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Monday 6 December 2010

CSN Giveaway, Review and Pizza

So before I get on to the giveaway, here's how I found my experience with CSN. There was a lot of choice on the website, a lot of the stuff was more expensive than I would want to pay for kitchen stuff but it was high quality brands like Le Creuset.. Tempted as I was to go for something like that I decided to be practical and get stuff I felt I might get more use out of. After long deliberations I chose a pizza stone and some kitchen scales.






I've been after a pizza stone for so long and my old kitchen scales were horrendous and totally inaccurate. When I got to the checkout I was a bit miffed at first. It looked like they had added VAT and postage. On a second look I realised the VAT was just showing the amount in the price of the items which went on VAT oops! And the postage was under a fiver so can't really complain about that. The goods arrived pretty promptly too.

What better way to review the items than to use the scales to weigh out some pizza dough... I scribbled down a recipe I found online...




I like the scales, they seem really accurate, I weighed out a few other bits to test them out a bit more. Far better than my last set! They had a function which meant you can zero the scale at any time so no maths needed haha!

To try out the pizza stone I set out to make a few bases and cook 2 on the stone and one on a baking tray to compare them..

The dough pre-kneading

Post kneading, much smoother

Let it rise for 90 minutes

Knock the air out

Stretched out into a vague circle..

I made one with a (never home)maker inspired stuffed crust..

Mushrooms, sweetcorn and cheese

Mushroom with goat cheese and spinach

And mushroom, sweetcorn and cheese without a stuffed crust.

The above pizza after being cooked


No pictures of the other pizzas as I left Mike in charge while I was at work and he burnt them... He claims it was my instruction at fault.. I beg to differ ;-)

I liked the pizza stone.. My only problem with it was I found it difficult to transfer the prepped pizza onto the stone, I think next time I won't heat the stone first I'll just prep it on the stone and see how that goes.

Well, you've made it this far! Now the giveaway. One lucky person can win a £20 gift voucher to spend online in one of CSN's stores. Call it my way of saying happy Christmas to all my wonderful readers. I appreciate every single one of you and love reading your comments and blogs.

There are five ways to enter the contest, you get an entry for each. Be sure to post a separate comment for each too.
  1. Follow my blog
  2. Post about the giveaway including a link to this blog post on your blog/twitter/facebook one entry for everything you do, post a separate comment for each.
  3. Bonus entry if you commented on my last post, 9 of you did
  4. Follow me on Twitter (or let me know you already do) @boxruneat
  5. Join me on Facebook (or let me know you're already there)
This giveaway is open to UK, USA, Canadian and German readers. Enjoy!

P.s. even though the snow seems to be melting I couldn't help but share one more snow photo..

Good luck in the giveaway!

p.p.s... I forgot to say the giveaway closes on 15/12/10 and I will pick a winner with a random number generator.

43 comments:

  1. I'm a gfc follower.

    hewella1 at gmail dot com

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  2. Pizza stone! I think you have to heat it first, otherwise you don't get the crispiness on the bottom... Perhaps prep it on a floured board and then slide it onto the stone that way?

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  3. Oh I love my stone and you need to heat it first, that's sort of how it works best. I actually fold my dough over in half then fold it into half again so it sort of looks like a triangle then unfold onto stone. That probably made zero sense ;-) My only problem is I tend to burn my arms on the metal handles adding on the toppings.

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  4. I am following you on GFC. New follower! :)

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  5. That pizza looks delicious! Twitter follower too, @rusthawk.

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  6. ...and FB fan. Happy Holidays!

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  7. I follow you on Twitter! :)
    Pizzas look lovely! A pizza stone is a great idea of something to buy!

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  8. yummu pizza! i follow you

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  9. i follow you on twitter

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  10. i follow you on fb too :)

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  11. I follow you on gfc as DG

    deeg131 at gmail dot com

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  12. facebook fan Dee G

    deeg131 at gmail dot com

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  13. tweeted http://twitter.com/DeeGee13/status/12006687980388352

    deeg131 at gmail dot com

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  14. Oh please enter me! I follow you via google and on twitter, I'll post a link in my next blog post, great giveaway! - Would you mind sharing the recipe for the pizza dough?

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  15. Yay- just to let you know I tried the caramel apple spiced cupcakes (with frosting) and this time it worked! :) They are amazing :)

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  16. Please enter me! I follow you on Google Reader, Twitter and Facebook ;)

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  17. I am a GFC follower
    jacksoncrisman@yahoo.com

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  18. I'm a follower on google. :)

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  19. I already follow you on twitter. All of those pizzas look fab!

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  20. I follow your blog (Marzena Szymborska)

    marzutek@gmail.com

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  21. I joined you on Facebook (Marzena Szymborska)
    marzutek@gmail.com

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  22. I follow you on Twitter @marzutek

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  23. The pizzas you made look wondeful (:
    xxxx

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  24. oh my gosh SNOW! the pizza stone looks neat, and even though the pizzas are burnt they still look yummy! :) I hope you have a great weekend ahead of you!
    xoxo!

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  25. Already a follower, posted a link and also joined (um, sent friend request? Is that what you meant?) on FB :)

    Thanks a million for your comment - I don't blog very often of late and it's lovely to get a response...though I do read far too many blogs when I should be thesis writing ;) The snow is such a pain...melting but due to return sadly :(

    And I admire your pizza making skills!

    My e-mail's jesspea@hotmail.co.uk if we're supposed to leave them that is...my, I'm out of the blogging loop!

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  26. I'm a follower...and in need of a pizza stone!

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  27. I'll go find you on fb right now;-)

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  28. I'd like to enter! I follow your blog :)

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  29. I've joined you on facebook x

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  30. I've tweeted your giveaway too. Ok, that's it for me. xxx

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  31. i follow you gfc
    tcogbill at live dot com

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  32. Please enter me too - I follow you on Twitter and on here, and I just found you on Facebook, so hopefully that worked, and gives me three?!

    I never win anything, but it's worth a try - you have to be in it to win it!!

    I've tried pizza dough once and I was unsuccessful, so I'm interested in giving it another go with a different recipe!

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  33. I think above means you have to post once for each, so I'm going for three comments. This is number two!

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  34. Number three :o)

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