something more creative like that to indicate to your readers that no one is paying you or giving you any goodies to have the giveaway.
4. And finally, you have to realize that although a great giveaway can be a nice traffic booster, without some nurturing, it isn’t often traffic that sticks around much longer after the giveaway. Your blog has to be producing great content… make people want to come back because of your writing and photography – not because you give away cool stuff.  (Stephanie has great content and photography, so this won’t be an issue for her… but just a tip for others out there wondering the same thing!)

So – experienced bloggers… I’d love to hear your opinion about blog giveaways. What tips, tricks and information do you have that might help other new bloggers out when deciding whether to do a giveaway on their blog. Leave your comment below so we can all learn from your experience!

Remember – if you are a new food blogger and have a question you’d like answered, please send me an email at kristen <at> dineanddish.net.

Because this is a food blog, I’m going to share the recipe for 10 Minute Mushroom Spaghetti Sauce from Recipezaar. This is such a quick and easy recipe for a nice, meat free, meal. Perfect for spring and summer when fresh veggies are in abundance!

10 Minute Mushroom Spaghetti Sauce (from Recipezaar)

20 min | 10 min prep

SERVES 4

The post Ask a Blogger – All About Giveaways (Recipe: 10 Minute Mushroom Spaghetti Sauce) appeared first on Dine and Dish.

OK – now about the vanilla! When I was younger, I think it was around the time I was in Kindergarten, my grandma Sumner was demonstrating to us all how to properly use a sharp knife. I don’t remember much, except all of us kids were standing around watching her when the knife slipped and she cut her finger pretty badly (in my mind, she cut the tip of her finger off, but I don’t fully remember!). That lesson in how to properly use a knife (or not!) stuck with me because I now refuse to cut anything without a cutting board.

Fast forward 30 years later and I am in my kitchen getting ready to make my friend Sandie’s Creme Brulee. I had a couple of really tough vanilla beans that would not slice open. Being the genius that I am, I picked up one of the beans, held it in the palm of my hand and attempted to cut it open that way. That was not a brilliant decision because the knife slipped and cut open the palm of my hand. Ouch!

One good thing came from that experience. I discovered the joy of Vanilla Bean Paste. Vanilla Bean Paste is much easier to use than vanilla beans, it is less expensive, and has a stronger flavor than pure Vanilla Extract. Plus, you get those great little bean specs in everything you make!

Last week the folks from Singing Dog Vanilla and Red Ape Cinnamon contacted me about trying their products. I am currently trying the Singing Dog Vanilla Bean paste and love how strong the vanilla flavor is! I tried it in these cookies and the frosting and the sweet vanilla flavor was really defined.

Now you get the chance to get your own bottle of Singing Dog Vanilla Bean Paste. All you have to do to be entered in the giveaway is to leave a comment on this post. Make sure you complete the form with your email address so that if your name is chosen at random, I can contact you! If we get over 100 unique comments on this post, I’ll throw in a jar of their Red Ape Cinnamon for the winner as well. All comments must be left by 11pm CST on Wednesday, September 16th. Good luck!

Sugar Cookies (from the kitchen of my friend, Jo Ann Emerson)

• ¾ cup butter or margarine, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 t vanilla (I used 1 Tbs Vanilla Bean Paste)
• 2 ¾ cup flour
• 1 t baking powder
• ½ t salt
• Extra Special Buttercream Frosting (recipe follows)

In a mixing bowl, cream butter & sugar. Add eggs and vanilla; beat until light and fluffy. Combine flour, baking powder and salt. Gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well. Chill for 1 hour or until firm.

On a floured surface, roll a 1/3 of dough to ¼ inch thickness. Cut with cookie cutter. Place on lightly greased baking sheets. Bake at 375^o for 8-10 minutes. Cool on wire racks. Repeat with remaining dough. Frost. Yield: 2 dozen large cookies

Extra Special Buttercream Frosting (from the kitchen of my friend, Jo Ann Emerson)

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup vegetable shortening
• 2 lbs. powdered sugar
• ½ t salt
• 2 t clear vanilla (I used 2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste)
• 6-8 oz. whipping cream

Cream butter and shortening until fluffy. Add sugar and continue beating until well blended. Add salt, vanilla and whipping cream. Beat on high speed until icing is fluffy. Note: This frosting should be refrigerated. Yield: 7 ½ cups

This recipe makes enough to frost 2 batches of sugar cookies or an extra large cake. Always start with a little whipping cream and gradually add (humidity affects the amount needed).

The post Singing Dog Vanilla Bean Paste Giveaway (Recipe – Sugar Cookies with Vanilla Bean Frosting) appeared first on Dine and Dish.

OK – Kate has so many Taste of Home cookbooks to give away! As promised, some of our giveaways are going to be quickies. Here we go…!

The first person to comment on this post (and keep in mind that some comments if the person is commenting the first time go into moderation, so I’ll have to check times) will be the winner of the Taste of Home Annual Cookbook from 2002.

The comment must include the correct name and correct age of Kate’s son (the handsome cutie pictured above seen holding his baby cousin).

The answer can be found in Kate’s Blog, Kate in the Kitchen.

Ready? Set? Go!

Bummed that you weren’t the first to comment with the right answer? Don’t fret… you can still win! We have lots more to give away and our first giveaway is still going on over at this post.

Sign up to have Dine & Dish delivered to your email inbox to receive the latest news right away! See the right hand sidebar to sign up!

The post Quickie Giveaway appeared first on Dine and Dish.

I started the Dine & Dish blog in November 2006. Back in my beginning blogging days, I was a very eager, typical new blogger. I cooked and posted on my blog almost every single day. I spent hours reading through blogs and learning the ropes, so to speak. I spent a lot of time networking with other bloggers, reading through magazines getting ideas of what I could blog about, and generally working on an attempt to build my blog up to be one with a decent reputation in the blogging world. Of course, back then, there weren’t as many food blogs as there are today. The network was quite a bit smaller and seemed a little easier to navigate.

Some of the bloggers I feel the most connected to today are ones who I met when I first started blogging. One person, in particular, is my friend Kate over at Kate in the Kitchen. Kate and I first connected on a crazy whim. Being a new blogger, I had over eagerly committed on my blog (and in a published letter to the editor of Food & Wine) to try the Food & Wine 100 Must Try Tastes. Soon after I posted this ambitious goal, I got an email from Kate saying that she was going to try the same thing. We had an immediate connection with common goal and eventually grew to become friends beyond blogging. (I must note that I quit the Food & Wine challenge part way through… some of the items were extremely expensive and impossible to get my hands on living in the Midwest. I was naieve, to say the least!)

Kate is one of those people who has managed to stay true to herself with her blog. She is a talented writer, an excellent and creative cook, and has a genuinely warm heart that comes through in all that she does. She hasn’t fallen prey to what I call the “blogging game” and has managed to still be successful. I admire her a lot for her ability to balance and to keep her blog organic to who she is.

Kate has generously offered up TEN cookbooks from the Taste of Home Annual Cookbook collection for me to give away on my blog. TEN cookbooks! That means over the next couple of weeks you will have the chance to add some of the best Taste of Home cookbooks to your collection.

For this first giveway we are giving away the Taste of Home Annual cookbooks from 2000 and 2001. There are going to be two winners for this particular drawing. All you need to do to be entered in the giveaway is leave a comment on this post. You must include a valid email address… just makes sense so we can get a hold of you if your name is drawn from the Random Number Generator.  It would be great if you would head over to Kate’s as well and give her a shout out… tell her thanks for offering up these great books! While you are there, stop and browse a little but be prepared to have your bookmarks locked and loaded to go… she has a lot of great recipes you’ll want to save to try!

Comments must be left by midnight on Friday, November 21st. Winner will be notified on the next day.

Oh – and stay tuned. You never know when a new giveaway for some of the other cookbooks might pop up. To keep abreast of it all, make sure to subscribe to Dine & Dish by email or follow me on Twitter. Some of the giveaways are going to be quick, and some may last a little longer… you will want to be the first to know!

This recipe is from the Taste of Home Best & Loved Cookies and Bars cookbook that is on newstands now. Delicious!

Strawberry Cream Cookies from Taste of Home

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 package (3 ounces) cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• Seedless strawberry jam

Directions:

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter, cream cheese and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg yolk and vanilla. Add flour and mix well. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour or until easy to handle. Shape dough into 1-in. balls. Place 2 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Using the end of a wooden spoon handle, make a 1/2-in.-deep indentation in the center of each ball; fill with about 1/4 teaspoon jam. Bake at 350° for 10-12 minutes or until set. Remove to wire racks to cool. Yield: 5 dozen.

The post Blogging Friends – A Giveaway for You! appeared first on Dine and Dish.

Whitney, Stacy and Cathy… today is your lucky day! The Random Number Generator selected you all as the three winners for the Pizza Hut gift certificates. Soon you will have the chance to try their new Tuscani Pasta and an order of breadsticks. Congratulations to you and thanks to everyone for participating. A special thanks to Pizza Hut for this great opportunity!

I have to apologize to everyone for my lack of blogging lately. We recently found out that I am…. Surprise!… expecting baby number 4. I have been incredibly sick with this pregnancy and just haven’t had a whole lot of energy to cook. It is hard to write a food blog when you aren’t cooking! Anyway, I promise that things will be back to normal soon and appreciate you all hanging in there. I am slowly but surely starting to get my mojo back, at least a couple of days a week. Cooking supper and then being able to eat it these days is a monumental milestone. I can’t wait for this all to pass.

In the meantime, I have a cookbook to give away! I have multiple copies of The Taste of Home Cookbook and would love to give one to you. This is one huge cookbook full of recipes from trusted home cooks, like you and me. If you like Taste of Home magazine, I promise you will love this cookbook. To enter to win, please leave a comment after this post telling me what your number one favorite cooking magazine is. All entries must have a valid email address. Comments can be left up to midnight CST on Monday, October 27th and the random drawing will take place the next day. Thanks and good luck!

The post Pizza Hut Winners and Another Giveaway! appeared first on Dine and Dish.

I grew up living in the country and all of my friends lived in town. I remember always being jealous of the folks in town because they could have Pizza Hut delivered to their homes. We lived too far out, so if we wanted pizza, we either had to go all the way into town to eat at the Pizza Hut restaurant, have dad bring some home after work, or make our own at home.

One of the silly big thrills for me when I left home for college was living in a town where you could have food delivered straight to your door! Pizza, Chinese, Sub Sandwiches… a whole new world of delivery options were available to me. It was quite an exciting thing for this small town country girl!

I now live in a Kansas City suburb, and we really don’t have many delivery options besides pizza. With the delivery options available, my family prefers Pizza Hut.

The other day, a representative from Pizza Hut contacted me about trying out their new Tuscani Pasta. She wanted to have some delivered to my family for dinner and also wanted to give three of my readers the opportunity to win gift certificates of their own to give the new Tuscani Pasta a try. I haven’t been feeling well at all the last couple of weeks (hence my lack of blogging…sorry!) and my husband has been traveling. The thought of having something delivered to my house besides pizza thrilled me, and I readily accepted.

Pizza Hut delivered their Premium Bacon Mac ‘n Cheese Tuscani Pasta to my house this past Friday along with an order of their garlic breadsticks. I half expected the pasta to be dry, but the Pizza Hut Premium Bacon Mac ‘n Cheese arrived and it was creamy, cheesey and full of flavor. The serving was extremely generous… we were able to have 2 1/2 meals out of this one order of pasta! The whole family loved it and it was such a welcome change from our normal delivery options.

Pizza Hut would like to offer three of my readers gift certificates for their own order of Tuscani Pasta and breadsticks. To be considered, please leave a comment after this post telling me what your favorite delivery food is. Earn an extra chance to win by making a comment with a link back to this post on Twitter and leave an additional comment on this post notifying me of your Tweet. For another extra chance to win, post about this giveaway on your blog, then leave an additional comment on this post linking back to your post. The giveaway will end on Monday, October 20th at 11pm CST, the random drawing will take place and winners will be announced on Tuesday. Thanks and good luck!

The post Pizza Hut Tuscani Pasta Giveaway appeared first on Dine and Dish.

I am afraid I am passing this same trait on to my kids. If you look at the cereal boxes in our pantry, you will find boxes of cereal with 3/4 of the cereal gone. When I think we are running low on cereal, I go out and buy new cereal. As soon as the new cereal enters the house, the old boxes of cereal lose their appeal for the woo of something new.

This muffin recipe is for those of you with commitment issues, like myself. You can make your neglected cereal feel loved again by using the remaining bits to make muffins that will make you want to have even more neglected cereal so you can make them again and again. In this case, being a non-commiter is actually a good thing!

Along with these muffins, we enjoyed a cup of Cabaret Brewed Chocolate. Sweet, rich, unique… Cabaret Brewed Chocolate is the perfect drink for those of you who may not be fans of coffee but enjoy a warm beverage. Not as sweet and caloric as hot chocolate, this product is one you will want to keep around as the weather turns colder. The folks at Cabaret are giving my readers a chance to win a jar of of their Brewed Chocolate. To be considered, check out the Cabaret website and then please leave a comment on this post telling me what your favorite warm beverage is. All entries must be submitted by 10pm CST on Tuesday 9/16 and the winner will be notified via email the following day. Good luck!

Breakfast Cereal Muffins (from Recipezaar)

30 min | 10 min prep

SERVES 12 , 12 muffins

Looking for more ways to use up some breakfast cereal? These food bloggers have some great ideas:

• Naboo Nuggets from Little Foodies
• Raisin Bran Bread from Cooking is Medicine
• Peanut Butter Coconut Krispie Cookies from Judy’s Kitchen
• Sweet Chex Mix from This Week for Dinner

• Tomorrow night is the deadline for entering the drawing for the County Bob’s Cookbook! Check out the details HERE
• The Adopt-a-Blogger 2 matches have been made! Make sure to check out and support those people participating. Please make sure to drop by my adoptee’s site, Apples and Butter, and say hi!
• There is a new site for moms out there created by two of my favorite food bloggers. Make sure to check out Voice of Mom

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