Here are this week’s Thursday Things:
1. These Villeroy & Boch dishes. My mom was obsessed with Villeroy & Boch when I was growing up. I thought everyone ate on circus-themed plates and I didn’t see the big fuss.
Fast forward a quarter century, I see the big fuss. I’ve turned into my mother.
2. Have iPhone pictures you wish you could get developed? Try PostalPix right from your phone using their App.
3. Last week I mentioned trying to find a use for all my old coffee cans and glass jars that I’ve accumulated from from various condiments or anything that comes in glass.
Use them as picture holders. Easy to rotate and swap in and out, and they give pictures a snowglobe effect.
4. My iHerb order arrived. Until March 31, iHerb is increasing their normal $5 discount to $8 on your order. Enter code AVE630 at checkout.
Items I always purchase from them are probiotics, nutritional yeast, and stevia. Shipping is free on all orders over $40 but right now it’s free on orders over $20. And normally when you spend over $40, they start deducting additional savings from your order, i.e. spend $50 you get an additional 5% off, spend $60 you get an additional 6% off, and so forth. Don’t quote me on the exact specifics because they tend to rotate their “specials” and their deals of the month, but iHerb is hands down the cheapest source and fastest shipping (even the free shipping is usually only a 1 to 3 day wait from time you place the order) for anything from vitamins to bulk cinnamon and spices that I’ve found.
5. I love this book. I discussed it in depth here. If you like sweet desserts and are up for some kitchen adventures with mind-expanding (and waistline-expanding) recipes, you’ll love it too.
6. I did a Cookbook Reviews post ages ago and I have tried to keep it (somewhat) updated based on newer cookbooks I’ve received.
I read cookbooks like most people read novels. I curl up on the couch with a cup of coffee or lay in my bed with a bowl of popcorn and read the book, page by page, so that I don’t miss any crucial factoids that I just couldn’t live without. For instance, Christina Tosi of Milkbar uses Pam cooking spray, King Arthur Bread Flour as her all-purpose flour, and thinks sifting flour is a waste of time. If I didn’t read her book novel-style, I may have missed those earth-shattering revelations.
7. This bedding would make me feel like I’m sleeping on a puffy cloud. I think I want it.
This bedding would make my husband feel like he was sleeping in a Disney princess movie. He may not want it. (But I win on household decor choices and he nods and says, Yes Dear)
8. I went to the store and picked up a stuffed plush Easter bunny and a few Reese’s Pieces chocolate eggs for Easter Bunny loot to be sprinkled around the house Sunday morning.
I always wonder if I’m doing “enough” to make the holidays fun. There’s the religion aspect, the fun get into the spirit aspect, and there’s also the going overboard aspect. I try to strike a balance.
9. Have you seen Christi’s roundup of Peeps posts from various blogs? Too cute.
10. Need a last minute 10 minute, no-baking “baking project” before Easter?
Try “Egg”-in-a-Nest Stuffed Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Bites (No-Bake, Vegan, Gluten Free). Use M&M’s, raisins, an almond, whatever you have on hand to use for the “egg” and it’s the dough itself that really counts so if you have nothing around for stuffage, you can always just eat cookie dough. Wouldn’t be a problem for me.
Do you have Easter plans if you celebrate it?
Do you love reading cookbooks or have any current (or longstanding) favorites?
I’d imagine that food blog readers also read food magazines (Bon Appetite, Saveur, etc.) and their fair share of cookbooks.
Even if I don’t cook recipes from them, or follow them closely or at all, I am inspired from cookbooks, food blogs, food magazines, and Pinterest, too.
Anywhere there’s a recipe, I am always thinking, hmmm, would I like that? Would I follow it as written (no!) and what would I change and how.
I love reading the author’s factoids and reflections like creaming butter and sugar together for a long time (7-8 minutes) is key in cookie-making or shortcuts around tempering chocolate and fun little factoids.
It’s almost Friday!
Great list of things, fun recipes and goodies here. We’ll be doing some sort of family gathering for Easter and I have no idea what I’ll be making for it yet. :-) I have a huge stash of recipe books in my pantry that I need to weed through again, lately I’ve only been using them on the weekends for inspiration.
Thanks for sharing sweetie! Have a GREAT weekend!
You’re welcome and you have the best compilation posts. I always say that!
Hi Averie,
One of my all-time favourite cookbooks is called ‘Vegan’s Delight’…
Every single recipe title in the book gets me drooling as soon as I open the cover! I just love it! :)
We celebrate Easter, but in the Orthodox Church, we call it Pascha and it also falls on a different calendar, so we will celebrate Pascha one week later on April 15. It is a glorious feast that begins at 11 PM the night before and ends in the middle of the night with a breaking of the lenten fast with a basket of soft boiled eggs, Pascha cheese and crackers, fresh fruit, chocolate milk for the boys and chocolate treats, among other goodies.
Don’t you just love Anthropologie bedding? I have a beautiful set from them that I got on major clearance. It was the last one and happened to be Queen sized with all the shams and everything for $99!! I LOVE it! :-)
99 bucks for Anthro bedding is about the best thing I’ve heard all week!
Easter will be spent in NY :-) Can`t wait!
I love cookbooks, especially old ones. It’s funny to see what the popular foods of, say, the fifties were…
Things like Crisco and how they even wrote the recipes…they were much more general and less specific and their word choices crack me up!
super fun post! I love all of these too
LOL at turning into your mother – I see little hints sometimes that I am too!
I adore cookbooks, I read them the same way you do. The little extra tidbits in the intro to the book itself and the recipes are always worth it :)
Yes those little tidbits are often worth the price of the book, right there. Like one paragraph can be life-changing, or baking-changing :)
I love that bedding too. I’d so love sleeping in it.
Hehehe! You are so sweet! I am reading cookbooks like novels too, and always have a few next to my bed along with my Kindle. Notice: any other books I read on Kindle, but cookbooks I need to have in print! :)
I feel the same way…I need to be able to get flour on the pages and a little butter droplet here or there. Lol
I love the glass jar idea! I have SO MANY cluttering up my tiny studio apartment kitchen and this is a great idea of how to use them!
I have BEYOND a collection. It’s crazy how much I’ve accumulated, too!
I do plan on seeing some family on Easter, but we don’t do anything to really “celebrate” other than getting together and chatting.
I always read recipes wondering how I will change them. I don’t think I have ever made a recipe as written in my entire life, lol. I especially can’t now with my testy stomach. But it’s more fun to pick what I would like versus what the recipe author does.
I love Milk’s recipes.
And those plates are so cool. I love the novelty of them.
Ooooooh, would love to know which one’s you’ve tried & recreated at home!
I love that bedding, now if only I could get my fiance to learn that “yes dear” attitude……
I will be making chocolate saltine toffee (with matzo) next week. Its such a great recipe- I have been making it for the past 3 years and couldn’t imagine a passover without it!
Have a great holiday(s)!
Enjoy your passover/matzo toffee. I’ve heard it’s really good with matzo.
I am with you on reading cook books…the more clear, detailed and abundant the photos the better. I can’t cook unless I know what it will look like.
Most people I think have a hard time visualizing what something is going to look like, or even what the dough should feel like, with just text alone. Heck, judging from some comments I get AFTER I post step by step pictures of things, people STILL write in with questions. Everyone loves pictures (and hand-holding) :)
Easter will be spent at church and then shuttling from my in-laws to my aunt’s house. It’s always a fun day. I hope that the weather is beautiful!
Happy Easter & enjoy the time w/ your family.