CSN Giveaway!

In my family, there are generally quite a few gifts exchanged around the holidays. My mom has 4 sisters and her parents are still alive, and this generates quite a few presents. We even do a name pull but it can still get a little out of control. I like to think I'm an easy person to shop for; I generally love anything that anyone decides to give me (barring a noogie or a wedgie!), and I think that it is truly better to give than to receive. My brother has always been "the hard one to shop for" out of the three of us, and he usually ends up with gift certificates. Now, I don't like to give gift certificates if I can possibly help it, and I'm a gift certificate hoarder, so they aren't a medium that I generally deal in or with. I will admit to a certain amount of envy, though, when my brother winds up with some cash to blow at a kitchen store. I do make sure that I go with him to spend his gift certificates, because watching and helping him pick out kitchen gear is almost as fun as getting it for myself. One year we were leaving the store and he remarked that he couldn't think of much more kitchen gear that he needed as he had really nice knives and pots and we'd just selected an immersion blender and a rockin' bamboo cutting board to add to his kitchen gear collection. I looked at him agast. I mean, he truly does have everything you'd need and then some to cook just about anything you'd want to, but in my kitchen schwag loving mind I just couldn't imagine this. I mean, what about 8" cake pans (x3) and then some fabulous bundt pans? And you can never have too many rubber spatulas, or what about that silicone whisk that comes in rainbow colors? And Le Crueset has just come out with new colors . . . be still my heart. We decided that, as a lover of kitchen schwag, I was the target customer of kitchen stores, my brother . . . not so much. And it's true, I love different colors (I have mostly red, and a little bit of yellow in my kitchen, but oh how I love kiwi green and carribean blue, sigh) and kitchen store catalogs come and I love to look through them and eyeball all of the new and fun and different kitchen schwag. It's my suspicion that I'm not alone in this love of kitchen schwag, and that's a good thing, because now I get to give out a little kitchen schwag courtesy of CSN stores.

I had never heard of CSN before Jamie contacted me last week and offered to do a giveaway on this blog. It turns out that CSN is sort of like an uber one stop shop for home goods, furniture, office supplies, I really can't name everything that they sell. I figured that because this is a cooking blog, and I get a little bit of input, then the giveaway should have something to do with kitchen schwag. And . . . even though I'm not getting any fun new toys, I did poke around and find some things I'd like to have.

I do love a good apron, and CSN has a ton of cute designs. These were just some that caught my eye!

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The carribean blue color that I love so much. I've been pondering a batter bowl, it seems like such a great idea, don't you think?

I love mixing bowls! And I love colorful mixing bowls even more! Anyone who loves to cook or bake knows how essential mixing bowls are. I love that these nest togther -- nesting is a great thing no matter what, but when you have storage issues it's even better. 

 I love bamboo cutting boards. They rock. 

Oooh, an ice cream maker. Summer's coming, and just think of all the tasty creations you can make in this gadget.

OK, so who doesn't love to take a little magazine quiz every once in awhile? I took a quiz on my decorating style on Real Simple's website the other day (I was soooo procrastinating!). Here's what I learned about my decorating style (none of this was news to me):  it's a combination of "Cozy Casual" and "Sophistcated Classic" with a little bit of "Vintage Eclectic" thrown in. In other words, I'm all over the map. One thing I'm not, though, is "Modern Graphic." I just like "stuff" (all of that kitchen schwag) and toile a little too much to get into clean, modern lines. It's funny, though, because one of the CSN websites that Jamie mentioned was All Modern. So very much *not* the Singleton, but I do appreciate some modernism even if I can't apply it to my domicile. I might not be have a "modern" decorating aesthetic, but I do have a little quirky side, and I thought I'd share some of these "modern" picks, too.

This is a fun kitchen timer. I used to have one that looked like a chicken, and I loved it, but one night I accidentally set it down on one of my electric burners that was still hot (it wasn't long after I moved to DC and I was still very used to gas ranges). Needless to say, my little chicken melted to the burner and died a slow and painful death. I love this timer and they're essential if you forget about putting things in the oven like I do.

OK, so this is an Alessi paper towel holder and I think it's so cute. It's a bunny and a carrot! Enough said.

Here's another Alessi goody, this is a spice rack of sorts. I'm not going to pretend that I really understand it, because I don't, but I do like it. This would look great in a monochromatic, uncluttered kitchen (mine is none of those). You know, it could be that accent splash of color (I have no idea what I'm talking about but it works in my mind).

A funnel is one of those things that's so utilitarian and such a pain to store that I refuse to buy one. And then sometimes I need one and I improvise and liquid spills everywhere. This funnel looks like Pinocchio and it makes me smile. 

So, that's a little peak at some of the fun kitchen goodies you can find on the CSN website. And . . . as the title of this post implies, Jamie at CSN has arranged for one of you to pick out some of your own goodies. To that end, if you'd like to add to your kitchen schwag, just leave me a comment on this post and tell me either a) what one piece of kitchen equipment you'd bring to a desert island or b) what piece of kitchen equipment (practical or not) you're most wishing for these days. We'll let this go until 8 am EDT (agh! I am sooo not looking forward to the Daylight Savings Time transition) on Monday, March 15th. Good luck and tell your friends!

TWD: Thumbprints For Us Big Guys

I *heart* cookies that involve jam. I mean, I love them a whole lot. They might not equal a chocolate chip cookie for me, but they're firmly in second place. I think this might have something to do with my love of any jam or preserve (jellies not so much, and please keep grape jelly far, far away from me and my pb&j). I used to put strawberry jam on my pancakes and waffles in lieu of syrup, and I went through a major "biscuit with strawberry jam" breakfast phase in high school. But if you say strawberry jam I say thumbprint. Not just any thumbprint, mind you, the thumbprints that my mom makes for Christmas. Those might just be my favorite cookie, ever.

For as long as I can remember, thumbprints have been the ne plus ultra of Christmas cookies in my family. There are several varieties of cookies, but my dad, my brother, and yours truly all wait for the thumbprints (if you're interested, my sister swings for sugar cookies and my mom is on the Mexican wedding cake team). My brother has even been known to do a thumbprint variation of the Holy Eucharist, which is totally blasphemous but completely hilarious. When I was younger I could never, for the life of me, understand why we could only have these cookies at Christmastime. I mean, they're so great, so shouldn't we have them all year round? Or at least for Valentine's Day and the 4th of July? Well, my sophomore year in college I shared an apartment with two roommates(a total and complete roommate disaster, by the way, but that's another post, or several posts). This was the first time I'd ever had a kitchen of my own, and I could make anything I wanted (but the most successful thing to come out of that kitchen was jello shots, sad but true). And, you can bet that by late September, early October maybe, I'd covertly aquired that thumbprint recipe and I was going to make thumbprints before Christmas. So, I measured and mixed and rolled and baked and filled and you know what? They didn't taste right. My roommates and friends ate them, but no one experienced thumbprint nirvana. My mom was right (my mother is always right -- it's downright frightening at times) -- you can't eat thumbprints unless it's around Christmas. Actually, I think it might have something to do with mediocre ingredients, equipment, and skills, but we'll leave it that my mom was right, because that's how it settled in my mind. This is the first time since that first experiment that I've made thumbprints outside of the holiday season. It doesn't really count, though, because it's not my mom's recipe. 

That was a long segue into this little cookie for Big Guys (Manly Men, even?), wasn't it? The cookies are super simple to make. I used almonds rather than hazelnuts just because I love almonds and I'm *meh* on hazelnuts. Hazelnuts are best left in Nutella. I made 1/2 a recipe because my official TWD taste tester, that dastardly Dudley, gave up sweets for Lent, but even if he hadn't he doesn't like desserts with fruit in them. Yup, if it's a fruity dessert you can be pretty sure that I'm knocking on doors looking for takers. No matter, though, I happen to love fruit for and in my desserts (it's just nice to get a second opinion sometimes, right?). On to the jam. I had precious little strawberry jam in my house, no raspberry jam, and about 4 jars of jalapeno pepper jelly. I also had these two jars of jam left over from my kolache experiment last December. These jams are lovely and have great flavor, but they're really, as you might see on the label, fruit spreads. This means that there are giant hunks 'o fruit floating around in there. Giant hunks 'o fruit + thumbprints = not compatible at all, in my opinion. So, I stuck the requsite jam in the blender until the hunks 'o fruit were no more. Problem solved. 

So, of course these thumbprints weren't like my mom's thumbprints (her recipe doesn't have nut flour and calls for powdered sugar in the dough) but they're still very good. I loved the flavor of the almonds in these cookies, and I'm kind of tempted to experiment with pecans in the dough, too. I'm sure that someone this week did, so I'll have to be on the hunt for a pecan version of these goodies. Thanks to Mike of Ugly Food Dude for giving me the opportunity to a) make a recipe that I've been dying to try and b) make and eat thumbprints outside of the holiday season. Do check out his blog if you'd like the recipe, and it's hilarious. I was laughing pretty hard as I was reading his back posts.

Muffin Mondays: Apple Coconut Muffins

I rarely have a plan for my Saturday morning muffins. I love to browse my cookbooks for muffin recipes, and this recipe comes from a cookbook that I absolutely love and I don't use it half as much as I should, The Frog Commissary Cookbook. Every time I flip through this book I see about 10 recipes that I'd love to make, and their breakfast section is outstanding.

On Saturday mornings Lucy and I go out for a walk, and when we get home I make my coffee and start looking for a muffin recipe. This means that I am generally limited by the ingredients I have on hand. Occasionally, as I'm looking for a recipe I'll find a recipe that sounds delicious and I'll tag that recipe and make sure that I procure the ingredients for the next time I make muffins (usually the next Saturday). These apple coconut muffins are great because the main ingredients are two things I almost always have on hand, apple and coconut. They're simple and subtle and actually quite tasty. It was very difficult for me to make the recipe as directed because I really wanted to up the spices in the recipe. Apples just seem to cry out for cinnamon, don't you think? I did make the recipe as directed, though, and I'm glad that I did. The flavor of the nutmeg is very subtle but it comes through in a way that I don't think it would if cinnamon were added.

These are nice muffins. They're not overly assertive in any one way, the apple is subtle, the coconut is subtle, and I think they'd please a range of appetites. Dudley loved these, and he's generally not fond of fruit in his baked goods. They're great with a cup of coffee or a glass of milk or orange juice, and I think that, made in minis, they would be a nice addition to a brunch table.

Apple Coconut Muffins
The Frog Commissary Cookbook


1/2 cup (1 stick) of unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
2 1/2 cups flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
3 ounces shredded sweetened coconut (1 cup plus 2 tablespoons)
1 1/2 cups finely chopped peeled apple

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease twelve 3" muffin-pan cups. Cream together the butter, sugar, and vanilla. Beat together the eggs and milk. Combine well the flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg. Alternately add the wet and dry ingredients to the creamed mixture. Blend until just combined. Stir in the coconut and the apples. Fill the cups full. Bake for 25-30 minutes. Cool 5 minutes and remove from the tins to cool further.

For a printable version of this recipe, click here.