A brand new Henckels 8" Chef's knife! That's right, if you have ever chopped vegetables with a steak knife, or if your last set of knives only has three left in the block, this giveaway is for you. I think a lot of home cooks out there underestimate the power of a good knife. It makes so many jobs easier, almost enjoyable. Like cutting cabbage for Kielbasa, Potatoes, and Cabbage (which we are eating, nay, dining on tonight), which used to be difficult when I didn't have my super Henckels knives from my lovely husband, er, Santa, last year. 
And my friend Mo wrote this absolutely striking essay on her love of the chop here. Good knife skills are one of the main things that sets a good cook or Home Chef, as I like to call myself, apart from the rest. Here is some great information on how to cut correctly, with links to tutorials on how to hold your knife correctly to cutting different kinds of shapes. Cutting the right way is safer and it makes the food look more appetizing. And all of this can be accomplished with one tool: A great chef's knife.
So here's what you have to do to win: Leave a comment at the bottom letting me know what your favorite part of my new blog design is! (Hey, I can make up the rules because I'm in charge. I'm orchestrating some love here.) A winner will be randomly chosen Wednesday, December 1, so that you'll have plenty of time to receive your knife before Christmas party season kicks in. Good luck and happy chopping!
Step 1: Carefully (super carefully) remove the tops of the cookies and set aside.
Step 4: Dip the sucker into the chocolate, using a spoon to help coat the whole cookie.
Step 5: Lay onto a parchment lined baking sheet and if you want a topping like sprinkles or peppermint pieces or crushed M&Ms or something sprinkle it on now, while the chocolate is wet. If you want to drizzle with another color of chocolate, just let it sit for a while to set and then add the chocolate.
Step 6: Wrap the sucker in a 6"x3 1/2" treat bag and tie with cute ribbon and embellishments. These would be so cute given as a bouquet wrapped with more ribbon!
The box of cookies cost me $3.29 and I dipped 12 cookies (about half the package). I used half of a $2.50 tray of bark coating, and the sucker sticks were $4.99 for 50, so your homework is to figure out how much each one of these was and leave a comment for me because all of that turkey yesterday slowed my brain way down.
And you must wash it by hand, and everyone knows that anything you wash by hand has to be better. Cost? $40. It comes in tons of great colors and if Emile is reading, I really love your bakeware and wow, don't you want to send me another one? I digress.
I'm serious. It's a sickness. Everyone who knows me knows I am a sucker for lemon-flavored treats, and this case is no exception. If you've never eaten one before, French Macarons are different from the other Coconut Macaroons, which are made from shredded coconut and condensed milk and are chewy and very dense.These cookies are made from almond flour, egg whites, and confectionary and white sugars, which makes them like a meringue, crunchy on the outside and chewy once you bite into them and then of course the filling makes them completely sinful. I could go on and on. 
There is a little local bakery near me called The Sweet Tooth Fairy that has but one gluten free offering: The French Macaron. They come in all sorts of flavor combinations and you never know what they will have on the shelf from day to day. But, if you're particular like me and you can be patient for a day or two, you can special order a dozen in whatever flavor you like. If you don't live in Utah, perhaps there's a bakery near you that makes a gluten free cookie you could substitute for this one.
This bakery also happens to make a really cute mini version of the macarons,
about half the size of a normal one. I think the mini ones look cuter in this gift bag 
(of course by Martha from Michael's) and they also fit perfectly in this little gift box 
(ahem, I have a problem with diversification...also a Martha product from Michael's. And please ignore the fact that the cookies are stacked crookedly inside. Photo perfection, I tell ya.). I love that it comes with pre-made sticker tags that you just put right on the box. 
So easy. These mini cookies are $1.25 apiece, and the larger ones are $2.50 apiece, so the cost is based on how many cookies you cram into your container.
Bake about 40 minutes for three little loaves. Test with a knife inserted into the center to make sure they are baked through. Let cool. 
Or, take a piece of tissue paper in a festive color, and wrap it butcher-style, like this:
And there you have it. A perfectly respectable neighbor gift. The price on these will be a little hard for me to estimate, because the ingredients are a little pricey. The loaf pans were $4.49 for 3, the cake mix was $6.99, and the nuts, coconut, zucchini, carrot, raisins and pineapple added about $6 to the whole batch. So I'm guessing each loaf cost about $7 with ribbon and tissue paper. Give or take a dollar. 
If you want to drizzle with chocolate, wait until they dry a little, then melt some more chocolate, place into a ziploc bag, snip off the corner, and drizzle away.
Happy giving!
This recipe makes about four cups of granole, so I took some over to my friend JoLayna, who introduced me to the site, to say thanks, and I made one of these super easy little scrapbook paper cones to put it in.
First, you take a piece of 12"x12" scrapbook paper and twirl it into a cone. Tape it together down at the bottom of the cone and in the middle, to keep it together. Snip the top so that it's an even circle all the way around. Then snip about six slits down around the top of the cone.
Put about a cup of the granola into a ziploc bag and form it into a cone shape before you zip it up. I have it open inside the cone here so you can tell that it's granola in there. 
Then fold down all the tabs you made with your snips and make an "X" of tape across the top to hold it together. 
Attach a cute nametag from Hobby Lobby and you're ready to make someone's day! 
Granola is a little expensive to make, and this particular granola was a little more expensive because the pumpkin seeds are not cheap. Even with that though, a gift like this still comes in at under $4. Now this recipe might not seem Christmasy enough for some of you. A little too much harvest on the palate? Here's another great recipe for granola from the site 
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