The winner is....

The numbers have been calculated... I made a list in the order the comments appeared both on my blog and through my Facebook page, used a random number generator....

And the winner of the Nielsen-Massey Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla is.....


Crystal Morris!!! Congratulations! :) Hopefully you'll be able to make something super yummy with it.

Crystal - I'll email you for your information so that you can get the vanilla.

I'm working on another post using something delicious from my yard! I'll be back soon!

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National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day - Thursday May 15th

I am constantly tweaking things about myself.... I can't ever same to just do something the same way. 

I am usually a super black and white person, a rule follower through and through. I can tell you the speed limit on any given road. If the instruction manual tells you to do something, that is the way it must be done. And by golly, if there is a "Do Not Enter" sign, you might as well go straight to jail if you henceforth "enter". My husband gets so annoyed by me. He's a complete rule breaker. 

BUT when it comes to things about myself, or things I'm in control of, I tend to want to always change it up. My son's schedule - I change it all the time because, well, I must not be doing it right. When I run - I'm always trying some new routine (intervals, speed up and run as fast as I can, something to save me from the boredom of running on a treadmill). And when I make these brown butter molasses sea salted chocolate chip cookies (our absolute favorites around here), I like to tweak it just a bit. Again, my husband gets totally annoyed. Ha

This time, I tried a twist on the original by swapping out half of the flour for whole wheat flour (the texture is incredible and has a hint of a nutty flavor that really compliments the brown butter), using superfine baking sugar (it really helped the browned butter and sugar to cream together), and I swapped out my trusty Mexican vanilla for Nielsen-Massey's Madagascar Bourbon Pure Vanilla. The flavors were rich yet mellow enough to add such a great flavor complimenting the molasses! YUM!

The Nielsen-Massey Vanilla is great for a cookie like this one when you don't want the flavors to compete. If you know me, you know how much I'm in love with Mexican vanilla.. I'm usually always stuffing it under everyone's noses, forcing them to sniff how amazing it smells, and it tastes just as great in dishes. But it can also overwhelm the recipe. This Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla is sweet and creamy and the perfect addition to a complex cookie such as this one. 

In order to celebrate National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day, Nielsen-Massey has been kind enough to offer to give someone a free bottle of the Madagascar Bourbon Pure Vanilla! If you want to have your own bottle for making Brown Butter Molasses Sea Salted Chocolate Chip cookies and celebrating National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day on Thursday May 15th with me then just leave a comment below!  Contest will close on Saturday, May 17th at midnight. I'll pick a winner randomly at that time. 

**Nielsen-Massey supplied me with a sample 2 ounce bottle of vanilla for review, however recipe, opinions, and content are my own. 

Browned Butter Molasses Sea Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies 

Print Recipe here

Ingredients:

2 sticks unsalted butter

1 cup bread flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 1/2 cups superfine baking sugar

1/4 cup plus 1 teaspoon dark molasses, not blackstrap

1 egg

1 egg yolk

1 1/2 tsp. Nielson-Massey Madagascar Bourbon Pure Vanilla Extract

2 cups semi sweet or dark chocolate chips or chunks

sea salt for sprinkling on top of cookies just before baking - Don't skip this step!!!

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees

2. Melt the butter in a skillet over medium-low heat until foam disappears and butter has a nutty smell, the color being light golden. Remove from heat. Allow to cool while you mix together the brown sugar. 

2. Sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda and set aside.

3. In a medium sized bowl, mix the superfine sugar and molasses until no large molasses clumps remain. 

4. Pour the melted butter in a bowl of a mixer. Add the homemade brown sugar. Cream the butter and sugar on medium speed for about 3 minutes. Add the egg, egg yolk and vanilla extract and mix until well combined.

5. Slowly incorporate the flour mixture until thoroughly combined. Stir in chocolate chips.

6. Scoop onto parchment lined cookie sheets. Lightly sprinkle each ball with a couple flecks of sea salt to help bring out the chocolate flavor. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown checking the cookies after 5 minutes. Rotate the baking sheet for even browning.

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A One Year Anniversary Winner

Hello There,

I'm glad you came by to visit. I have a winner for my giveaway... but I'm going to make you wait, just a little bit, to find out who won! :) I've very excited.

This is what my wonderful husband made for me. Isn't it cute! He didn't disappoint. He's been taking lessons. A+ for effort, A++ for taste (P.S. He used the awesome chocolate buttercream recipe with the secret ingredient)

In fact, he made me a whole dinner for my birthday. Unfortunately, I've been SOO sick all week. And my birthday was the worst day of the week. My birthday present was an ear infection, horrible cold, and bronchitis. Sitting in the doctor's office during the morning was how I celebrated. I told him tonight, that I unfortunately barely even remember celebrating last night. I had such a fuzzy head and all I wanted to do was sleep. I was great company. At least I took this picture. Otherwise, I might not have remembered eating this cake. Yeah right, the cake was amazing!

We went out to celebrate tonight with friends. A whole big table full of awesome friends to help me celebrate! I was only slightly embarrassed during the singing of "Happy Birthday" by all 20 of them! :) I felt a tiny bit better tonight - at least I remember what we had for dinner tonight. Don't tell me how sick I look in this picture. I already know.

My hubby got me an external flash for my camera!!! I can't wait to play around with it. Hopefully no more yellow photos of food because my kitchen is so poorly lit.

Now for the fun part - The GIVEAWAY!!! So here it is, the moment all (okay, some) of you have been waiting for...

The winner is......

JESSICA!!!

Jessica, January 2, 2011 6:59 PM

Happy 1 year!! My favorite part of 2010 was meeting my baby girl!! I'd choose the browned butter molasses chocolate chip cookies...yum!! Love you=)
Jessica J

I met Jessica in grad school for occupational therapy, and we have become dear friends over the years! I can't wait to meet her brand new baby girl in the near future! Can't wait to send some chocolate chip cookies your way! :) Hope you enjoy them. I'll be contacting you soon!!!

Thanks for everyone who played along.

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Happy One Year Birthday To Me & A Giveaway to Celebrate

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I can't believe it's already been one year since I started this little blog of mine. I wanted to just thank all of you who come by and read, encourage me, and keep me motivated to keep trying out new recipes. As I've said on here before, I love this blog, because it keeps me sane. That's what the 'Vent' part of the "Cooking Vent" is all about. Through this blog, I've discovered so much more about myself, and who I really am. Not that I'm done yet, or have that whole thing even close to being perfected, but I've found a little bit more of the person God has created me to be.

As odd as it sounds, this little blog has brought me closer in my relationship with God - it's hopefully made me a better wife, a better friend, a better follower of Christ - and hopefully a better cook! :) "All of that from this simple blog", you say. Yep! It's amazing what doing what you love to do, and following what God tells you to do will bring about! Of course it goes deeper than cooking stuff and taking pictures, but that's for another day.

It's weird to look back at my entries a year ago, and see how different (read: bad) they were, and I'm sure I'll feel the same way about this one in another year.

In order to conclude the year of 2010, and recap my first year to blogging, I've compiled a little list of what I think were the best recipes I put together this year - 10 recipes for 2010.

Which one was your favorite?

Cookies:

1. Browned Butter Molasses Chocolate Chip Cookies 2. Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies with Peanut Butter Frosting

Cupcakes

1. Gooey Chocolate Cupcakes with Ganache Truffle Filling 2. Pink Champagne Cupcakes

Yummy Comfort Food:

1. White Truffle Oil & Cognac Cream Mac & Cheese 2. Beef Bourguignon 3. Two Cheese Risotto

Cakes:

1. Red Velvet Cake Brownies 2. Mini Chocolate Ganache Cakes...aka - the best Chocolate Buttercream Frosting you'll ever taste!

Refreshing Beverages:

1. Refreshing Blackberry Lemonade

And now for the fun part....

I'm giving away a fun little package to thank each and every one of you for reading! Saying it on here and having this giveaway really doesn't explain how much I really appreciate all of you guys - I wish I could bake you all a big ole' batch of cookies.

Unfortunately, I can't make them for everyone, but I can make them for one of you! :)

The giveaway includes:

1. Your choice of the above cookies - either the peanut butter sandwich cookies or the browned butter chocolate chip cookies

2. A Whoopie Pie Kit from Crate & Barrel/Sur La Table - How cute is this fun little kit.. I wish I had one too! (It includes a Wilton 12 pie pan from Sur La Table, Red Velvet Whoopie Pie mix, and the mini cupcake spatula's both from Crate & Barrel)

TO ENTER:

1. Post a comment here on this blog telling me what your favorite part of 2010 was and which cookie you would choose if you win

2. For an extra entry: post about this giveaway on your blog with a link back in your comment

Make sure to include your email address so I can contact you if you are the winner

Contest ends - Thursday, January 6th at midnight PST (which just so happens to be my REAL birthday, making it a great day to give away some fun treats!)

GOOD LUCK!

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And the Winner Is....

We have a Halloween winner! :)

meeyeehere, October 31, 2010 6:19 AM

I would get a couple spring form pans!
jacksoncrisman@yahoo.com

Congratulations, I will be contacting you on how to claim your prize!

I have some new yummy recipes coming up this week!!!

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Hip Hip Hooray... My Second Giveaway!

I'm so excited... as I promised, CSN stores contacted me to do a SECOND giveaway!!!

They are an awesome online store that let's you choose from just about anything! ‘CSN Stores has over 200 online stores where you can find anything you need whether it be a stylish handbag, a chic bar stool or even cute cookware!’ You can stock up your kitchen with the most up to date kitchen tools, or you can deck out your closet with super hip clothes. I'm currently looking for a leather tote that doubles as a laptop bag! I'm sure I'll find something on CSN.

So, what do you win?? A $35 gift card to use towards whatever purchase you'd like to in any of their stores. What an awesome Halloween treat!

So here's what you have to do to enter. One entry for each comment, but please leave separate comments for each - other wise it will only be counted for one entry! Sorry!

1. Become a follower and leave me a comment letting me know you stopped by.

2. Head over to CSNstores.com, check out the websites, and let me know what you would get with your gift card

3. Post this giveaway on your blog!

That's it! Remember each separate entry counts for one, but leave a separate comment!

Contest ends on 10/31/10 - HALLOWEEN at midnight PST. Good Luck!

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And The Winner Is....

I'm so excited to announce this! :) My very first giveaway -

and the winner is...

Marci - "Oh the choices. I think I would get the lightning McQueen toy bins to match my son's room."

Congratulations! Marci is a good friend of mine from home, and I'm so excited to see you win! :)

P.S. I did use random.org to generate a random winner, but can't figure out the screen shot thing at the moment. I upgraded to a Mac in January, and have not had to use that feature! :)

Marci, I will be in touch on how you will receive your gift card! Enjoy!

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Last Chance

So, here it is... your LAST chance to enter into the CSN stores online giveaway!

The giveaway closes in T minus 3.5 hours.

Please don't feel any obligation by this post, just wanted anyone who wanted to enter to have one last chance to do so.

And remember, all you have to do to be entered for a $40 gift card is leave a comment! :)

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Exciting News

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED!

So, I promised you I'd be back with some exciting news...

Are you ready....

I'm hosting my very first GIVEAWAY!! :)

I was so excited when I was contacted by CSN in order to host a giveaway for a $40 gift card to any of there amazing online stores! They sell some awesome stuff, so you can use it on just about anything... cookware, bakeware, dining room sets, shoes, purses, or bedroom furniture..

A while back, I posted that I was redoing my bedroom in "vintage romantic" - well, if I won, I would use my gift card to purchase this awesome headboard. In fact, I will probably be buying it anyway, even though I can't win! :)

And I have these Le Creuset baking pans, and I use them for everything.. Love them.... You can find these on their website too.

So, here's what you have to do in order for YOU to possibly be a winner! You can get one entry for each of the following below, so pick one or all three... but you must leave a separate comment for each letting me know so I can pick a winner!

1. Leave a comment below telling me what you would buy from CSN stores online!

2. Become a follower of The Cooking Vent - there's a link to the left

3. Post about this giveaway on your blog.

The giveaway will close on Sunday, August 22 at 11p.m. PST.

Winner will be announced on Monday, August 23rd!

GOOD LUCK!!!

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A Blog Party

So, I haven't really taken part in any of these blog link ups, giveaway, Fun Fact Friday, Silent Wednesday, you name it craziness. I guess cause I thought, I have a blog about cooking, and it doesn't really mesh. Well, I couldn't resist this time! :) My friend Carissa posted about this blog party on her website, and I checked it out, and the giveaways are to DIE for! I really want the pillows for my bedroom makeover - they will go perfectly!!!

So if you want to get involved, you can go to Hanna's website and get linked in. But in the meantime here are my four random facts - I made mine at least about cooking:

1. When my husband and I first got married, I didn't have much experience in the actual cooking arena (I mostly had done just baking). Well, let's just say I used WAY too much salt. He refers to it as the "salty year", just like PIcasso had the blue period.

2. When I was little, I used to bake a lot - according to my mom I never ate it, but I don't really think that's true! :) I used to pretend that I had my own cooking show. I would put on an apron and heels, walk around the kitchen doing each step and talking to the pretend camera! :)

3. In another life I would love to go to culinary/pastry school, but don't like all the science that's involved. I really don't care what needs to go in a cake to make it leavened! I just want to make it and eat it! :)

4. My love of cooking has also enhanced my love of photography! I'm definitely NOT professional at it, but I love coming up with shots, designs, backgrounds for the finished product, and even what plates to put it on and how the lighting will look with all of it! :)

Enjoy, and hope you play too!!

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