Who Wants Seconds?: Comfort Me: A Cookbook Giveaway Contest

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Readers may remember that in the post about my conversation with Tessa Kiros, I mentioned that the lovely people over at Murdoch Books had kindly agreed to provide a copy of Falling Cloudberries, Tessa's most recent cookbook, to the winner of a contest I would be announcing soon. This is that contest, and readers from the U.S, take note.: this wonderful cookbook has not been published there yet and this would be a simply awesome score on your part.

If you're interested, please write about your favourite comfort food and the story behind it; it would be extra special if you could include a recipe and a photo, but neither of those are required. Post your entry on your blog, and include a link to it in the comment section of this post. Readers without a blog who would like to participate may send their entries to me via email and I will post them here.

The entries will be judged by three friends who are serious foodies, but not of the blogging world...

The lovely Cass in Arizona who, in addition to stepping in a large puddle of sassy every morning, is a world wanderer who makes a mean granola in her solar oven, and will wow your tastebuds into submission with her absolutely incredible green chili...

The amazingly talented Jason in Ohio, an accomplished sous-chef and artist, who recently left the restaurant business to preserve whatever is left of his health and sanity...

and the whip-smart and witty Andrea in Cambridge, England (for purposes of anonymity pictured as Miss Marple), who coaxes fantastic quantities of incredible produce and flowers from her allotment, cooks and bakes to die for, and solves mysteries in her spare time (of course!).

They don't need to be familiar with your favourite comfort food- they'll be looking for the passion you have for it in your writing. Give 'em a laugh, pluck at their heartstrings, recreate a time and place...it's up to you.

The deadline for submissions is Monday, March 21st. Judging will commence immediately thereafter and the winner will be posted on Monday, March 28th. I'm working on prizes for 2nd and 3rd place winners- how about a personalized mock-up of your favourite magazine (like my play on Cook's Illustrated above) or a photo for your blog? I'm open to suggestions.

Comments

Oooh, fun! I'll have to think about this. I'd love to see the back cover of that Comfort Food Illustrated (a la Cooks Illustrated, of course). I'm not sure what the theme ingredient would be, though... maybe I'll come up with something once I've had my coffee.

Posted by:Kimberly | March 07, 2005 at 10:50 AM

I think that marshmallows would be a good back-cover theme to explore!

Posted by:Moira | March 07, 2005 at 11:13 AM

Count me in!

Posted by:Stephanie | March 07, 2005 at 01:14 PM

Hi Stephanie,

Excellent! I've just changed the post to reflect an extension of the deadline to March 21st, so hopefully there will be a lot of other people participating as well.

Posted by:Moira | March 07, 2005 at 05:08 PM

Moira, I am so totally in. :)

Posted by:Bakerina | March 07, 2005 at 11:54 PM

Fantastic Moira!! I am so looking forward to a lot of people joining in on this as surely everyone has a particular comfort food recipe in their files.

Will get back to you later...we're both under the weather with the flu right now and it's taking great effort just to do anything these days. :-(

Oh, and by the way, what an interesting group of judges! Yahoooooooooo!

Posted by:rowena | March 08, 2005 at 04:43 AM

Another thing, I forgot to wish you a Happpy Woman's Day! I don't know about England, but in Italy March 8th is the Festa della Donna. I send you some *virtual* mimosa flowers. Have a good one!

Posted by:rowena | March 08, 2005 at 05:28 AM

I can't wait! This is so great...

Posted by:Julie | March 08, 2005 at 06:25 AM

Yay! I'm so glad you guys are excited about this! The judges are all looking forward to reading your entries as well- I think this is going to be a lot of fun. I think it's great that none of them blog or even read blogs, really- no preconceived notions or biases whatsoever!

Rowena, I haven't heard anything about it being Woman's Day here in the U.K. The have an ongoing contest on the morning show for "Britain's Biggest Lay-About", but they didn't say a thing about all the women in their lives that make it possible. Of course, maybe they haven't heard the word "enabler" over here yet. ;-) Thanks for the mimosa flowers...I'm sending you a virtual white ginger lei...can you smell it?

Posted by:Moira | March 08, 2005 at 06:54 AM

Moira,
I'm in, too.

Posted by:Dawn | March 08, 2005 at 12:21 PM

Alright, Ms. Dawn!

Posted by:Moira | March 08, 2005 at 05:15 PM

Moira, is the posting in my blog should be done on any day towards the 21st. then send you the link, or should I do the posting on 21st.?

Posted by:OsloFoodie | March 09, 2005 at 04:16 AM

Hi OF,

You can post anytime, up to and including, the 21st. Just leave a comment in this post with the link to your entry when you're ready.

Glad you're in!

Posted by:Moira | March 09, 2005 at 12:42 PM

Comfort Food, that covers just about everything I make! The weather here is warming up though, a little over 70F. I'll have to eat my Pot Roast outside!

Biggles

Posted by:Dr. Biggles | March 09, 2005 at 04:10 PM

Do I spy a Fluffernutter on the front page of that mag?

A FLUFFERNUTTER ?!?!?!?? Have you ever had one of those? I ordered some via us mail a few years ago and tried it. Would have been far easier to just eat 4 cups of granulated sugar in one mouthful. "Can't get enough of that Fluff!" EEEEEEK !!!

Sigh

Posted by:Dr. Biggles | March 09, 2005 at 04:13 PM

Hey Doc,

Yup, you read that right. I didn't grow up eating Fluff, but I knew plenty of kids that did. I used to feel so left out not eating stuff like that, but then my mother let me take a Twinkie in my lunch bag for a school trip and I threw it up all over the back of the bus. End of that jones.

Does this mean you're going to post an entry? I'd love to do a special issue of "Steak & Ammo" or "National Meatographic" for you anyway...whaddaya say?

Posted by:Moira | March 09, 2005 at 06:08 PM

HAHHAHAH, YEAH !!! Steak & Ammo, that's cool.

Yeah, I'm planning on it. Haven't come up with a menu yet. As I said, most of my meals are comfort meals, but I want to do something outside my meatbox. Or at least consider it. My mind keeps coming back with something that has gravy. I love gravy. Say it with me, "graaaaaaveeeee," YEAH !!! See, you're smiling. Gravy does that to people.

Posted by:Dr. Biggles | March 10, 2005 at 01:34 PM

WAHOO! Dr. Biggles is on board! I'm with you on the gravy tip- there is nothing at all wrong with some of that on a regular basis. My husband's family is Hungarian, and he makes a mean goulash...oh, yeah.

Posted by:Moira | March 10, 2005 at 04:00 PM

My comfort food story/recipe is posted on my blog, bigYELLOWbowl at http://www.cookbookking.blogspot.com/

Thanks!

Posted by:Brian W. | March 10, 2005 at 07:14 PM

Hi Brian,

Thanks for participating! Please be sure to check back on March 28th for the roundup and results.

Cheers,

Posted by:Moira | March 11, 2005 at 06:20 PM

Great idea but very very difficult subject, Moira!!

my unworthy attempt: http://etherwork.net/blog/index.php?p=82

-Elizabeth

Posted by:ejm | March 13, 2005 at 10:13 AM