Some of My Favorite Giveaways

I haven't had a giveaway on this blog for a while, so I'm due to have one here very soon. I've been busy checking out the giveaways on other blogs, and want to share some of the best ones with you.


Fabulous Fun Finds is hosting over 40 giveaways this week--and there are some terrific prizes! Some of them end tomorrow evening, so click over there soon!

I always find new giveaways posted on Etsy Giveaways, and you'll find some unique and very cool things there. This blog doesn't actually give anything away, but provides brief descriptions and links to other giveaways that feature items from Etsy artists and crafters.

I am having a giveaway on The Peanut Butter Blog for a jar of PB2 powdered peanut butter and a jar of PB2 Chocolate powdered peanut butter. This stuff is amazingly delicious!

And my favorite giveaway right now is at The Dirty Shirt. She's giving away a Keurig Single Cup Coffee Brewer--I've wanted one of those for years. I love those little cups full of different flavors of coffee! Hmmm, maybe you shouldn't enter this one and give me a better chance to have a lucky day!

More About Linky Love

The poll has closed, and it seems that my original instinct was right: 52 percent of you agree that posts listing top Entrecard droppers and top commenters is boring. Even better, my original post spurred Margaret at eyespi20 to post about ways to give some link love that are actually interesting! She followed up with a pros and cons of blogrolls post, and I'm watching to see what sort of comments that post brings.

In figuring out how I want to take all this info and apply it to my blog, I have to remember that I'm not a professional blogger, and am not using this blog as a source of income. While all the talk about SEO, page rank, etc., are probably of some importance to me and this blog, I don't really care about them enough to let the "rules" associated with them effect my blogging decisions. (Can you hear the huge gasping sound coming from the blogosphere?)

I like to make stuff. The blog is primarily a showcase for interesting things I make and a way for potential and existing customers to get to know me a bit more personally. While I do have some income-generating ad spaces here, my goal with them is to fund my own advertising, not put money in my pocket. If folks happen to find this blog with a search engine then of course I'm happy, but if they don't it's okay too: there are more effective ways of finding customers and promoting my goods.

I think that it only makes sense to go with the majority of my readers: no posts about top visitors of any sort. I do enjoy posting about other blogs and shops, and that kind of linky love will continue.

What Do You Think About Linky Love?

As I've been reading other blogs, I've noticed a growing trend toward listing the top Entrecard droppers to that blog for the past month. Some folks have turned that around a bit and list the top commenters on their blog. This is a nice way to give blog visitors a bit of recognition and link love, assuming that you include clickable links to their sites.

I've resisted doing this because reading those posts are not interesting, at least to me. So I've decided to put it to a vote. Check at the poll above and let me know what you want to see here: links for dropping Ecards, links for commenting, or nothing at all.

My Cream of Wheat Cake

I love this cake! It's made with Cream of Wheat, so as far as I'm concerned it's the perfect breakfast food. When my girls were young we had to make food from another country as part of a Girl Scout project. We found a recipe for Basboussa, an Egyptian cake. I tweaked the recipe just a bit. If you make this I'd love to know what you think of it!

Lucky Basboussa

Ingredients
2 cups granulated sugar
1-3/4 cups water
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
14-oz. box regular Cream of Wheat (not instant)
3 tablespoons margarine or butter, melted
8-oz. container plain non-fat yogurt
non-stick cooking spray
48 almond slices
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Stir 2 cups of granulated sugar and 1-3/4 cups of water together in a medium-sized saucepan. Cook over medium-high heat until the mixture comes to a boil, but don't stir it. Let it simmer for 15 minutes. Dip the end of a spoon into the syrup. When you pull the spoon out, the syrup should leave a light coating on the spoon (if it doesn't, let it simmer a few more minutes and try again). Let the syrup cool while you prepare the cake.
Put 1/2 cup of granulated sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder, and a 14-oz. box of regular Cream of Wheat in a medium-size mixing bowl. Pour the melted margarine and yogurt into the mixing bowl with the other ingredients and stir until it is evenly mixed.
Preheat the oven to 350°.
Use non-stick cooking spray to lightly grease a 9 x 12" baking pan. Dump the mixture for the cake into the middle of the pan. Use a rubber spatula to spread the batter evenly in the pan.
Use the end of a toothpick to lightly score the basboussa into squares. Draw 7 lines across the 12" sides and 5 lines across the 9" sides. Be careful not to push all the way to the bottom. Lightly press an almond slice into the top of each square.
Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the edges just start to turn brown.
Place the cake on a wire rack to cool.
Stir 1 teaspoon of lemon juice into the syrup. Carefully pour the syrup over the cake. It will look like you have too much syrup, but the cake will absorb all of the extra syrup.
Use a sharp knife to cut all the way through the scores you made earlier. Let the cake sit until it has absorbed all of the syrup.