Tuesday, November 30, 2010

$30 CSN Stores Giveaway!

CSNStores is graciously offering me another giveaway opportunity!  If you're a regular reader, you probably know the drill by now, but in case you don't know, CSNStores is a large network of online stores, where you can buy things from sling backpacks to telescopes.  Personally, I love their giant collection of cookware (I've gotten all sorts of things from cookware.com myself).

To enter, all you have to do is leave a comment on this blog post!  I'm feeling open-ended today, so you can leave any sort of comment you want, no theme or question of the day.  Happy Chanukkah (starts at sundown tomorrow night, December 1*)!

If you want to enter multiple times (no limit on number of entries!), here's what you do:

  • Comment on this post (required, 1 entry)
  • Mention this giveaway on Twitter, Facebook, or anywhere else with a link to this post, then come back here and leave a second (or third or fourth) comment to tell me that you tweeted (1 entry each)

A winner will be chosen at random by the Random Number Generator.  I'll be picking a winner on Monday, so please comment by 11:59pm on Sunday, December 5th.


If you are interested in doing a giveaway on your blog, email me (kimskitchensink [at] gmail [dot] com) and I might be able to hook you up with CSN.


*for the last month or so, I have been under the impression that Chanukkah starts on Thursday night.  Oops. It really starts Wednesday night.  Guess I'm decorating tonight!!

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Hello, Custom Domain!

At long last, I have upgraded my domain name.  What was once www.kimskitchensink.blogspot.com is now the much simpler www.kimskitchensink.com.  And thanks to Google, it was supremely easy.  File this one under "These are the reasons I love Google."  Also under "It was really that easy?" and "It was cheap!" and "I am one happy camper."

I've been thinking of making this switch for some time, but was too lazy or intimidated or something to actually do it.  I thought it would be complicated, and expensive, and hey, what's so bad about having "blogspot" in the url of your blog anyway?  The tipping point?  I'm going to be attending some bloggy networky types of events soon, and I'm making some fancy business cards so that I can connect with other bloggers or potential sponsors or people who want me to review their products or who want to give stuff away to you guys.  Because that sounds like fun.  Anyway, the blogspot-inclusive url was too long to fit on the card, and it looked messy, and I think I'm ready to step it up a notch (is that even a phrase?).  Go blog.

If you blog using blogger and you want a custom domain, just read the instructions here.  It was seriously as easy as telling Google what name I wanted, agreeing to pay $10/year, and waiting about 15 minutes for it to become active.


If you read this blog via RSS feed, you may need to update your feed subscription. I think it should still work as-is (that is, if you were subscribed before, you should still get the feed without having to change anything), but I don't know for sure.  Let me know if you have problems and I'll figure it out.


But hey! What about those events you mentioned?  Why, do you want to join me?  Ok!

  1. BlogHer Holiday Meetup (San Francisco, December 7, 2010)
  2. FoodFete  (San Francisco, January 17, 2011)
  3. BlogHer 2011 (San Diego, August 5-6, 2011)!
Are you attending any of these?  Let me know!


PS - know what else is new this week?  Disqus!  We launched v4 of our website and product...it's a complete overhaul, and it's pretty exciting.  Personally, I like the sweet, interactive design element on the new homepage, because I am easily amused.  The backend and admin changes are also great though - for complete info on the new stuff, read our CEO's blog post.  If you're not using Disqus for commenting on your site, and you want to, what are you waiting for?  It's pretty easy to set up, and our customer service team is supremo excellente if you have troubles.  Plus, I can see them from my desk. 

And that's all, folks!

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Brownies

I have a confession to make.  I'm not much one for recipes.  I love to read them, don't get me wrong.  I read food blogs (which more often than not contain, oh, recipes) like the food I'm reading about will actually fill my belly.  I pore over cookbooks and the recipes in the back of Real Simple, dreaming of the dishes I'll create.  But if I'm being honest?  Most of the time, when I cook, I just make things up as I go along.  I gather information, ideas, inspiration from recipes, but when it comes down to hungry-time, more often than not, I don't have all of the ingredients on hand.  Or I'm just not quite in the mood for the thinking and the measuring and the reading involved with cooking from a recipe.

This might be why I have literally hundreds (tried to count to give you an accurate number, gave up) of untried recipes.  From Food Loves Writing, from Happy Jack Eats, from Hungry Girl from Smitten Kitchen.  From the 4+ years worth of Real Simple Magazines, of which I am finally ready to just let go.   Because you see, when the time comes to prepare food, I like to just let loose.  Yes, ok, I often use semi-pre-prepared items, though I'll admit to not being a huge fan of Sandra Lee (she scares me a little).  I guess what I'm saying is that I admire people who are able to cook 100% from scratch, beautifully recipe'd meals, I just don't always have the energy. And I'm ok with that.

Today had me thinking about self-acceptance.  I was asked to join a few colleagues in speaking to Berkeley Rep's current group of Fellows about our time in the program and how we transitioned into our lives and jobs afterwards.  I wanted to let them know that it's ok if your internship teaches you what you don't want out of a career (even if you have a great, fun, wonderful ole time while in it).  I remember vividly how difficult it was to reconcile a lifetime preparing for a career in the arts with the fact that I was about to start working in tech.  I wanted to impress upon them that they are building real, valuable marketable skills now, and that whether or not they decide to pursue careers in the craft to which they've so diligently harnessed themselves, having a theatre background will help.  I could go on and on on the merits of experience with the arts, arts education, and being the most holistically, well-rounded person you can be, but this is not the post for that.

This is the post for brownies (digression much?).  These are really good brownies.  Brownies made mostly from a box, with a little twist thrown in.  Because that's how I roll, when I want to fill my pretty new cake plate, and I need something to go with the pumpkin ice cream I just bought, and it's 9:00pm, and I just don't have the cocoa powder or the patience to make it from scratch.

I have only found this brownie mix at Costco.  It is worth a trip to Costco on a Sunday afternoon.  I added cinnamon and nutmeg because there are pumpkins on my countertop and I felt like making these brownies a little bit more...autumny.

pumpkins and brownies. delightful.

*PS: if you look carefully, you'll see something new hanging in the back of the shot.  That is, if you remember what our curtains looked like when we moved in.  There will be a whole post about that, don't you worry.

Update: brownie, pumpkin ice cream, and whipped cream.
Which I made from scratch. With cinnamon and vanilla.
Make of that what you will. It was delicious.  At midnight.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

BlogHer: It's Official

See? It's official!
Ok dudes, I registered.  Officially.  I know the conference is not until August of 2011, and I know the Early Bird pricing is on sale until February, but I got an email today about how they do sometimes sell out, and how if you want to go, you should just buy the damn ticket already (I'm paraphrasing, here).  And since I just deposited my first paycheck from Lunchbox, I figure I should buy the ticket before I spend the money on something else.  Like food.  Or shoes.

Cause I promised myself that I'd use this money to pay for BlogHer.


If you are going, or planning on going, or wanting to go(ing), and you haven't filled out my awesome survey yet, please do!  Oh look, here it is again!  There are so many of you that I want to see and talk to and hug and cheers and learn with.  Let's do this!



Is it too early to book a hotel room?  BlogHer's website says it's not, and they have a special block room rate ($199/night), so fill out that form and let me know if you want to get in on some sharesies!  In a couple of weeks (arbitrary date: November 30), I'll send an email to anyone who signed up on the "I want to stay in communication with you about what you're doing at BlogHer '11" email list so we can start talking.  To each other.