Food Blogger Giveaways 120414

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Crisp Herb Mincer

One of the best things about having a review blog is that I get to play around with gadgets that I probably would never buy. Not that they're expensive. Often the opposite. Most likely it's that I already have a tool that does the same job adequately. so I wouldn't go looking for a different tool that does the same thing.

But if someone sends me a bunch of tools, I'm more than happy to see how well they work. It's fun, and the best part is when I find a tool that works better than I expect it to.

Not too long ago the folks at Crisp sent me a selection of their tools.

I was fascinated by the Crisp herb mincer. This is one of those tools where a great number of people will say, "I can do the same thing with a knife." Yes, you can do the same thing with a knife, but maybe you don't want to.

Not everyone's got the knife skills of a chef, and not everyone wants to end up with fingertips scented with herbs and spices.

And not everyone wants their kids handling a sharp knife. While the business end of the herb mincer is plenty sharp, kids could be shown how to keep their hands on top of the mincer while cutting which would be at least a little safer than having them with a knife in one hand while guiding the herbs with the other hand.

Besides mincing herbs, this also has two notches for stripping leaves off of stemmed herbs like rosemary or thyme.

It worked just fine for herbs, as expected. But then I started wondering what else I could chop. I tried some sundried tomatoes straight from a jar, and I was pleasantly surprised at how well it worked. And it was fast. Probably faster than using a knife, considering that I would have stopped to clean the knife blade a few times.

While I haven't tried it yet, the spacing of the blades would make it handy for cutting thin ribbons of pasta. I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work.

For cleaning, the herb mincer comes apart, and you can just put the parts in the dishwasher.

For storage, there's a cover that goes over the blades. It took a few times of taking it apart and re-assembling before I figured out exactly where to grab and pinch to make it easier.

I wouldn't call this an essential gadget, but I found that it was a lot more useful than I expected it to be. I have to be completely honest and say that it was fun to use, zooming back and forth across the herbs and watching the multiple blades mulch them into small pieces.

Unlike similar gadgets that do their cutting in an enclosed space, this does all the cutting on the cutting board, so you're not limited to tiny amounts of product to be chopped, which makes a lot more sense to me.

I'm sure a lot of people will totally love it.

Who's it for: Anyone can use it, but I suspect it will be more attractive for people who don't have great knife skills.

Pros: Easy to clean, works well.

Cons: If you're a knife ninja, you probably don't need this.

Wishes: It was a little fiddly to take apart and put back together. Now that I've figured it out, it's not that bad, but I have to wonder if it couldn't be made a little easier. Maybe not.

Source: I received this (and several other Crisp products) from the manufacturer for the purpose of a review.

Blueberry and Cream Cheese Buns from Make Ahead Bread

To help send my book into the world in grand style, I enlisted the help of the bloggers (past and present) from Virtual Potluck, who all said yes and baked items from my new cookbook.

And there's a GIGANTIC giveaway, as well.

You'll find  the Virtual Potluck posts here:

Theresa from Foodhunters Guide to Cuisine

Rachel from Rachel Cooks

Marnely from Cooking with Books
Jay from Bite and Booze
Shelby from Diabetic Foodie

Heather from Farmgirl Gourmet
Milisa from Miss in the Kitchen
Vanessa from Groovy Foody
Matt from Thyme in Our Kitchen

Tara from Foodie

Susan from 30a Eats

Donna (that's me) from Cookistry

But I figured you might like to see what the cookbook looks like (I know a lot of people love browsing inside a book before they buy), so I've got a recipe pulled straight from the book for you to enjoy.

My book, Make Ahead Bread, is available for sale on Amazon. If you'd like an autographed copy, you can order one from Barbed Wire Books.

For the giveaway, we'd like to thank our sponsors who generously offered some fantastic prizes:

• Taunton Press, the publisher of Donna's book, is supplying a total of 12 copies of Make Ahead Bread, one to each winner.
• Magimix is giving one winner a Magimix 3200XL 12-Cup Food Processor in Brushed Chrome.
• WÜSTHOF is giving one winner a CLASSIC 9-inch Double Serrated Bread Knife 
• SilverStone is giving one winner a 5-piece set of bakeware (11x17 cookie pan, 10x15 cookie pan, 9x13 covered baking pan, 9x5 loaf pan and 9-inch cake pan) in the winner's choice of red or blue.
• King Arthur Flour is giving one winner a rye bread baking kit.
• Duralex is giving one winner a 9-piece set of mixing bowls.
• Harold Import Company is giving three winners a made-in-the-USA hardwood baker’s rolling pin (It's the baker's pin, with no handles.)
• Microplane is giving each of the 12 winners an Elite Zester, Cube Grater, and Spiral Cutter.
• GIR is giving each of the 12 winners a silicone scraper.
• King Arthur Flour is giving each of the 12 winners a coupon for a bag of flour of your choice (good at your local supermarket) and a plastic bench scraper.
• Walker's Shortbread is supplying cookies to three winners.

There will be a total of 12 winners, with three bigger prizes and nine more really great prizes. And yes, all winners get a copy of my book. You'll find even more details about the prizes here.

In addition to supplying items for the giveaway, a special thanks to Taunton Press, Silverstone, Microplane and WÜSTHOF for supplying products for all the bloggers to work with.

Giveaway is OVER!

Do you want to know more about the sponsors? You can find them on their websites and social media, here:

Taunton on Twitter and Facebook.
Magimix on Twitter and Facebook.
WÜSTHOF on Twitter and Facebook.
SilverStone would like you to follow Pots and Pans on Twitter and Facebook.
Duralex on Twitter and Facebook.
GIR on Twitter and Facebook.
Harold Import Company on Twitter and Facebook.
Microplane on Twitter and Facebook.
King Arthur Flour on Twitter and Facebook.
Walker's Shortbread on Facebook.

This event is sponsored by multiple companies, all listed above. I want to sincerely thank them for their amazing generosity.