I am a member of FoodBuzz, and there are some wonderful perks that we receive from advertisers.  Since I work in the advertising industry, I am very familiar with these promotions and I always feel honored when I am one of the lucky bloggers who has the opportunity to check out new products and try new things so I can tell my readers about them.

Most recently, I was provided with the opportunity to make a photo book with the Kodak Gallery.  It took me a bit longer than I anticipated to put it all together, because I took on the extreme undertaking of putting together my first cookbook.  I was also lacking on a theme, but then Mike came to the rescue (per usual) and suggested I make a cookbook of my favorite dessert recipes. BINGO!  Best part: I will now have something to reference in a nice, concise, pretty format while I bake.  YAY!

I just finally completed it (a bit past the deadline… sorry Kodak!) and I am now anxiously awaiting its arrival.  Here is the cover art:

It was a very easy process and a lot of fun to be able to compile my own book.  It took a bit of time to work out, but really that was because of the choice I made to have it be a collection of recipes rather than a standard photo book.

I am also able to offer my readers 40% off a medium hardcover or a large Photo Book. They tell me you simply have to go to www.kodakgallery.com/creativity to redeem.   The offer is only available through this URL from 8/1/11 – 8/31/11, so act fast!

Special thanks to Mike for the idea and the help in assembling.

NOTE: This post is part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker program with KODAK Gallery.  I received this book for free as part of a promotion, but was in no way asked to provide a review, positive or negative.  All content contained is property of NYCNomNom.com.

Thank you to all who entered.  It was fun to see the diverse answers in the “favorite restaurant” question.  Check out the Comments section of the post for some great recommendations!

A HUGE thank you to Restaurant.com for providing these great prizes.

So without further ado, here are the winners (with thanks to Random.org for making sweeps much easier!):

Winner 1:
Kyle W.
Comment- “Eating Gnocchi in Florence in this little back alley with my friend. I’ll never ever ever be able to recreate that experience in my whole life.”

Winner 2:
Jamie R.
Comment- “Caracas – best.food.ever.”

Winner 3:
Lillian C.
Comment- “The best dining experience to date that I have had was a kaiseki dinner in Takamatsu, Japan. The flavors were so clean and I know there will be no way for me to ever recreate it, so I guess I will just have to go back.  They also had *the* best sake (it was their house sake). The whole formal setting of the meal with the waitress and owner dressed in full kimono made the meal an actual experience. “

Winner 4:
Dave L.
Comment- “Favorite restaurant right now is Yabu across the street from our office. Great meeting spot!”

You will all be receiving emails from me that includes your discount link.  Please come back and visit and let me know where you end up!

Happy Nomming!

If you are curious, you can go check out my guest blog on Excellent Everyday Wines

Katy de Groot!

Congratulations Katy.  You have won $20 worth of food delivery on AllMenus.com courtesy of Signpost.com.

For more information on Signpost, see this blog post.  More deal links coming soon!

And stay tuned… another sweepstakes coming next week.

Happy Nomming!

NYC Restaurant Week now goes through February 27th!  Get your reservation now… need some tips on where to go? Check out my wrap-up here.

A huge THANK YOU to everyone that entered the first NYC Nom Nom giveaway.  There were 22 entries and 2 “shout out” entries. Here is the breakdown of which items were selected as reader favorites:

There was no outpouring of love for the Egg Poachers, “That’s My Pan,” Penzey’s Spices, the Peanut Butter Cup molds, nor Best Friends Cocoa, however, I’m sure that they just took a strong second place in your hearts.

And now onto the GIVEAWAY.

After a very scientific drawing…

The winner is…

CONGRATULATIONS Cynthia!  According to her comment, she really wants (needs!) a Silpat and her site is tvoftheabsurd.com.  While not a silpat, the baking cups are still silicone and nonstick.  She also gets the honor of the super secret Axelrod Brownie Recipe. 

Thank you everyone for entering and keep spreading the Nom Nom love!

Thanks to the awesome Photoshop skills of the awesome Mike, I now have new graphics to represent Nom Points.  What do you think?

From

to

and everything in between.