Food-y Birthday to You! (And a giveaway too!)

Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you!

What's that? It's not your birthday, you say? Well, a very merry un-birthday to you, then. But it IS my honey's birthday - he's 37 today and I can tell you that since a) he's a guy and doesn't care like a woman does, and b) it's written on his cake, which I'm going to post a picture of, so you would know in just a minute anyway.

Unfortunately, his day was very much the same as any other, seeing as how he had to work...but he did come home to two very sweet cards made just for him by his little girls (both comprised of crayon, lots of time, and a heap of love) and tickets for the movie that he wants to see this weekend.

Oh, and he ate well today. Not in a nutritional sense, mind you. Just in a way that meant several of his favorites that he rarely has made for him all heaped into the space of one day.

I actually started last night, with sausage balls. I HATE MAKING SAUSAGE BALLS. Hate it, hate it, hate it! There's only one way to make the things, that I've found, and that is to dig right in with both hands - into a bowl of cold, raw sausage, Cheez Whiz, water, and Bisquick. Even if you've never made sausage balls before, you can probably imagine what a disgusting feeling that is. It takes forever too, but it results in this:


...and really, seeing him running for the oven as soon as they come out makes it mostly worth the hassle.

So he had sausage balls to snack on through the day on his birthday, and then came home to one of his favorite dinners - a Pampered Chef recipe consisting of sausage, pasta, sauce, cheese, and a lot of pepper. Can't remember the exact name of it, so we call it "sausage pasta stuff."


It's tasty, but as Gene says, it feels like a brick in your stomach when you're done...which is just one reason why we don't have it very often.

And finally, the pièce de résistance, the thing that he has asked for repeatedly for the past month, his chocolate and peanut butter cake (another amazing creation by Brittany):


I could go on ad nauseum about how talented she is with a cake, but I can sum this one up in three words: peanut butter buttercream. *drool* (If you're local and need a cake, I promise, you cannot beat hers.)

Even at 37, Gene finds it hard to share some things.


So yes, he has had a very food-y birthday, and I just hope he doesn't pay for it tomorrow.

* * * * *
To celebrate Gene's birthday, how about a little something for YOU? (Or for one lucky reader, at least.) I've been promising a giveaway for a while and just haven't gotten around to the pictures and posting, and shame on me for it. (Not to mention my apologies to the fine folks at Snapware, who are making this giveaway possible.)

Okay, so SNAPWARE - ever heard of it? If not, you're missing out! Snapware is, basically, plastic storage containers that snap together to form towers of nice, neat storage. Most of the containers come with two trays that snap together, but really, you could add as many as you want. They offer products for storing food, household and craft items, holiday decorations, even canisters for storing pet food. There's really something for just about anything you need to store.

They were kind enough to send me two items to review. The first was the Large 2-Layer Rectangle Snap 'N Stack. Each tray measures 14.5"x10.25"x3.75", so it's really a good size for storing a whole bunch of things. I still haven't decided what will be stored in it permanently, actually - at the moment, it's holding my knitting. As you'll see, just one tray is plenty large enough to hold a baby-blanket-in-progress, long knitting needles and the pattern book. Best of all, it keeps everything tangle-free and dust-free in the loooooong intervals between times I actually feel like knitting.

(The bottom tray is obviously not attached in this picture. However, each tray has plastic tabs on each side, like the ones seen here, that snap onto layer upon layer upon layer...okay, Snapware actually recommends a max of five layers, but I still need to see that for myself.)

The second item that I received from Snapware was the one that made me sit up and take notice in the first place: the 2-Layer Cupcake Carrier. This thing is awesome. It's actually very much like the Large Rectangle Snap 'N Stack - the sizes are only off by about 1/4", and honestly, I'm pretty sure I mixed up the bottom trays and they still fit.

The really cool thing about the Cupcake Carrier is that each tray comes with an insert with twelve little "cups" on one side...so that when you make cupcakes, you can place them all neatly inside and carry them to wherever you're going, resting assured that they're not going to end up in a mangled mess of cupcake mush before you get there. (Assuming some caution in handling, of course...if you just open your car door and sling the whole thing into the backseat, then you just plain deserve a mess.)

I got my hands on the carrier just a couple of days before Milly's third birthday, so of course I had to make celebratory cupcakes to take along on a playdate. She insisted on pink cake, with pink icing and sprinkles.


Look how NEAT they fit in there! Even cooler - see the little handles on the sides of the tray? Well, you can lift up the tray and hook the handles over the edge of the container, and it raises the whole thing right up to serving level, so you don't have to stick your whole hand down in the box to extract them and then bring it back with icing smeared everywhere.

Here's what the carrier looks like fully loaded with two dozen cupcakes:


Ohhh, how I love it. But you know what? It gets even better. Those little trays with the handy cups for holding cupcakes? They'll also fit upside down in the tray, turning the handles into legs and effectively dividing each tray into two. Perfect for cookies! Especially the peanut butter ones with the Hershey Kisses on top, because those things don't stack well anyway. Here we are ready for a little Christmas entertaining:


So to recap - two layers for cupcakes, four layers for cookies (or whatever else you want to carry.) The whole thing is perfectly food-safe and BPA-free, of course - as are all of Snapware's products. Even dishwasher- and microwave-safe, most of them. Not to mention cute and terribly convenient.

Want Snapware of your own? (You really do, even if you don't know it yet.) Here's a list of retailers - most of which we don't have where I live, but I have noticed them at both Lowe's and Target.

Alternatively, you could just win some of your own. Here are the details...

Prize: Snapware has generously offered one lucky blog reader the same two containers that I was sent to review - the Large Rectangle Snap 'N Stack and my beloved Cupcake Carrier.

Restrictions: Open to U.S. residents only.

To enter: Visit Snapware.com and sign up for discounts and special offers. (Look for the green "Join Now" button on the right.) Leave me a comment to let me know that you've signed up, and you're in it to win it! As always, please be sure to leave your email address with your comment so I can contact you if you win.

That's the mandatory entry, but here are some ways to earn extra entries as well. Each one is worth one additional entry unless otherwise noted; please leave one comment per entry, and don't forget your email address!

Additional entries:

• Follow June Cleaver Would Be Shocked via GFC.
• "Like" Snapware on Facebook.
• "Like" June Cleaver Would Be Shocked on Facebook. (+2)
  
• Follow me on Twitter. (+2)
• Follow Snapware on Twitter.
• Snag my button (top right of this page) and add it to your blog. Leave a link in your comment! (+3)
• Blog about this giveaway and leave me a link! (+2)
• Tweet about this giveaway - may be done once per day.
• Subscribe to this blog via email - just look near the top right for that too. :)
• Comment on another of my posts (let me know which one!)
  

Contest ends: 11:59 PM EST on Sunday, January 23. Winner will be chosen by random number generator and emailed immediately. Please contact me within 48 hours to claim the prize, or a new winner will be chosen.

That's it - have fun and good luck!