My mom taught me a valuable lesson when I was younger. “Kristen… you’ll always be able to tell the best recipes in a cookbook by the wrinkles and splatters on the pages. The worse the page looks, the better the recipe. You’ll know exactly what recipes the cook turned to time and time again by the looks of the pages in their cookbooks.”…

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For example, the “to-do”list. I’ve mentioned once or twice here that I love lists. I am obsessed with lists. I love to read lists (you know when you get a new calendar or time management program and they have examples of how to use it? I scour those reading the lists that are on the example. Anyone else do that?? I am list obsessed.) Often times, I will create lists just so I can mark things off. I will often sit down at night and make my to-do list from the day I just finished and then mark it all off, just so I can have that sense of accomplishment. Yes, I know that truly organized people sit down and write out their to-do list for the next day. That is not the way the “organized in a very chaotic way” folks like to roll.

This past Sunday I did a little pantry organization project. Inspired by an episode of Real Simple Real Life, I decided to buy some nice clear plastic containers from The Container Store. I went to town using my handy dandy new Brother P-Touch label maker and started dumping things into containers and labeling my shelves and the containers. I realized things were getting a little out of control when I labeled a clear, mind you, container full of what was obviously pretzels, “pretzels”. As if you couldn’t tell by just looking at the container that it contained pretzels. Still, it got a label and I was a happy, chaotically organized camper.

During my pantry organization project I realized I had an insane amount of flout and raisins. It was with a thrilling glint in my eye that I decided to pull an issue of Simple & Delicious magazine off of my labeled Cookbook shelf, grab a clear container of raisins marked “raisins” and take my over abundance of flour and put it to good use. This Cinnamon Raisin Bread from the most recent issue of Simple & Delicious is really good and it makes two loaves. Guess what you can do with that second loaf? Stick the bread in a Ziploc bag, take your handy dandy label maker and create a name label of who you want to gift it to. You will feel like you are the most organized person on the planet!

I am giving you all the chance to be “organized in a very chaotic way” too. I have a new Brother PT-80 P-touch Electronic Labeling System to give away so you can be label obsessed just like me. Along with that, Kate from Kate in the Kitchen has two more cookbooks to include in this giveaway. The lucky winner will win the Labeling System, the 2003 Taste of Home Annual Cookbook and the 2005 Light and Tasty Annual Cookbook. Lots of great stuff to snag up here! Enter to win by leaving a comment on this post sharing with me one simple organizing tip. Steal it from FlyLady, borrow it from Real Simple… just share any tip you can think of that has to do with organization. All comments must be accompanied by a valid email address. Comments will be accepted up until midnight on Monday, December 15th.  Good Luck

Oh – and before I share the recipe… did you know that my first guest blogging post is now up at the SC Johnson Right@Home website? Won’t you please go check it out?

Cinnamon Raisin Bread (2 Loaves) from Simple and Delicious Magazine

1¼ hours | 15 min prep

2 Loaves

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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!

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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.

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