Baking my way through the trials and triumphs of life!

Hope everyone had a great, long weekend! The end of Memorial Day weekend always marks the beginning of summer for me, even though we still have a few more weeks of school and work before summer vacation officially starts. I thought we’d kick off summer with a give-away, and  I’ve been screaming with excitement putting this ice cream give-away together.

One of my favorite appliances is my Cuisinart ice cream maker. I’ve had it for more years than I can remember, and it has been worth every penny. The machine is made to last! Years back, I bought it from Sur La Table, my favorite cooking store. We’re lucky in Southern California to have several stores in the area. Not to worry if you don’t live nearby one of their stores, you can shop from their website. Not only does Sur La Table offer the essentials that every chef or baker needs, but they also offer unique products. You know the ones that you see and say, “Why didn’t I think of that?”.

For the past few months, I’ve been drooling over Sur La Table’s exclusive bright colored Cuisinart ice cream makers. You won’t find these pretty colors at Williams Sonoma or Crate and Barrel. These bright hues are exclusive to Sur La Table. Don’t they just scream summer? With all due respect to my plain, old-school, white ice cream maker, which by the way still runs beautifully,  I would LOVE one of these bright and cheerful ice cream makers. How can a single-mother, teacher, with a high-maintenance dachshund, who just took a huge pay-cut justify one of these brightly hued ice cream makers? She can’t! But you know what’s more fun than buying one of these ice cream makers? Giving one away! I’m thrilled that Sur La Table is going to give away one of these ice cream makers to one lucky reader in the color of his or her choice.

But I couldn’t stop there, because once you have your ice cream maker, you’re going to need a little inspiration to go with it. Do you remember going to Baskin Robbin’s 31 Flavors when you were a kid? The novelty was that they actually had 31 different flavor options to choose from. Not long ago, ice cream manufacturers began to realize that anything goes when it comes to ice cream flavors. Just when I thought every possible flavor had been created, along came a newly released cookbook called Spice Dreams. Sara Engram and Katie Luber are the real “Spice Girls”. They know their stuff when it comes to enhancing recipes with herbs and spices. Their latest cookbook has more than 50 ice cream recipes that incorporate spices and herbs. These ladies know how to take an ordinary flavored ice cream, add a dash of this and that, and create something extraordinary. This past weekend I made their Apple Spice Ice Cream. It is without question the best ice cream that I have ever made. I’ll post my adapted recipe and the details tomorrow. Some of their other flavors include, cinnamon-raspberry cheesecake ice cream, cardamom-mint ice cream, and a chile-lemongrass ice cream. In addition to the ice cream maker from Sur La Table, Andrews McMeel Publishing is giving a copy of Spice Dreams away to our lucky winner. Check out the book on Amazon to preview a few of their recipes, and to order your copy.

Hmmmm….. but then I got to thinking, what if the person who wins isn’t a spice girl, with a fully stocked kitchen? That’s where The Spice House comes in. The Spice House has locations in Illnois and Wisconsin, but also has a fabulous online store with a huge selection of spices. They offer great gift sets and accessories for bakers and cooks, in addition to ever spice and herb imaginable. They ground their spices weekly, so that their customers get the freshest possible spices. And if you bake or cook, you know what a difference fresh spices make in whatever you’re dishing up. The Spice House is going to include their Deluxe Baker’s spice set in our give-away. The set includes, cinnamon, all-spice, nutmeg, double strength vanilla, dehydrated lemon peel, and more. All of the ones I mentioned are included in the apple spice ice cream that you’re going to want to make, trust me on this.  

So what’s left? The perfect ice cream scoop, of course. Have you seen the Zyliss ice cream scoop? This is the award-winning, end all, be all ice cream scoop. If you’re an ice cream connoisseur, you know that ice cream scoops are not created equally. This scoop puts the rest to shame, and scoops even the hardest ice cream with no problem. When you’re visiting Sur La Table, you can pick up an exclusive colored Zyliss, but these scoops are available all over the U.S. in pretty colors, including Amazon. We’re giving away a white scoop, so that it will coordinate with whichever ice cream maker you pick.  

If you win the ice cream maker, here’s the deal… you’re going to have to pay it forward by sharing your homemade ice cream with loved ones. Trust me, your thighs will thank me! The only reason I have not gained weight since starting the blog, almost two years ago, is that I give at least half of everything I make away. I bake something, pack it up, and get it out of my kitchen! If you have ever looked for disposable ice cream bowls, it is like a wild goose chase. You either find what you want and it’s over-priced, or you have to settle for soup containers with a hole in the top, or some sort of other container that wasn’t meant to hold ice cream. When I found out about Sweet Bliss Containers, my never-ending search for ice cream containers was over. These containers are inexpensive and made for ice cream. Wrap them up with a bow, add a label to personalize it, and you’ve got yourself a great hostess gift. Sweet Bliss Containers is going to include a sleeve of these pint-sized containers, so that you can give away your homemade ice cream all summer long.

Contest is now closed. Holly from Tennessee had the lucky number comment generated by random.org. She’s picking the green ice cream maker. Congrats Holly! Thanks to everyone else for playing along. I’ve got more give-aways planned, so keep checking back!

So here’s how to enter:

1. Leave a comment telling me what your favorite ice cream flavor is, and which color Cuisinart ice cream maker you would pick if you’re the lucky winner, orange, red, yellow, blue, or green.
2. For an extra entry tweet the following, “Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker Give-away from Sur La Table @grinandbakeit : http://wp.me/pnls6-2h4 ”   Don’t forget to leave another comment letting me know that you tweeted.
3. For an additional entry join Grin and Bake it on Facebook. If you’re already a member, be sure to fill out another comment letting me know.
4. Contest ends on Sunday, June 6^th at 8 PM pacific standard time. The winner will be announced on Monday, June 7^th.
5. Winner will be selected by random.org.
6. Winner will be posted at grinandbakeit.com, and will be notified through email. The winner has 24 hours to respond by email if selected, otherwise, a second winner will be selected.

Good Luck and have a fabulous first week of June!

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