What's Mine Can Be Yours...MyMemories Software Giveaway!

EDIT: As much as I wanted to make you all winners, in the end there could be only one Lord of the Ring and the winner is Kim Fields!  Congratulations to Kim, and thanks to all of you for entering.  You can still send me cookies if you like.

Here's a little factoid that may surprise 98% of you: I went through a big scrapbooking phase in my early teenage years.  The evidence is currently sitting under my bed because most of those photos are, you know, from my early teenage years.  Now that scrapbooking is big business, it can be a rather costly endeavor, especially at the get go.  

But!  Digital scrapbooking is not only more cost effective, it's also easy and as quick as you want it to be.  (Bonus: no more weeping over cropped photos you can never uncrop.)  I was emailed a few weeks ago about doing a giveaway of the MyMemories Suite Digital Scrapbooking Software and have learned for myself just how easy it can be.  And now here I am to tell you my thoughts and give one of you lucky ones your own free copy of this digital scrapbooking software.  Free!  I love free (except FAT free).  

  
I will admit that I was a little skeptical, both of the program and digital scrapbooks.  But the program is actually so easy to use and yet also so customizable and flexible that it was really fun to play around with.  There are papers, colors, buttons, flowers, shapes, fonts--all kinds of things to mess with.  My scrapbook style leans toward the simple side, but really, there are hundreds of things to pick and choose from.  Here are a couple of randomly-themed pages I made from scratch:  

(Ah, ye old days when I could button my jeans.)

(Forgive my lame fonts...I was working with just the ones that come with Windows)

Like I said, I'm kind of...plain in my aesthetic.  But just know there are hundreds of options to customize pages how you like, and you can also download (for free or for a little $) more things from the website.  

Anyway, one of the other fun things is that it comes with dozens of ready-made templates and, if you want, you can pick one, select your photos and it will add them all in for you.  So, in essence, you could make a complete scrapbook in a few minutes.  I made an album that way with our Vegas pictures--here's one of those pages:

I enjoy polka dots.

Oh oh oh, hey guys, you can make non-scrapbook things too--like calendars, banners, blog buttons, invitations and what have you.  Personally, I would use Photoshop for those kinds of things, but if you don't have Photoshop, I think this is a really fantastic option for a versatile, easy to use graphics program.  Also, at $39.97 it is like a million dollars less than any Adobe Suite (I love you, Photoshop!).  It also reminded me a bit of Blurb's program, but this program doesn't make you want to claw your eyes out in frustration.  Nice, right?

On that note, let's start a giveaway shall we?  All I ask of you is that you go to the MyMemories website and check out their free digital scrapbooking kits.  Then leave a comment telling me which one you like the best.  That's it--no blog following, Twitter following, or money sending required (PS: I don't have Twitter).  On Sunday, assuming I don't forget, I will put all your names in a hat and notify the winner.  Easy peasy.  I'll even allow anonymous comments until then, for any interested parties without accounts.

This won't up your chances of winning, but if you're a super fan, you can also follow MyMemories on their blog, on Twitter or on Facebook.  

Go forth!  Comment!  Scrapbook!  And send me cookies....?

Foods

Who wants to talk about boring stuff like INTROSPECTION when there's FOOD to talk about?  Thinking is gross!  Food is delicious.  So let's talk about it. 

But first I will tease that this, your favorite vaguely Harry Potter-titled blog, will feature a ~*~*~*giveaway*~*~*~ in the coming weeks!  Weird, right?  I feel a bit like one of those "professional" bloggers.  So stay tuned, I think it will be really fun.  Back to food!

I haven't had much of a sweet tooth lately (that is to say, I haven't really wanted to seek it out/make anything, but if it's there, I will gladly eat it--I may have eaten about ten handfuls of Belly Flops in one sitting), but this list somehow manages to still feature mostly sweet things.  So...there you have it. 

Flourless Coconut Chocolate Drops
These were the first items to break my baking/cooking-in-general drought, and they were well worth it.  They're perfect for those times when you happen to have no flour, granulated sugar or butter but you DO have plenty of powdered sugar and coconut.  I left out the nuts because nuts are terrible and did a full cup of chips and coconut to fill in the nuts gap.  You may doubt them when they go in the oven, but they bake up perfectly, with a delicate, crispy crust and gooey innards. 

Cocoa Brownies
Tasty tasty brownies.  I am more likely to have cocoa powder in the cupboard than chocolate bars so cocoa recipes suit me better.  I made these with dark cocoa and they came out the color of asphalt.  Warm, chocolatey asphalt. 

Creamless Tomato Soup
I've been on a tomato soup kick these last few months.  (I also made this one and this one)  They've all been good and I'd recommend any of them, but so far I haven't found the recipe that makes me say "YES, I will now eat the whole batch!"  I just want a tomato soup that's simple, without a lot of cook time and with more tomatos and less cream.  Bonus for basil.  Any recommendations, world?

Buffalo Grilled Cheese
I suppose it makes sense that with all the tomato soup going on, we've also made a lot of grilled cheese sandwiches.  I totally simplified these, but they were still awesome.  I used ranch instead of the white sauce, buffalo sauce right out of the bottle, chicken from a can, and axed the celery and onion.  Also I added the blue cheese.  Winner!

Pretzels!
(They're so good they deserve a !)  I was home being gross one day and then I saw these on Facebook and said YES, THOSE and made them immediately.  Side note: it is really handy to have such a big awesome counter now because I can sit on it while I make things.  They're SO GOOD and you just want to eat all of them in one sitting and I would not judge you for this.  The first batch I made with bread flour and man, they did not want to roll at ALL so they turned out super fat.  The second time I used regular flour and they were much more cooperative but, strangely, not quite as good.  Maybe chunky pretzels are the way to go.

Orange Chocolate Chunk Cake
This has been on my radar for a long time, and I finally bit the bullet and got myself a bundt pan.  So worth it!  This cake was SO good.  I mean it--really, really good.  Just enough orange, just enough chocolate and goodness everywhere.  It does involve a number of steps but if you have a buddy around to zest and juice your oranges, it's not that bad.  You won't regret the time it takes!

Cinnamon Rolls
This was one of the things I made in my baking frenzy during Christmas week.  I'd never made cinnamon rolls before because they seemed so intimidating, but the idea of eating them after opening presents was irresistible.  My Mama passed this recipe along to me and I gave it a dubious whirl.  I know I've said this several times already but these were SO good.  I made them the night before and baked them in the morn and they came out perfectly, with ooey, gooey middles.  And as usual, the actual making of them was not very intimidating after all.  (Of COURSE I left out the nuts and the raisins--eurgh!)

30-Minute Buffalo Chicken French Breads
I don't know why I am drawn to buffalo chicken things--I think buffalo wings are stupid--but it seems to pop up frequently at our house.  Maybe part of this is Drewbles periodically saying, "We still have half a bottle of buffalo sauce--what are we going to do with that, woman?"  ANYway, I have never been a big fan of French bread pizza because the bread gets all crispy and crunchy--two things I don't like in bread.  But!  These turned out so good we made our own creations the next night with the rest of the bread.  I didn't broil the bread beforehand, which helped it stay soft and we had no green onions or fontina, but otherwise I stuck to the (halved) recipe.  Maybe French bread pizzas and I will be friends after all.