Finlandia Cheese Giveaway

With 150 years of cheese making experience Finlandia imported cheeses deliver an all natural, great tasting product that's hard to beat. It is the number one imported cheese brand in America, made from the purest milk in Europe with no added hormones. You can find Finlandia in the deli section of your grocery store where you can get yummy Swiss or creamy Muenster and more sliced to order. Finlandia cheeses also come pre packaged in varieties like Havarti and Gouda to name a few.

I'm a cheese lover, the more cheese the better. Whether in a sandwich, on a burger, melted into a gooey casserole, or just on it's own. I love cheese. *squeek*

Here are a couple of tasty recipes from top chef Ariane Duarte using some of Finlandia's gourmet cheeses.

Sublime Submarine Sandwich

Serves 4

¼ lb Ham, sliced
¼ lb Salami, sliced
8 slices Finlandia Swiss cheese
1 c lettuce, shredded
2 tomatoes, thinly sliced
1 small red onion, thinly sliced
2 tsp dry oregano
¼ c extra virgin olive oil
¼ c red wine vinegar
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp granulated onion
S & P
French baguette

Create a marinade by combining the lettuce, tomato, onion, dry oregano, vinegar, garlic powder, onion powder and olive oil in a bowl.  Season with s&p.  Slice the baguette in half lengthwise.  Remove some of the inner bread.  Drizzle some of the dressing (minus lettuce and tomato) onto each half of the bread.  Layer the ham, salami and Finlandia Swiss cheese and top it with the marinated vegetables.  Slice in 4 sections and serve.


Finlandia Gloucester Burger with Russian Dressing

Serves 6

2 lb ground chuck
1oz (package) onion soup mix
1 egg beaten
2t Worcestershire sauce
2t hot sauce
3/4c rolled oats
1/4t black pepper
12 slices Finlandia Double Gloucester
6 burger buns of your choice
2T melted butter

Mix first 5 ingredients all together. Form into 6 patties. Pressing your thumb print into each patty after they are formed.  Heat grill to med-high and place patties on grill. Grill on one side for about 7 minutes and flip once for another 7 minutes or until the temperature you desire. Add 2 slices of Finlandia cheese to each burger and allow to melt, while brushing buns with butter. Then place the buns on the grill butter side down for about 30 seconds, just enough to warm.  Smear some Russian dressing on bun, next add the burger and if you like lettuce, tomato and onion and pickles.


Russian Dressing
1/2c mayo
1/3c ketchup
1T red wine vinegar
1T grated onion
1Tchopped parsley
Mix all together. Refrigerate.

Yum right? How would you like to try some Finlandia cheese?

One of my readers will win a coupon good for a FREE 1/2 lb. of any Finlandia cheese.

To Enter: Leave me a comment telling me what your favorite cheese is. (I love them all!) You can get extra entries for following me via GFC and liking me on Facebook.

This giveaway will end on March 28, 2012. I will choose the winner using Random.org. Please leave a valid email address if it is not visible in your profile. US entries only.

Wednesday Giveaways!!!

Coupon Alert!

Are you a member of Kraft First Taste? I logged on to my account this morning and found an offer for a FREE product coupon good for a new product Fresh Take.

Go check your account and see if this offer is waiting for you!

A Beary Good Lunch

Here is Penelope's lunch for today.

Top tier: Blueberry yogurt with honey granola, kettle chips, baby carrots and ranch in the bear cup for dipping.

Bottom tier: Bear shaped ham and cheese sandwich, mini chocolate Teddy Grahams, red licorice balls in the bear cup.  

Yoplait Trix Yogurt Review and Giveaway

Penelope loves yogurt and I love that she loves it because I know how good it is for her. I try to buy plain yogurt and we sweeten it ourselves with fresh fruit and honey but occasionally I do purchase yogurt that contains fruit and sweeteners. And yes every now and then Penelope convinces me to buy kid targeted yogurt with her favorite animated characters on the box but these tend to have more sugar then I'd like.

Yoplait Trix Yogurt has been reformulated to remove artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners, and high fructose corn syrup. Kids get the same fun characters, with the same bright colors in each cup, and the same taste they like, but with the wholesome goodness of yogurt that moms appreciate. Yoplait Trix Yogurt is a good source of calcium and Vitamin D and come in five kid approved flavors.

Strawberry Punch

Strawberry Banana Bash

Raspberry Rainbow

Triple Cherry

Cotton Candy

Thanks to Yoplait via My Blog Spark I received a fabulous prize pack that included a coupon to try the new Yoplait Trix Yogurt. Penelope and I headed straight to the grocery store to pick up our yogurt. She chose Strawberry Banana Bash a combination of red and yellow fruit flavored yogurt. She was very excited to be getting this treat and was even more excited when she tasted it. One spoonful was followed by a long exaggerated "Mmmmmm". Yoplait Trix Yogurts are for kids! Click here for a coupon to try Yoplait Trix Yogurt.

One of my readers will get the chance to win the same prize pack that was sent to me.

1 VIP coupon for a free 4-pack of Yoplait Trix yogurt for kids
Yoplait branded items including an insulated lunch tote, ice pack, backpack, folder, zippered pencil pouch, pencils, erasers, and pencil sharpener

To Enter: Leave me a comment telling me what flavor you think your child would enjoy the most. You can get extra entries for following me via GFC and liking me on Facebook.

This giveaway will end on March 22, 2012. I will choose the winner using Random.org. Please leave a valid email address if it is not visible in your profile. US entries only.

The featured product{s} in this post were provided to me free of charge by the manufacturer or pr company representing them. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and not influenced in any way by anyone.

Growing Green Onions

So I was finally convinced to take a peek at Pinterest and while checking it out I came across this post about growing your own green onions. This peaked my interest because it claimed to be a way to never have to buy green onions again. I use green onions a lot in my cooking and while you people down in the lower 48 can get them pretty cheap (my mom says 4 bunches for a $1.00!) they cost us sometimes up to $3.00 a bunch. What?! Seriously when my mom was visiting last summer she refused to buy green onions at the grocery store because of their price. Anyway, I learned that if you save the bottom white parts of the onions along with the roots once you've used up the green parts, and put them in a glass with a little water they will continue to grow. (I never knew this!)

You gotta keep them in a sunny window which can be a little difficult here at times so I will let you know if I have any luck with this. The prospect of having free green onions whenever I need them sounds nice. So much so that I think I am also going to plant an indoor herb garden with Penelope this summer. Stay tuned for that!

X is for X's and O's

The letter of the week at Penelope's school is X. She was very excited about playing the xylophone at school today. She said she tried and tried to play Mary Had a Little Lamb but she couldn't find the notes. She said she just needs to keep practicing.

Top Tier: Chocolate covered strawberry that we made a couple of days ago, pistachios, ranch
Bottom Tier: Baby carrots to dip in her ranch, X and O ham and cheese sandwiches.