Thursday Things

Here are this week’s Thursday Things:

1. Cuisinart Smart Stick immersion blender. It was $34.94 less a 20% off coupon at BB & Beyond so for under thirty bucks, I can now whirl and stick blend until my little not-washing-my-Vitamix-canister heart is content.

Not that cleanup from the Vita is usually a big deal, but sometimes I literally have three ounces of something that needs a quick blend and it won’t even come up to the blade in the Vita-Mix. Problem solved.

2. Good thing it’s smoothie season because those three strawberries leftover in the carton and the two bites of banana that Scott decided he didn’t want to finish and the two swigs of leftover coconut milk in a can have all been getting blended.

I’ve been making whatever-I-have-on-hand smoothies like Pineapple Banana & Coconut Cream

3. Butter converter. Sometimes I read recipes and they call for 3 ounces of butter and I have to remind myself that’s 6 tablespoons which still isn’t a full stick but more than a half stick.

By and large, I have the standard measurements and conversions memorized but it gets tricky if I read a foreign blog or cookbook and the butter measurements are in grams.

I know 113-114 grams is 1 stick of American butter but aside from that, I need a converter.

4. Six current trends or themes and styles in food photography

(1) product, (2) journalistic and straightforward, (3) bright and propped, (4) lifestyle-inspired, (5) bold and clean, and (6) chiaroscuro

A great analysis and thought-provoking post for any blogger who spends more time than you’d like to admit making sure that one little crumb is just right or the light is streaming from this side but not too dark on the other side while not being too overexposed on the other side.

If that sounds familiar, you will love this post written by Stephanie and Anita, who apparently gave a similar presentation at BlogHer Food 2012.

5. Speaking of BlogHer Food, with each and every recap post I see about it, I am seriously questioning why I didn’t go. I knew it was happening and strongly considered going but figured, oh just another conference.

I wasn’t sure I want to spend the money on traveling, spend the time away from my family, school was wrapping up for Skylar that week, and I had ten stories I told myself why I didn’t need to go and talked myself out of attending.

But after seeing recaps from Jenna, Jessica, Heidi, Maria, Bev, Lisa, Jenny, Amanda, Shelly, Jessica, Melissa, and many more, I really am kicking myself because even if I didn’t go to one session, just meeting some of the people I’ve “known” online for 3-4 years would have been worth it.

6. I want these rose tapestry towels. Funny, I want most everything from that store.

But I actually need new bath towels. Mine are shedding at the edges and leaving fringe and strings on everything else that’s washed with them. I’ll put on a tshirt and realize after the day is over that I was walking around with bath towel fringe stuck to the back. Classy.

7. Heirloom Recipe Card Boxes

Our heirloom recipe card boxes are made by local craftsmen from locally salvaged hardwood (trees that were destined for landfills). All of the boxes are unique and hand-crafted during a 2-month-long process (a month for the mill to source the salvaged wood, and a month to build in the workman’s studio. The lids are then screen printed with two different design options.

Each box is unique and is made from a variety of woods depending on availability. Our primary woods are Sweet Gum, Magnolia Bay, and Laurel Oak.

They’re $135 bucks each and my grandma would roll over in her grave if she heard that price.

However, there is something so comforting and traditionally wonderful about writing recipes down, by hand, on paper, and then finding them years later or passing them down to the next generation. Because when computers crash, recipe cards will still be sitting in the box with chocolate-stained fingerprints on them, twenty five years later.

8. The Huffington Post featured my mugcake in their story about microwave cakes.

9. It’s the Microwave Strawberry Vanilla Mug Cake with Vanilla Buttercream Glaze

In less than five  minutes, you can be eating cake. Just saying.

10. Thanks for the 3 Vegan Cookbooks Giveaway entries

What are your Thursday Things?

Feel free to link up anything fabulous that you’ve seen, done, made, or bought.

How do you keep track of your recipes?

My recipe “organizational system” is a hodge podge of Word documents, emails I’ve sent myself, notes on scraps of paper, notes in margins of cookbooks, and scribbles here, there, and everywhere. The things I want to make or have made are largely my Pinterest boards and I pin things to remind myself what I want to make.

Have you been to any blogging conferences or any on your horizons?

I’ve been on many blogging or food photography-related trips, workshops, day trips, seminars, and events and try to balance my family life and the time away, as well as the expenses to travel, with just how much I think I’ll gain from an event.

Sometimes I miscalculate the value as was clearly the case with BlogHer because I really wish I had gone. There’s always next year, right.