Sugar & Spice by Celeste

Have I ever told you the story of how Brad and I met?  Well, our little love story started out like this... One fateful summer day, I stumbled into a little coffee shop right down the street from my new college apartment.  It was smack in the middle of an ideallyic little area called English Village and was called Joe Muggs Newsstand.  I had just moved to Birmingham, AL with one of my best friends, Mary Katherine, to go to college.  We wanted part-time jobs, and low and behold, Joe Muggs was hiring! We filled out our applications and both got hired.  What a massively fun job that was!  I became a "Master Barista" and could make a mean iced coffee, cappuccino, mocha, or whatever your coffee-lovin' heart desired.  Those were such fun times that I'll never forget.  I could go on and on with stories about working in that little shop. Shortly after I started the job, I met a handsome fellow that also happened to work there.  Yep, you gues...

So, I'm super duper, incredibly excited to offer my wonderful readers (that would be you!), a chance to win a $500 "Your Set by Calphalon" giftcard... Yes, $500.00 , just in time for Valentine's Day !!   It's my largest giveaway to date, and I can't wait to give you all the details... I recently had the opportunity to have lunch with 2 awesome reps from Calphalon, and they told me about something that I think is really cool.  They have a new program called "Your Set by Calphalon".  Have you ever gone to purchase a new set of pots and pans and wished that you could customize your set instead of being stuck with whatever pots were already included in that particular box set?  The brilliant people at Calphalon have remedied that whole problem.  They've got a wonderfully interactive website where you can pick and choose exactly which pots you want in your set, so that you can create something special and unique... totally tailored to the way YO...

It's cherry season, my friends!  And what goes perfectly with cherries?  Chocolate, of course! I can't remember a time when I didn't love cherries.  In fact, I once drank so many cherry-flavored SqueezeIt drinks (does anyone else remember those??), that I broke out in a cherry-induced acid rash.  I know, I know...lovely.  Although, I must admit that I only really developed an appreciation for FRESH cherries...pits and all...as an adult.  My cherries of choice as a kid were of the maraschino variety, plucked right out of a glass jar. I recently brought a bag of the gorgeous red fruit home from the store and didn't know right off what I wanted to make with them.  The answer came in the form of chocolatey, intensely rich and fudgy brownies , studded with roasted cherries and sliced almonds...Oh, yeah! Now, these definitely aren't your normal, boring ole' cakey brownies.  The juices from the cherries keep these brownies incredibly moist a...