Archive | January, 2010

Pot Rack: Magical All-Clad fairy

7 Jan

A funny thing happened last night…..

When I got off work, I headed to the grocery store for some items I needed to make dinner for a friend of ours that we were seeing later that night.

I grabbed the handful of items and scurried back to the condo to pull together a quick meal.

As I got off the elevator and turned the corner, I saw a flat-ish, rectangular box propped up agianst the door…as I got closer, I noticed the box was an All-Clad box. I checked the label and it was addressed to me. However, I had not ordered anything.

The box had a picture of this on it:

Yes, that would be the All-Clad Stainless Gourmet 12 x 15-in. Lasagna Pan.

I thought maybe it was a Christmas present Paul ordered for me, but came late….so I called him, but of course he didn’t answer! So I had to let it sit there till he got home.  He assured me that he did NOT buy this for me (if I were him, I would have taken the credit…but whatever).

We racked our brains a bit, and then I found a note inside the box (that I read about 45 minutes later, after I stopped carressing the pan and talking to it in a baby voice).  It turns out that when Paul bought me this:

There was a rebate for this:

All-Clad Provence Cast Aluminum Nonstick Oval Au Gratin

A cast aluminum Au Gratin pan.  So we filled out the rebate and sent it in….back in AUGUST.  And just the other day I was thinking, “what ever happened with that?”

As it turns out, the company had such a great response to the rebate, they ran out of the Au Gratin pans. FINE BY ME! I’ll get WAYYYYYYYYYYYY more use out of the lasagna pan: it’s bigger, wider, and just as shiny as could be.

I can’t wait to make something in it and get it all stained and cheesy……MMMMMMMM. Now I’m hungry!

Cha-Ching! It’s a giveaway!

4 Jan

Happy New Year and Happy Monday morning everyone!

I told you last week that starting today you could enter a giveaway for a great piece of Rachael Ray cookware, and it’s true!

I got to hand pick the piece for the giveaway (is this one or two words, I can’t decide!), and the moment I saw this precious stoneware casserole dish with it’s smooth lines and heavy lid, I was in love. I wish I got to keep it for myself! BUMMER! But, yay for you guys!

Want to enter? Here’s how:

  1. Go to www.cookware.com and find your favorite item that you just can’t live without.
  2. Come back to the blog (doesn’t matter which post, as long as it’s from this week) and leave me a comment with the link to your favorite item and tell me why you want it!
  3. All comments left between 1/4/10 (12pm PST) and 1/8/10 (5pm PST) will be entered into a randomized electronic drawing.
  4. 1 winner will be chosen this time around, and I’ll post their name next Monday.  They have 24 hours to email me after that with their contact information before I pick a new randomized winner.

If you have any questions, simply leave a comment and I’ll respond ASAP.

Happy hunting, kittens!

You are what you eat: Cucina Fresca Pasta

1 Jan

Hey friends!

A while back I got the chance to try some great products from Cucina Fresca, and I wanted to share my thoughts and ideas with you all.

First let me say I LOVE pasta, duh, I’m a woman. We love to carbo load, it’s in our DNA. Shocking, I know.

Second, I have to tell you, it’s hard to screw up pasta, but it’s easy to make it underwhelming, so I had set the bar pretty high for the products that were sent over to me.

To start, I want to share a short video I took of all the products:

I have already tried many, if not most of the things they sent over, but have kept a few for the next rainy day I find myself at home.

Here’s a peek at what I did with their smoked Guyere Mac and Cheese:

I took it out of the container it came in and put it into a glass pyrex (that way when I had leftovers, i could snap on the rubber top that goes to this and take it for lunch the next day, one dish, no fuss.)

About 5 minutes before it was done baking, (BTW: You can do it in the microwave if you want to) I added stirred it and added breadcrumbs to the top to brown.  I think my oven was a bit off, because it didn’t brown as much as I wanted, and the cheese didn’t get as bubbly as I’d hoped it would.

I checked with my contacts at Cucinca Fresca, and it sounds like my lack of browning and cheesiness was an operator error type situation, so I’ll try again! (I have another box in the freezer!)

I finished it off with some white truffle oil and sea salt, it was heavenly. YUM. What’s not to like, right?

Since then, I have also completely gobbled up the butternut squash ravioli and the pear & blue cheese ravioli, as well as the basil cream sauce, the Fettuccini (sp? I’m horrible!) and the smoked tomato sauce. SO GOOD.

I still have the gluten free penne to try on Paul, with their basic Marinara and I think a pack of angel hair pasta and one other sauce? I’ll have to double check. At any rate, stay tuned for more reviews on what seems to be a great line of tasty pasta products. Locally made, by a green concious company.

(geez, now I’m getting hungry!)

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