Tyler Florence - and a Giveaway!

Happy Monday, everyone!!! I have very exciting news for you. If you have not been keeping up with the Tyler Florence Fridays roundups, where I and a number of other people contribute dishes we have created each week, then you have missed out! Aside from the fact that each Friday you get to see dishes made by some wonderful home cooks based on Tyler Florence's recipes, they have joined forces with Tyler Florence to choose their pick for "best dish" each week, and the winning post will appear on Tyler's own blog that week.

Well, guess what? This week, I won! That's right, as soon as Tyler's people have the site updated, you will see my lovely Roasted Tomatillo Salsa right there on Tyler's blog! I could not be more excited. Be sure to keep checking back to see him link to this blog soon!

SO! Since I am still riding the high from Friday, and I have been looking for an excuse to do this for a while now, I've decided to have my very first blog giveaway! I'm not going to make it easy on you though, you're going to have to do more than comment to get entered. I thought since I just won a little prize based on my own creation, I'm going to do the same for this giveaway.

Here's the scoop. My very dear friend Tracy is having a baby in November and I will be helping throw her a baby shower. At another shower I helped out with awhile back, I made this cute little veggie "garden" that everyone just raved about.I, on the other hand, was somewhat disappointed because I really had hoped that my "flowers" would have been prettier or more creative. Well, for Tracy's shower I want to do better! And I need your help! You have two weeks, people. Here's what I am asking for.

• Come up with one creative flower (or another item that could be considered part of a garden) made of vegetables and send me a picture of it. You have until next Friday, August 7th, and I will let my Little Man (he doesn't know you, so he can't be biased) pick his favorite from the entries submitted, with the winner to be announced on Monday, August 10th.

SO, now you want to know what the prize is, right? How about this:

Yes, this is new in the box, a Pampered Chef Deep Covered Baker in their signature Cranberry color.

You know you want it, don't you? This item retails at $69 (I know Donna loves that!) and it is a heck of a time saver. You can use this to cook things in the microwave that you would normally have to heat the whole house up for by using the oven. What a perfect kitchen gadget for summer!

So come on now, get your thinking caps on and come up with something good! (and no, I don't want to see links or pictures from the Internet...I want to see your own personal creations!

Ready, set, GO!