You know what’s awesome? Having fabulous, talented, generous friends.

You know what’s extra awesome? Having fabulous, talented, generous friends who want to give my readers free stuff!

Meet Ree.

I know, I know, some of you are saying, “Hello, Momo? We KNOW Ree, thankyouverymuch. She’s only a best-selling author and the host of her own Food Network show. Duh.” But, maybe there are a few of you out there who don’t know the wonderfulness of this blogger turned multi-media superstar. And, as you can see from that picture – complete goofball.

If you don’t know her, you’ll want to read this. My son thinks she makes the sun rise and set.

Now let me say that Ree is a great friend. She’s smart, kind, funny, and she likes wine. That’s pretty much all I ask for. But, more importantly, she changed the way I prepare food for my family. Like completely.

She just released her third cookbook and like the two that preceded it, it’s chock full of delicious, easy recipes that anyone can make. Sure you’ve heard “delicious, easy recipes” before, but those were lies. LIES, I tell you! I have never made one of her dishes that wasn’t a huge hit, nor have any of them taken me more than 15-20 minutes to prepare (not counting cooking time because she’s not a magician, but give her time and she’ll have that mastered too).

Isn’t this the cutest picture? It’s of Ree keynoting at BlogHer ’13 and explaining to the audience how much she loves me. “I love Momo THIS MUCH.” (Photo credit: BlogHer)

In the meantime, while we’re waiting for her to learn how to pull a rabbit out of her hat, THREE lucky readers will get a signed copy of “The Pioneer Woman Cooks: A Year of Holidays” to read, and dog-ear, and highlight, and get grease and flour all over. Hypothetically.

Enter for your chance to win by leaving a comment telling me your favorite holiday dish (any holiday, any dish) and/or tweet about this promotion and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post

Good luck and happy cooking!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Look familiar? This is what I see every time I get ready to go for a run; a pile of earbuds that take me 10 minutes to get untangled. I’ve tried wrapping them up nicely, but it never fails they end up a jumbled mess in the drawer. To top it off, they’re not even comfortable. Half the time, I just go out the door without anything to listen to. But, running – and exercising in general – is easier for me with good music. So, I went out and bought these inexpensive headphones. They’re comfortable and they store up nice and neat so I can grab them and go.

Well, I could do that before they broke. Sigh. Clearly I needed something comfortable and durable and that’s exactly what I got from these.

aren’t they pretty?

Swoon.

Let me just tell you that if you listen to music with anything in, or on, your ears, you don’t realize the discomfort you’ve been dealing with until you put a pair of Monster N-TUNE headphones on. This is coming from someone who lives in yoga pants most of the time. I know comfort.

The bonuses? Great sound, awesome colors, and a built-in ControlTalk remote that lets you control your phone and your music, allowing you to easily pause your track and receive calls. Not that I can sufficiently breathe to stop and take a call when I’m running, but maybe someday I will. A girl can dream! At the very least, I can sit on my couch and listen to podcasts. Monster N-TUNES are made for athletes and geeks, alike!

Now my biggest problem isn’t tangled cords; it’s keeping these Monster headphones out of the hands of my 14 year old. Fortunately for her, Christmas is coming and this is a gift I know she’ll love and use all the time. They won’t get crumpled up and thrown in the back of her closet like last years jeans that she HAD to have.

And, fortunately for you – well, actually 25 of you – we’re giving away 25 sets of Monster headphones! Just click over to the Monster Headphones page on Walmart.com and let us know your favorite NTunes color in the comments for a chance to win!

To win your very own pair of N-Tune headphones (valued at $150), read all about the Monster headphones here and let me know in the comments of this post which color you prefer. The comments on this post will be aggregated with the comments on the posts from the other bloggers participating in this review, and 25 pairs will be given away. This giveaway will close on Nov 1.

Sweepstakes Rules:

No duplicate comments.

You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:

Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post
Tweet (public message) about this promotion; including exactly the following unique term in your tweet message: “#SweepstakesEntry”; and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post
Blog about this promotion, including a disclosure that you are receiving a sweepstakes entry in exchange for writing the blog post, and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post.
For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.

This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winner will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.

BlogHer will pool entries from participating blogs and select a sweepstakes winner at random and will contact the winner with details about fulfilling the prize.

The Official Rules are available here.
This sweepstakes runs from 10/2/13 – 11/1/13.Please let me know if you have any questions.

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When I was three years old I was in our basement watching Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and playing with my cousins when I found a small, silver ring on the floor. Not a jewelry ring, but something that had probably fallen off of a toy because it was the dark ages and they didn’t have choking warnings yet. Though, I was the 4th child, so even with a choking warning I would have been expected to give myself the Heimlich.

But, I didn’t eat the little ring, I put it on my finger. A few minutes later, when my finger turned purple, I went upstairs to show my mom. She stayed calm, because 4th child, and drove me to a nearby fire station where the firefighters had a tool to cut the metal off my swollen hand.

I bet none of those firefighters remember that incident, but my mom and I sure do. Just as I remember the two times I’ve had to call the fire department to my house in the years since. It’s amazing how safe you feel when you’re in the presence of life-saving people. It’s a total bonus that they look good in uniform.

Last night I attended an event at Firehouse Subs, where I got to meet the founder, Robin Sorenson. He and his brother were 2nd generation firefighters when they opened their first sub shop in Jacksonville, Florida.

See the bucket he’s holding? That’s one of 150,000 barrels of pickles that Firehouse Subs empties, then resells for charity, each year. Just since opening one of their five shops in the Columbus area, they have donated over $220,000 to local fire departments for life-saving equipment.

That’s just in central-Ohio. There are over 600 Firehouse Subs franchises and all of them give back to the communities in which they’re located. I don’t know about you, but that’s a great reason for my family to eat there. But, if that isn’t enough for you, just look at this brisket, oozing with cheese.

Mmm hmm. Plus, Firehouse Subs was voted No.1 fast food sandwich by Zagat and No. 1 sandwich in a Nation’s Restaurant News Consumer Picks study. For real, its good.

And, because they can’t stop being nice even if they tried, they’ve asked me to give a lucky reader $20.00 in gift cards! Just leave a comment on this post and tell me about a moment when a firefighter helped you or touched you in some way. You can earn an extra entry by tweeting about this giveaway and leaving the URL to your tweet in a comment on this post.

This contest ends on June 17th, 2013 at noon EDT. One winner will be chosen from among qualified entries. Good luck and happy eating!

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