Cooking for Seven

Hello all! Today is Friday, one of my favorite days of week.

It’s just meant for good times with friends & staying up way too late.

On this lovely Friday, I’m giving away a $30 coupon to Frigidaire Accessories. There you can find kitchen gadgets, cleaners, cutlery, cookware, and more!

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Here’s how you can enter to win:

1) (Mandatory) Leave a comment on this post describing you favorite kitchen gadget.

2) For extra entries, subscribe via RSS or email. Make sure to come back and leave another comment for each entry. If you’re already subscribed, just tell me that.

3) For extra entries, follow me on Twitter or “like” me on Facebook. Make sure to come back and leave another comment for each entry.

4) For another extra entry, blog or tweet about this giveaway. Make sure to come back and leave another comment with a link to your post.

Giveaway ends January 28 at 10:00 p.m. Central. Using random.org I will choose one winner.

Good luck!

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A few weeks ago Tate’s Bake Shop asked me if I was interested in tasting a few of their cookies. Um, yes. Who in their right mind would refuse cookies?

Overall I was quite impressed with the quality of their products. Let me share with you what I found:

Packaging:

The cookies arrived in this lovely box.

Inside are three beautiful boxes of cookies: Macadamia Nut, Oatmeal Raisin, and Chocolate Chip. I love how festive the packaging is.

Inside each box are two sealed packages of cookies. Which brings me to my only quibble with the packaging: there were at least one broken cookie in each top package. However, the taste completely makes up for this:

Taste/Texture

I must admit that I generally avoid pre-packaged cookies. These are an exception to that rule. There was no strange, chemically taste as there usually is in “store-bought” cookies.

I was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed all the flavors of cookies, even though I usually steer clear of oatmeal raisin. The macadamia nut were perhaps a bit sweet for my taste, but they had a lovely flavor. And the chocolate chip faintly reminded me of cookies my grandma makes.

The list of ingredients is also impressive. No weird ingredients that I wouldn’t add to a batch of my homemade cookies.

The texture of all the cookies is crispy. I enjoy both chewy and crisp cookies, so if you’re a chewy fan, keep this in mind.

I also had the privilege of testing out the Tate’s Bake Shop Cookbook.

There are some really fun recipes that I’d like to try.

There’s a pretty photo section.

And a section on healthy alternatives!

I have generously been allowed to share a recipe from Tate’s Bake Shop Cookbook with ya’ll! I baked these chocolate biscotti as written in the recipe. Another time I would add a pinch of salt and a splash of vanilla. But they were overall very easy and had a good texture. They have a not-too-sweet, grownup flavor. My little brother really enjoyed them.

Chocolate Biscotti

From Tate’s Bake Shop Cookbook

Printable Page

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup salted butter, softened to room temperature
• 1/3 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-processes cocoa powder
• 2 large eggs
• 1 3/4cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 cup chopped milk chocolate
• 3/4 cup chopped bittersweet chocolate (I used all bittersweet)
• 1/2 cup almonds, chopped small, blanched or unblanched

Directions:

1) Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Grease two cookie sheets or line them with Silpat.

2) In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugars till the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the cocoa powder and beat it in for 2 more minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition

3) Stir in the flour and baking powder until they are just combined. Stir in the chocolates and almonds. Chill the dough for 30 minutes.

4) Divide the dough into two equal parts and roll each piece into a 10-inch log. Place the logs on the prepared cookie sheets and flatten them to 1-inch thick by pressing them gently with your fingertips.

5) Bake them for 25 minutes. Then cool them for one hour on the cookie sheet.

6) Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Cut each log into 1/2-inch-wide diagonal slices. Place the slices on an ungreased cookie sheet, cut side up, and bake them for 10  minutes. Turn the cookies over and bake them for another 10 minutes. Cool them on the cookie sheets.

Makes approximately 40 biscotti

And now for the giveaway!

The folks at Tate’s Bake Shop are allowing me to host a giveaway!

You’ll have the chance to win the delicious package of cookies pictured above, plus the Tate’s Bake Shop Cookbook.

Here’s how you can enter to win:

• [Mandatory] Leave a comment on this post, telling me about your favorite kind of cookie.
• For extra entries, become a fan of Tate’s on Facebook. Come back and leave a separate comment saying you became a fan.
• For more entries, tweet, blog, or post on Facebook about this giveaway. Make sure to leave a separate comment for each extra entry.
• For more entries, subscribe to my RSS feed, follow me on Twitter, or become a fan on Facebook. Make sure to leave a separate comment for each extra entry.

Rules:

Only U.S. residents are allowed to enter.

Giveaway ends Friday, December 17, at 11:00 p.m. Central Time. No comments will be considered after that time.

I will select one (1) winner using random.org.

Good luck!

Even if you are not so fortune as to win this giveaway, you can still purchase some cookies of your own at a 15 % discount by using coupon code cookie valid through December 31st. They would make a lovely Christmas present for a foodie friend, or anyone who enjoys cookies!

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED. No further comments will be considered.

This week, on my photography blog, I will be giving away an item from my photography shop.

Go Enter!

The winner of this super-awesome scale is:

Commenter #50 Rachel: “Blueberries! Totally my weakness. I could sit and eat a whole entire carton of them in one sitting if you let me!!”

Thank you all so much for entering my giveaway and sharing you food weaknesses. Have a lovely day!

A few weeks ago I received this beautiful gadget and excitedly opened it. Let me share my findings with you!

The Perfect Portions Scale is a special food scale that helps you to accurately keep track of your nutritional & calorie intake. It’s a food scale + nutrition facts. Here’s how it works:

Find your food’s number in the index.

Enter the food code and place the item on the scale.

And there you have a complete nutritional analysis: calories, carbs, fiber, etc. How cool is that?

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