Category Archives: Giveaway

Corner Bakery’s UnFlat Event & Giveaway

Corner Bakery is one of my personal favorites for a quick, wholesome breakfast or lunch, so I was very excited when they invited our team in to check out their new menu offerings: a series of breakfast and lunch “flats”, that are anything but; hence the name of this event, Corner Bakery’s “UnFlat Event”. This place is simply fantastic, but I must say that using a marketing agency like whitehat would be useful for reaching out further to more clients and customers. They deserve as many customers as is humanly possible!

Corner Bakery has added three new breakfast flats and four new lunch (or dinner!) flats to their sandwich lineup. Each variety is loaded with fresh and flavorful ingredients stuffed into a pillowy grilled flatbread, and awesomely enough, they all boast a calorie count under 330 calories. I had the opportunity to try several varieties at this very tasty event, prepared fresh by Chef Ric Scicchitano, the EVP Food & Supply Chain- and they were ALL delicious! I know that everyone in the bakery is trained in baking so you know that the food will be good. A baker should always go through professional training like doing the courses at Bakerycourses.in if they want a successful business. Otherwise, they may end up disappointing the customers with low-quality food. But low-quality food would never happen at the Corner Bakery!

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The new breakfast flats include:

  • Avocado and Spinach Power Flat – scrambled eggs with fresh avocado and spinach, and cheddar & Parmesan cheeses in a grilled multigrain flatbread.
  • Applewood Smoked Bacon Power Flat – scrambled eggs with applewood smoked bacon and cheddar & Parmesan cheeses in a grilled multigrain flatbread.
  • Ham and Spinach Flat – scrambled eggs with smoked ham, cheddar & Parmesan cheeses, and fresh spinach in a grilled multigrain flatbread

The new lunch/dinner flats include:

  • Southwest Chicken – all-natural grilled chicken, zesty slaw, corn and tomato salsa, house-pickled jalapeños and avocado ranch dressing
  • Chicken Caesar – all-natural grilled chicken, romaine, bruschetta tomatoes, Parmesan cheese and Caesar dressing
  • (my personal favorite..) Caprese – fresh mozzarella, bruschetta tomatoes, arugula and Parmesan cheese
  • BBQ Pork – pulled barbecue pork, tangy slaw, house-pickled red onions and avocado ranch dressing

One of the things I love about Corner Bakery’s menu is the way they really give you the ability to mix things up with all of their combos. The lunch/dinner flats can be ordered with your choice of two Grilled Flats (served with baby carrots), as a Corner Combo (pairing one Grilled Flat with a cup of homemade soup, Caesar Salad or Mixed Greens), or as part of The Trio (where guests can personalize their own meal, choosing from more than 5,000 combinations of specialty salads, homemade soups and now Grilled Flats). Personally, I am making it my goal to try them all. I was talking to a friend about other bakeries are run and they often make sure they have the best business energy deal through websites such as Usave to make sure they can focus on making quality treats, similar to those on show today!

Make it your goal to try them all, too! We’re giving away $25 to Corner Bakery! Just tweet @drinkdallas and tell us which flat you’d like to try! We’ll pick a winner on Tuesday, June 30!

The Corner Bakery
www.cornerbakerycafe.com
Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

**Corner Bakery sponsored this giveaway.**

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2014 Festive Finds Gift Guide

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SNAIL MAIL COCKTAIL
CHEERS by Southern Fried Paper & SusieDrinksDallas,  a collaboration I’ve been working on with Southern Fried Paper, is now available for purchase! With boozy cards, prints, coasters, swizzle sticks, and more,  you can send a friend a note telling him he’s your cup of tea whiskey!

I mean … if you like me at all you’ll check out what we’ve done.  No pressure.

Price: $3.50 – $20
Purchase: At the Southern Fried Paper retail section of 2524 Converse Street or online starting December 15.

vertuo-chrome

BUZZED AND WIRED

Nespresso’s new Vertuoline brewing system is sleek, slim, and pretty damn sexy looking.  Oh, and it brews a damn good cup of espresso.  It was one of Oprah’s “Favorite Things” this year … and, well … if it’s good enough for Oprah, it’s good enough for me.

If you need ideas for cocktails to get you buzzed and wired, check out some of my Buzzed Boozing recipes here!

Price: $299 for the VertuoLine system
Purchase: Online or at the NorthPark Center boutique

I obviously need something to put my yummy espresso in … duh.  I chose Nespresso’s Pixie Espresso cups in black (Ristretto), but they come in a bunch of colors, including rose gold!  (I won’t judge your color choice.)  I also just realized that it looks like a pod upside-down.

Price: $35
Purchase: Online or at the NorthPark Center boutique

shotwell caramels

CHEWABLE COCKTAILS
Anyone can make an Old Fashioned in a glass, but how many of you can say that you can make it as a rich, chewy caramel?  Shotwell has a cute 4-flavor caramel sampler that includes each of their four featured flavors, including Old Fashioned and Craft Beer & Pretzel that is perfect for boozy gifting!

Price: $19.75
Purchase: Shotwell Candy Co.

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DON’T BE A TOOL … JUST GIVE A TOOL
My whole apartment is black, white, and gold, and that makes finding bar tools a bitch to find.  Luckily West Elm’s Deco Barware Collection is a set of gold-finish bar tools to help me round out my bar cart (which coincidentally was also purchased at West Elm).

Price: $79
Purchase: at West Elm or online

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BOOZY JAM
With flavors like “Drunken Monkey Jam” and “You’re My Boy Blue-berry Bourbon Jam”, you can’t go too far wrong with this 4-flavor boozy jam sample pack. Because toast deserves better than boring jelly.

Price: $15 for the 4 flavor sampler, $10 per full-size jar
Purchase: The Jam Stand

tumbleweed

WEAR YOUR COCKTAIL ON YOUR SLEEVE
A local t-shirt company started by two Frisco teachers is making a splash with their soft, wearable tees.  Tumbleweed TexStyles lets you show your Texas pride … and your drink order!

BONUS: I’m giving away one WINE t-shirt (pictured right) this holiday season! To enter to win the shirt, you can either post this gift guide on Twitter and tag #FestiveFinds and @drinkdallas  -OR-  post your favorite gift on this guide to Instagram and tag #FestiveFinds and @susiedrinksdallas

Price: starting at $9.50 (and get 20% off any apparel, gear, and glassware with the code SUSIE)
Purchase: Tumbleweed TexStyles

LOBALL A HIGHBALL
While cold balls can be a problem, these are a solution.  The LoBall Whiskey Sphere is a stainless steel ball is filled with a cooling liquid that has a lower freezing point than water, so it stays cooler for longer.

Bonus: you can have it engraved with any text you’d like or even a custom image for just $10.

Price: $24.99 – $34.99
Purchase: sipdark.com

IN-FLIGHT BUZZ
Complete with a spoon/muddler hybrid, bitters, cane sugar packets, a coaster, and recipes, this Carry-On Cocktail Kit is a tin that helps make the crying baby and the dry, recirculated air a little less awful.  Plus, getting drunk at 10,000 feet is easier.

Price: $24
Purchase: Food52.com

BuzzBar

AN ICE CREAM DREAM
This is all you need to know: alcohol + ice cream.  Brilliant, right?  BuzzBars offers sorbet and ice cream bars in flavors like Blitzed Berry (strawberry ice cream & rum), The Drunken Cookie (Cookies ’n Cream ice cream & whiskey), and the Larry King Heart Bar (berry sorbet & merlot wine).  You can order their BuzzPacks now (12-bar cases)!  Order ASAP because they’ll go out December 15-24.

Price: $100/BuzzPack (includes gift wrap & overnight shipping)
Purchase: At Spec’s or at buzzbaricecream.com.

PAST HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDES:

2013
2012
2011

For more gift ideas, you can click here.

BLUE CHAIR BAY BANANA RUM GIVEAWAY & RECIPES

Another SDD Blue Chair Bay giveaway! (LUCKY!) This time we’re giving away a bottle of Blue Chair Bay’s latest flavor, Banana Rum! Enter to win ye a bottle o’ rum, me matey, and check out some recipes Laura whipped up using the delicious banana rum (and only a few banana-related puns and catchphrases).

My take on Blue Chair Bay Banana Rum:
In my experience, flavored liquors are very hard to do right… but Blue Chair Bay did it right with their Banana Rum. Blue Chair Bay Banana Rum has a rich flavor and a real banana taste. First, I tried it straight up, and it tasted exactly like Bananas Foster, evident by its buttery, caramel finish. It doesn’t taste artificially sweet either. I even tried it as a twist on the old standard rum and coke, and it was actually pretty darn good.

My Recipes:
I’m not typically a dessert or sweet drink person, save for the occasional espresso martini, so I knew I’d be my own toughest critic. But not to toot my own horn (toot toot), but these turned out pretty darn delicious. All of them are best served ice cold, which should be pretty appealing since we are smack in the middle of a Dallas summer.

photo 2Not Your Nana’s Banana Crème Pie Martini
3 oz Blue Chair Bay Banana Rum
2 oz clear crème de cacao liqueur (I used Hiram Walker brand)
3 oz half-and-half
Garnish: Graham cracker rim (to make: first rim martini glass in honey and then in graham cracker crumbs)

Combine ingredients in a shaker with ice, shake, and pour into graham cracker rimmed martini glass.

 

photo 1Frozen Chocolate Banana Martini
1½ oz Blue Chair Bay Banana Rum
1½ oz white or dark crème de cacao liqueur (I used Hiram Walker brand)
1½ teaspoons of chocolate syrup
1 cup of ice, add more if necessary
Maraschino cherry for garnish

Combine all ingredients (except for cherry) in a blender with ice, blend until slushy. Pour into martini glass, garnish with a cherry, add chocolate syrup for garnish or to make even more chocolate-ly. (Because … chocolate.)

photo 3Banana Rum-ssian
1½ oz Blue Chair Bay Banana Rum
¾ oz coffee liqueur (I used Kamora brand)
¾ oz half-and-half
¼ oz of Icebox ice coffee concentrate (you can find this at Central Market or online) or CoolBrew Coffee

Combine ingredients in a shaker with ice, shake, and pour over ice.

For a refresher on the rum recipes Susie came up with before with the Blue Chair Bay White Rum, click here.

Enter to win a bottle of Blue Chair Bay Banana Rum!!!

Win a bottle of your very own by doing any (and all) of the following BEFORE NOON on Sunday, August 10 and tell us which one of the recipe above that you’d like to try using Blue Chair Bay Banana Rum (or make up one of your own!!).  

(One entry per platform per person will be accepted.)

Yo ho and a bottle of (banana) rum! Enjoy and good luck!

About Blue Chair Bay Rum:
Blue Chair Bay Rum is born on the beach for the times you just want to let go and live in the moment.Blue Chair Bay Rum is a collection of premium-blended rums created on the shores of the Caribbean and inspired by multi-platinum singer-songwriter’s Kenny Chesney’s love of the island lifestyle. Each of Blue Chair Bay Rum’s four varieties, White, Coconut, Coconut Spiced and Banana is 100% beach-made and mellowed in casks at one of the oldest, most respected distilleries in the Caribbean. Imported from Barbados and bottled by Fishbowl Spirits, Rochester, NY. Blue Chair Bay White Rum 40% ABV, Blue Chair Bay Coconut, Coconut Spiced Rum and Banana 26.5% ABV. Available in 750ml and 1.75L bottles

Please enjoy Blue Chair Bay Rum responsibly.

GIVEAWAY: Blue Chair Rum

*Guys can totally win this bottle of rum, too.

It’s better to give than to receive, right?  NOT THIS TIME!  SDD is giving away a bottle of Kenney Chesney’s new rum, Blue Chair Bay Rum!  I was sent a bottle to try, which made this giveaway a real delight.  See a few of the recipes I came up with, and learn how to enter to win below.  Good luck!

HOT BUTTERED RUM, serves 4
– 3/4 cup Blue Chair Bay white rum
– 3 Tbsp firmly packed brown sugar
– 1-1/2 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened
– 1/8 tsp grated nutmeg
– 1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
– 1/8 tsp ground cloves
– 2 cups boiling water

Stir brown sugar, butter, nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves together, then add rum.  Split between four mugs and too off with boiling water.  Stir well and garnish with a cinnamon stick.

 

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COOL WEATHER PUNCH, scalable recipe
This recipe is a longtime favorite of mine that I got from a friend.  This tasted great with the white rum, but would also taste good with the spiced coconut rum.

– 1 part Blue Chair Bay white rum
– 1 part ginger ale
– 1 part apple cider (non-alcoholic)
– a heavy of cinnamon

Mix all ingredients, stir, and serve over ice or warm in microwave.  Garnish with a thin slice of apple and cinnamon stick if desired.

 

PUERTO RICAN COQUITO, serves 4-5 (depending on how heavy-handed the pourer is)
– 1 cup Blue Chair Bay white rum
– 1 12oz can evaporated milk
– 1 14oz can condensed milk
– 1 15oz can coconut milk
– 2 egg yolks
– a TINY pinch of salt (be careful, I added just a little too much with a normal-sized “pinch”
– 1/4 tsp cinnamon
– Ground cinnamon

Blend all ingredients on high for 2-1/2 minutes, or until frothy.  Serve VERY cold, and garnished with cinnamon.


Enter to win a bottle of Blue Chair Bay Rum of your very own by doing any (and all) of the following BEFORE NOON on 12/16.  One entry per platform will be accepted.

****THIS GIVEAWAY’S DEADLINE FOR ENTRY WAS EXTENDED AS I FORGOT TO PICK A WINNER BECAUSE I WAS BUSY GETTING READY FOR MY COMPANY’S BADASS CHRISTMAS PARTY!)

  • Comment on this post with a recipe you’d like to try using Blue Chair Bay Rum
  • Tweet me (@drinkdallas) using #BornontheBeach and tell me which recipe you’d like to try using Blue Chair Bay Rum
  • Write on my Facebook wall (Facebook.com/SusieDrinksDallas) and tell me which recipe you’d like to try using Blue Chair Bay Rum
  • Comment on my Instagram post (@susiedrinksdallas) and tell me which recipe you’d like to try using Blue Chair Bay Rum

Kenny Chesney’s new rum, Blue Chair Bay Rum, was launched earlier this year and comes in three varieties: White, Coconut, and Coconut Spiced.  HIs goal was to bottle the feeling of relaxation and ease he had while in the US Virgin Islands while watching a sunset.  Working with a Barbados distillery that has been making rum since 1983, the West Indies Rum Distillery, he came up with this mild, yet flavorful rum.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmJR7qLbBe0?rel=0]