The Breakstone’s Battle of the Kitchen Bloggers

For the contest, Kraft invited me and 2 other bloggers to duke it out. Picture American Idol meets Iron Chef and you’ve kind of got the idea. (Our secret ingredient? Breakstone’s Triple Churned Sour Cream.)

Vote & Be Entered to Win $2,500!

OK, so the participating bloggers have a chance to win a cash prize (1^st place is $350, 2^nd place is $250, and 3^rd place is $150). But here’s the best part.

As part of the Holiday Showdown, you can enter win a handful of different prizes. If you enter, you’ll have a chance to win a $50 gift card (one winner each week).

You’ll also automatically be entered to win a grand prize of $2,500!

Sound enticing? I thought it might. Click here to enter to win. You can go back and vote and enter every day!

Here’s a look back at what I made this year. These dishes make for an easy, down-to-earth menu that will make any holiday celebration fabulous.

Appetizer: Sweet & Spicy Coconut Shrimp

These sweet and spicy shrimp have a crisp coconut coating that’s made with eggs and sour cream (the combination keeps them ridiculously moist). Click here to get the recipe and see how they’re made.

Entree: Roasted Garlic & Spinach Pizza

I have four words for you: Best white pizza ever. Sour cream and ricotta make a luscious and light sauce for this crisp, light pizza. Get the recipe and see how it’s made here.

Dessert: Triple Chocolate Ice Cream

Ice cream with sour cream? You bet.

Sour cream adds surprising depth and tang to sweet dishes. It’s amazing in this chocolate ice cream, which tastes just like frozen chocolate ganache. (Hello, death by chocolate!)

Click here for to get the recipe and see how it’s made.

Please vote for The Hungry Mouse!

Click here to enter to vote and enter to win $2,500.

Related posts:

1. Triple Chocolate Ice Cream Death by chocolate? Yes, please! Honestly, I couldn’t think of...
2. Sweet & Spicy Coconut Shrimp (Plus, enter to win $2,500!) This is my appetizer entry in the Breakstone's Battle of...
3. Roasted Garlic & Spinach Pizza This pizza is easy enough to pull off on a...

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Nothing says “holiday” in New England like a good ole surf n’ turf dinner.

Here’s our take on the classic feast, kicked up Mouse-House style. This combination of seafood and meat is a great way to go if you’re planning on throwing a glamorous dinner party this New Year’s season.

This post is part of our partnership with Sam’s Club. Honestly, we made out like bandits shopping there. Their costs are low and their quality for meat, seafood, and produce is really, really good. (And you guys know we’re huge carnivores here at The Mouse House.) We’ll definitely head to Sam’s first when we have to throw a big bash. Totally great bang for our buck.

We recently had a handful of good friends over to ring in 2011 a little early. Here’s a peek at what we served. Recipes will follow this week.

Spinach and Tomato Salad with Walnuts and Gorgonzola

We started with a Spinach and Tomato Salad with Toasted Walnuts and Gorgonzola Crumbles. I finished it with a really light olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette.

Scallops Wrapped in Prosciutto

For the main dishes, I started with Scallops Wrapped in Prosciutto, a take on the classic bacon-wrapped bites. I used huge scallops, rubbed them with a little olive oil and freshly cracked black pepper, then wrapped them in paper-thin prosciutto and baked til the scallops were cooked through and the meat was nice and crisp.

Butter Drenched King Crab Legs

We also grabbed a few packages of king crab legs. King crab is super easy to make. Most legs sold in the U.S. are already cooked, so all you have to do is heat them through. I steamed ours with lemon and garlic and served them with loads of melted butter.

Restaurant-Style Roasted Boneless Prime Rib

Moving on to the turf part of the feast, a Roasted Boneless Prime Rib. When I post the recipe, I’ll show you my practically foolproof method of roasting this beast. It’s super simple and takes all the stress out of cooking one of these guys.

Poached Pears with Spicy Caramel Sauce

For dessert, I made Poached Pears with Spicy Caramel Sauce. You can make a good deal of this recipe ahead of time, and it’s definitely a show stopper.

A New Year’s Giveaway on Twitter!

It wouldn’t be the holidays without presents.

This year, we’re partnering with 3 other blogs to giveaway a 14-piece set of stainless steel Cuisinart cookware (approximate retail value of $149.98), courtesy of Sam’s Club.

Click here to check out the loot.

How to Enter to Win a 14-Piece Set of Cuisinart Cookware

The Sam’s Club “New Year’s Eve Resolutions” Twitter Contest starts at 12:01 a.m. EST on December 27, 2010 and ends at 11:59 p.m. EST on January 1, 2011.

Two Steps to Enter

1. First, become a follower of Sam’s Club on Twitter.
2. Second, tweet your response to the following question: “What New Year’s Resolution Have You Achieved?” In your tweet, you must include the hashtag #jumpstart and mention @Samsclub.

Contest Rules

• Only one entry per person.
• Sam’s Club will select ONE winner from the combined entries from the 4 participating blogs. Each entry will be judged based on originality, pertinence to theme, and difficulty.
• The winner will receive one 14-piece Cuisinart Cookware Set (Value $149.98).
• Download the official rules here.

Good luck!!!

Come chat with us on Facebook this Thursday!

Sam’s Club has also invited me to answer questions about New Year’s Eve meal planning on their Facebook page this Thursday. Be sure to stop by and say hello!

*Please note that Sam’s Club compensated me for my participation in this campaign.

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Thanks to everyone who entered to win a Silhouette Digital Cutter!

We had 866 entries, which is by far the most we’ve ever had for a giveaway. (And we’ve given away some pretty swank swag in our time…)

This was such a success, I’m going to see if we can do it again sometime (no promises, but I’ll do what I can).

We picked a winner today by random number generator. So, out of 866 entries, the winner is…

*drumroll*

*dramatic music*

Lucky entry number 5!

That means that Ray is our winner! (Congratulations!!!) Here’s his entry. He says that he’ll use it to make cards and stencils:

Congratulations, Ray!

E-mail me your shipping information and I’ll pass it along to the company, who will ship you your tiny, desktop ninja toute-de-suite. We hope you put it to good use!

Happy Fall, everyone!

As for us, we’re officially gearing up for Halloween here at The Mouse House. For those of you who don’t know, we live in beautiful Salem, Massachusetts—a.k.a. The Halloween Capital of the World.

If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, take a peek at pictures from a few years back.

Stay tuned for lots of spooky recipes, plus some photo coverage of the many events here in our fair city.

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So last week, I posted a giveaway for one of the most fabulous crafting tools known to man- and mousekind: The Silhouette Digital Cutting Tool.

If you haven’t entered yet, click here to read the post and learn how to enter to win. The contest ends TONIGHT at Midnight EST.

If you need any more convincing about how cool this thing is, here’s a walk-through of how it works, including a video of the tiny digital ninja in action.

OK, so here’s the box.

Like I said, you can use this little beastie to make all sorts of crafts and sundries, including:

The box says that it’s easy to use, and it really is.

The hardest part is setting it up the first time, and that’s not even that hard. The biggest blunder I made was not fully removing all the packing tape that secured the inside cutter (totally my fault). Once I figured that out and removed it, the cutter worked like a charm.

The box included diagrams of what each part does, so you can see what the different parts do (you know how I love visual diagrams…)

Out of the box

Here’s the Silhouette machine sitting on my table.

The digital display is easy to read and use.

The front panel flips up to reveal the cutting apparatus.

Fire up the computer & start designing!

The software is easy to install…just pop in the CD and follow the instructions that show up on your screen. Once it’s installed, launch the program.

You’re greeted with a blank page. This is your canvas, so to speak.

Now, you can create your own own design, import an existing design, or choose from one of the included clip-art images.

Seeing as Halloween is just around the corner (and we do live in Salem, MA, so I need to get a jump on decorating for the season…), I picked the spiderweb image as the first one to test. It’s also fairly intricate, so I figured it would really show how well the Silhouette cuts.

So you click on the design…

…and it shows up on your blank canvas. You can resize it, etc., just like you would resize a picture in programs like Microsoft Word or Adobe Photoshop…just click on the side or corner and drag until you’re happy with the new shape.

Once you’re happy with your design, it’s time to load the paper.

Loading the paper

The Silhouette comes with 2 cutting mats. One that’s thinner, for regular paper, and one that’s thicker, for vinyl and other substrates.

The cutting mat is sticky, so you have to peel off the center protective panel.

Grab your paper. I used regular old, text-weight printer paper for my spiderweb test.

Stick the paper to the cutting mat. The mat has a grid on it so you can be sure to align it correctly for cutting.

Commence cutting!

Position the mat on the cutter (there are markers to show you where). Press the “Load” button on the machine’s digital control panel. It will suck the mat in, align it, and then hold ready for cutting.

When the mat is loaded and your design is set, click the “Craft ROBO” button on the toolbar.

The program will take you through a series of screens that asks you about this size of your paper and the weight, etc. It will tell you what blade to load onto the cutter, etc. Just follow the on-screen steps. There’s even a tip at the bottom of each screen to clarify what you’re supposed to enter.

Once you’ve selected the right settings, you’re ready to cut!

*dramatic music*

Click CUT and watch the machine go to work.

Go, tiny ninja, go!

The finished product

Once your design is cut, you have to peel it off the mat.

How cool is that?

Convinced that you need one?

I thought you might be! I can’t wait to get down to some serious holiday crafting.

Click here to enter to win one.

Two Fabulous Money-Saving Promotions

If you can’t wait to see if you won and absolutely have to have one, like, right now (and I don’t blame you, this thing is awesome), use the following codes for special savings.

1) Code = “AWESOME PROMO” (Ends tonight, September 30, 2010 at midnight EST)

Buy a machine for $249.99 and receive the following (a savings of $137.97! Just think of how much you’ll save on gift giving this year…):

• $50 off the Silhouette Craft Cutter
• fuzzy white vinyl (Valued at $7.99)
• light blue smooth heat transfer (Valued at 14.99)
• yellow flocked heat transfer (Valued at $14.99)
• Home Décor CD (Valued at $50)
• $10 Gift Card to the Silhouette Download Store (comes in the box)
• Cutting Blade (comes in the box)
• 2 Cutting Mats (comes in the box)

2) Code = “GOOD PROMO” (valid from October 1, 2010 – October 4, 2010 at midnight EST)

Buy a machine for $249.99 and receive the following (a savings of $79.98):

• $50 off (receive for $249.99)
• 2 rolls of Heat transfer ($29.89 value)
• $10 Gift Card to the Silhouette Download Store(Comes in the Box)
• Cutting Blade (comes in the Box)
• 2 Cutting Mats (comes in the Box)

Good luck!!!

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Make etched glass using the Silhouette machine (Photo courtesy of Silhouette)

A while ago, the good folks over at the crafting blog How Does She? asked me if I wanted to test and review a Silhouette craft cutter.

“A what?” was my response.

As it turns out, a Silhouette Digital Cutter is one of the coolest crafting inventions I’ve ever seen. Seriously.

Silhouette was nice enough to send me one for free, along with all the bells and whistles I’d need to use it. (Thank you!!!)

Here’s my machine:

And the best part? I’m giving one away! Read on for a review and details on how to enter.

Back up, Mouse: What’s a Silhouette Digital Cutter?

OK, so basically, this machine is a precision cutter for paper and paper-like material (including vinyl, etc.).

It works just like a computer printer, but instead of printing your picture, it slices it out with a miniature blade, just like a tiny desktop ninja.

Silhouette machine (computer not included in prize) (Photo courtesy of Silhouette)

Remember when you were in grammar school and you used to make paper snowflakes? It’s that sort of thing, but so, so much cooler.

How does it work?

It’s really pretty easy to use. Install a little software on your computer (it works with Macs and Windows boxes). Connect the cutter to your computer with a USB cord (included).

Launch the software, use it to create your design (like you would using MS Paint or Photoshop). The software also comes with a bunch of pre-loaded designs, if you’re not moved by the Muses.

When you’re happy with your design, hit the CUT button, and the machine will do the rest. It’s that easy.

Use the Silhouette machine to make vinyl wall decals. (Photo courtesy of Silhouette.)

What can it make?

Mouse, you’re a cook! What do you care about making crafts?

Hehe, that’s a very good question. This is actually going to be immensely helpful for me. I give a lot of homemade gifts throughout the year, and I’m really excited to use it to make fun packaging. And, if I can get my act together, you know I’ll be making my own Hungry Mouse T-shirts. (Anyone interested?)

You can use the Silhouette machine in a zillion different ways, including to make:

• Labels for jars and canned goods
• Iron-ons for clothing
• Etched glass
• Scrapbook pages
• Cards
• Vinyl decor for your walls
• Temporary tattoos
• Magnets

Want some inspiration? Check out what crafters are making on Silhouette’s Flickr page.

Use the Silhouette machine to make temporary tattoos. (Photo courtesy of Silhouette.)

I’ll be posting an in-depth tutorial on how to use the software and the machine early next week.

The prize package: Silhouette Digital Cutting Tool

You can enter to win a Silhouette Machine (a $299.99 value). The prize includes:

• 1 Silhouette machine
• Software for Windows XP/Vista, Mac
• Power cable, USB cable
• 2 Cutting mats (one for thick media, one for thin media)
• One cutting blade
• $10 gift card to the Silhouette Online Store

How to Enter to Win

Alrighty, here’s what you have to do to enter to win. Take a peek at Silhouette’s site, then leave a comment on this post that answers the following question:

If you won, what would you use your Silhouette Digital Cutter to make?

That’s it. (No really, that’s all you have to do to enter!)

Contest rules

• You must enter a valid e-mail address on the comment form. (That’s how we’ll contact you if you win.)
• Only one entry per person.
• This contest is open to U.S. residents only.
• Deadline for entries is Midnight (EST) on Thursday, September 30, 2010.

One winner will be chosen on Friday, September 31 by random number generator and notified by e-mail.

The winner will receive one Silhouette Machine, including software for Windows XP/Vista, Mac, 1 power cable, a USB cable, 2 Cutting mats (one for thick media, one for thin media), 1 cutting blade, a $10 gift card to the Silhouette Online Store. The prize package has an approximate retail value of $299.99.

Two Fabulous Money-Saving Promotions

If you can’t wait to see if you won and absolutely have to have one, like, right now (and I don’t blame you, this thing is awesome), use the following codes for special savings.

1) Code = “AWESOME PROMO” (valid from September 23, 2010 – September 30, 2010 at midnight EST)

Buy a machine for $249.99 and receive the following (a savings of $137.97! Just think of how much you’ll save on gift giving this year…):

• $50 off the Silhouette Craft Cutter
• fuzzy white vinyl (Valued at $7.99)
• light blue smooth heat transfer (Valued at 14.99)
• yellow flocked heat transfer (Valued at $14.99)
• Home Décor CD (Valued at $50)
• $10 Gift Card to the Silhouette Download Store (comes in the box)
• Cutting Blade (comes in the box)
• 2 Cutting Mats (comes in the box)

2) Code = “GOOD PROMO” (valid from October 1, 2010 – October 4, 2010 at midnight EST)

Buy a machine for $249.99 and receive the following (a savings of $79.98):

• $50 off (receive for $249.99)
• 2 rolls of Heat transfer ($29.89 value)
• $10 Gift Card to the Silhouette Download Store(Comes in the Box)
• Cutting Blade (comes in the Box)
• 2 Cutting Mats (comes in the Box)

Good luck!

Thanks again for entering! This is one seriously cool machine. My wheels are spinning already with ideas for holiday gifts…

+Jessie

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