Time for an installment of Weekend Things:
1. How awesome does the Hawaii Food and Wine Festival sound?
I wouldn’t say no.
It reminds me of when I went to the Barbados Food Wine and Rum Festival last fall.
2. I have a feeling this Hammered Steel Flatware from Restoration Hardware would look amazing in food photography pictures. And at $35 per place setting, it’s not ridiculous.
3. Jo Malone Limited Edition Ginger Biscuit from the Sugar and Spice” Collection – “Just-baked biscuit. Spiced with ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon, melting into caramel. Butter-crumbly with roasted hazelnuts. Warmed by tonka bean and vanilla. Irresistible.”
Ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, caramel, and vanilla beans are my favorites. I may want to ingest this stuff.
Soft Batch Dark Brown Sugar Coconut Oil Cookies have a similar flavor and scent profile but are safer to ingest.
4. No More Spam – I just installed This Wordpress Anti-Spam Plugin despite having about 10 others installed, all that promise no spam, but was getting about 400 spam comments daily.
Most went into my spam comments folder, although some made it through as legit comments, but weeding through all those spam comments was extremely time-consuming.
Since I’ve had the new plugin installed not a single spam comment has made it in. It’s the little things.
5. A man on a Banana Bread Quest – A man flew to Maui and traveled all over the island in search of his the perfect banana bread. “What got me on a plane to travel halfway around the world was the recollection of dense, pungent, freshly baked banana bread.”
The view from Julia’s Best Banana Bread (Credit: Sarah Verkaik)
6. My favorite banana bread for an all-around perfect loaf that’s fast, easy, and delivers consistent results every time is this Banana Bread with Browned Butter Vanilla Glaze
However, I have recipes for 35+ Banana Bread and Banana Treats so clearly that’s not my only recipe, and I love trying new ones.
in their comparison of many. There’s nothing more frustrating than trying to get that first piece out, or any piece, and mutilating the whole pie after working so hard on it. Don’t ask me how I know this.
Talk of pie servers reminds me that I should make Crack Pie
8. Ceramic Muffin Pan, $14.99 from World Market in Aqua or Yellow. I love either color, but not sure how practical they are from a non-stick perspective.
I’ve never baked muffins in ceramic and I’d flip if Fluffy Vegan Coconut Oil Banana Muffins became stuck to the pan.
I want an Emile Henry Ruffled Ceramic Loaf Pan but breads and quickbreads seem less stick-prone than muffins or cupcakes. If you’ve tried baking muffins or cupcakes in ceramic, let me know about the results. I know people who bake bread in ceramic rave about the results.
9. 8 Tips for a Better Dinner Party – It’s not just your living room, it’s an entertainment zone. For example, yes to ambient lighting, no to scented candles.
10. How to Prevent Oversize Air Holes in Bread – Seems that using milk, rather than water, will do the trick.
“Milk contains a protein fragment called glutathione that slightly weakens gluten, the network of proteins that give bread its structure and chew. When the bonds in gluten weaken, more steam is able to escape from the dough, leading to smaller bubbles.”
Thanks for the entries in the Kitchen Aid 5-Quart Stand Mixer Giveaway! Winner announced this weekend!
Since my blog makeover, I’ve been told that my comment replies are going into spam. Please check your spam folder and un-spam them if necessary. Thanks!
What are your Weekend Things?
If you’ve made anything, done, seen, or bought anything fabulous recently, feel free to link it up in the comments.
Weekend plans? Travel plans? Favorite baking pans or silverware?
Any recipes you’ve tried recently with success or would like to try?
I got married in Hawaii so I adore it and wish I was there right now!
I NEED that Jo Malone!
I NEED a new spam plug-in Averie. My plug-in (yes… ONE.) is not cutting it. I literally get 500 a day. Luckily, they go straight to spam but about 5 of them don’t. 5 doesn’t sound like much but it’s just 5 new emails I get and have to handle! I need that steel flatware silverware! I’ve been on the eye for vintage-y style silverware for months. Stalking Good Will like it’s my job. This weekend I worked! As much as I could. Yesterday was terrible lighting (rain), so I had to work with the small time-frame of overcast light that I had. Today we went to a memorial service for Kevin’s friend’s 3 year old niece. It was so sad, but made me feel grateful for my health and my family’s health. Hope you had a nice weekend!
girl the spam was out of control since me re-design. I had previously had a (decent) handle on it but it just exploded again! Like 500 a day like what you’re talking about. And I don’t just let it pile up (hate seeing spam count: 357 in my dashboard) and just hitting delete was taking time and yes, some of them made it thru, and then id have to mark/delete the comment as spam (or you get more! if they think they can get in). So this plugin is the ticket!
Stalking goodwill like it’s your job. I can relate.
And I just started crying when I read that about the 3 year old. Omg as a mother, I am crying on my keyboard :(
I really want to go to the Hawaii Food and Wine Festival now. That would be so darn awesome!
Another awesome weekend posty! I totally need to get that OXO pie server!
Happy Sunday Averie. I really do enjoy reading your weekend thing’s posts. They’re always full of great tidbits and info. Ok, I need to figure out where all these blogger conferences are and when they’re happening. I still haven’t been to one and would like to try attending one, one of these days. I need that spam filter. My spam inbox has been great at retrieving all the spam comments each day, but I hate sorting through it all. Thanks for the tip. I love this new WP theme and I can’t wait to get my recipe box sorted out like yours. I think when the kids are off from school in two weeks, I will have the time to work on that aspect of the blog. Did you organize that part yourself or have your buddy do that? My friend Wendy said she would help me, but she’s as slammed as I am right now, so it’s going to have to wait for a couple of weeks. Oh well! Have a great Sunday girl! I get to watch Zoe’s dance recital today and I can’t wait :) xoxo, Jackie
The spam plugin is one I found b/c the ones that were already installed were not doing a good job and I was sick of it so took matters into my own hands :) Takes two seconds to install if you want to do it yourself!