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!
LOVE your photos in a jar idea! WOW WOW WOW I love that!
I have mason jars galore so I might try this with a few~
Your plates are so bright and cheerful. No wonder you love them.
I’ve always been jealous of your cookbook collection. I have 3.
sad. haha
okay, I might have a few more but they are hand me downs from my childhood. Although sometimes fads come back.
I LOVE that you win in the household decor dept. I win now too! hahahaa but my home looks like an extension of pre-school because everything has JJ written all over it. Like the washer machine box we turned into a fort/space ship/cave and the slider window that has space flash cards plastered all over it and the mirrors and windows are all doodled on with crayola window markers.
YUP…very CHIC.
We don’t do easter but I am thinking we need to paint some eggs and decorate. should go find some fun thing to go do!
xoxoxo
Happy Thursday
I didn’t actually buy those plates, they are just a “thing” that I’d like to have :)
oh :)
haha
thought they were yours
Those plates are just beautiful! I only have Easter brunch plans with some friends this year, but I think I will make some Easter baked goods for everyone :)
I’ve had my eye on that Anthro bedding for a few years now– I think it’s so fun and pretty!
I have some West Elm bedding that if I didn’t have, would be ALL over the Anthro!
I love the mason jars with photos in them, holy crap!
Those picture holders would be SO cute for a wedding. Pinning them ASAP. And I love, love those plates!
I’ve been pretty horrible at getting “into” the holidays since getting married and having our own place. My husband’s family doesn’t really “do” holidays and being Greek, their Christmas and Easter is always different anyway. I also find it pointless to set out decorations for just us. With no kids to get excited about it, it seems like wasted energy to decorate and then have to clean up the decorations. Although my mother continually buys me decorations for every holiday hoping I get some spirit, they just inevitably sit in the attic accumulating dust.
We don’t do household decorations. I am the only house I think that doesn’t have scarecrows and ghosts for Halloween or Easter bunnies for Easter. I have no place to store it all..that’s my excuse :)
wow had no idea easter was already coming up! I haven’t celebrated easter in 4 years since I’ve been away at school which makes me sad as it used to be a really fun holiday growing up. Easter egg hunts, big family dinners, going to mass etc.
Wow, well, hey…that’s what blogs are for: to remind you about things like this :)
I am so excited about Easter, making treats, and baskets, haha. I mean, I don’t have kids, but I do have a 30 year old boyfriend, so he needs a basket right !? I totally and impulsively picked up a bunch of Easter candy while out shopping last night, lol.
I bet he’s going to love it!
I want that cook book so bad. The most recent one I got was flour. I love it. I also thing sifting is a waste of time ha, and those egg in a nests, delicious.
I’ve seen books on nothing but flour…Every topic seems to have a book about it.
I actually meant this, https://www.amazon.com/Flour-Spectacular-Recipes-Bostons-Bakery/dp/081186944X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1333049659&sr=8-1, my description was lacking!
My husband actually bought her sticky buns from the actual bakery the other day. So good. Her recipes are wonderful, I highly recommend it. A
This is my first Easter with a little girl to celebrate it with – she might only be 8 weeks old but she’s getting an easter basket!
Brooke
http://www.MarvelousLoveBlog.com
Happy Easter to all of you!
My niece would love that Peep Treat. She’s always had this thing for Peeps LOL. And that bedding – yes, a cloud. How comfy!!
I totally want to get the Milk Bar Cookbook and do some experimenting. And I love the glass jar picture holder idea. So cute!
My raw vegan “cookbooks” are some of my favorites and I like The Joy of Cooking as a good reference in the kitchen. I definitely like cookbooks with stunning photos! Can’t believe Easter is in a couple of weeks–I’m spending it with my in laws and happily volunteered to provide salad.
I’ve never seen those circus plates before. I like!
Yes, cream that butter in cookies forever – I’ve learned that as well!
I always worry that overbeating can cause poor results, or that it could cause something to go wrong (you can literally cream something to about 3-4x it’s original “size”) but I guess with creaming, there is almost no downside to “longer is better”…but once you add the flour, then it’s just a mix til it’s incorporated. I knew that but I was shocked how long she creams things…8 minutes!
i adore Christi’s blog! i plan to make chocolate dipped peeps next week. she has the cutest recipes!
i’m just like you when it comes to reading cookbooks. i’m very inspired from magazines, blogs, and pinterest too.
that picture-in-jar idea is so creative! aaaaaand that bed looks like heaven :)