I was SUPER excited to go to the Kitchen & Housewares Show this week end. I finally got to give Leigh from Jessie Steele a hug, for one thing, and also I wanted to run around and look at new baking stuff. I’m happy to report both missions were accomplished. Tony, being very experienced in skateboard trade shows, warned me that it would probably be boring. And I have enough sitting in booths at tattoo conventions fielding questions from people I would otherwise never talk to under my belt to know that things that sound fun – tattoo conventions and kitchen shows – are actually the opposite of that most of the time.

But, in this case Tony was wrong. Everywhere I looked I saw something exciting- from ceramic knives to amazing new baking pans from Nordicware to Billy Mays – that guy who’s always yelling about cleaning products on TV! Amazing. I was in heaven. True, a lot of it was lame, like really, really ugly dinnerware. But it was like, 89% cool.

Jessie Steele is coming out with gardening aprons that seriously might get me to go outside this summer. If they make giant, sun-blocking gardening hats I’m in. Or I guess I could wear an apron to tend to my Aerogarden. 

I saw a lot of really stupid stuff like a machine that apparently just rotates marshmallows for no reason and all kinds of contraptions to stir things for you because apparently, stirring your own hot chocolate with a spoon is way to hard for most of us modern women. 

This is my last week of school before spring break and then I am going to bake myself into a frenzy- I have a pile of original recipes I want to try, including some inspired by Chicago’s own Ferrara Pan candies.  So thanks for still liking me even though I don’t do anything. I made Blue’s Clues cupcakes for Teno’s birthday party but I just stole the directions from Nick Jr’s website, I didn’t think posting those would get anyone excited.