It's Our Fifth Anniversary!: Milestones, New Beginnings, and a Giveaway

Happy fifth birthday to the blog!

So, today is a very special day for me – it’s A Peek into the Pantry’s 5th anniversary! So much has changed since I started writing this blog, most of it definitely for the better, and to celebrate, I’m hosting another giveaway featuring some of my favorite recipes from the past five years. 

And yes, they’re all dessert. Maybe we’ll do the savory version next year!

Year Five didn’t exactly go as well as I would have liked it to blog wise. I rarely had the time or energy to make new posts, and often let things linger for weeks and months before getting to them. I miss regularly blogging a lot and really hope to get more active with actual recipe posts soon. 

But the reason why I was so slow is because I was getting my MA in Public History!

As many of you know from following me here or on Instagram, American Girl was my gateway to pursuing a career as a historian. It hasn’t been an easy road at all, and I often had to deal with people asking why I was wasting my time getting my BA and then MA in a field that would make me “unhireable”, but I want to say to anyone out there who’s wondering if pursuing their career in Liberal Arts really is a waste of time, it’s not. I’ve had steady employment in a variety of fields pretty much since graduating in 2013, and I now work at a company where I get to help create and research content for museums, books, and interpretive planning projects. It hasn’t been easy, but the work is worth it and I’m not sorry I decided to stick with it. 

When I was working in insurance between undergrad and grad school, this blog really helped keep me sane. It was so much fun to have things to research and share with people again! I think it also might have helped me land the job I’m currently working at – when I first interviewed for their internship program, my interviewers asked about the blog specifically and we ended up talking about it a fair amount during the process. I’ve been here for over two years now (started full time this June!) and am very happy here. So, two good things the blog has helped me do. 

In other life news, I also got married!

Jess and I have been friends for over five years now, and have been together since 2015, although we’ve been in each other’s social circle for even longer than that. When Jess decided to take a break from our writing community for a few months well before we started dating, she continued reading my blog and told me so when she returned to our group. I was so flattered that an acquaintance liked my blog enough to keep reading it even when on an almost total hiatus from internet communities! It’s not the only reason we started talking more often (you can thank our mutual enthusiasm for HBO World War II miniseries for that!) but I do think the blog deserves a little credit for getting us talking a little more frequently, which led to this really awesome partnership we finally got to make official. We’re already discussing plans to make sure some Australian history makes it onto the blog. 

To mark this occasion, I’ve made 23 handwritten recipe cards, one for each of American Girl’s canonical historical characters, plus Grace and Jane.

Each recipe is a dessert that has been featured on A Peek into the Pantry in years past. They are all genuinely some of my favorite dishes I’ve ever made, and I hope these cards will come in handy in your kitchen. 

They also have little descriptions of the dessert’s history, trivia and/or relation to the historical character’s story! 

To enter the giveaway, check out the entry rules below.

OFFICIAL GIVEAWAY RULES 
- One winner will win a set of 23 hand written recipe cards featuring dishes I’ve made on the blog over the last five years. A discussion of the recipe’s historical roots is included on the back of each card. 
- Must be 18 years or older to enter. If you're under the age of 18, please have an adult enter for you. 
- Entrants must provide an email address or an Instagram account so I can contact them for shipping information. 
- Entrants can enter the giveaway up to three times using the methods stated below. 
- The winner will be randomly selected. 
- The giveaway ends at midnight on September 30. 
- The winner will be contacted within 24 hours via email. If I do not hear back from the winner by October 7, 2017, a new winner will be selected from the remaining applicants using random.org. If, for whatever reason, you no longer want the recipe card set and wish to forfeit your entry, a second winner will be chosen from the remaining entrants using random.org. 

HOW TO ENTER

1. Leave a comment below saying you'd like to enter and what email address would be best to contact you with 
2. Send me an email at intothepantry@gmail.com. 
AND/OR 
3. Post on your Instagram about what your favorite historical recipe is using the hashtag #apeekintothepantrygiveaway 

If you want to include a note with your comment or email about things you'd like to see us talk about in this upcoming year or want to let us know you've tried out a recipe we've featured here, or anything else, please feel free! It's not necessary for entry, but I like getting feedback so I know everyone's enjoying the content we produce, or if there are ways I can improve. 

Good luck! Here’s to year six!

Hopefully featuring some fun new historical periods!