Pear-Pistachio Tart and a GIVEAWAY!

Wow, did this tart smack me upside the head and surprise me. I am so not a pistachio person. I don't hate them, but they're low on my list of go-to nuts, and I can't ever remember craving pistachios or pistachio flavored anything. And also, they're green. What is that about?
Imagine my surprise, then, when I fell in love with this pistachioriffic tart.
This tart had a pistachio crust (I added 1/4 c ground nuts to the dough), a pistachio pastry cream with bits of ground pistachios left in, and a topping of caramelized pistachios. I loved the triple-nut combination, and I could have been happy just eating that plain, without the poached pears on top.

I must admit, though, the pears were a nice touch. The recipe called for them to be poached in red wine, but since I don't drink wine, I poached them in a mixture of citrus rinds and crushed blackberries to give them a fruity aroma and, of course, the beautiful rose color. Here's what I didn't add: sugar. Oops! I was so caught up in squishing the berries with my hands (squeeeeeze the juiiiiiice! Bonus points if you say it in an Encino Man voice) I completely forgot the sugar. They turned out fine, although a little extra sweetness would have been nice, since these pears were not all that ripe.

Overall, though, stunning. Loved it. An elegant company dessert that can be made in advance and is fairly fast to assemble. This is the second Dorie pear tart to knock it out of the ballpark for me, I'm beginning to think the lady knows her pear desserts!

This dessert and my newfound pistachio obsession could not have come at a better time, because I have a nutty giveaway for you! The kind folks at Oh Nuts! have offered my readers a $25 gift certificate for the holidays. Have you seen their website? They offer 14 kinds of bulk pistachios, for crying out loud, and all sorts of other dried fruit, nuts, and candies.

So there are three ways to enter:

1. Go to the Oh Nuts Hanukkah gifts page or to the Christmas Nuts Gift page. Choose your favorite Hanukkah Gift or Christmas Gift and leave a comment on this blog post with the name and url of the gift you love the most.


2. Go to the oh nuts facebook page become a fan and post on the wall the url and name of your favorite Hanukkah Gift or Christmas Gift. Be sure to also write "I am here via "Cake or Death." Then leave a comment here telling me you did this.

3. On Twitter, follow @ohnuts and Tweet either: " Win a free Hanukkah Gift from http://bit.ly/6nIsCi Follow @ohnuts & Retweet to enter. " OR: “ Win a free Christmas Gift from http://bit.ly/537HNp Follow @ohnuts & Retweet to enter.” Then leave a comment here telling me you did this.

That's a total of THREE possible entries in this giveaway! The drawing closes at midnight PST on December 14th, so there's plenty of time to get commenting, facebookin', and tweetin'. G'luck!

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Easter Candy Giveaway!

Update: we have our winners for the giveaway! The random number generator picked comments from Danielle and Matzoh Fairy. Congratulations, you guys! Your candy will be in the mail soon!



So one of the (many) perks of my job as the candy guide at About.com is that people send me candy for promotional consideration and review. All the time. It's a hard life, coming home to find a big box of gourmet chocolates or licorice on the stoop. Sigh. Usually I have no problem polishing it off myself--it's my job, after all! And if I can't finish it, my husband bravely steps in to help.

However, this most recent box has bested us. I just got a huuuuge box of assorted Easter candy, and we're up to our eyeballs in sweets at our house already. We just can't eat it all! This is where you come in. There is some good stuff here--chocolate from Lindt, Toblerone, Mars, and Hershey, and sugar candy like Peeps, jelly beans, Hot Tamales, and licorice. Also some really random candy I've never seen before!

Want to win a box of Easter candy? Today's your lucky day! Leave a comment to this blog entry before midnight on Wednesday, April 1st, Pacific time, and tell me what your favorite Easter candy is. I'll use the random number generator to pick two winners--yes, two, because there really is a lot of candy. I'll try and split it up so that the two winners get equal parts chocolate and sugary stuff. And, many apologies, but I'm going to limit it to folks in the US, for shipping reasons. Good luck!

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Chocolate Giveaway! (The Trickle-Down Theory in Action)

Last night I hit the chocolate motherload, courtesy of my fabulous friends Tom and Heather. Tom's dad is a R&D scientist at Guittard Chocolate (WHAT a dream job, right?), and from time to time he provides them with boxes of high-quality chocolate. Because they know I have a giant sweet tooth, and possibly because I am shameless in my chocolate grovelling, they generously gifted me with a large quantity of delicious Guittard bars. I believe this is what the kids call being "hooked up" these days. I can't wait to play with my new chocolate stash!

Normally I would hoard all of this chocolate and snarl "my precioussss" whenever someone came near it. However, I'm feeling generous today, so I thought I'd offer a little giveaway. Want to win five gourmet chocolate bars? Simply leave a comment to this entry between now and Midnight PST on Thursday, August 28th. The stash is pictured above: there are four single-origin 65% bittersweet bars, and an uber-dark 91% bar. I'll throw in a few minis (milk and dark) too. If you want, you can mention what sorts of recipes you might like to try with the chocolate, but that's not a requirement. I'll use the random number generator to pick a winner on Friday the 29th. Good luck!

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