Gift wrapping can get so boring, and I get super jealous of people who wrap gifts all tastefully and creatively. So here are 2 ideas from the internetz about some easy and fun ways to step it up from a gift tag perspective.

1. You can print out these free gift tags from Angry Chicken, there are a bunch of designs.

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Are you feeling nervous about your turkey-cooking abilities? Fear not, Butterball is totally high-tech and ready to help you prepare the bird this year. There are a variety of different ways to take advantage of their expertise. Which will you choose?

• The “Turkey Lovers” newsletter
• The “Turkey Talk” podcast
• The Turkey to Stuffing Ratio Calculator (including the important question “do you want leftovers?”)
• El Sitio de Butterball en Español

And if all else fails, you can always call the Butterball Hotline at 1-800-BUTTERBALL for all of your basting, stuffing, roasting, crisping, doneness-related questions.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

I was looking at Halloween ideas with my 8 year old niece last night, and we thought this stuff was sooooo cool. We also recognized that we are probably never going to motivate to make anything this complex but we love the idea that somebody might.

Martha Stewart doesn’t usually do it for me, but my GOODNESS these are lovely ghost and witch hat petit-fours. They don’t look as hard or time-consuming as I expected for a MS recipe but they are still kind of a lot of work. But how cool are they? Basically the recipe tells you take a cake and cut it into circles, then pipe a big pointy hunk of frosting on it, then pour a glaze over it. So if you bought like a pound cake or a banana bread or something instead of making a cake yourself, it would be a lot easier.

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Last Easter I made these pretty marbled pink eggs, but this year I was inspired to try silk-dyed eggs. They turned out more gorgeous than I expected!

To make them, you wrap eggs in patterned silk (thrift store rejects) and then in plain fabric (I cut up an old t-shirt) then tie them tightly with string. It’s important to get as tight a wrap as possible for good results. They look funny and cute all wrapped up and ready to go!

A couple of notes: you must use 100% silk fabric. I used silk neckties I bought from our local thrift store and was able to dye 2 eggs with each necktie. The only downside to the thrift store ties: when you pour out the water at the end, it smells like thrift store for a minute or two! You could also use a tie that had an irreparable stain, or an old silk shirt. I was tempted to buy one of those sandwashed silk shirts that were so popular in the 90s, since there were quite a few to choose from, but I wasn’t sure if washed silk would work, so I stuck with the ties. I was really happy with how they turned out!

Here are the ties I used. Some of the colors that came out were surprising. For example, the dark green and tan tie made eggs that had all different shades of light blue, green, and yellow. Overall the vibrant colored ties came out more dramatic, but I like the softer colors as well. Some of the eggs came out with fine-grain patterns that weren’t discernible on the ties, which was neat.

To make your own…

• Cut pieces of silk large enough to wrap around an egg.
• Wrap the egg with the silk, printed side touching the egg. Tie tightly with a piece of string.
• Add a piece of white cotton scrap material around the egg. Tie tightly with a piece of string.
• Put eggs in a non-metal pot (glass or enamel, like Le Creuset.) Cover the eggs completely with water and add 3 tablespoons vinegar.
• Bring water to a boil, turn down the heat to low, and simmer for 30-40 minutes.
• Remove eggs from hot water and let cool. Once cool, carefully remove the fabric from the egg and set out to dry on a rack.

A note: because they have to cook so long to let the silk dye come out, they don’t make the best eating eggs… but my uncle Paul usually doesn’t mind them overcooked. Happy Easter!

UPDATE: I thought you might enjoy seeing some more of these eggs. I’ll keep adding links to photos of other people’s silk-dyed eggs-periments! (Couldn’t resist. Sorry!) Let me know if you make them and I’ll link to you!

City Mouse in a Country House used some Christian Dior scarves and some ugly ties to make these gorgeous eggs.

This is one of my favorite photo from the internets that I would like to share on this, the first day of Hanukkah!

A blogger saw this in Manhattan a couple years ago, and Neatorama picked it up. The most amazing thing about this is that it was at Balducci’s, in Manhattan. West Village, in fact. In MANHATTAN, people. Amazing!

In the meantime, order up a ham or even a bacon-wrapped turkey because Purim is just around the corner, folks… just kidding.