Christmas Gift Idea 2: Cookbook for the television lover

Last week, I mentioned that I needed a project to keep me occupied. I still haven't found one, but I thought I'd give you an example of the type of project I'm looking for, and also share another Christmas gift idea with you.

During one of my husband's trips last year, I found myself bored and in need of a project. My youngest sister, who is my default source of entertainment when I'm bored (and by "source of entertainment" I mean that I stalk her on Facebook, text relentlessly, chat, call, and otherwise bother her while she's trying to work), suggested I watch my Gilmore Girls DVDs. I generally don't need encouragement to watch Gilmore Girls, but I knew simply watching Gilmore Girls wasn't going to cut it. No, I needed something to do. However, while watching Gilmore Girls, I noticed how many food references were made and how much time was devoted to eating in each episode. Thus, the Gilmore Girls Cookbook was born.



How I did it: I watched every single episode of Gilmore Girls with a pen and paper or my laptop in front of me. I waited for food references, and then wrote down the quote, noting the season and episode. After I compiled an extensive selection of quotes, I re-read them and looked for funny sayings that I could turn into recipe names, and then searched my favorite food websites for recipes. I looked for recipes that were both appropriate for the created name and fairly simple since I was planning to give this cookbook to my sister who is a novice cook.

Here's an example:
Lorelai: Ooh, meringue.
Sookie: Yeah, I thought I'd do a variation on a Baked Alaska for dessert tonight.
Lorelai: What kind of variation?
Sookie: Yeah, I hadn't thought of that yet.
                                 ~ Season 1, Episode 12: Double Date

I entitled this recipe "Variation on a Baked Alaska" and included this recipe from the Food Network magazine. When I printed the cookbook, I used a booklet format so that the quote is on the left side, and the recipe is on the right-hand page, and I had the booklet spiral bound with the cover made of card stock with a plastic cover so it would be durable.

I ended up with 30 recipes, including such gems as:

• Yale Special
• Emily's Burning Loin
• Sleeping with the Zucchini
• Devil's Starchy Fingers
• Coffee, Coffee, Coffee

I think this is a great gift for any television addict and amateur foodie. I chose Gilmore Girls because it is a show that my sister and I both love, but any television show or movie could work. It's also practical - she asked for recipes and cookbooks for Christmas and I intentionally chose recipes that I thought were easy to make and sounded delicious. It's also the kind of homemade gift that I think most people appreciate - inexpensive, but thoughtful and very personal.

Do you have any ideas like this? Please share!

Project needed

My husband was gone for a few days last week, traveling for work. While he was gone, I cleaned out my closet and dresser, and I created a pretty nice donation pile. I was very proud of myself because I have an unnatural attachment to clothing, particularly t-shirts. I've seen some really cool projects to make with t-shirts, but I think it'll probably lessen my chances of ending up on Hoarders one day if I just toss or donate the t-shirts that are more than ten years old. Baby steps.

Last night, my husband needed to spend some time doing homework, so I decided to clean out his closet and dresser. Though we have a huge pile for donation, cleaning out the closets didn't take nearly as long as I hoped it would. I still had time to kill, and I spent the rest of the night trying to figure out how I could occupy my down time.

I enjoy reading and I just bought a couple of books to read for pleasure, but I need to find something more hands-on than reading. I need a project. I need something to keep me busy for multiple hours over an extended period of time. I need to do something.

My fall back project is scrapbooking. I have a great loft area with all my scrapbook supplies set up, and I really could spend hours working on my albums. I have hundreds of pictures that need to be sorted and cropped and put into albums. But I really want to do something else - something new. Something awesome.

I can't sew or knit, and I'm renting so I can't do anything to my home. I also don't want to spend a ton of money. And at the end of it all, I don't want to have a crafty piece of crap. Any ideas?