Thanksgiving Thursday Things

Time for this week’s Thursday Things, a special Thanksgiving edition.  If you’re celebrating the holiday, I hope your loved ones are near and that there’s plenty of fabulous food with lots of laughter and zero stress.

1. The Cravory Cookies – Any dessert, drink, flavor, or concept can be make and baked into a delicious cookie, from Red Velvet to Rosemary Balsamic. There are over 950 flavors to choose from or you can create your own, choosing from a variety of handmade dough flavors and over 60 mix-ins to design the cookie of your dreams. They are a local San Diego-based company, which is local for me, or you can order online.

They sent me a sampler pack of their Holiday 2012 cookies and they are some of the best cookies I’ve ever received from a vendor and that I didn’t personally make in my own kitchen. And I’m extremely picky about my cookies.

So far I’ve tried the Spiked Eggnog and this Chocolate Truffle Cookie and I want to recreate both of these unique cookies with very soft centers and creative flavors.

2. In between the Cravory Cookies, these Molasses Triple Chocolate Cookies have been tiding me over quite nicely. Chocolate is used three times, they’re robustly spiced, no mixer is required, and are a new holiday favorite.

3. Slate + Wood Boards, $34 from West Elm. Oak wood with removable black slate. Perfect for parties and hostess gifts. Use the slate slab on its own or with the wood board as a serving platter for cheese and other appetizers. The board can also be turned over and used as a chopping block. I think this is a great price for a really useful item that can be used multiple ways.

4. Low Raw Crystal Soap, $13 from Free People

“Hand cast and carved crystal and faceted gemstone soaps. The crystal formation is cast in molds made from natural geodes and hand carved gemstone replicas. Made in Bonnie Bartley’s very own artisan soap studio utilizing superior ingredients from her own blended clear glycerin soaps. These soaps feature vibrant, sparkling colors that replicate natural minerals and gemstone formations. Mildly and deliciously fragranced to match the color tones, utilizing an assortment of fresh heather, herbals, sages, lavender, violet, berry, grapefruit and ocean blends of pure essential and fragrance oils.”

5. Brown Butter Apple Tart from Bon Appetit. I need this tart in my life because browned butter makes everything good, just that much better.

I’ve made Banana Bread with Browned Butter Glaze

And I want to try making my recent and highly recommended Sugar-Doodle Vanilla Cookies with browned butter. The original recipe indicates creaming the butter but I’m thinking that chilling the browned butter before creaming it with the sugars and egg, and then chilling the dough before baking it, and I’ll be okay.

6. The iPhone 5. I have the iPhone 4 and I’ve had it for about two and a half years. Although I am now eligible for an upgrade with Verizon, and in years past I upgraded as soon as I could, I haven’t been in a rush to upgrade this time because I don’t feel like there’s anything totally amazing that justifies it, but if I’m unaware, please enlighten me.

If anyone has used both versions, I’d love to hear about any major and notable differences, benefits, or changes between the two versions.

7. Take a break from turkey and try some tofu. Peanut Sauce Baked Tofu (vegan, GF) is one of my favorites and everything tastes better coated in easy homemade peanut sauce.

Even though people who “don’t like tofu” like this goofproof version.

8. Hanging Spice Rack,$19-39 from West Elm. Mounts on the wall with a compact size that works well under cabinets or in small kitchens.

My spices are shoved and crammed into a maxed out cupboard and glass jars nearly topple out if I try to move the spices around to find what I’m looking for. I can’t see the forest from the trees and forget about the ones that are buried in the back. Any option or solution would be better than my current setup.

9. Little Boxes Wall Organizer, $99 from Urban Outfitters. This could also solve my spice storage issues, but I don’t have an area within my kitchen to mount it. Regardless, I love the look of it and could put it to use with many other things.

10. Thanks to Ziplist for featuring my Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake with Chocolate Ganache in their 12 Tasty Recipes for The Week List

Jump on the Ziplist online virtual recipe box bandwagon if you haven’t already. It makes it so easy to keep all the great recipes you’ve come across online organized in one place. I wrote more about the free service here and here

This cake is my favorite cake on my entire blog and I made another one for the holiday today.

What are your Thanksgiving Thursday Things or Thanksgiving plans? Recipes you’re making or food you’re looking forward to eating?

If you’ve made anything, done, seen, or bought anything fabulous recently, feel free to link it up in the comments.

Doing any Black Friday shopping?

If you’re one of the people who gets up at 3am and to the stores by 4 or 5am, more power to you and you deserve the deals. I will be in my warm bed and sleeping, far away from crowds. I purposely am not doing any shopping, either online or in the stores, because it’s too easy to say that oh this shirt is marked down forty percent or this tech gadget is on sale for an amazing price. But I don’t need any more shirts or the latest and greatest gadget. I’d like them, but I’m trying to be good.

Have a great weekend and stay tuned for a giveaway coming up over the weekend.