AM New York: more pumpkin

AM New York published some of my favorite ways to use pumpkin this Thanksgiving. Thanks again for all of the great recommendations a few weeks ago. Find all of the recipes here. My family arrived early this morning (yay!) and we've already discussed the Pumpkin Bread Pudding we'll be whipping up on Thursday along with our family's favorite Cranberry Salad. I hope you have a lovely holiday!

sour cream and chive mashed potatoes

p.s. I think this video makes me look like I mash those potatoes for ages...make sure that you don't over-mash your potatoes or you will have a gluey mess.

food tags

These stylish food tags are way better than the torn post-it notes I use to mark recipes that look appetizing in cookbooks and magazines. I particularly like the color scheme and design. It is also a great way to track down a recipe when you are assigned to bring a certain dish to a get together. The $5.95 price tag is appetizing as well!

baking

Today I've been baking up a storm which in turn has increased the temperature in our apartment to 80 degrees! Did you know that in old pre-war buildings you can't control the heat, so even when it is 60 degrees outside in November the heat blares through those darn radiators! I baked 6 batches of cookies today for an exciting project that I will let you in on when it is published. In the meantime, if I were thinking about stocking up on baking essentials for the holidays, these are a few things that I would make sure to have on hand.
Cookie Scoop Nothing makes me happier that perfectly proportioned cookies that bake up evenly.
Bench Scraper Excellent for getting those pie crusts and homemade breads to come together nicely when making by hand and also great for portioning scones and such.
Timer Ok, so you may have a functioning timer on your oven, but let's be honest, is there a better time of year to splurge on something like this?
Parchment Paper Clean up is a cinch with parchment paper and is also great for even baking.
Mini-Spatula Not sure why I love this one so much, but I swear that I'm always looking for my petite spatula to dish up brownies, cookies or something else delicious.

let's have dinner together

Would you like to have dinner together in NYC? Translated...would you like to win a free trip to New York to tour the Food Network test kitchens, read leisurely from Food Network magazine for a year, and dine with yours truly?

I hope your answer is YES! Pyrex is sponsoring the Party App-titude challenge over at Food 2 and I would really love for you to enter. All you need to do is come up with your best appetizer, snap a photo, send the recipe, and cross your fingers that you will be the winner.

Just to help get the wheels turning, check out some of my favorite appetizer recipes here.

photos: sister kylie

dish this

This is not the first time this bookshelf turned dish hutch has made an online debut, but I love the idea so much that I wanted to share it one more time. I have a "thing" for dishes and couldn't bear placing them behind plain old cupboard doors. This piece was sold as a children's bookshelf for $59.00 at IKEA but has never stored anything but dishes. I owe my love for dishes to my mother who seems to have the perfect set for every occasion.

cranberries

I'm once again getting a bit creative with disposable holiday decor thanks to lack of storage. These lovelies are providing the perfect pop of color for the holidays that are just around the corner. Thanks to the new Costco that is on 20 blocks away (yay!) I bought an extra large bag of cranberries for under $5.00 and filled my "ever-so-versatile" old milk bottles with something very cheery. I think these would be beautiful as a centerpiece for the Thanksgiving table as well.