Heather's Bytes

You all know how much I love chocolate, and especially how much I love See’s! That’s why it’s always as much of a treat for me as it is for my readers when See’s Candies generously offers up a $50 gift card to give away to one lucky HeathersBytes.com reader!

See’s Candies make the perfect chocolate gifts for the chocolate lover in your life, and of course they’ve got non-chocolate goodies as well, like the yummy peanut brittle that Mike can’t seem to get enough of (which is saying a lot because he’s not generally a sweets kind of guy!).

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>> How to Enter:

~ Leave a comment here telling me which See’s you’d like to receive as a gift (there is no right or wrong answer)!

>> Extra entries:

~ Retweet this giveaway on Twitter and get an extra entry! Just leave a comment with a link to your tweet each day. (And feel free to follow me, if you’re so inclined!)

~ Add a link to this post to social media sites like Facebook, Stumble, Digg, Kirtsy, Reddit, etc, and receive one extra entry for each one (be sure to leave a comment with the link to the posting).

~ Post about the giveaway on your own blog for an extra entry.

edit: All of the above can each be done once a day!

[Comments may get caught in moderation -- please don't panic, I will approve them as soon as I get to them.]

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>> The fine print:

~ Contest ends Friday, September 10, 2010 at 5:00pm PST.

~ You may enter once a day, per household. Duplicate entries in one day will be discarded for the entire duration of the giveaway.

~ Giveaway open to U.S. residents only.

~ One winner will receive one $50 gift card from See’s Candies.

~ Winner will be randomly drawn and notified by email, and will have 24 hours to respond before a new winner is chosen.

Good luck!

I had never heard of M&M’s mini baking bits until just a few years ago when we went out of state to visit family. My niece bought a bag so our kids could make cookies, and I remember wondering why a bag of regular M&M’s wouldn’t work just as well.

Once we opened the bag I realized why. The M&M’s baking bits are about half the size of the regular-sized milk chocolate M&M’s. The smaller size means there are more of them, and it makes it easier to stir them into dough without having them break apart, thus losing the fun of using M&M’s in the first place! Read More

It’s been years since we’ve bought ice cream from the store. I got an ice cream maker several years ago and never looked back, mostly because not only is it cheaper to make it yourself, but I also love knowing exactly what’s going into it. So when I saw that this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie was going to be ice cream, I got a little excited. It was chosen by Katrina of Baking and Boys.

I’m not usually a big fan of ice cream recipes that call for cooking on the stove first (worrying about the eggs overcooking sucks the fun out of it!). I’ve got a recipe book that pretty much just requires mixing everything together before putting it into the maker, so I was a little wary about this one before I even tried it.

I like to use pasteurized eggs in my ice cream because, though I know freezing is a salmonella deterrent, I just don’t like using raw eggs.

I was a little worried once I got to the end of cooking the mixture into a custard. It got thick fast and I thought for sure that I’d ruined it, but I decided to mix it with the chocolate anyway (I used a mix of 60% and milk chocolate Ghirardelli chips).

It set up in the fridge like a thick pudding and again, I thought it was ruined. I figured I couldn’t make it any worse and after it cooled down I ran it through the ice cream maker. And then I ended up with the best chocolate ice cream I’ve ever made. It was very thick and creamy without a trace of graininess, which I’ve found is hit or miss with homemade chocolate ice cream.

The next time I make this I’m going to add walnuts and marshmallows to make Rocky Road because it was the perfect consistency for some add-ins.

This chocolate zucchini cake is the perfect end-of-summer treat! Zucchini are now ripe and ready for harvesting and if you’ve got an abundance, consider baking up a few of these for the neighbors instead of just handing them some vegetables – they’ll appreciate it!

Zucchini also freezes very well. Just shred it, squeeze out as much liquid as you can using a tea cloth or clean towel, place in zip-top freezer bags, and stack in the freezer. To defrost, put it in the fridge for a couple of hours.

This recipe comes from my friend Laura’s mom, who humored me at the age of 14 when I asked for it. I’ve made it every year since, even though I have to buy my zucchini at the store now! Read More