Time for a Giveaway!

But first, of course, there’s a story.

Back in…oh…September, I was contacted by the people at USA Rice Federation and asked to promote – and enter - their “Bowl Us Over” recipe contest.  For that, as a thank-you, they sent me an Aroma rice cooker, which I gave to my sister.

Why did I give it away? 

Because we don’t really need another small appliance on our countertop or in a cupboard or in the pantry or on a shelf or anywhere else in our overcrowded little house.

And also because my husband prides himself on his rice cooking skills.  He LIKES to cook rice.  In a pot.  On the stove.  It makes him happy.  It makes him puff up with pride.  Okay, maybe not that last bit, but the thing is, we don’t NEED a rice cooker, cool though it might be.

Now, as I mentioned above, I was asked to promote AND TO ENTER the contest.

So I entered.  On the last day, because I am a procrastinator.  But I entered.

And at some point in late October, I got a phone call from the USA Rice Federation to let me know that I was one of the 7 runners up  in the contest.  And that my prize was (drum roll) – an Aroma rice cooker.

SOMEONE out there in the universe is apparently determined to put a rice cooker in my kitchen.

Anyway, a couple of weeks later, I received a box, which I tucked away in a corner, unopened, because I knew I wasn’t going to keep it.  Yes.  The rice cooker.

I’d decided I wanted to give this one away, too.

To YOU!  Or maybe you.  Or you.

So that brings us to today.  I just finished icing lebkuchen and I made the dough/batter for the almond stars (it’s in the fridge for now), and I needed a break from cookies, so I got the box with the rice cooker and set it under the tree.

Naturally, as you can see in the picture at the top of this post, a cat (Scratchy this time) had to inspect the box.

Next, in order to prove to you that yes, there really is a rice cooker in the box and not just all of my kids’ completed homework so far this year (that would require a bigger box, I think), I sliced the box open and lifted the flaps.

Um, yeah.  Well, the only Spanish I know is counting, and “lo hicimos!” (“we did it!”) from several years of Dora the Explorer.  Okay, I know a few other words, but still, they’re all from Dora or her animal rescuing cousin, Diego.  I don’t believe either show ever had a rice cooker episode.

So I taped the box closed and flipped it over.

Ah.  That’s more my speed.

There it is! 

And here’s a close up of the features listed over on the left.

Pretty cool, right?

Now, I’ve never used it, so I can’t speak about it myself, but I’ve asked my sister how she likes hers, and she had this to say:

“YOU’RE THE BEST SISTER IN THE WHOLE WORLD!  WHO NEEDS A RICE COOKER WHEN I’VE GOT YOU!”

Okay, she didn’t say that.  She doesn’t say things like that.  I do.  And if I said something like that to her face, she’d kick me in the head.  She’s a 2nd degree black belt in karate…she could seriously do that.

Okay, for real, she said she loves it.  She cooked rice last night and added vegetables in for the last five minutes to steam, and everything came out perfectly.  She really, really likes it.

And she would definitely tell me if she didn’t like it.

So anyway, I would like to give this rice cooker, which I won, that I have right here, already packed and ready to go (I’ll make sure it’s taped up really well before I ship it) – to one of you.

The only thing is – and I hate to do this but I’m not rich and I can’t afford to ship this internationally – the contest is only open to residents of the continental US.

I’m sorry.  Please don’t hate me.  Please don’t “unlike” me on facebook.  It’s just the way it is.  It’s either ship this across air and sea, or heat our house through the rest of this winter. 

Anyway, for those of you who can enter, here are the rules/requirements/requests for entry:

1.  In the comments section of this very post, tell me if you eat rice often, and also tell me (or all of us reading along) your favorite rice dish, if you have one.  If you don’t have one, why not?  Do you have bad rice memories from childhood?  I’m just nosy.

2.  If you would like to enter more than once, you can do so by linking to this post and promoting the contest on Facebook and/or on Twitter, and then leave me the link in another comment here.  (One comment per entry, so if you do FB and Twitter, that would be two entries.)

There.  Pretty simple, I think.

And – also very important – this contest will run from NOW until midnight, Monday, December 13th, eastern standard time.  I’ll do the drawing (you know, my usual – have my kids or one of the cats pick a winner.  The lizard refuses to help.) on Tuesday, December 14th, and post the winner that same day. 

If you are the winner, PLEASE email me – jayne (at) barefootkitchenwitch (dot) com – AS SOON AS POSSIBLE with your shipping address so I can send this out.  I can’t guarantee delivery by Christmas, but I’ll do my best.

And that’s it!

Any questions? 

Good.  Then let the contest begin!

Comments

[chocolatechic]

We love rice, and my favorite rice dish is the Spanish Rice recipe from Simply Recipes.

[Sprogblogger]

Rice pudding, sticky rice, wild rice pilaf, rice with beans, rice in gumbo, rice in soup, fish & rice... Rice! I love rice - have about 17 different varieties in my cupboard right now since I grew up in a household that appreciated the stuff & only came to love it more when I was out on my own and paying the grocery bills myself. My only bad rice memory? When I married my darling husband and he bought Uncle Ben's for the first time. He's been converted to enjoying the real stuff, but there were a few months there where the marriage was in jeopardy...

[GradualDazzle]

Our favorite go-to rice dish around this house is basic chicken & rice... chicken cooked and deboned, commingled with rice and a can of cream-of-mushroom soup (sorry, real cooks...). It's what my kids love. I personally prefer Cajun beans & rice, but my kids think it's too spicy.

[Margaret]

Down here in the Deep South, rice is like water, you have to have it to live. So we eat rice at least 2/3 times a week. With gravy. With Gumbo. With gravy. Oh, wait. Did that one already. But my favorite way to cook rice is....

Dirty Rice!!!

[Kassy]

We love rice! I really like rice pudding or just with butter and salt mmm :)

[Margaret]

Retweeted!!!

http://twitter.com/Scones4Me/status/13623814369841152
thus decreasing my chances of winning.

[Phyl]

I love rice!! I've only recenlty discovered red, green, and black (forbidden) rice, and I like to use them all. My favorite things to do with rice are to make straun (multigrain bread) and risotto.

Thanks for the cool contest!

[Phyl]

Retweeted. http://twitter.com/gaaarp/status/13627316974391296

[Jenny]

My husband LOVES rice. An Irish catholic boy that dislikes potatoes but loves rice!

[Jenny]

Going to twitter to RT. @icywit

[tina]

Ooh! that is a nice give away. I eat rice every day, lol! I grew up on it and have to have it. My favorite rice dish is Biriyani - a one pot rice and meat dish with spices. It is so yummy! Everyone has their own recipe for it but I have been thinking of making it in a rice cooker, just a little skeptic. I will some day.

[tina]

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=727203309&v=wall

Posted on FB =D

[Ali]

I am in college and some of my friends have rice cookers. And, I have to confess, I am jealous! A rice cooker can be used for a GAZILLION things; heating soup (yes, that includes ramen), steaming veggies, making hot water for cocoa and tea, the list is endless.
I LOVE my rice plain with a little butter and salt. I know-- not very imaginative but it's just the way I like it. A rice cooker would be great! Thanks for the fun!

[Tara Franey]

Hi, I eat rice almost daily. It's funny, actually, as a Korean adoptee, I ate very little rice and garlic (staples of Korean cuisine) as a child, but now I eat them alll the time. In any case, my favorite rice dish isn't exactly a rice dish, but I love to make Kimchi stew - kimchi, tofu, some pork, fermented hot pepper paste, and green onions- and dump the rice right in there. It's the best possible meal on a really cold day, although it is sometimes difficult to move around afterward, due to the copious amount of fluids ingested (I like to make it extra spicy, and need more water to drink it).

[Kristina]

I am a self admitting rice-oholic, but I think I like it best simply plain under a savory asian dish most of all. Goodness I would love to have a rice cooker. I've seen the magic my mom's can work and I can't lie that I want that aspect of laziness in my cooking when I am otherwise frantically (and equally) making dinner and making a mess in the kitchen :)
Congrats to whoever wins though!

[Amy]

I only eat rice once or twice a week. I love crispy rice with some oil and salt!

[Jennifer F.]

I love rice, and I grew up eating it every day. Now I only make it once a month because it's such a hassle to cook it in a pot!

[GiGi]

My son, now in first grade, goes to a Japanese immersion school. He has been a notoriously picky eater, which drives us crazy, as we love to experiment with new food!! He is finally branching out with his food choices because of the influence of the Japanese school, and he has learned to love Japanese food! His favorite is onigiri (rice balls, sometimes stuffed with something), and we make it often as a snack to go inside his lunchbox. He helps shape it )into triangles) and wrap it in seaweed. Our next step? Getting him to love making sushi!

[Tracey S]

We eat rice four to five times a week. My favorite is a curry rice dish from Ina Garten.

[Schmidty]

I'm Cajun, living in Cajun country. Is there any dish we *don't* eait with rice!? Gumbo, rice dressing, boudin, fricassee, etouffee, smothered steak with gravy ....well, you get the picture. We're all pot cookers, too, and it was always a point of pride with me also. However, my little daughter who is starting her own kitchen just can't get the hang of it (I blame things like computers and iphones and the like) ....so if I were to win I would gift her with this rice cooker.

/the girl needs help --- last time she was here she cooked broccoli/chicken quesadillas with greek seasoning. And all this time I thought I was teaching her Cajun cooking ...

[Schmidty]

Tweeted http://twitter.com/rusthawk/status/13878477451173888

[kathyb]

My family loves rice. We eat rice a few times a week. We love Spanish Rice, Dirty Rice, Red Beans and Rice, Rice Pudding with raisins, jambalaya, Puerto Rican rice and beans (from my future son in law), Rice Pilaf. We love it all. I make this hot chicken salad casserole which calls for about a cup of rice, well I usually put double if not more in.

[tiff]

I eat rice when we make stir fry or also if we make creole. However, I am not very good at making rice and it always winds up sticking to the bottom of the pot and the water completely boils out. I would love a rice cooker because then my rice would come out perfect.

[Karla]

I LOVE rice. Rice makes my husband hiccup! (but he still eats it)For many years, Hamburger Rice casserole was my favorite dish to make, since I learned the recipe at a 4-H meeting. My brothers got tired of it. Eventually my kids got tired of it, and its multiple variations. Now I prefer flavored rice as a side dish.
And I would love to have kathyb's recipe for chicken salad.

[Daniela]

We ate a lot of rice growing up, and I haven't been able to find a rice that cooks similarly to the one we had abroad. So now our rice eating has been reduced, but would love to try that steamer!

[Jessie]

Wow, what an awesome give away. LOL. I was just talking to the hubs about getting a rice cooker. I really like it as a side dish to most meals. I don't eat as much as I'd like cause it isn't my favorite thing to actually cook :P

The only rice story I can remember from my childhood would have to be one about my brother. My mom would make a stir fry once or twice a month, and everyone loved it, except my brother would never eat the rice. So I fixed his plate for him one night and sprinkled shredded cheddar cheese over the rice. He loved it, still the only way he will eat rice, and that was like 15 years ago. . .lol

[[email protected]]

I'm primarily entering this contest because of my roommate ... I'm perfectly happy cooking rice on the stove, but he hasn't been so successful with that. Which is a problem because he's Indian and eats rice with nearly every meal. So, we could use a rice cooker around here ...

I usually just eat rice as a side dish, or a base for curry or other dishes with a lot of sauce. But I love the recipe for rice pudding on Simply Recipes! And I especially love wild rice (even though technically it isn't rice).

[creoleken]

A) I eat rice very often! B) It's hard to limit a favorite rice dish to just one. BUT... Anytime you braise and then make a nice sauce out of the braising liquid (like roasts, beourgonionnes (sp?), curries, fricasees .... etc...) and then have the sauce with rice? That's a very good way to help manage rice intake. Also, anytime you fix it along with other ingredients, like risotto, jamabala, dirty rice, ... very high on the list. And I can never get enough combo fried rice from my favorite Chinese place. And there's always rice pudding. So, no I don't think I actually have a favorite, but I do just love the stuff. C) I have no bad stories from childhood which have to do with rice. There are some which have to do with beets and liver, but if you have a contest for either of those I doubt I would enter anyway so, we can leave those to unwritten history.

[Amanda N]

I love rice and we eat a ton of it. I cook it at least four times a week. My favorite rice dish is red beans and rice. It sticks to your ribs and makes the house smell great. Thanks for the giveaway.

[Robin T.]

I love rice. my favorite is rice pudding. Great for dessert and then breakfast the next morning.

[Susanna]

I have rice-cooking anxiety, I would be cured with a rice-cooker!

[Terri]

I have rice a couple of times a week at least
I love, love chicken and rice with veggies.
[email protected]

[Terri]

I shared this giveaway on facebook
http://www.facebook.com/#!/permalink.php?story_fbid=124564494275169&id=100000813204601
[email protected]

[Terri]

I tweeted about giveaway
http://twitter.com/#!/Terri6580/status/14143314269839360
[email protected]

[Christy mcCreight]

I used to have issues with rice.... A texture thing, I'm weird. But the past few years I have grown to really like rice. My favorite dish is one that my husband makes, butter chicken with jasmine rice. Unfortunatly we are the worst at cooking rice! With 3 children and 3 pets running around we are easily distracted and the rice always gets burnt! :( So, for the sake of the bottom of our pans , we need a rice cooker!

[djnvj]

I love rice also... and we eat it often, but I have to say my favorite rice dish is the broccoli and rice dish my mom makes only at Thanksgiving and Christmas. It might be more the memories than the actual dish that I love so much.

[Angela]

We eat rice quite a bit because it's easier and healthier than mashed potatoes. I really like this stuffed zucchini recipe that I got from my Mother served over brown rice and covered in parmesan cheese. It's yummy!

[Val]

I love rice, especially arborio rice for risotto, yum.

[Sally Iverson]

I would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to win this rice cooker! You see, my boyfriend is from India, so we cook a LOT of rice and I'm not good at cooking rice on the stove, like your hubby... something always happens to it, sticks on the bottom and burns, or it's too watery and gluey. Rice cookers are the way to go.

Thanks for the chance to win!

Jasmine and Basmati rice are the bestest, in my opinion.

[[email protected]]

I use to make rice and peas with parmesan & butter when I lived at home with my parents for a quick meal. Now my favorite rice dish is chicken, pineapple and red peppers cooked in coconut milk & brown sugar. I forgot where I cut the recipe from, but it's really good!

[Rhonda Mock]

Do I love rice????? I was married about six months when my husband asked if we could have something other than rice...."You know, like a potato or something...." I know I shot him a look. Something other than rice with dinner is pure blasphemy in my book!

My favorite rice dish is brown rice, with steamed carrots, broccoli, and snow peas....doused liberally with Kikoman's Soy Sauce. Heaven in a bowl.......

Alas, my rice cooker & food steamer have both given up the ghost...Sobbbbb....and my husband? He's gone, too. Now he can eat all the potaoes he wants! ;)

[Emma Earnst]

I've recently become a vegetarian, and in the past 6 months, my favorite food is rice with some sort of curry or or other delectable vegetable sauce.

I'm so bad at making rice, though! And with a grad students budget, a steamer won't be happening for awhile...