#9 & #10 Shamelessly plugging food gifts on behalf of friends

Well, Christmas is upon us and I'm determined to make it to 10 gifts this year. I had greater aspirations, but I guess I'll have to give it a better try next year. To round off our list this year, I'm shamelessly plugging two food gifts from friends.

The first is Charles Chocolates, Adam's friend Adam invests in this company and their chocolates are delicious. I especially like the chocolates inside an edible chocolate box collection, very "green" and yummy.

The second is Providence Granola Project started by two friends of ours from back in the day. I must confess, I've never had their granola, but it does look pretty delicious. I figure I know Keith and Geoff personally so I know who to talk to. They just started this venture last month so want to support them and plus it's for a good cause, providing opportunities for refugees to learn work skills.

Office Clutter

Our home office is a perpetual work in progress and right now it's pretty cluttered. I guess most homes have some sort of junk room or table or area and our office serves that purpose. I'd created a pile of things for Adam to sort through on one of his days off a few weeks ago and the following reconstructed conversation is about that very pile:

plasticann: [pointing to the pile] Adam...what's this?
Adam: A pile of stuff.
plasticann: Isn't this the pile you said you'd go through two weeks ago?
Adam: No it's not the same pile...
plasticann: [confused]
Adam: ...it's a bigger pile now.
plasticann: [cracking up] Good one!
Adam: I thought you'd roll your eyes and be exasperated?
plasticann: I could have, but that's pretty funny.

8. Fake Felty Food

I love food, I love cookies, I love fake food and I sure do love fake cookies. These felty pretend cookies are super cute and make me hungry.

Third Annual Zakun Brunch

We successfully pulled off our third annual brunch this weekend. On Friday, we had 45 yeses and 11 maybes so we were wondering how we would be able to pull off feeding that many people. In the end, we had 33 which was still a full house, but we managed to make way too much food and there were no melt downs...yeah us! Our friend Zave provided a much needed ride for our giant things of coffee and Wheezy was kind enough to come early and help out. Wheezy executed and created this awesome Festive Donut Kabob centerpiece that was the talk of the party. I take some credit for the initial idea, but the flawless execution was all Wheezy. The donuts are from Verna's down the street, we had the Cinnamon Raisin, Buttercrunch and Chocolate cut into smaller pieces. Wheezy skewered a variety of donuts and stuck them into a pomelo to create the donut arrangement. It's kind of like the edible fruit arrangement, but somehow we've managed to subvert that idea of by making it super unhealthy and arranging donuts onto a piece of fruit.

Menu

French Toast Bread Pudding

Sour Cream Coffeecake

Donut Kabobs

Fruit Salad

Cheesy Tator Tot Casserole

Bagels and Lox

Scrambled Eggs with Avocado and Tomatoes

Sausages

Coffee & Orange Juice

"Four Sock Monkeys Snuggling"

8. My current obsession and Zames' too...Sock Monkey

Over the summer I got obsessed with these awesome sock monkeys I saw at a few local craft fairs. I first saw them at the Davis Square ArtBeat this summer so I decided to get all the kids sock monkeys for X-mas this year. After I bought them Zess, Zames and Zhor in August, I really wanted one of my own so I bought myself a very cool purple striped sock monkey in September. Over Thanksgiving, I made the mistake of bringing my sock monkey with me to CA. One day, Zames discovered the sock monkey when he went into our room potentially ruining his surprise X-mas gift. The following is several reconstructed conversations that occurred over the course of three days:

Day 1:

Zames: [Sitting on our bed and shaking my sock monkey] What's this?

plasticann: It's my sock monkey, it's made out of socks.

Zames: [tugging at the ears] Why does it have ears?

plasticann: Because it's a monkey and monkeys have ears.

Day 2:

Scene: Early in the morning, plasticann is still in bed when she hears...

Zames: Sock monkey, sock monkey, sock monkey in there, sock monkey in there.

Day 3: plasticann hides sock monkey each morning to thwart Zames

Zames: Where's sock monkey?

plasticann: [no reply]

The kid is very persistent and has a good memory. I was hoping he'd forget, but each day he asked about the sock monkey just once. I sure hope he likes his X-mas gift this year because guess what...it's gonna be a sock monkey. Fortunately he doesn' read my blog.

7. plasticmom's favorite most perfect bowl

plasticmom LOVES her Emile Henry gratinee bowl. She bought her first one while visiting me in Seattle at the Sur la Table in Pike's Place two years ago. I remember she was all excited about this bowl she'd seen in the window and really wanted to get it, but it was "$3" and she didn't really "need" anymore bowls. After much debate and discussion, she returned the next day to claim her bowl. The bowl rang up at $13, turns out she missed the extra "1" in the price tag when she first peered through the window, must have been the glare. Nonetheless, she went for the bowl and has since purchased a second bowl.

She tells me the bowls are so perfectly functional, they're the only bowls she uses. She loves the little nubbin handles and she uses them for her soups, her noodles and even her coffee/tea. I have my doubts about the coffee/tea, but I appreciate her enthusiasm. I wanted in on these bowls so so I purchased some last week on my Sur la Table shopping spree. I got two yellow ones for home and a red one for work. Yesterday, we tried out the new bowls in the microwave and we were delighted to discover for ourselves how wonderful the little nubbin handles are, they don't get hot in the microwave and I can actually carry the hot bowl without potholders. Amazing! I think I might be in love with these bowls myself.