An Example of the Gingerbread House I'll Never Make

Along with the cookies and candy I plan on making every year, I decided to make a gingerbread house this year. I probably won't.
One of my favorite things about the holiday season is Clasens European Bakery.

Clasen's Gingerbread Houses

Cookies and How Not To Make Them

The idea of making Christmas cookies has become more of a tradition than actually making them. I love shopping for new baking supplies and pretending that this is the year I'm going to make a gingerbread house and it's going to be from scratch.

It's fun to collect recipes and new ideas and to convince myself it's going to be like that one year when I  added fudge, toffee and popcorn balls to the mix.

There is a chance I'll make these peanut butter with varied berried jelly cookies again this year. There isn't a big chance, but it could happen (it won't).

I'm thankful for the years I made cookies and for all the times I'll just watch The Great British Baking Show and eat Oreos. 

Crapshoot Christmas Cookies

Not made until the second week of January

Pickle Toothpaste

Neither a pickle nor a food, why not round off Thanksgiving dinner with a tube of Pickle Flavored Toothpaste?
I need to know what bacon flavored tomfoolery is pictured behind the toothpaste and ends in "NTURE." Denture? Furniture?
And why is the bacon wearing a yellow bow and holding a... giant hotdog? Whatever she's doing there's some bacon dude behind her cheering her on. I might have to bring this photo in to the National Mustard Museum and ask them.
I've always been thankful for this type of idiocy, thank you, Mustard Museum.

Pickle Flavored Toothpaste

A Peck of Peppers

Their colors cheer up sizzling pans of sausage and farmer's market photos. I can't wait to test new lenses and cameras on this vegetable which reminds me of home and the holidays (in a good way).
I am thankful for peppers and Italian sausage, peppers and eggs, and pepper and egg sandwiches.

Multi-Colored Peppers

Homemade Dog Biscuits

I'm speaking for the dogs when I say I'm thankful for these unnecessary but appreciated treats.
If humans can have cookies like Chocolate Covered Berry Burst Ice Cream Oreos, why not a few baskets of homemade biscuits from the farmer's market for our loyal friends? You think the cat would show you that kind of love for a cookie?
This just in from the cat: "No. And get me some yogurt."

Farmer's Market Dog Biscuits

Old Favorites New Flavors

I'd be happy with a plain old Oreo but am happier still with flavors like Berry Burst Ice Cream. Huffington Post ranked some of the flavors back in 2014 where they disparage Chocolate Covered Berry Burst Ice Cream and after reading about them now that's all I want.
When I looked up the regular Berry Burst flavor today, Apple Pie Oreos came up instead. Now I want those.
And I think Oreo is as thankful for its customers as we are for their cookies because they have some enticing recipes on a fairly lively website (I'm looking at you, Oreo Cupcakes).
How's the diet going?
Quite well, thank you.

The Many Flavors of Oreo

A Cuppa

There's nothing like a cup of tea, and this blooming tea flower from my nephew who apparently is too good to text or call me anymore is a thing to take in with all senses. There's a whole website called, "Teabloom" and why not.
Although better with baked goods, I'll take a simple cup of tea with a spot of milk any time and for this wonderful tea flower I'm even more thankful.

Bloomin'Tea

Thanksgiving Gumballs

These gumballs are as close to the TV dinner Violet Beauregarde chewed in Willy Wonka and I'm sorry I didn't buy a tin of it or the Bubble Gum Franks and beans.
Maybe I should be thankful I didn't get it.

Novelty Gum

Now Comes In Boneless

Cupcake Stealing Retreivers

Labrador retrievers walk around in a constant state of munchie hysteria so little boys eating cupcakes within arm's length of one is tempting fate. It was also tempting Hobbs who is pretty spry for his age which I'm guessing is about a thousand years old. No, really, he's old.
This is one of my favorite moments I didn't quite capture but am thankful to have witnessed. I'm thankful for being there that time when Hobbs strolled by and snatched a kid's cupcake in a single beat.

Denied

Scene of the Crime

Grape Dogs

Many of us are thankful for dogs but a few disgruntled readers say dressing up your pet is mean to which I say, "Pffffftttt."
I'm thankful for any costumed pet with a special place in my heart for dogs that dress like fruit.

Grape Dogs

I think we're supposed to be underwear

Pumpkin Seeds

Not the salted kind but the kind you rip out fresh from a pumpkin. Mmmm, pumpkin innards. One of my favorite things about the fall, I'm especially thankful for their tasty roasted seeds.

Pumpkin Seeds

Wishes it were filled with cheese

Macaroni Pizza

Whenever I think of the death of progressive politics in Wisconsin I think of Ian's Mac n' Cheese pizza.
I'm thankful for the peaceful protests of 2011 that when you think of it were a harbinger of the present state of White House buffoonery, and of course for all the free pizza.

Ian's Mac n' Cheese Pizza

I won't be able to afford paper plates after this

Big Fondue Pot

Yes, I'm thankful for this mammoth vat of cheese aka the Big Fondue Pot. It's one of those things that looks better than it tastes but is still pretty damn free I mean good. What is it about delicious vats of melted Swiss cheese that beckons us?

Giant Vat of Bubbling White Cheese

Served on a piece of soft white bread you can hear it bubble, bubble toil and trouble

The Kindness of Strangers

I was thankful to meet this guy with whom I shared beer and cheese pairings along with pleasant conversation of cameras and macro photography.
I'm also thankful I didn't urp when I decided what a fine day it was for a bike ride on the Sugar River Trail.

This Cute Photographer

May your beer be from New Glarus and your cheese be from Monroe

I'm Thankful For My Irish Aunts and Free Candy Although Not Necessarily In That Order

Gun to my head I guess there are things I'm thankful for although it's a lot more fun to complain. In the spirit of the season or not since I dread every second of it from the day after Halloween until a week after New Year's, I thought I'd post some food related photos more meaningful than skilled.
It's all leading up to Thanksgiving or as it's called in my family "I Can't Take Another Holiday With You People I Really Can't."

My Irish Aunt Em

She still lives on the same street she grew up on and her house is bursting with kids and cats. She's there to offer a cup of tea and lend an ear with Irish baubles and gimcracks adorning her home inside and out. I dropped off some free Twix courtesy of my candy blog and she thought it was all totally hatchet. Am I saying that right?