This giveaway is now closed… congrats to Gretchen S, Nancy W, Lindsay B, Heather B, Shelee B, Pam K, Robin C, Donalyn K, Mary G, Season M, Cindy L and Lynne D. Check your emails!

I’ve got such an exciting giveaway for you today! See the Canon Selphy Portable Mini Printer right up there? Our friends from Smucker’s Uncrustables have given 12 lucky Dine & Dish readers the opportunity to win!

Smuckere’s Uncrustables recently launched the Uncrustables Unstoppable Family Photo Contest celebrating Unstoppable families who are always on the move, creating memories, and embarking on adventures at a moment’s notice. They’ve narrowed the selection of photographs down to 10 pictures for the winning photo contest prize and need help from Dine & Dish readers in selecting the big winner! Since they know we love photography and we love capturing little life moments with our camera, they knew we’d be just the group to help pick the winner. Would you mind heading over to the Smucker’s Uncrustables page and voting for your favorite? Voting is simple and will only take a minute.

As a thank you to Dine & Dish readers for their help with choosing the Uncrustables Unstoppable Family Photo Contest winner, Smucker’s has given me 12 Canon Selphy Portable Mini Printers to give away! How awesome is that? That means 12 of you will win one of the great printers pictured above. I have one of these that I use to print off my Project 365 / Project Life pictures and I love it so much. I know you will too! …

Read More

The post Canon Portable Mini Photo Printer Giveaway with 12 Winners!! appeared first on Dine and Dish.

The very first challenge is Girls / Guys Night In. How would you, the future Sterling Vineyards Ultimate Host, throw a Girls / Guys Night In party? Put on your planning hat and share your ideas, pictures and / or videos over on the Sterling Vineyards Facebook page! Seriously, friends… they’ve made entering so easy. Hope you’ll check it out!

Hurry, because entries for Challenge #1 can be turned in through 11:59 EST on September 20th. 2012.

I can’t wait to see what your ultimate night in looks like! Good luck!

The post Sterling Vineyards Ultimate Host Challenge #1: Girls / Guys Night In appeared first on Dine and Dish.

Friends, I’ve seen your parties… have even had the great privilege of being to some of them. You know how to throw a great event! Your Instagrams, Facebook updates, Tweets all tell me that you could easily be “The Ultimate Host“. I know you might be thinking “Me? The Ulitmate Host?” Yes, you!

If you have a flair for entertaining, a house where every occasion big or small is a celebration, friends and family who turn to you for awesome party ideas, then YOU could very well be exactly what Sterling Vineyards is looking for! I know so many of you have it in you, and now, it’s time to be recognized for it!

So what’s this all about? Well, I’ve partnered with Sterling Vineyards on their 2nd annual search for “The Ultimate Host“.

I’m joining judges Padma Lakshmi (Top Chef), Tori Tate (Thoughtfully Simple), Jillian Tohber (Catch My Party) and Aryka Randall (The Fab Femme) in a quest to see who can rise up to the hosting challenges set forth of the next several weeks. You can find out all about the Ulitmate Host Challenges on the Sterling Vineyards Facebook page. I’ll tell you this much though… this December, four finalists will be flown to New York City for a finale event where host extraordinaire Padma Lakshmi (plus myself and the other judges) will help Sterling crown the winner. Plus the final four will be competing for the grand prize of $25,000 and the title of Sterling Vineyards Ultimate Host! Now that’s worth a party, right?

Over the next several weeks, I’ll be sharing my take on each of the challenges. Don’t wait for me though. Head on over to the Sterling Vineyards Facebook page to find out the official rules and enter today! Hopefully I’ll see YOU in NYC in December! Good luck!!

Photos courtesy of Sterling Vineyards.

This is a sponsored post on behalf of Sterling Vineyards. All opinions expressed are my own.

The post Sterling Vineyards Search for the Ultimate Host appeared first on Dine and Dish.

There’s a little something I want to share with you, and it has to do with making your travel dreams come true. We all want to make our dreams come true, right?

Philadelphia Cream Cheese has a thriving online community of home cooks (like us!) called The Real Women of Philadelphia (RWOP). This community, with more than 66,000 registered users, has become a place for people to share recipe ideas, talk about life in general and help make dreams come true. It’s a platform for creativity that offers women a place to share their real recipes, real conversations and real dreams throughout the entire year.

This year, Philadelphia Cream Cheese has several contests for the dreamer in all of us. In fact, throughout the season, PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese will be giving away more than $100,000 in prizes, including a kitchen makeover and various other dream prizes. To start, Kraft Foods has announced its Real Women of Philadelphia contest called “Delicious Dream Trips” – a contest designed for the Real Women of Philadelphia community to submit their recipe and video of their own region-inspired dish for a chance to win one of THREE  separate dream trips to Italy, France or Greece. Three places I know I dream about going. How about you?

To enter, just register to join the Real Women of Philadelphia community and submit an original recipe (including PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, of course)  and video inspired by one of the countries (France, Italy or Greece), for a chance to win a dream getaway to France, Italy or Greece.  The winner will embark on a delicious dream trip where they’ll experience local cuisine and culture and enjoy scenic tours, wine tastings, and wonderful dining at gourmet restaurants. If you win will you please pack me in your suitcase? It sounds amazing!

When I think about traveling to France or Italy, I think of sitting outside at little cafe’s, drinking coffee or wine and eating the most delicious breads and pastries. When I think about pastries and bread and Philadelphia Cream Cheese, I think about one of my favorite, fruit muffin recipes with cream cheese as one of the ingredients. It’s not a cream cheese filled muffin, but instead a rich, indulgent muffin with cream cheese included in the batter. The cream cheese makes the difference between an ordinary muffin and these muffins.

Make up a batch of these muffins, sit down, and start dreaming up recipes that inspire you. You never know, entering your recipe in the RWOP “Delicious Dream Trips” contest might be all it takes to make your travel dreams come true. Good luck!

I have been selected by Kraft Foods to be an ambassador for the Real Women of Philadelphia. While I have been compensated for my time, my opinions are my own, and I have not been paid to post positive comments.

Print

Philadelphia Cream Chese Blueberry Muffins

A rich and decadent blueberry muffin recipe, made even better with the addition of Philadelphia Cream Cheese.

Ingredients

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup cake flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 ounces Philadelphia Cream Cheese softened
• 1 Tablespoon lemon zest
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 3 Tablespoons melted butter
• 1/2 cup buttermilk I use buttermilk substitute... 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice and 1/2 cup milk
• 1 cup fresh blueberries

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350°F.
• Line muffin pan with 12 paper liners.
• Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a mixing bowl.
• Place cream cheese, lemon zest and vanilla into the bowl of an electric mixer. Blend until smooth.
• Add eggs, one at a time, beating until well incorporated.
• Slowly add melted butter and milk, blending for just a few seconds.
• Add the flour mixture, one cup at a time, and continue mixing until all ingredients are just incorporated (do not over mix).
• With a spoon, fold in blueberries.
• Pour an equal amount of batter into each lined muffin cup, filling about 3/4 full.
• Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown and toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
• (Note - I have a picky kid who will not eat blueberry muffins if the blueberries are on top. I simply halve the batter and add blueberries to one half. Fill the muffin cups half way with the blueberry batter and then fill the top portion with the non-blueberry batter.)

The post RWOP Delicious Dream Trips {Recipe: Philadelphia Cream Cheese Blueberry Muffins} appeared first on Dine and Dish.

Read More

The post $600 American Express Gift Card Giveaway {Recipe: Biscoff Pudding} appeared first on Dine and Dish.

Soup is one of those things that everyone can equate back to their childhood. My mom always made the best chicken noodle soup, served on our silver “sick tray” in bed when we were under the weather. When you come in from a cold day of snow fort building, what do you want? Soup!

and like every great party……..there will be PRIZES from some fabulous sponsors!!

Bush’s Beans, Hip Hostess, Pillsbury and Westminster Crackers

How to Participate in Soup-a-Palooza

1. Write and post a recipe on your blog featuring a soup, stew, chili, or chowder. You can have up to two soup entries! Each soup entry enters you into the drawing for some great prizes!

2. Include “Come join Soup-a-Palooza at TidyMom and Dine and Dish sponsored by Bush’s Beans, Hip Hostess, Pillsbury and Westminster Crackers” in your blog post. If you use an old soup post for the Soup-a-Palooza, please just go in and add the above phrase to that post.

3. On Feb 15th add your link to your soup post to the widget on either TidyMom or Dine and Dish (we have the same widget code, so only add it on one site). Enter up to 2 soups. Each soup entry makes you eligible to win some of the great prizes from the above sponsors.

4. Don’t have a blog? no problem…..leave your recipe in the comments on the day of the Soup-a-Palooza party (Feb 15, 2011)

5. If you want, help spread the word about Soup-a-palooza through social media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter.

• Sample Tweet: Join @DineandDish & @TidyMom for #Soupapalooza. Share your recipes (and WIN) here: http://tidymom.net or https://www.dineanddish.net Pls RT

6. Button for your sidebars or posts – just use the supplied coding below if you want a button in your posts or on your blog sidebar.The button1 is 150×206. If you need a smaller size, feel free to download the image, adjust the size and provide your own coding.

<div align="center"><a href="https://www.dineanddish.net" title="Dine and Dish"><img src="http://tidymom.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/soup-button.jpg" alt="Soupapalooza" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

7. Have fun and enjoy! Thanks for participating and we look forward to warming up during Soup-a-Palooza!

The post Save the Date for Soup-a-Palooza appeared first on Dine and Dish.

Oh – and I have a new guest post up over at the Viva Diva Cafe. This time, I share what some of my favorite kitchen essentials are. It was difficult to think about what I wouldn’t want to do without in the kitchen! Click on this link to check out what I came up with.

Now, for those of you here for the Pizza Hut Giveaway, I have some good news for you. Pizza Hut recently contacted me about their new Tuscani Lasagna and asked if I would be interested in giving it a try. I will admit, I am a very picky lasagna lover. I love the recipe that I use and sometimes other peoples lasagna, but it has to be really, really good for me to give it a thumbs up. I will also admit though that the thought of having a night off in the kitchen and having something different than pizza delivered to my house intrigued me, so I agreed.

Pizza Hut delivered what they consider to be a four serving pan of lasagna to our family the other night. Included in that was a plate of their hot, fresh breadsticks. I hesitantly gave the lasagna a try only to discover that… oh my – Pizza Hut makes a GREAT lasagna! It really was delicious – with the ricotta cheese, and perfectly flavored sauce. When I asked what everyone else thought about it, my 7 year old said (with a full mouth) “I can’t tell you right now… this is just toooooo good!”

The Pizza Hut Tuscani Lasagna is a great thing to have delivered if you are looking for something outside of the ordinary. Oh – and that four serving pan? My family of 5 was able to get two very generous meals out of one pan. I had two nights off in the kitchen and felt great about what I was serving my family.

Pizza Hut would like to give one of my readers the opportunity to give their Tuscani Lasagna a try. Simply leave a comment on this post  by Midnight CST on Tuesday, February 17th and we will have a random drawing for the winner on the 18th. You can also win a $10,000 trip to Italy by becoming a fan of Pizza Hut on Facebook. Make sure to check that out as well!

The post Win a Lasagna From Pizza Hut! appeared first on Dine and Dish.