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.
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.
I know what you mean about trying to blend small amounts in the vita mix. It seems everyone loves immersion blenders and I have also been thinking about getting one. I always have BB&B coupons and this post is really swaying me toward buying the cuisinart. I also keep a binder with recipes from magazines or things I jot down. I tend to get in the habit of just putting things in there so periodically I have to go through it and get things “categorized”.
Thirty bucks, cheap thrills. We’re not talking a Vita which is what prompted me to just buy it already…after hemming and hawing for years…over 30 bucks. lol :)
I can be eating a cake in less than 5 minute? Uh oh.
I’m a huge fan of pinterest as well….so many recipes pinned that I want to try, it’s overwhelming at times!
Great list of things. The BH conference sounded amazing, wish I could have gone. I’m considering the FB again this year in SF and maybe the Vegan blogger fest, who knows.
There is SO MUCH in the San Fran area in the way of conferences. I swear, it’s conference mecca for so many industries and corporate meetings!
I use recipe boxes, but mine aren’t as cool as those ones!!! I want!!!!
Love the stick blender for soups and sauces!
I was just thinking about a blog post about recipe organization–I have an old folder where I just keep “filing” them.
I meant to congratulate you on the mug cake feature when I noticed yours right next to my cake batter one in that article and then ish just hit the fan this week from every which direction for me. So here’s a belated congrats! :)
Oh my god, I just JUST bought that immersion blender at BB&B this morning. Eerie.
Psychic connection! (again!!)
Hey Averie, I love Thursday Things this week! I am still waiting for BlogHer to accept my blog in their publishing…geesh. How often should I submit it, haha!!! If I get in before the next conference I am totally going, then I can meet ya in person!
Oh, and in response your question about my dark chocolate cake recipe? YES I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE the recipe. Try it. I think you’ll love it too. It’s my go-to recipe for all chocolate based cakes and cupcakes. I alter the dark chocolate with regular cocoa powder, and sometimes add in other things (like espresso powder), but otherwise it’s a great cake recipe. It’s adapted from David Lebovitz (did I spell that wrong? Too lazy to check).
Anywho, congrats on the HuffPost. I saw it and thought, I KNOW HER. Well, “know” her. hehe!!
Aimee
Thanks for the great comment :)
Regarding BlogHer’s publishing arm, I am with FoodBuzz but do have contacts at both BH and FB so if you need a direct email, LMK :) Both are pretty take-their-time in processing applications I think but either should be happy to have you!
And that cake recipe…SO GOOD to know about that one. There are so many, and as I said to you in that comment, melted butter, oil, dark choc melted, cocoa powder, dark cocoa powder, 1 egg and a yolk, 2 eggs…everyone has “the best” and I trust you! I have seen one from Ina Garten (Beatty’s Cake) that everyone adapts and it’s also similar to the Hershey’s cocoa powder cake recipe on their site.
I was with FoodBuzz for about 8-9months. It was okay, but alot of work (entering photos, buzzing, etc). Plus I like with BlogHer you can have other advertising. I removed foodbuzz and put up just Google adsense and am making almost twice as much money each month, and it’s absolutly no work. More money means more chocolate :)
I’ve tried quite a few, and haven’t figured out how the different ingredients work exactly, all I know is this cake recipe gets rave reviews :) And is easily adaptable to additions, such as candy bars, chocolate chips, etc. I also like that I don’t have to use cake flour, which is quite expensive!
The Hershey’s recipe is pretty good though, haven’t seen the Ina Garten one (or if I have I don’t remember).
Aimee
Immersion blenders! I love mine–smooth pureed soups and sauces without breaking out the blender and subsequently filling the dish drainer with little parts! Recipe organization is pretty all over the place at our house–there’s the library of cookbooks, the binders full of older internet-culled recipes, the gigantic bookmark folder of mostly-categorized current blog recipes–you name it.
I haven’t been good at keeping the recipes that I fall in love with. I do have a notebook where I have recipes written down, but I also have recipes “pinned” on Pinterest and typed out in a Word document. They are all over the place!
Well done for being featured! That’s great! Mug cakes seem to have become quite the “it” thing lately. Too bad you’re regretting your choice about the conference, there’s always next year!
Congrats on the feature! And thanks for the link, I love microwave cakes so can’t wait to check that out.
LOVE those heirloom recipe boxes – rustic chic is my style all the way, love it!
you’re smart to write them down that way!
I have several photo albums that house 4″-6″ index cards that I have my recipes on. I am looooow tech.
low tech is the way to go sometimes.
It’s so much fun meeting other bloggers which is why I’m very excited about going to HLS for the first time this year!
Those towels are gorgeous. My Thursday things would be: The Conversation on Lifetime, eating more mindfully (I’m getting better at it), and Jazz in the Park (a weekly music event in milwaukee. people drink wine, eat and listen to live jazz outside).
That’s so cool about the Huffington Post, I read that article and loved it! I have been on the verge of getting an immersion blender, so it’s great to know about the cuisinart deal at BB&B. I have a coupon ready!
Super fun (and useful) and for 30 bucks, I have no idea why I waited this long! In the fall it will be nice for 1 cup/bowl of soup making at a time, too.