Thank you to everyone who entered the giveaway and has been on this blogging journey with me! The winners (chosen randomly by Random.org) of the 5 products are listed below. Congratulations! You should receive an email from me shortly with further instructions. 🙂
Winner of the King Arthur Pastry Mat: Tonia, who said, "Congrads on the anniversary!! Woot, Woot 5 years!! I'd like to see quick healthy family recipes."
Winner of the Silpat Baking Mat: Margie Visnick, who won by subscribing via email.
Winner of the ¼-lb Package of Vanilla Beans (approx 27 beans): Branny, who said, "That first picture of you is so fun! I am so proud to say that I've been following your blog since the beginning. Way to go, girl. do you have a recipe for whole wheat tortillas? I'd like to see that on the blog. Again, congrats."
Winner of the Kitchen Scale: Melanie Delands, who said, "I would LOVE to see a recipe for gyros, including the tzadiki sauce that never never turns out for me at home."
And the grand prize you all have been waiting for! Drum roll please...
Winner of the KitchenAid 13-cup Food Processor: Janna M., who said, "Nikki – I really don’t have any requests about any particular recipes that I’d like to see. I love everything that you do. Actually I would love to see how you involve Judah with your cooking. I’m always trying to get my kids involved but if a recipe doesn’t have chocolate chips they lose interest pretty quickly. Plus we’d see more photos of that adorable boy. Congratulations on the anniversary!"
On February 10th, 2007, I published my first post here at Pennies on a Platter (Oreo Truffle Bombs.) When February 10th this year was approaching, I was excited to plan out a giveaway for you, but my web host had other plans and decided to crash my site instead. 🙁 So, a month later, here I am celebrating with a giveaway. Better late than never, right?
When I first started this website, my blog was hosted on Blogger and I had no idea what I was doing. But, I did know that something sparked inside of me when I took pictures of my food and wrote about it, so I had to continue doing it! My purpose at that time was to share the recipes I made with my friends and family, and not necessarily to the whole mass of recipe-hungry people who log on to the Internet every day. Actually, that wasn't even a slight thought of mine. I didn't really know what a food blog was and how it worked, but, little did I know that I would soon find out and keep this hobby going five years later.
Many life changes have happened since I started this journey. We moved across country twice, our family of two became three, and I even quit my full time corporate job. I went from being a student's wife, to a pastor's wife, to now a professor's wife. Through some of these events, I experienced temporary breaks from blogging, but always came back to it because it's what I love.
One of the reasons I love blogging so much has to do with YOU. The very fact that other people outside of my friends and family visit here just makes me smile. Five years ago I would have never guessed that someday my little blog would reach tens of thousands of visitors each day. Never in a million years did I think what I had to say would be even slightly significant to develop a following. But, here you are, and I love it. You rock my world.
I want to thank you for your loyalty and readership through out these five years with a big giveaway. In honor of my five years of blogging, I decided to round up five of my favorite kitchen tools and send a brand new one to five of my readers! It was somewhat difficult to narrow the list down to just five, but these are significant in that they are items that I'm not sure I would have ever known about if it wasn't for entering this food blogging world. And, now that they are on my radar, I could never live without them. They are items that you might never purchase yourself, and would miss out on the wonderful help they are. And, they will assist you in making some of the recipes here on the blog.
I thought about giving all five items away as a package, but decided that it would be more fun to spread the love and have five winners. So, each item will go to a different winner. There are four smaller prizes, and one grand prize. Are you ready?
One reader will win a...
King Arthur Pastry Mat - I use this for all of my doughs. It is so much easier than fluffing out a bunch of flour on the counter and then cleaning up the mess. Plus, the ruler on the sides and the measured circles are great tools for rolling your dough to the perfect size. Unfortunately, the one I have and love is no longer available, but I'm confident this one from King Arthur Flour is great, too.
A second reader will win a...
Silpat Baking Mat - Stop wasting so much parchment paper and make use of a silicone baking mat. I will admit I still have parchment paper on hand at all times, but having at least one baking mat cuts down on your parchment use immensely. It's reusable and easy to clean.
A third reader will win a...
¼-lb Package of Vanilla Beans (approx 27 beans) - You might think this is a strange thing to give away, but I beg to differ. If I was entering this giveaway, aside from the grand prize, I would hope to win this particular item. Vanilla beans can be so darn expensive, so I know many of you avoid using them, which means you avoid recipes that call for them in the ingredient list. I love this seller on Amazon who provides quality beans for a great price. Use them to make ice cream, vanilla extract, and much more.
A fourth reader will win a...
Kitchen Scale - It took me a while to invest in one of these. Surprisingly pretty inexpensive, kitchen scales are a necessary tool if you want to be precise in your baking and/or measuring. I use this most often when shaping dough into equal portions, or when a recipe calls for weighing ingredients. This particular one I love because it doesn't take up much room and is very straight forward on its use.
And, finally, a very lucky fifth reader will win a...
KitchenAid 13-cup Food Processor! (includes 3 bowls, ultra wide mouth, ExactSlice System, dough blade, slicing disc, storage container) - I didn't have a large food processor until after Judah was born in 2009, and even then my sweet friend bought it for me as a baby shower gift since I had intentions to puree baby food with it. Best.gift.ever! I now use my food processor multiple times a week. A food processor is an expensive kitchen tool, but one that I think every home cook should invest in. You can make a wide range of recipes in it from salsa, to homemade tortillas, to baby food, to hot chocolate mix and of course more!
HOW TO ENTER:
- To enter the giveaway, please leave a comment attached to this post telling me:
What recipes do you hope to see on Pennies on a Platter this year? - If there is an item above that you do NOT want to win (because you already have it, but you want the chance to win the other items) then please tell me which item(s) you do NOT want within the body of the comment.
- Comments are moderated, so if you do not see your comment right away, please wait a few hours as I need to approve each comment before they appear on the site.
- US residents only, please.
FOR UP TO FOUR ADDITIONAL ENTRIES:
- Subscribe to Pennies on a Platter by RSS or email. Return to this post and tell me you subscribed by leaving an additional comment.
- Become a fan of the Pennies on a Platter Facebook page. Return to this post and tell me you became a fan in an additional comment.
- Follow Pennies on a Platter on Twitter. Return to this post and tell me you are following in an additional comment.
- Tweet the following "RT @penniesonaplatt Cheers to 5 years of blogging with a KitchenAid food processor giveaway! https://bit.ly/wiiOVd" Return to this post and tell me you tweeted this in an additional comment.
DEADLINE:
- Sunday, March 11, 10 PM EST
WINNERS:
- The five winners will be chosen randomly by Random.org and announced at the top of this post during the week of March 12th.
- Each winner will receive an email from me and if no response is received within 5 days, new winners will be chosen.
DISCLOSURE:
- This giveaway is entirely sponsored by Pennies on a Platter.
I APPRECIATE YOU!! CHEERS! 🙂
