Time for an installment of Weekend Things:
1. Tis the season for blueberries. I just can’t get enough.
If you need a few ideas, all of these have become fast favorites. I bake with frozen fruit so you can make them year-round, too. Or swap with the ripe fruit that’s in abundance and taking over your countertop.
Blueberry Muffin and Buttermilk Pancakes Cake
Blueberry and Jam Buttermilk Coffee Cake with Buttery Vanilla Glaze
The Best Vegan Blueberry Muffins
2. Three-tiered Stacked Optic-Glass Beverage Server, $77. I don’t have room for this, but it sure is pretty. If you’ve been trying to drink more water or do better with hydrating and keeping your fluids up, walking past this would do the trick.
3. I recently picked up Jerusalem: A Cookbook
. After seeing rave review after rave review on blogs and the internet, I had to check this book out. 274 5-star Amazon reviews is always a good sign.
The photography is drop-dead gorgeous, and plentiful. The story-telling is magnificent, and even though I haven’t made a single recipe yet, it was a great buy just from the photos and stories alone.
4. Here’s my recent 12 Favorite Cookbooks post. My cookbook count is always growing and it’s so hard to narrow down my list to just 12. The cookbooks on the list are always out and within reach, rather than being in boxes or in sporadic rotation on my limited bookshelf space.
5. Looking for a new muffin pan? Cook’s Country tested a bunch and here’s the winners and losers.
6. I never use muffin or cupcake liners anymore, an rely on non-stick spray my muffin pan.
The one I’ve been using for about a year and love is this Chicago Metallic Betterbake Non-Stick 12-Cup Regular Muffin Pan
for $9.66 on Amazon.
It never sticks, even with blueberries baking onto the sides, or with vegan batter, notorious for sticking to paper liners.
Fluffy Vegan Coconut Oil Banana Muffins
7. I couldn’t resist this shirt dress from Anthro. I was walking by the store, saw it on the mannequin, tried it on, and it was so comfy and felt like a pajama top. Sold.
I hate dresses that are constricting and fussy. Dark colors, loose, flowy, easy, breezy. Way better. And the embroidery is gorgeous in person. It’s really vibrant and just pops.
8. I keep seeing ads for my cookbook on my blog. It’s surreal, and wonderful.
It’s usually after I am revisiting a peanut butter recipe on my site, the ad for the book will pop up in the sidebar. Not complaining, of course.
9. I just got my monthly iHerb order. Their prices are, hands down, the cheapest on my daily probiotics, the nutritional yeast I sprinkle on everything from popcorn to salads to kale chips.
I get all my vitamins and supplements, bulk cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, liquid vanilla stevia drops, bulk white stevia powder, medicinal fancy-grade honey, chia seeds, face cleanser, and so many other things I use every day there.
With free shipping and a discount on top of already rock bottom prices, I always feel like I hit the jackpot.
Enter code AVE630 at checkout to save $10 dollars and go shopping.
10. I picked up these Bluetooth earbuds and although I don’t run frequently with music playing in my ears for safety reasons in a busy city, every now and then on a lazy Sunday morning, some tunes make a run so much more enjoyable.
I got them from a kiosk at the mall and paid twice as much, but this is what they are ECSEM® Mini Wireless Bluetooth Earbuds Stereo Headphones Headsets Microphone for Iphone 4S 5, Ipad 2 3 4 New iPad, Ipod, Android, Samsung Galaxy, Smart Phones Bluetooth Devices-IN White
, $29.99
Having one little cord behind my head rather than a long cord slapping me in the chest and stomach and getting tangled up is so much nicer.
Thanks for the entries in the Tasty Food Photography Ebook Giveaway
What are your Weekend Things? What summer fruits have you been loving? Favorite muffin pan? Cookbooks you’re into? Recent fun purchases?
If you’ve made anything, done, seen, or bought anything fabulous recently, feel free to link it up in the comments.
I’ve been obsessed with blueberries lately too! And ads on your own blog – AMAZING! I seriously need to get the shirt dress from Anthro too. So cute!
That blueberry cake looks fantastic! Congrats on seeing your cookbook! That must be so cool!
I want that cookbook too. And I am loving the blueberries! I wish they would never end.
Three-tiered Stacked Optic-Glass Beverage Server is a winner!
I love both of Ottolenghi’s books. I got Jerusalem the day it came out and I’ve loved Plenty. I haven’t actually made any recipes, though I have plenty (hehe) marked to try. I’ve fallen into the ‘cooking for myself isn’t worth the effort of making an awesome meal’ trap lately. Ever since getting this job two years ago, actually. Must fix that. Maybe that should be my weekend ‘thing’??
I’m into strawberries lately, but probably because I picked 6 pounds of them.
I just talked about my recent purchases, but that pineapple corer is seriously the best thing ever!!
I should have known you had both Ottolenghi books. And I totally understand about cooking for 1. I am cooking for 3, although there’s a 6 y.o., me, and Scott who frequently doesnt eat dinner home b/c of work events, so it’s me and a 6 yr old and the thought of making a recipe that starts out with 4 cups of anything … (flour, cheese, eggs, etc.) for dinner that I see in my cookbooks is a no-go!
I’ve been working my way through your blueberry recipes this past week and so far they have all been winners! I live in Michigan, which is one of the top blueberry-producing states, and we have all sorts of U-pick orchards around us–in fact, that’s what my hubby is doing right now!
I noticed your earlier comments about the book Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day and I’m intrigued, especially since you recommend it. I love to bake bread but it’s more of an “event” in my house than a daily occurrence.
That is awesome to hear you’ve been trying the recipes & enjoying! Thanks for LMK!
I grew up in MN, then lived in Chicago and am totally familiar with all the u-pick’s in the area! Makes me remember back to my childhood and strawberry picking.
Bread as daily vs. as an event. OMG THAT BOOK will change your life.
Read these posts, too. It’s based on the ‘make the dough, grab a little hunk, and bake it when you want’ approach. I’ve adapted their recipes and fine tuned things for what works for us but the overall method is a life changer.
https://www.averiecooks.com/2013/06/no-knead-make-ahead-dinner-rolls-with-honey-butter.html
You know I love all the blueberry recipes you’ve been posting lately! That beverage server is gorgeous and I love your new dress from Anthro!
I love the tiered drink server. I would have no place for it, but what a neat idea. I have heard good things about the Jerusalem cookbook. I have yet to get it though.
Definitely looking into those headphones, I would love listen to music while I run in the park! (okay, when I run I do it on the street, but I’d like to find a park to run in :)
A favorite fruit lately has been wild raspberries growing near our house- we’re freezing them and stocking up for winter, plus throwing them in cereal, Dutch Babies, etc. Yum!
Have a good weekend, Averie :)
Good job on freezing and planning ahead!
Blueberries…me, too! Whenever I go to Anthro I try not to look at clothes as they’re so expensive. Now that shirt dress is on my mind! It’s freaking adorable. Blue tooth ear buds sound like a great idea. I normally run my cord down through my shirt so it’s not flopping around when I run. I must have music when I run!
I almost NEVER buy their clothes either. It was just one of those things when you see a dress, and it fits well, and it was THAT easy, you better buy it b/c you will kick yourself later in 3 mos when you ‘need to find’ a dress but everything you try looks hideous. And are up a creek trying to find one. So this was sort of a plan for the future dress :)
And the earphones will change your running life. NO CORD to annoy. Soooo much better!
So many awesome blueberry recipes and the dress is so cute! Oh and congrats on your cookbook adds! That is so exciting and so cool. I cannot even imagine!
I really dislike baking muffins in liners, but I still do it on occasion for the sake of pictures. Sometimes I’ll just do a couple in liners and the rest without. The ads I see surfing blogs cracks me up all the time. It’s like I guess I’ve been looking at Neiman’s ans Toll Brothers houses too much. In some ways it’s kind of creepy.
I get certain camera gear too that follows me. Like if I was looking at something on Amazon, for the next week it’s there! Creepy actually!
I brought peaches and bing cherries back from Michigan (and they taste sooooo much better than what I get from the grocery). My salad garden is empty now until my little fall crop, so I’m headed over to the farmer’s market for baby kale, raspberries and strawberries. I saw a yummy looking peach and kale salad on Rawmazing that I’m making today. I made your milk and honey vanilla bites yesterday (a friend has bee hives and gave me honeycomb before I left on vacation). So good–like another version of raw cookie dough balls!!
Yay so happy to hear you made those balls & enjoyed them! It was a very warm day the day I photographed them for the book, and they kept squishing and flattening. I must have taken 300 pics of little balls that day. Not even kidding. :) Glad it was worth it just knowing one person made them – thank you for telling me! :)
I can’t wait to get your cook book in the mail!! Also, I just purchased blueberries last night to make muffins with and I almost ate the whole container (not really…but close!) before baking the muffins…this is the season!!
Heard from my publisher and they put your copy in the mail! LMK when you get it! And wow – I am the same way with a container of bb’s. I eat them all before I can ever bake with them! As an aside, the vegan bb muffins I linked, are hands down, the best bb muffins I’ve ever had or made. I love trying new recipes – if you have a great one, LMK!
Yay! I am so pumped to make your PB recipes :) I will for sure have to try your vegan blueberry muffins!! I am always into experimenting with new recipes. Here is the link to mine! https://trebleinthekitchen.com/2012/07/06/taste-like-they-came-from-the-bakery-healthy-blueberry-muffins/ I will let you know when I try and you can let me know when you try ! Have a great Saturday :)
So many blueberries! I love it, I want to go blueberry picking!
Summer fruits? I’ve been obsessed with the dino plums aka pluots.
My weekend things include performances, rehearsals, classes, seeing art shows with owls: https://koplindelrio.com/content/fever-dreams
drinking wine, and hopefully having a minute to make fast tasty things:
because I seem to have zero time these days…
We went thru a pluot phase about 6 weeks ago. Seems they must be getting a bit out of season b/c they got real expensive all of a sudden…so we’ve moved on to nectarines and peaches. But I do LOVE pluots!