Thought I would give some ideas for those of you who need ideas for the food lover and baker/cook in the family. Or just give you some ideas for yourself.

If you read The Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry, you will love Kathleen Flinn’s newest book The Kitchen Counter Cooking School: How a Few Simple Lessons Transformed Nine Culinary Novices into Fearless Home Cooks. I’m in the middle of reading it now. It’s a great inspiration to get people back in the kitchen and cooking!

For the nerd in your life, Williams Sonoma just released more Star Wars cookie cutters. I so need these to complete my collection!!!!

Awesome stocking stuffer and an all around must have tool in the kitchen is a microplane grater. It has endless possiblities and is used pretty much daily around the Peabody Mansion.

Beautiful mini colander over at Anthropolgie (otherwise known as my kyrptonite). Comes in a varity of colors and would class up even my kitchen.

I saw this and was like oh my yes! Cooking Scrabble! Cooking Scrabble! I don’t know anyone who has played it (I asked around on Twitter) but how bad can it be…it’s Word with Friends meets food!

People ask me ALL the time where I get my mini loaf pans? The same place I buy most things, Amazon.com. Here are the ones I use. I own two sets, or 8 pans total.

This is for only those who have been really good this year. I never really got what the fuss was over Le Creuset, that was until I owned one. I had owned many a dutch oven in the past and it really is a wonderful thing. I only own two but I SO want another one. The larger dutch oven, but the 5 1/2 quart is a good place to start. Seriously, you wont be upset that you spent what you did on it. Next to my Kitchen Aid and Vitamix, it was worth every penny!

Happy Shopping! Feel free to get me anything on here.

So don’t panic it’s not Friday…but that is my furbaby. I just wanted to remind dog owners that while we love our pets and want to give them treats as thanks this Thanksgiving there are many, many foods that are bad for dogs. Here is a link to things your pooch shouldn’t be joining in on with you…beer is on the list. And while you may laugh, Crazy Cocker Spaniel loves her some beer and if you leave it on a coffee table unwatched she is all over it, especially dark beer. But it is a no-no!

So I thought I would make some treats that your pup can eat. You might want to keep them handy at the Thanksgiving table to hand off to them so they think they are getting some of the dinner as well.

These look dreadful…like little turds, but just remember they end up as turds anyway. These are not cute and cut out in shapes, but don’t worry at no time has CCS ever looked up and said, “not the duck again, I was hoping for a chicken shape”. She ate them all the same.

Pumpkin Puppy Treats

1/2 c. canned pumpkin
3 TBSP molasses
4 TBSP water
2 TBSP vegetable oil
1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
2/3 cup oatmeal
½ tsp. baking soda

Preheat your oven to 350F.

Blend all of the wet ingredients (pumpkin, molasses, vegetable oil, water) together.

Add the dry ingredients (wheat flour, oatmeal, and baking soda) and stir until a soft dough forms.

Grab the dough by teaspoonfuls and roll it into balls with your hands (hint: wet hands work best). Drop the balls onto a cookie sheet/pizza pan and flatten them with a fork.

Bake until hard (approximately 25 min.). If you want them a bit crispier, you can just turn off your oven and let them cool in there overnight.

Sadly I don’t remember where I found these at so if you know where I adapted this from let me know please.

My weekend…

Friday we got snow…always makes me happy. I am the nerd who goes out and plays in it no matter how little we get.

If we got snow it was obviously cold all weekend…so there was hot tea drunk in mass quantities. That one there was called Sugar Cookie…fitting, eh?

Crazy Cocker Spaniel spent all weekend cozy in the flannel sheets and blankets…yes my sheets have snowmen, penguins, and bears on them.

Me and my helpers made Sponge Bob Houses. Basic buttercream…but instead of using vanilla or other flavorings, I reduced pineapple juice into a thick syrup.

Tried the new craze of taking refrigerator cinnamon rolls and making “waffles” out of them. Which worked good but by the time we got around to making regular waffles…every thing was too sticky and the waffle iron fought back and won. Boo.

Too much Halloween fun leads to….

So be safe…