And the winner is...

Thanks for all the well wishes on our anniversary! We hope you're enjoying the Halloween treats in Spook Play Explore, along with the scores of recipes we've shared here in the past year.

The lucky winner of the Amazon gift card, according to the random number generator, is ... Alora! Congratulations, Alora -- we'll e-mail you to make arrangements.

(By the way, to those of you who have trouble posting comments: Thanks for your patience. I've been trying to identify what the trouble. We're not the only ones on Blogger with that problem, but the solution remains elusive. I haven't given up yet, though!)

Lunch Box Pumpkins, plus Giveaway Closing!

Planning a Halloween party menu, I was looking at friend's setting of Halloween snacks with a clementine "pumpkin" on the side.

A light bulb flashed.

I got out my Sharpie, and in seconds turned two clementines into jack o'lanterns, just the right size to tuck into the day's lunch boxes. If you aren't afraid to arm children with permanent marker, a bowl of clementines and some Sharpies could make for an easy party activity.

For more fun Halloween ideas, take a look at our collection of treats, Spook Play Explore, available as a free download. Today's your last chance to enter to win a $25 Amazon gift card! Leave a comment on our anniversary post from last week before midnight PST for your chance.

Anniversary presents -- for you!

We are thrilled to be celebrating our one-year anniversary this month! We're so excited, in fact, we're offering two giveaways this week.

Everyone's a winner in the first: We've compiled 10 of our favorite recipes for Halloween celebrations in a free e-booklet, yours for the taking!

This free collection -- Spook Play Explore -- includes a few special treats that aren't yet available on the site, such as the Ghosts and Creepy Crawlers Coconut Treats pictured here. Click here to get your copy, or click the link to the right.

Our second giveaway is a $25 Amazon gift card. To enter, please leave a comment on this post by midnight next Wednesday, Oct. 20. (We know some folks have had trouble submitting comments; if that's the case for you, please click here to send us an e-mail.) We'll randomly draw a number and announce the winner over the weekend.

Thank you all for your support and encouragement! We've surprised ourselves: The Cook Play Explore recipe box is bursting with original recipes (172 and counting), and more than 1,000 wonderful people have subscribed to the blog. Thank you for joining us on this adventure.

We hope you enjoy Spook Play Explore, and don't forget to leave a comment for your chance at an Amazon gift card!

Celebrating: St. Patrick's Day, and Giveaway Winner

We love St. Patrick's Day around here -- my husband and kids are Irish, and growing up in Massachusetts, I sometimes forget I'm not -- but we don't care much for traditional St. Patrick's Day fare. Corned beef, colcannon... eh.

So we go the silly route, with an all-green meal. If you're looking for something more appetizing than mashed potatoes tinted with green food coloring, these might help you out:

• Pasta with Popeye Sauce or Lemon Balm Pesto
• Rainbow Burritos
• Kale Soup
• Crunchy Marinated Green Beans
• Persimmon and Fennel Salad (substitute green apple slices, following a suggestion from reader Heather)
• Broccoli Salad
• Leprechaun Cookies 

What do you serve for St. Patrick's Day? We'd love to hear about in the comments!

And finally, congratulations to Jennifer, the winner of our first giveaway. (Jennifer, I'll be sending you an e-mail.) She'll be getting a copy of our first recipe collection, just in time for spring. Thanks so much, everyone, for enthusiastic support. We're so glad you're enjoying the ideas we share here -- and sharing your own as well.

Giveaway: Our Favorite Recipes for Spring

This is a big week for us: We're going to publish our 100th recipe! We're thrilled to be reaching this milestone so soon after launching Cook Play Explore in the fall. To celebrate, we're offering our first giveaway: an e-book compilation of our favorite recipes for spring, which is just budding here in the Bay Area. Before you know it, we'll be savoring summer's bounty!

To enter, all you need to do is comment on any one of this week's posts. Tell us about a recipe you loved, share one of your own, let us know what you think of the site, or just say hello! We'll pick a winner at random to receive our first e-book.

As we celebrate, a big thank-you to everyone who has helped make this project so much fun. We love sharing our kitchens with you!