Thanks everyone for entering the Wusthof Santoku knife giveaway!
 The winner is comment #21


Which happens to be PriorFatGirl - Liz/LutherLiz!

Her comment was:
LutherLiz, June 22, 2012 12:53 PM

I want to try the knife because it is shiny! (ok, also I just need a good knife!)

I am super excited this morning to share with you the new look of my blog!  Thank you, thank you to my lovely friend Jessica for designing my header!  And thank you to Misty at LifeLaughLens photography for the final photo on the end of my header and my facebook cover.  If you normally get this through your feed, make sure to click on over and check it out! 

If you've read my blog for awhile, it will be no surprise to you that I LOVE to cook!  When I initially started cooking, I really didn't view kitchen tools as something to "invest" in.  I bought some of the cheapest things I could find, and within a few months they already needed replacing. 

From that moment forward, I learned my lesson:  There is really nothing like good quality equipment in your kitchen.  Yes, it may cost a little more, but good quality pans and especially knives will last for many years, and make cooking easier and more enjoyable.

I was recently given the opportunity to try out a Classic 5-inch Santoku knife from Wusthof. The blade on this knife is ideal for slicing paper thin vegetables. It has a hollow edge blade which helps the food more easily release.  It's a little shorter than some of my other Chef's knives, but I actually found that makes it easier to handle, and slice almost anything! 

Hello Lover!

Last Wednesday I attended the first local farmer's market of the season in my town.  Every Wednesday our Marketfest sets up for a few hours at the local community center, and vendors come and sell all sorts of fresh fruits, veggies, breads, jams, salsa, eggs, etc.  I bought rhubarb, eggs, and parsnips.  The rhubarb was calling my name to be made into a crisp! 

Dilemma #1:  How will I make this rhubarb crisp as low points as I can, but still have it taste good?  Dilemma #2:  My friend who is has celiac disease is coming over for dinner, so how will I also make said crisp gluten free?

Using my new best friend Santoku knife, I chopped away at my delicious fresh rhubarb and strawberries, making quick work out of all of the slicing I needed to do.  It was amazing... and sharp!  I sliced up all 8 cups of fruit for this recipe in just a matter of minutes.  I think I'm in love... with a knife!
The result.  A perfect delicious crisp both healthy and gluten free!

Filling:
4 cups of Fresh Rhubarb diced
4 cups of sliced fresh strawberries
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 cup brown sugar
1-1/2 Tbsp Kraft Minute Tapioca
1 tsp Penzey's all spice
1/2 tsp kosher or sea salt

Topping:
1-1/4 cup Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free All Purpose Baking Flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp kosher or sea salt
1 tsp Penzey's Cinnamon
6 Tbsp cold cut up butter (into about 12 pieces)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees, and lightly butter a 9x13 pan.

Mix together all of the filling ingredients and put into the pan.

In a separate bowl, put the topping ingredients.  Mix with your hands (the best way in my opinion) until the mixture resembles very course bread crumbs.

Sprinkle on top of the filling and bake at 350 for 50 minutes.
So... would you like to win your very own 5" Wusthof Santoku Knife?  Yep... I thought so.  It's your lucky day, because Wusthof has offered to give one of my readers their very own knife!

Here's what you need to do to win.  There are 3 total entries possible, you can do one or ALL three:
1 - Leave me a comment on this post telling me why you want to try out a Wusthof Santoku knife.  Easy as that! 
2 - Facebook  First, make sure to follow me on Facebook (if you already follow me then you are already ahead!), and then follow Wusthof on Facebook.  Leave me a comment telling me you did.
3 - Twitter.  First make sure to follow me on Twitter (hopefully you already are).  Then follow Wusthof on Twitter and tweet the following:  I entered @fatlittlelegs giveaway to win a @wusthof Santoku knife. You can too: http://tinyurl.com/7hfvexq
Good luck!
This contest is open to US Residents only, and will run until next Tuesday at 9 pm Central time, at which point I'll randomly draw a comment from all comments to pick the winner.

Opinions above are all my own.  I only post on things I really do love.  That said, Wusthof did provide me with my very own Santoku knife and one for one of my blog readers in order to promote their product.

To my partner in the good and bad, "L"s dad, contest winner, coffee loving Canadian, Lily's dad, sometimes forgetful, cute, sweet 95% of the time, best friend, holder of my hand through the death of my own dad, a miscarriage, 30 ultrasounds, 1 echo cardiogram, 1 amnio, 2 C-sections, and as I lost 116 pounds. Cleaner of puke and poop.  Wiper of tears.

Last week at my weigh in I lost another 2.6 pounds.  That’s 5.6 pounds in 2 weeks!  Finally things seem to be looking up for me:  I’m sleeping… with the aid of pharmaceuticals but at this point I don’t care, I’m losing weight, and I’m as happy as I’ve been in about a year!  Seriously, I have been feeling so happy and blessed lately that it is shocking.

It took a long ways to get to this point right now, and now that I’ve arrived, I feel like I can tackle the last 22 pounds of my “baby weight” and get back to goal.

Even though I’m not back at goal weight yet, I have to tell you about a huge moment that happened for me over the weekend.  My mom and sister were visiting, and my whole family went to the arboretum for a day, we walked around some of the gardens, had a picnic, checked out the learning center, and did a hedge maze!  “L” loved it!  I got to thinking that some of the things I did there I would have never done 100 pounds ago.  I would have never walked around like that, and most of all I would have sat in a chair while my husband did “stuff” with my son, either because I was tired, or just too plain embarrassed to “actively” be his mom.

We planted beet seeds in 4 different soils, explored worms, and had a dirt rolling contest!  Then he did a scavenger hunt, and had to come back and bring me along so that I could see the cool plant that curled up when you touched it.

In the journey of weight loss – big time weight loss, where you need to change the first number on your weight at least once if not more times – there is a special place that you always long to be.  Most of us losing weight refer to that place as “Onederland”.  Definition = the place you get to when the first digit on your weight is a ONE!