See's Candies at Fashion Island and a Giveaway!

Happy Thanksgiving!  Since today is a day filled with delicious foods and being thankful, I thought it would be the perfect day to talk about chocolate.  I mean, I don't know about you, but I am thankful for chocolate!

Recently I was invited to a media event to check out the new See's Candies store at Fashion Island the day before it's grand opening.  If you can't tell, I L-O-V-E dessert so I was super excited to go.  To make it even more fun, I went with one of my very good friends and fellow bloggers, Amy.

Not only did I get to check out the new store, I got to sample to my hearts content, and did I ever.  If you have ever been to See's, then you know that you get a sample every time you go.  I'm not going to lie, sometimes when I'm running errands I decide I should pick up a Scotchmallow for Josh (those are his all time favorites and one of See's top 5 sellers).  Even though I tell myself it's for Josh, I'm the one who gets a yummy sample to eat right then so we both win.  This night I was welcome to enjoy unlimited samples...I was in heaven.  We also had a fun little head to head race where we packed our own 1/2 pound boxes.  We had two types to choose from but I filled mine with all Dark Butterchews.  If you haven't tried this one yet, I highly recommend it.  The Dark Butterchew is a chewy vanilla brown sugar caramel covered in dark chocolate and it is one of my absolute favorites.

I love dessert and I will happily eat the leftover Halloween candy in our house but there is no comparison between the preservative filled stuff in our Halloween bucket and the preservative free, aged chocolate heaven that you get at See's Candies.  See's make 100 delicious varieties of treats and sells over 1 billion pieces a year.  In addition to their standard fare, See's also has special seasonal candies and packaging.

I love the fall leaf on this packaging and don't even get me started on the seasonal pie truffles.  I'm not usually a fan of white chocolate, but the pecan pie truffle was OUT OF THIS WORLD!

See's makes it easy to celebrate any holiday.  Of course they have lots of great Christmas products, but they have Chanukah too!  Since we celebrate both holidays in our family, I love it when a store gives me one stop shopping like this!

While I was there the store manager brought this out for us to try and instructed us to eat it the way he handed it to us.

It was the See's Candies version of a peanut butter and jelly.  Seriously you guys, MIND BLOWN!

I'm not usually a fan of fruity chocolates so I never in a million years would have bought the Strawberry Cream but I am sooooo glad that he gave us this to try.  If you can't tell, it's paired with a peanut butter patty.  This combination was unbelievably good.  If I wasn't already super full I would have asked for another.

Now that I have you drooling over all of these delicious treats, See's and I have a little Thanksgiving treat for you.   Enter below for a chance to win a $25 gift card to See's Candies.  This can be used in any See's Candies store, the new Fashion Island location is great because it is located on the outside edge of the mall (near Macy's) so you can just run in and out.  You can also use the gift card online with FREE shipping, score!



 a Rafflecopter giveaway

I was a guest of See's at this media event and received some See's products to take home.  The gift card for this giveaway was provided by See's.  All opinions are my own. 

Roast Brisket for Chanukah

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday and to those of you who are celebrating Chanukah, Happy Chanukah!  In my family Chanukah has always meant latkes and brisket.  This recipe is from my grandma but the recipe card says Mother-In-Law's style so I think it is probably my great-grandma's recipe.  When this is cooking my kitchen just smells like Chanukah to me.

One of the great parts of this recipe is that it is even better if you make it the day before so then you have one less thing to worry about the day that you are having a bunch of people over to your house to celebrate.  It is super easy, but it does take a long time.  It is mostly hands off time though so you can get a bunch done around the house while this cooks.

Start out by peppering both sides of the brisket and then searing it well in a large dutch oven that has a lid.  I wanted to have a bunch of leftovers so I made two briskets and doubled the sauce.  While your brisket is browning, halve and slice a couple of onions. 

Once your brisket has been browned on each side, remove it from the pan and set it aside.  Then add the sliced onions to the pan and saute for a few minutes until the onions are just glazed.

Take some of the onions out, put the brisket back in the pan, and then put the removed onions back on top.  You want onions underneath and on top of the brisket.  Because I had two briskets, I had onions underneath, in between the two, and on top of the brisket.  Get a packet of onion soup mix, I used Lipton, and sprinkle it all over the brisket and onions.

Then cover the top with a bunch of ketchup and an equal amount of red wine (you can use water instead, it just won't be as flavorful).

Put the lid on your dutch oven and cook at 325 for 4 hours, flipping it halfway through cooking.  Let it cool some and then refrigerate overnight.

The next day, remove it from the fridge, skim off any fat from the top, and take the brisket out of the pot.  Slice the brisket against the grain and then put it back in the sauce.  Reheat by putting it in a 325 oven for about 30 minutes.  Serve the brisket with the onions and sauce on top.

This freezes well so do what I did and make two briskets.  I used a 3 pound brisket and a 4 pound brisket and just doubled the rest of the ingredients.  Then you can have a delicious, homemade dinner in no time at all.  The extra effort to make two is minimal and it is totally worth it.  Enjoy!

Roast Brisket for Chanukah

• 5 lb end cut brisket, well trimmed
• black pepper
• 2 onions, halved and sliced
• 1 package onion soup mix
• 14 oz. ketchup
• 14 oz. red wine

1. Preheat oven to 325.
2. Generously pepper both sides of the brisket.
3. Sear both sides well in a dutch oven that has a lid.  Remove from pan and set aside.
4.  Add sliced onions to the same pan and saute until just glazed.
5. Remove half of the onions from the pan and put the brisket on the onions that are still in the pan.
6. Top with the remainder of the onions and sprinkle the onion soup mix all over both.
7. Cover it all with the ketchup and red wine.
8. Cover the dutch  oven and bake for 4 hours, flipping the brisket half way through.
9. Let cool slightly then refrigerate overnight.
10. The next day skim off any fat then remove the brisket from the pan and slice against the grain.  
11. Put the meat back in the pot and reheat in a 325 oven for 30 minutes.
12. Serve with onions and sauce on top. 

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