Would you believe that even after working in three different pizza restaurants during my early working days, I had never made my own sauce? It seems a bit silly to me, now. But my mom was always an in-jar pizza & pasta sauce buyer, and I never questioned it. It was only when I moved to the East Coast that I began noticing that people only furtively went into that aisle, and with shifty eyes dropped a jar or two into the cart. Apparently, buying your red sauce in a jar on the east coast is the equivalent to buying Goya frozen tamales in Texas. Who knew?

A few weeks ago, Cuisinart generously gave me the opportunity to review the Cuisinart Elite 12-Cup Food Processor. Around the same time, King Arthur Flour posted a recipe for Quick Beer Pizza Crust. Now, I’ve long been a lover of Jamie’s Beer Bread. I make it all the time. Beer pizza crust? I’m SO in.

This led me to the necessity of making my own marinara pizza sauce. You can’t very well go to the trouble of making pizza crust and then not make the sauce. Especially when it’s eleventy billion times easier, and couldn’t be simpler when made in a food processor.

I am in LOVE with the Cuisinart Elite 12 cup food processor. In LOVE, I tell you. For one, it’s quiet. Quieter than any food processor I’ve ever encountered. Normally, turning on a food processor in our kitchen meant sending the cats scurrying for far-flung corners of the house as soon as I turned to Pulse. They didn’t even flinch when I turned the Cuisinart on. This thing is 100% Milo & Connor approved!

In addition to being quiet, the Cuisinart Elite has lots of other awesome features too. The 12 cup bowl is huge, but not cumbersome. There’s a second smaller bowl for quick jobs like shredding cheese. It comes with an absolute myriad of discs: dough blade, both a large and small chopping blade, slicing disc, and shredding disc. The lid has this awesome snap tight feature. Instead of having to try and align and turn (which I NEVER do correctly), you just snap on. When you hear the “click”, you’re good to go. This little powerhouse even comes with a DVD and recipe book full of delicious stuff from salsas to pie crusts.

I found this recipe for marinara sauce on Cuisinart’s website. They have tons of recipe resources, I was happily surprised at just how large their database is! Today I’ll give you the recipe for Marinara sauce. Next week we’ll discuss beer crust.

Now that I’ve got you all interested in the Cuisinart Elite 12 cup food processor, I’ll tell you the good news. Cuisinart would like to give one Cuisinart Elite 12 cup Food Processor to a lucky Bluebonnets & Brownies reader!

You even get to pick your own color! Choose between White, Black, Red, or Die-Cast!

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How you win:

{Required Entry}
Visit Cuisinart’s New Product page.

Come back here and leave a comment telling me which appliance, other than the Cuisinart Elite 12 Cup Food Processor, you would love to have in your kitchen, especially this Summer. You must be specific. “Blender” will not count.

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Who wants bonus entries?!

For each item below that you do, you will get one extra chance to win. If you already do any of these items, they DO count.

You MUST leave a separate comment for each item. If you leave one cumulative comment, it will only count as one extra entry.

1. Like Cuisinart on Facebook.
2. Like Bluebonnets & Brownies on Facebook.
3. Follow @BluebonnetBaker AND @CuisinartPR on Twitter and tweet the following. Then come back and leave a comment that you did so.

I just entered to win a Cuisinart Elite Food Processor from @BluebonnetBaker & @CuisinartPR http://su.pr/1XweBb #giveaway

4. Subscribe to Bluebonnets & Brownies email updates. When you click the link, you will see “Get Bluebonnets & Brownies Delivered By Email.” Once you subscribe to the email updates, you will get an emailing confirming your subscription. Leave a comment after you’ve confirmed your subscription.

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Important Details:

-This giveaway is open to USA residents only and will run until Saturday, August 6th at at 11:59 pm EST. The winner will be chosen and contacted on August 7th.
-Winner(s) will be generated via a random number generator software program. Winner will be notified via the contact email provided on the comment contact form.
-Winner(s) will have until 8/10/11 to claim their Cuisinart Elite 12 Cup Food Processor or we will choose another winner.
-Winner will receive one Cuisinart Elite 12 Cup Food Processor {$249.99 value}. Product will be shipped by Cuisinart.

Disclosure:

This giveaway is provided to you by Cuisinart. The views and opinions expressed by Amber Bracegirdle on Bluebonnets & Brownies are my own, and based upon my cooking experiences with Cuisinart products. I was given the product free of charge to test and review it; however, I was not monetarily compensated for the review or giveaway.[wpurp-searchable-recipe]Marinara Sauce for Pizza & a Giveaway – – – [/wpurp-searchable-recipe]