Starting this week I’ll be participating in a fun, month-long giveaway hop called Home for the Holidays. The hop revolves around holiday gifts and we have about a hundred bloggers participating as well as a grand prize from Nature’s Sleep!
For my giveaway package, I thought it would be fun to give away some books. As a blogger who loves to share food, craft, and decor ideas, I think books that inspire new ideas in these areas make great gifts, so I was very happy when Ulysses Press agreed to us with a book bundle for this giveaway!
Here’s a fully detailed list of the titles that will be included in our giveaway package!
by Todd-Michael St. Pierre
Humble and delicious, po’ boys are the favorite of local folks in the Big Easy who snatch them up by the thousands at delis, bars, and corner stores every day. In recent years, gourmet chefs have been getting innovative and raising these popular submarine sandwiches to new heights. Now, The Southern Po’ Boy Cookbook brings the many flavors of these scrumptious treats to the home cook’s kitchen.
The first cookbook to focus solely on po’ boys, this beautiful, full-color compilation offers all the traditional fillings — roast beef, fried oysters, shrimp, soft-shell crab, catfish, and sausage — and an array of delectable new variations. For a healthier sub, the author offers up turkey breast or Vietnamese bánh mi–inspired po’ boys. And for the more adventurous, the foot-longs crammed with seafood-stuffed artichoke hearts, French poutine, and alligator will entice anyone.
by Lauren Elise Donaldson
Transform vintage mason jars into imaginative homemade crafts that are both beautiful and functional
Mason jars have exploded in popularity. These timeless glass containers are simple, elegant and versatile. You can use them for so much more than just storing jam. This book provides you with over 45 innovative ideas that you’ve been craving, from hanging chandeliers and salt and pepper shakers to soap dispensers and terrariums.
The author provides easy-to-follow instructions and over 150 step-by-step photos so you can quickly fashion inexpensive and stylish solutions for just about anything.
by Brooks Nguyen
An enchanting recipe collection featuring ornately decorated, bonbon-sized layer cakes
The Petit Four Cookbook reinvents an 18th-century French delicacy and brings it straight to the reader’s kitchen. With flavor combinations ranging from classic vanilla, chocolate ganache, and lemon butter cream to tangy apricot, raspberry preserve, and rich mocha, there is no end to the types of cakes one can make. The hottest trend in baking is tiny desserts, and these decadent morsels are the quintessential bite-size indulgence.The Petit Four Cookbook features 50 recipes from Brooks Nguyen — teacher, baker extraordinaire, and owner of the country’s premier petit four bakery, Dragonfly Cakes. Brooks uses her years of experience teaching petit four baking classes to guide readers every step of the way as they learn the techniques for baking as well as the artistry for decorating these tiny pastries. With gorgeous full-color photos, time-tested instructions, and some history to boot, this ultimate guide to petit fours is not just the first of its kind, it’s the last word on the subject.
By Alison Caporimo and Meera Lee Patel
Cool craft projects for people who enjoy fashioning handmade items but don’t want to spend a lot of time or money
Each of these 50 crafts comes together in a snap with the simplest materials — paint swatches, twine, tag-sale ceramics — to create elegant and practical home decor that transcends its humble components. Whether it’s re-creating designer jewelry with nail polish on an old necklace or fashioning sophisticated modern coasters out of bobby pins, these zippy projects are completed in no time. From Mason jars made into snow globes to an old suitcase turned into a side table, the inspiring ideas inInstaCrafts teach readers to “upcycle” junk-drawer clutter into stylish treasures.
by Kristine Miles
Lose weight, detox, maximize energy and stay healthy with 52 delicious and creative smoothie recipes
From March blossoms to the October harvest and back again, this one-of-a-kind book guides you through every week of the year with the freshest fruit and vegetable choices for your green smoothies. These creative recipes select the perfect combinations of newly-picked seasonal ingredients, such as:
- Spring’s Swiss chard and blueberries
- Summer’s watercress and cherry
- Autumn’s kale and pomegranate
- Winter’s Asian greens and mandarin oranges
Complete with 50 gorgeous photographs to accompany the clear instructions, this book is a step above other green smoothie guides. As a green smoothie enthusiast, you’ll marvel at the easiness and tastiness of these recipes, thanks to the wide availability and pleasing flavors of their ingredients during peak season.
A daily diet rich in greens can prevent obesity, diabetes, heart disease and even some types of cancer, but most people don’t eat anywhere near the recommended amount of these foods. On the other hand, those who make green smoothies part of a healthy lifestyle are able to cut calories, increase energy and transform their physical and mental health.
A fresh and original cookbook with artistically illustrated recipes that are as fast to learn and easy to follow as they are delicious
Dispensing with lengthy directions, Picture Cook distills 50 homey recipes into their most basic components and renders them step by step in enchanting line drawings like nothing ever seen in a cookbook. Perfect for visual learners, novice chefs, and design aficionados, these whimsical recipe blueprints provide quick and simple guidance for making classic dishes every cook should have in their repertoire. Cooking is a nonverbal activity that many people best understand visually. It is with this notion that artist Katie Shelly began rendering her recipes entirely in image form and created Picture Cook. Her collection of friend-tested dishes like fresh pesto, carrot soup, eggplant Parmesan, and sweet potato fries will become readers’ go-to recipes for quick weeknight meals and dinner parties alike. Including a visual inventory of basic kitchen equipment and pantry staples, a tutorial on knife skills, and an illustrated (of course) index,Picture Cook makes the perfect gift for budding chefs, college students, or any home cook in need of some visual inspiration.
Add a personal touch of whimsy and style to your home or office with delightful bursts of green life
Green in every sense of the word, this book shows how to capture the modern craze of displaying innovative plant combinations in miniature glass-enclosed gardens—and then goes a step further. Instead of bulky pet tanks or expensive store-bought containers, the projects in Terrariums Reimagined give old glass containers a new purpose by recycling them as elegant frames for this living art.
With easy step-by-step instructions, 25 fun and crafty projects and 30 beautiful color photos guiding the way, you can create colorful displays of ferns and flowers that flourish inside unusual vessels, rustic jars and charming pots. This book gives you great gardening advice, such as which plants can survive under glass, the most effective way to harvest moss and how to care for and maintain terrariums. It also includes tips and tricks on how to scavenge the perfect vessels and tools.
by James Grange
A hilarious coloring-book celebration of everything 90s, including movies, music, television, fashion, and technology
Who said coloring books are just for children? With The 1990s Coloring Book, fans of that epic era can grab their neon crayons and start shading in their favorite moments. A colorful decade full of intriguing characters, memorable slang, and regrettable fashion, the 1990s loom large in today’s pop-culture consciousness. With a variety of illustrations from gigantic Zack Morris cell phones, flamboyant Bill Cosby sweaters, and mesmerizing Lisa Frank folders to Ross and Rachel kissing at Central Perk, the Spice Girls donning super-tall platform shoes, and Biggie and Tupac rapping East Coast/West Coast, the pages of The 1990s Coloring Book are a Rollerblade down memory lane. This pop-culture collage provides endless fun for anyone who is artistically inclined or just nostalgic for the days of Doc Martens and Daria. It truly is all that and a bag of chips.
by Jessica Harlan
Flavor-packed, preservative-free recipes for delicious versions of all your favorite condiments
This beautiful book, comprehensive in its coverage, tells how to take fresh produce, herbs, and spices and turn them into delicious condiments one can use on something as simple as a hot dog or as elegant as a filet mignon. Chemical- and preservative-free, these recipes are more delicious and far healthier than anything bought prepackaged.
Going beyond the classics, Homemade Condiments serves up artisanal variations such as Curried Ketchup, Green Chile Mustard, and Basil Aioli. Readers also learn how to make pickles, jams, preserves, oil infusions, nut butters, and more. All fresh, all healthy!
Packed with everything condiment related, this book is filled with tips on choosing and storing fresh ingredients, details on equipment, safety guidelines for shelf life, and ideas for creative uses of the condiments. It even teaches how to grow a condiment garden! There are also storage and bottling instructions for home use as well as for giving prepared recipes as gifts.
Come back later tonight to enter our Home for the Holidays Giveaway AND you will also have the chance to win a super-great sweepstakes from Nature’s Sleep AND enter other great giveaways from our bloggy friends!
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