Feed Me (and My Soul) Giveaway

When we were working on our editorial calendar we were talking about how we wanted to feature Relationships somehow into the equation of raising kids with special needs. We didn’t only want to focus on marriage, we wanted to talk about the single parent dating, friendships, relationships between siblings. And that is how this week’s giveaway was born.

When our daughter was diagnosed with a life-threatening kidney disease and we were sent home with the words, “Take her home and love her as long as you have her.”, we weren’t sure what we were facing. We’d not seen a specialist and our hearts were breaking and our heads were spinning just taking in the information that our baby was sick.

Word of what was going on was sent out pretty quickly through email and a few well-placed calls to friends who spread the word. Within hours practically notes, flowers and food found it’s way to our doorstep. A day after we returned from the hospital a friend from church, with young children herself, dropped off a meal that included a potato casserole, with the note attached something about “comfort” which is fitting, because the casserole included POTATOES and CHEESE. Which, should be on an ingredient list somewhere called the Big List of Comfort Food When One is Sad. We cooked it and ate it during that first week we were home all the while my husband and I would pass each other in the house and one of us would weep. I remember the sadness of that week, mixed in with joy at the birth of our girl and I remember how that casserole fed my friendship soul.

Friends and family have always taken care of us in the food department when crisis hits. They’ve always known when to help us in the Comfort Food department, knowing when we needed fruit and when we needed something warm and cheese filled.

When Red Envelope asked me to review this personalized casserole dish I jumped at the chance to check it out during our Relationships week. When I cooked the very comforting potato casserole for my family over the weekend in my personalized dish I thought a lot about how food it the bridge to friendship sometimes and especially when someone offers it during a crisis.

I love the dish…it’s not too big and bulky. I could totally bring it to a party filled with something as a side dish to share. And it has my name on it! Don’t we all love something with our name on it?

So, with this, we kick off our Feed Me (and My Soul) Giveaway! Here’s the deal:

• If you want a chance to win this dish (with YOUR name or whatever) you must be a registered member. We’ll pick someone…but it won’t hurt if you leave a comment that you’d love it! If you’d rather not have the dish, they’ll provide a gift code worth $50 for something on their site!

• They want to give everyone an opportunity to shop with a 10% discount code for that is good for merchandise on Red Envelope: the promo code is: 10OFFRED (The promo code does not apply to gift cards or certificates, same-day or international deliveries, or third-party hosted products (e.g. wine, Bose products). The promo code shall be applied at checkout and cannot be combined with other offers or discounts.)

• This Potato Casserole recipe can be found at our Recipe Swap Group! Just so you know, for this recipe I put 1/2 in my personalized dish and 1/2 for the freezer.

So, leave a comment on this, our first giveaway with Red Envelope! Then go and shop for something at 10% off using the code 10OFFRED! Thanks Red Envelope!