Marshmallow Popcorn Treat Yogurt Parfait Recipe (+ Giveaway)

479° Popcorn is my favorite snack of the moment. The packaging is fun and creative and needless to say this gourmet organic popcorn is awesome. I could finish an entire bag on my own. 479° Popcorn is a San Francisco company that features a very interesting array of flavors such as Fleur de Sel Caramel, Alderwood Smoked Sea Salt, Black Truffle, Chipotle Caramel + Almonds, Ginger Sesame Caramel, Madras Curry Coconut + Cashews, Pimenton de la Vera and Vietnamese Cinnamon Sugar. The design is so original it makes the perfect holiday gift box. One of my husband's little sisters is obsessed with popcorn, and her birthday is coming up in a few weeks, so we're planning on buying her weight in 479° popcorn as a present. OK, that's a bit of an exaggeration!


I love experimenting with just about anything, so I created marshmallow treats with their Vietnamese Cinnamon Sugar-flavored popcorn. I made a yogurt parfait and incorporated the sweet treats as a substitute for granola. This recipe is flavored according to the season; I used mandarin wedges and orange and cranberry sauce. You could adapt it with what you like of course. You don't have to create these cups for breakfast or dessert (or whenever you eat parfaits); just savoring 479° Popcorn by itself is perfectly reasonable.

Make sure you're a fan of PhamFatale Facebook fan page and 479° Popcorn, or follow @Phamfatalecom and tweet about this giveaway. To make it easy, you can just copy and paste this tweet if you’d like: "Sweet Tooth Gift Pack #Giveaway from @Phamfatalecom and @479Popcorn: http://bit.ly/sp4V7y".

Vietnamese Cinnamon Sugar flavored popcorn.

Lamb and Goat Cheese Appetizer Recipe (+Giveaway)

It makes me sad that lamb is so under-utilized and under-appreciated. I love lamb! Whenever I want to introduce lamb to someone who may have had a bad experience, I give it to them in appetizer form. Getting a large chunk of a meat you don't know or haven't enjoyed in the past can be intimidating. Bite size appetizers are much more inviting in that if after a bite you don't like it, you can stop right there without offending anyone.

I bought a lamb tenderloin to create appetizers with the tender meat. I would usually stack cold meat on toasted brioche, but I needed to add something studier to hold the little bites together. I used mini wafer crisps and topped them with hash-brown style sweet potatoes. I created many layers of flavors so the elements would complement each other. I made a mint goat milk yogurt sauce to pair with the lamb and finished the appetizer with two different kinds of Cypress Goat Cheese chevre to repeat the flavor.



Today our friend Jason from Cypress Grove Chevre is offering the Flashback Family Gift Pack (which I used for this recipe) as part of our 25 Days of Giveaways. The giveaway includes five amazing flavored goat cheeses. Each flavor has a groovy name: Ms.Natural (plain), Sgt.Pepper (exotic spices & pepper threads), Purple Haze (lavender), PsycheDillic (dill) and Herbs de Humboldt (Herbes de Provence). I like them all and I've told you Cypress Grove Chevre is really dear to my heart (find out why). As an added bonus, it also includes John Lennon-style tinted glasses to help your chevre lovers properly mellow out. That's 24 ounces of delicious chevre, a $75 value! Enter now.

Make sure you're a fan of PhamFatale Facebook fan page and Cypress Grove Chevre, or follow @Phamfatalecom and tweet about this giveaway. To make it easy, you can just copy and paste this tweet if you’d like: "Flashback Goat Cheese Family Gift Pack $75 value #Giveaway from @Phamfatalecom and @CypressGrovers: http://bit.ly/sp4V7y".

Citrus Chocolate Cookie Recipe

Sugar cookies are synonymous with the holidays. It seems as though I find myself making a batch every couple of days around this time of year. To speed up the process I keep dough frozen for quick use when the family needs a sugar cookie fix. This particular version is flavored with citrus and chocolate. I paired the cookies with a simple orange icing and decorated them with edible Pham Fatale peel-&-press stickers from Ticings. I completed the decorations by sprinkling crystallized rose-petal sugar. The pink color from the sugar matched our custom-made PhamFatale logos. Adorable, no?

I’ve used cute Ticings baking decorations several times over the past couple of months. I’m not very good with piping bags, so these decorations come in really handy. If you’d like to get your own on Ticings® decorations, the awesome folks at Ticings have agreed to be a part of our 25 Days of Giveaways, so you can add holiday art to your classic baking. Just enter today on the Pham Fatale 25 Days of Giveaways page. And if you don’t end up winning, don’t despair! Ticings is offering free shipping to Pham Fatale readers. Just use the promo code “PHAM” on your order.

Make sure you're a fan of PhamFatale Facebook fan page and Ticings, or follow @Phamfatalecom and tweet about this giveaway. To make it easy, you can just copy and paste this tweet if you’d like: "Ticings edible dessert toppers $30 value #Giveaway from @Phamfatalecom and @ticing: http://bit.ly/sp4V7y". Good luck everyone!

Mission Minis Gift Certificate Giveaway

Here's a giveaway for Bay Area readers. Mission Minis, located in San Francisco is giving away a $25 gift certificate to one lucky reader. Despite their diminutive size, with flavors like Cinnamon Horchata, Aztec Chocolate & Meyer Lemon Creme, these are definitely grown up treats!

Just visit our 25 Days of Giveaways page to enter the contest. Good luck!

If you can't wait to get your hands on these delicious little cakes, head over to 3168 22nd Street, San Francisco, CA 94110.

Make sure you're a fan of PhamFatale Facebook fan page and Mission Minis, or follow @Phamfatalecom and tweet about this giveaway. To make it easy, you can just copy and paste this tweet if you’d like: "Mission Minis $25 gift certificate #Giveaway from @Phamfatalecom and @missionminis: http://bit.ly/sp4V7y". Good luck everyone!

Madeleine Cookie Recipe (+Giveaway)

Whenever I have time, I prepare breakfast in bed for my husband. And since madeleine cookies are his favorite, I prepared the batter the day before and stored it in the refrigerator to surprise him today. It took me less than 15 minutes to bake them the next morning and I was able to serve hot, straight from the oven vanilla-flavored madeleines to Lulu. If you're planning to serve breakfast, keep these French cookies in mind; they're absolutely delicious and not that difficult to make. Just read my secret to the characteristic bump for an authentic version of madeleine cookies and these cookies are guaranteed to turn out well.

Vanilla is a great flavoring in general, and I think it adds another dimension to madeleines. I can't imagine a home baker's pantry not having a bottle of vanilla extract around the holidays. I used Nielsen Massey vanilla extract in this recipe. In case you’re not familiar, Nielsen Massey vanillas are full flavored and there are distinct differences between the varieties. It may be vanilla, but it's definitely not plain! The folks at Nielsen Massey were kind enough to provide one (two-ounce) bottle of each Tahitian, Mexican & Madagascar vanilla extract and "A Century of Flavor" cookbook as today’s giveaway. Be sure to enter for a chance to win (click on the link).

Make sure you're a fan of PhamFatale Facebook fan page and Nielsen-Massey Vanillas or follow @Phamfatalecom and tweet about this giveaway. To make it easy, you can just copy and paste this tweet if you’d like: "Nielsen-Massey Vanilla Extracts #Giveaway from @Phamfatalecom: http://bit.ly/uiJfq9". Good luck everyone!