Facebook: Free sample packets of Mrs. Dash.

Could your life use a little excitement? How about a free sample packet of Mrs. Dash to spice things up?!

Oh, you were thinking more along the lines of a trip around the world? Sorry, I don't seem to have any of those today.

Free PAM cooking spray with rebate.

It's quite the week for food rebates! In addition to the Progresso soup rebate, now we have one for PAM cooking spray. Get a free cooking spray in original, olive oil, or butter after mail-in rebate (up to $4.00). Send a copy of your cash-register receipt (dated 10/1/2011–4/27/2012) showing the purchase of PAM Original, Olive Oil, or Butter variety (with the purchase price circled), and the completed offer form. Must be received by 05/27/2012.

Just don't try to use the PAM to cook your soup. Nothing good can come of that.

Free sample of Ball Real Fruit canning pectin.

If you're an aspiring pioneer, you won't want to miss this canning freebie. Sign up for a free sample of Ball RealFruit Classic Pectin. And check out the rest of the site while you're at it; they have a lot of good canning info and recipes, like this ginger-pear freezer jam or mango chili freezer jam. I want to try them all!

Tanga: 1-year subscription to Taste of Home, $4.

Tanga has another magazine deal today for moms everywhere: $4 for a one-year subscription to Taste of Home magazine. Use promo code TASTE to get the special price. You can buy up to 4 years at this rate, so stock up now and send your favorite mom a gentle hint to keep the home-cooked meals coming.

Free Lawry's seasoning mix samples.

Sign up for a free sample of Lawry's seasoning mixes! I can't tell if you get all of them or just a random one, but they sound pretty good, especially the chicken marsala one and the sun-dried tomato and garlic chicken. Yum...

Free sample of Bacon Salt + sticker.

You've heard of Bacon Salt, I presume - another product along the lines of Baconnaise, which exists on the theory that everything is better with bacon. What, you haven't tried Bacon Salt? Well, here is your chance. Sign up for a free sample and you'll also get a precious "public service announcement" sticker warning about the dangers of bacon salt addiction. Because it's so deelicious, you see.

It strikes me that bacon salt might be good with my morning hard-boiled egg - like a portable mini-breakfast with less lard. I'm still waiting for someone to offer a free sample of the bacon lip balm, though.

World Kitchen: Under $1 sale.

World Kitchen is having a sale with dozens of items that are $1 or under... and this is good stuff, not just dollar-store crap. Here are a few examples:

• Sushi molds, chopsticks, rice paddles
• Pyrex glass bowls
• Ekco coffee scoops, measuring spoon sets, cheese slicers, parchment paper
• Corn skewers, party picks, kitchen tongs
• TINY LOAF PAN

Shipping starts at $7, but if you're picking up an assortment of kitchen gadgets, you can still save some $$$ while stocking up.

Information: 5 scary ways to eat hot dogs.

Courtesy of WiseBread, here's an informative yet terrifying article about 5 "new" ways to eat hot dogs. Some of these are pretty basic (add sliced hot dogs to mac 'n' cheese!), but then there's something called "Hot Dog Spread Sandwich." It's just as frightening as it sounds.

If you're looking for ways to use up that Costco flat of hot dogs, though, give it a look.

Free PDF book: Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker.

The Internets is determined to make sure you have enough recipes to feed everyone this holiday season. If you have a slow cooker that's been gathering dust on a shelf, dust it off and download this PDF book of crockpot recipes.

I know what you're thinking - mushy brown meat that falls apart into watery broth - but slow cooking can actually be good, and Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker has lots of party-oriented recipes for appetizers, hot dips, even desserts. I got this book for a slow-cooking friend of mine last year, so I'm personally vouching for it, and it's free, so what do you have to lose?

If you don't have a Kindle, you can still download it using the free Kindle for PC - in fact, according to the comments, it might work better in the PC version. On the right-hand side, under the big "Buy now with 1-click" button, there's a teeny tiny link that says "Available on your PC." So get cookin'!

Seattle: Free snacks at Kathy Casey Food Studio on Dec. 12.

Seattle foodies (and those in need of foodie-gift ideas), head over to Kathy Casey Food Studios in Ballard this Saturday, December 12th, from 11:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m. for a free open house. She'll be signing copies of her new book, Sips & Apps, and offering samples of some of the recipes therein. Apparently these include Bacon, Blue Cheese, & Pecan Cocktail Cookies; Lamb "Sliders" on Homemade Rosemary Buns; and Croque Monsieur Puffs.

There will also be plenty of tasty gourmet gifts on offer, so whether you're just feeling nibbly or you need to do some shopping, head over if you're in Ballard this weekend.

(Courtesy of the Seattle Times Freeloader)

Free Pillsbury 2010 calendar.

Already despairing of the gauntlet of fatty, sugary holiday binge eating you'll be running from now until January 1? Well, why not start early on shooting your New Year's resolutions in the foot by signing up for this free Pillsbury calendar. Torture yourself with a year's worth of luscious, colorful photographs of home-baked treats - complete with recipes! - as you try to rationalize that the cheesy asparagus hors d'ouevres count as a serving of veggies.

I can hear my Wii Fit screaming from here.

Amazon: 1-year Cooking Light subscription, $5.

I know sometimes Amazon's weekly magazine deals seem like cleaning out the closet - let's see, what have we here, five years of back issues of Vegetarian Times? - but honestly, this one is really good: a 1-year subscription to Cooking Light for $5.

As it happens, I already subscribe, but you can tack on an extry year to your subscription for the same price, so... guess what I'll be doing. Yep, I'm dedicated to singlehandedly keeping print journalism alive.

Free Betty Crocker potatoes, perhaps.

The offer sounds straightforward enough: sign up for the Betty Crocker e-newsletter and get a free sample of their mashed potatoes or potatoes au gratin. However, it seems to me that I signed up for this freebie last time they offered it... and never got my potatoes. So if you sign up, do so at your own risk, and don't be crushed if your potatoes never come.

Thrifty: Use every last scrap of that pumpkin!

After picking up a pumpkin at the corn maze last weekend, I'm ready to do some carving, and I was already planning on roasting up the seeds. But it turns out you can do so much more than that with your Halloween squash! WiseBread shows you how to make the most of your pumpkin this year:

• Roasted pumpkin seeds
• Homemade pumpkin puree
• Recipes for milkshakes, casseroles, soups, and more
• Pickle that pumpkin rind

No wonder the pilgrims carved jack o' lanterns for Halloween! They're practically a cornucopia of good eatin' all on their own.

Free crockpot cookbook, in PDF form.

It's definitely comfort food weather here in Seattle, which means it's time to haul out the casserole dishes and crockpots. I do have my standby recipes (ask me about my world-famous chicken and corn chili!), but I also like to try some new ones each winter, because, honestly, there are only so many ways to serve falling-apart meat in broth.

Recipe Lion has come to the rescue with a crockpot cookbook PDF, full of 33 recipes to warm up your kitchen! That chicken-and-rice-soup recipe sounds pretty good right now. Or, you know, 9 hours from now.

Free 3-month subscription to Cooking Light.

This offer comes to you courtesy of Tyson chicken - 3 months of Cooking Light magazine for free. Normally I'm kind of skeptical about these trial offers, because it seems like you're just asking to be deluged with "special offers" and billing notices and panicky letters announcing OMG YOUR SUBSCRIPTION IS ABOUT TO RUN OOUUUT, practically as soon as the first issue arrives.

The link takes you to a page that looks like it demands your credit card info, but that's bogus, so don't do that - free offers should NEVER require your financial info. Looks like they will start sending you nagging bills, but you can either write "Cancel" on them and pay nothing, or you can pay $10 for a one-year subscription, which is actually a pretty good deal. I've been curious about this magazine for a while, so maybe I'll actually try it...

Free, ahem, Magic Spice.

I know, I know, I got your hopes up with last week's free vodka sample, but it's not what you're thinking... this is a totally legit, completely legal "magic spice" that you're actually supposed to enhance the flavor of food with. Get your free sample bottle, which is called "Your Magic Spice" because they customize it with the name you enter on the form.

Obviously, this system is totally open to hilarious abuse for gag-gifting or self-amusement purposes. Looks like I'll be receiving a bottle of "magic spice" for Dr. Y. Not Smokeabowl...

Free Ziploc Pack-n-Go pack.

Summer is the time of "simple," "carefree" day trips and outings that, in reality, require TONS of prep, packaging, and schlepping to make happen. Just the other day, I was part of a four-person BBQ that needed three grocery bags of supplies plus a big cooler!

Ziploc wants to make your life easier with a free Pack-n-Go offer for the first 10,000 respondents. That's one full pack of Ziploc® Brand Sandwich Bags and one small Ziploc® Fresh Shield® Twist 'n Loc® Container - not a bad deal! Just imagine all the Goldfish crackers and raisins you'll be able to carry around with you for your sticky little relatives.

Free Nakano rice vinegar.

Well, it doesn't actually say that you get a free bottle, but the place where I read about this freebie claims you get a recipe booklet, color recipe cards, and coupons for FREE Nakano Natural or Seasoned Rice Vinegar (up to $4 value) and $0.50 off of Holland House Cooking Wine when you sign up for the recipe club.

I mainly use rice vinegar for whipping up sushi rice, but apparently there's a whole recipe booklet's worth of other applications, including using it as a light salad dressing. Hmmm. I'll have to think about that one.

Free samples of Emeril's Original Essence.

Admit it, you've always secretly longed to fill your nostrils with the heady, spicy tang of Emeril's essence. Now you can, in the privacy of your own home... for free! Sign up for your free samples of his manly, culinary essence and let the feasting begin.