Friday, September 18, 2009

I Won $100 and I'm Giving Away a Vertical Roaster

Ok, the give away part first:

Vertical Roaster Give Away
I'm giving away this brand new, vertical poultry roaster from Williams Sonoma.
It's perfect for doing "beer butt" chicken and you can do veggies at the same time. To enter just leave a comment below. Just say "Entry" or something like that. (Note: I have to post your comment after you submit it, so it won't show up right away.)

You don't have to have an account to comment, just select the "anonymous" option from the COMMENT AS field. But if you do anonymous, please let me know your screen name and forum (ex: swibirun from BBQ Brethren forum) so I can get in touch with you if you're the winner.

I will put all of the entries into a bowl and draw a random winner on Monday night, 9pm Eastern (9/21/09). I'll pay for shipping in North America. Otherwise, your own your own:)

What I Won
See this?

It's a Thermapen, only the best food thermometer in the world. It gives accurate readings (within .4 degree Fahrenheit) and is fast! And I got, red, the scientifically proven best color to get;)

I bought it from Amazon with the $100 Gift Card that I won in the monthly photo contest in July at BigOven.com.

Yeah, every month they give away a $100 gift card to the member posting the best photo accompanying a recipe on the site (it can be a recipe you post, that's even better). So many of you food bloggers have so much better food styling and photography talent than I do, you need to sign up (it's free) and start posting!

What is BigOven? It is two things, a food social network and recipe software. I have used it for 5 years and I personally recommend it. I don't get anything for traffic, links, or people signing up, I just think that highly of BigOven.

The food social network part of it is like Facebook for foodies without the annoying games, tags, pokes, viruses, and embarrassing photos from your past. Foodies ask questions, discuss topics, share videos & tips, and there's a search-able database of 170,000+ recipies. All of that is free. FREE.

The desktop software does cost a nominal one time fee ($29.95) if you choose to buy it but it is well worth that. If you choose not to buy it, you can still use the free online site. It is more than a recipe database because of all of the features it has. You can check out their page for the features but I'll tell you the ones I like the most:
  • Screen Import - If I see a recipe in a forum or blog that I want to try later, I copy it from the source and then click "Screen Import" in the BigOven Software and it imports it into the "try this" folder that I set up. It doesn't matter what format the recipe was written in because the software lets you highlight what part of the text is ingredients, instructions, title, source, notes, servings, etc.
  • Flexible recipe search - Perfect when you are trying to find what to make for dinner or with a specific ingredient.
  • Menu Planning - I can plan a weekend, holiday, or a week's worth of meals on the calendar and get a customized shopping list of the needed ingredients for the whole meal plan.
  • Shopping list - see above!
  • Recipe Reviews - I like being able to read what OTHER people thought of a recipe and the adjustments they made before I try it.
  • Customer Support - World class. The few times I have ran into something I needed help with, I was able to get quick answers.
Ok, I'll quit testifying. I just really like their site and software. I use it almost daily.

So leave your comment below to win some $*(#