Contest Closed

Winners:

Nancy Blair Parr: “One of my favorite light recipe’s with herbs is a shrimp creole with oregano, thyme and basil.”

Kala: “I’m a fan on FB!!!!!!!! yay herbs!”

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

I love the holiday season. 🙂 I can’t believe it’s already here!

I don’t know about you, but I am all about saving money. It’s especially true this time of year when we’re doing our holiday shopping and when we’re all baking for family and friends. Groceries don’t come cheap! Am I right???

Well…

…wouldn’t you like to save some money by not having to go to the grocery to buy herbs that are just going to wilt in 3 days?

…wouldn’t you like to have a lovely little herb garden in your kitchen all winter long?!?

…wouldn’t you like to give your family and friends cute little pots of herbs for Christmas??

Sounds like the answer to at least one of the above questions was yes.

Why not plan your own herbs in your kitchen to use whenever you need them!?! Eeeee!

Here Here.

Introducing chocolate & carrots’ first ever giveaway!

Yay!

I was so excited a month ago when I got an email from Hometown Seeds. We are giving away 2 prizes…

…and you’ll just have to read the rest of this post to find out just what Hometown Seeds and chocolate & carrots are giving away. 😀 In the meantime, check out this different take on the sweet cupcake when introduced to the savory rosemary.

Orange Rosemary Cupcakes

Ingredients (Cupcake)

adapted from Joy of Baking

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/3 cup cane sugar
• 3 large eggs
• Zest of 1 large orange (about 1 tablespoon)
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped rosemary
• 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup corn meal
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup orange juice with pulp

How-To (Cupcake)

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Line your cupcake pan with paper liners and spray them with cooking spray.
3. In your stand mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the butter and sugar together.
4. Add one egg at a time, beating well in between.
5. Add the orange zest and rosemary.
6. In a separate bowl, combine the flours, corn meal, baking powder and salt.
7. In a small bowl combine the milk and orange juice.
8. With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and the milk mixture, in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour. Don’t forget to scrape the bowl down, if needed.
9. Evenly fill the 12 cupcake liners and bake for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
10. Place the cupcakes on a wire rack and let them cool. Make sure to not top with frosting until they are completely cool.

Ingredients (Orange Rosemary Buttercream Frosting)

adapted from Wilton

• 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped rosemary
• 1 tablespoon orange zest
• 2 tablespoons skim milk

How-To (Frosting)

1. In your stand mixer (or with a hand mixer), cream the butter until smooth.
2. With the mixer on low, slowly add the sugar, followed by the orange zest and rosemary.
3. Once combined (remember to scrape down the sides), add in the milk.
4. Using either a pastry bag, ziplock bag or just a knife, decorate the cupcakes!

Ingredients (Candied Orange Peel & Rosemary)

from Giada De Laurentiis

• 3/4 cup cane sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• orange peels
• rosemary sprigs
• string

How-To (Candied Orange Peel & Rosemary)

1. With a peeler, slowly cut away orange peel in long strips.
2. Set aside a small bowl with ice water.
3. Bring some water to a boil.
4. Cook the orange peels for 1 minute.
5. Place the orange peels into the ice bath.
6. One at a time, roll the orange peels up and tie some string around it to keep it from unraveling. Clip the excess string off.
7. Heat the sugar and 1/2 cup of fresh water over medium-high heat until the sugar is dissolved.
8. Bring to a boil.
9. Add the orange peels and let simmer over medium-low heat for about 15 minutes.
10. Remove peels and place on parchment paper.
11. Add the rosemary into the sugar water, simmer for about 15 minutes (If the water has evaporated too much, add a little back in).
12. Remove the rosemary and place on parchment paper.
13. Carefully remove the string from the orange peels.
14. Decorate those beautiful cupcakes!

Giveaway Prizes:

We’re giving away a Hometown Seeds Kitchen Herb Value Pack to two lucky winners!

Entry Requirements:

How to Enter: Leave a comment on this page telling us your favorite ‘light’ recipe with herbs.

light or lite [lahyt] – adjective – made with a lower calorie content or with less of some ingredient (as salt, sugar, starch, fat, or alcohol) than usual*

Deadline: December 6, 2010 at 11:59pm Eastern Time

Extra Entries:

Twitter Followers: Chocolate and Carrots has a Twitter account!  So if you become a follower, you can gain an extra entry. Just leave a comment on this blog post saying that you’re now a follower or are a current follower (Don’t forget to leave your twitter name!).

Twitter Post: You can get an extra entry by tweeting about this giveaway on Twitter.   Leave a comment on this blog post saying that you posted on Twitter. A sample post could look something like this: Win a Hometown Seed’s Kitchen Value Pack from @chocandcarrots Enter here: http://f.ast.ly/PKv4S #giveaway (Don’t forget to leave the url from your twitter post…just click on the time & date stamp on the bottom of your tweet and that will take you to its unique url!)

Facebook Fans: You can gain an extra entry by becoming a fan on facebook!  Leave a comment on this blog post saying that you’re now a fan or a current facebook fan.

RSS Signup: You can also receive an extra entry by signing up for chocolate & carrots updates through an RSS feed.  Leave a comment on this post saying that you’re now a subscriber or are a current subscriber.

E-mail Signup: You will earn an extra entry by signing up for chocolate & carrots updates through your e-mail. Leave a comment on this post saying that you’re now a e-mail subscriber or are currently an e-mail subscriber.

(This totals 6 possible entries! Yay!)

No purchase necessary to enter. Prizes will only be shipped within North America (Canada, US, Mexico). Winner will be selected at random by chocolate & carrots using Random.org. All entries received after the giveaway closing day and time will not be considered. Entries that do not follow the entry requirements will not be considered. Winners will be notified via email and will have 48 hours to confirm receipt of the email. If the winners do not reply within 48 hours, another winner(s) will be selected. Giveaways will be mailed to the winners’ address.  This giveaway has been sponsored by Hometown Seeds.  I received no compensation to review this product.

* from dictionary.com