May 5
2011

“Oooh Mommy!”—A Zojirushi Giveaway for Mother’s Day

in Giveaway, Product Reviews

Squirrel, Mama, and Bug

With Mother’s Day right around the corner I’ve been reflecting on my own motherhood experience and how incredibly blessed I am to have the mother that I have.  She and I share a favorite quote from author Elizabeth Stone: “Making the decision to have a child is momentous.  It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.”  As time passes I begin to understand more and more what Stone meant, though I’m sure I have a great deal still to learn and experience.  We give so much of ourselves to become mothers, and because of this, we open up ourselves to immense joy, pride, embarrassment, and pain.  I love this picture which shows my great-grandmother and grandmother standing next to my mom who is holding me.

Oma, Grandma, Mom & Me!

4 generations of women, and as I write this now, 4 generations of motherhood.  Each woman standing next to the piece of her heart that was existing outside of her body.  How little my own mother must have known about the frustration and pain I would bring her in the coming years, in addition to the love and the laughs.

Becoming a mother myself has opened my eyes, and I now see, appreciate, and understand my mom in ways I couldn’t have understood before entering motherhood myself.

Mama with her girls

Now as I spend my days trying to love, teach, and nourish the two little pieces of my heart that walk stubbornly about, I look back on my childhood and feel nothing but gratitude for everything my mother did for me, and continues to do for me. Even though I’m a grown adult, I will always be her little girl, and I love that.  We have become close friends, but she will always feel the need to occasionally counsel me as a mother does, and I love that as well.  I love knowing that as long as she’s around, I will have someone watching out for me and that I don’t always have to be the grownup.  Sometimes a girl just needs her mommy!

To celebrate Mother’s Day, I’m giving away a Zojirushi Umami Micom Rice Cooker & Warmer.

Zojirushi Umami Micom Rice Cooker & Warmer

I think this is particularly appropriate for Mother’s Day because it’s the type of appliance made to make a mom’s life easier. The Umami cooker is the newest rice cooker to be released by Zojirushi, and is much more than a rice cooker.  You can use it to cook grains, pastas and one-pot meals.  It also doubles as a slow cooker.  It also has an umami setting (thus the name) which soaks and steams rice for longer which further enhances the flavor, or adds umami, and oooooh mommy! that makes me happy! (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.)  I’ve been playing with this cooker for a couple of months and have loved its versatility.  Not only have I loved not hauling my slow cooker out to make stew,

Making stew in the umami rice cooker

but I’ve loved the subtle “oomph” that the umami setting gives plain steamed rice.  I recently made a simple rice bowl topped with fresh avocado, mango, and a dressing for breakfast, using rice made on the umami setting.  It made a perfect breakfast, and one that I’d be happy to be treated to on Mother’s Day, or that I’d be happy to make myself.

Avocado Mango Rice Bowl

(Don’t worry, I’ll be sharing the recipe tomorrow!)  I LOVE Zojirushi and love this rice cooker, and am so excited to have one of you get to fall in love with it too!  So if you want to add a bit of umami to your kitchen, here are all the details on how to enter the giveaway!

* UPDATE 5/10/11: Zojirushi is adding a second rice cooker to the giveaway pot—a Micom Rice Cooker!

Zojirushi Umami Rice Cooker Giveaway

To Enter:

1. Leave a comment on this post telling me what you’d love to be served for breakfast on Mother’s day. (Or what you would serve your mom!)  Two winners will be picked, using Random.org.  One winner will receive an Umami Rice Cooker and one winner will receive a Micom Rice Cooker.  Contest starts today, May 5, 2011 and will end on May 26th, 2011 at 10pm PST.  This contest is restricted to US Residents.

Bonus Entry:

2. Tweet about this giveaway, then come back and leave a comment on this post telling me you did so.  To make it easy, you can just copy and paste this tweet if you’d like: Zojirushi Umami Micom Rice Cooker #Giveaway from @fujimama and Zojirushi: http://su.pr/31IDzS

{ 50 comments… read them below or add one }

Charlynne May 5, 2011 at 2:23 pm

Eggs Benedict!

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Rachel May 5, 2011 at 2:28 pm

French toast!

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jenjenk May 5, 2011 at 2:29 pm

I’d love to be served ANYTHING by YOU! :) but as i am NOT a mom, I guess I’ll have to figure out what I’m serving my mommy.

[i remember that photo at the top!! it’s been too long since we’ve seen mardi!!]

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Barbara Bakes May 5, 2011 at 2:30 pm

I’d love for someone to make me fabulous blintzs for Mother’s Day. I asked for them one year, but they weren’t fabulous lol. The rice maker sounds fabulous.

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Barbara Bakes May 5, 2011 at 2:31 pm

I tweeted your giveaway!

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Jerrille May 5, 2011 at 2:33 pm

Coffee creme brulee with a side of fresh fruit salad. A little bit naughty, a little bit nice. =) Mmmm.

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Budget Gourmet Mom May 5, 2011 at 2:33 pm

After sleeping in (yeah, that’s gonna happen) I would love some blueberry pancakes!

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Budget Gourmet Mom May 5, 2011 at 2:36 pm

I tweeted!

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Terumi May 5, 2011 at 2:37 pm

French toast please. Or pastries from my fave bakery. Thanks:)

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Jackie May 5, 2011 at 2:38 pm

Vietnamese banh cuon. :)

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clara May 5, 2011 at 2:40 pm

i would love some hearty filipino brekkie. garlic fried rice, fried egg, achara (pickles) and grilled milkfish. for dessert i’ll have some fresh and ripe manila mangoes :)

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elaine perry May 5, 2011 at 2:42 pm

I would love some chicken porridge with egg and lot’s of fried ginger…. yum!

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Jennifer May 5, 2011 at 2:45 pm

I wouldn’t care what I was served as long as it came with loves of hugs and kisses from ALL my kids and grandkid…especially since 2 of my children live 1400 miles away and I have a grand child I’ve yet to meet.

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Harrison May 5, 2011 at 2:48 pm
Jessi May 5, 2011 at 2:48 pm

Rice topped with hard boiled eggs and cinnamon toast on the side :)

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wendy May 5, 2011 at 2:49 pm

fruit salad with young coconut pudding, and crispy cinnamon crackers. Mmmm.

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Trumom May 5, 2011 at 2:51 pm

SPAM and eggs with 2 scoop rice!

And I tweeted this (I was reluctant to because I WANNA WIN!)

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Dave May 5, 2011 at 2:53 pm

I’ll probably be doing the serving on Mother’s day, but on Father’s day I’d love a big bowl of Reese’s PB Puffs with Hot Cocoa (Cocoa Queen is my mother, after all), bacon (still nice and floppy), and hash browns. That sounds like heaven. :)

And I posted the thingy to twitter :)

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Michelle May 5, 2011 at 2:53 pm

Pancakes sound good~

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Harrison May 5, 2011 at 2:55 pm

im not a mom of course lol. but i would probably make my mom some congee and some panfried dumplings inside of it, or maybe some delicious steamed buns for my mom on that day :)

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Dave May 5, 2011 at 2:56 pm

Back by popular demand, here’s a comment standing on it’s own that I did, in fact, post the thing to twitter.

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Frieda May 5, 2011 at 2:59 pm

I’m never up early enough for breakfast, so my boys make me Popeye Pancakes (German pancakes) for dinner!

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sara May 5, 2011 at 3:04 pm

French toast with strawberries!

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Beck May 5, 2011 at 3:05 pm

I’m not a mommy yet, but I am serving mine Eggs Benedict. And who knows about next year? ;-)

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Yuri May 5, 2011 at 3:08 pm

Happy Mother’s Day, Rachael! Your girls are GORGEOUS. Love how blue Squirrel’s eyes look on the first photo :) I’m not a US resident but I do have a US shipping address… Do I qualify for this giveaway?
I’m gonna pretend I do and answer your question: I rarely have breakfast but if I had to choose I’d go with your orange mochi pancakes. YUM!

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Jen K May 5, 2011 at 3:10 pm

Banana pancakes!

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Nive May 5, 2011 at 3:11 pm

Raisin bread toast with a cup of hot cocoa…Thanks for this giveaway….

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Martha B May 5, 2011 at 3:13 pm

I would love miso soup and the rice dish you mentioned in this post.

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sarah b. May 5, 2011 at 3:18 pm

eggs benedict – yum!

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kimberly May 5, 2011 at 3:18 pm

anything that i don’t have to cook (or clean up after) myself!

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Taehee May 5, 2011 at 3:20 pm

I would love some kimchi fried rice with egg. And some miso soup. Yum!!

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Yuri May 5, 2011 at 3:20 pm

I just tweeted this fabulous giveaway :) Happy Thursday!

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Taehee May 5, 2011 at 3:21 pm

I tweeted ^^

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Min May 5, 2011 at 3:23 pm

I love to cook abalone Porridge with seasonal chopped seasonal vegetable with short grain sticky rice. (Slow/Umami setting will enhance the flavor for all ingredients I will be using) Mom cooked porridge for me while I was in the hospital for past 4 months!
porridge is comfort/healing food for Koreans and Chinese =)

I already retweeted your giveaway!
@mandoochoi

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Trumom May 5, 2011 at 3:24 pm

Posted to Twitter! Thanks!

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LiztheChef May 5, 2011 at 3:32 pm

Happy Mother’s Day!! Love the photos…Hope someone is making YOU breakfast this Sunday!

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Ilana May 5, 2011 at 3:33 pm

A really good bagel with smoked whitefish

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Betsy May 5, 2011 at 3:36 pm

Cinnamon rolls

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sheri May 5, 2011 at 3:52 pm

Greek omelet and home fries!

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traci v May 5, 2011 at 4:04 pm

Anything homemade….truly anything cuz my hobby doesn’t cook!

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Ally May 5, 2011 at 4:04 pm

Fresh strawberry and lemon curd crepes with a cup of Stumptown coffee.

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sarah May 5, 2011 at 4:12 pm

I’m not a huge breakfast fan, but a breakfast I had that I’d love to repeat would be the Chicken & Waffles from Bouchon’s brunch menu. Seriously amazing!

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marla May 5, 2011 at 4:18 pm

Oh Rachael, this post is so touching! You are a beautiful writer and an amazing mommy to those sweet girls. I am so happy that you are in my life. You always make me smile :) I hope you have a beautiful Mother’s Day, how could you not.
Great giveaway, helloooo umami setting. Genius!

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Kelsey May 5, 2011 at 4:18 pm

Coffee and Scones!

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marla May 5, 2011 at 4:18 pm

btw: beautiful clicks of you gals :)

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Satoko May 5, 2011 at 4:20 pm

Blueberry pancakes! I hope I’ll win!

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Satoko May 5, 2011 at 4:21 pm

I also tweeted!

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Annapet May 5, 2011 at 4:27 pm

Basmati Garlic Fried Rice, Eggs, and Mangalitsa Bacon!

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Kelly May 5, 2011 at 4:32 pm

An omelet with lots of cheese and sauteed veges.

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Goldie May 5, 2011 at 4:32 pm

Crepes. My husband makes the best crepes. Strawberry filled and a Bananas foster filled. Yum!!

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