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One of the best things about this time of year are the Gingerbread houses.  I love building them and love to see what other people have come up with.  It’s always interesting to see what others do and I am often able to learn a trick or two from each piece I look at.  I’ve kind of been out the gingerbread building game for the last couple of years, but this last little adventure, with my daughter, reminded me of how much I like building and decorating them.  I can’t wait until she gets older and we can take on some serious projects together.  But, for now I’m happy building a few simple houses and letting her “decorate” them as she sees fit (meaning trying to fit candy on every available surface there is!). 

No list on gingerbread houses would be complete with a link to The Grove Park Inn Resort & Spa.  They hold the premier gingerbread house contest in the country with entries coming in from coast to coast.  I hope to someday make it there either as a contestant or just to browse, enjoy the efforts of others and soak up the holiday spirit.  For now though, just check out the pictures from the best of this year’s show here.

Craft Elf has a great, indepth site for the novice gingerbread house maker. They’ve got a lot of great information and very detailed explanations and pictures for building your house.

It’s not often I hawk a product or a book here, on my blog, but with this month’s theme being gingerbread, I felt I had to give a nod to this book which can be found on Amazon. I own this book and have for a number of years. It is full of great ideas and the recipes all work well. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in getting into the making of gingerbread houses.

And because I can’t get enough of over-the-top gingerbread houses, here’s another site filled with large, ornate houses.

Thanksgiving is just around the corner and the internet is loaded with recipes for every conceivable dish you could ever wish to grace your holiday table.  I have decided to buck the trend and not offer up any of my own takes on Thanksgiving recipes, at least this year.  Instead I thought I would offer up a number of great sites that have done an amazing job of creating recipes to help you set the perfect holiday table.  Some might say that I’ve taken the easy way out, and that may be true, but do you really need me to offer up yet another recipe for cranberry relish, stuffing or pecan pie, especially when these sites have done such a great job?

I have been following Elena over at Biscuits and Such for a number of months now and have been very impressed by her blog and recipes so I was thrilled when she created this index for Holiday Eats from recipes on her blog. I am especially intrigued by her Roasted Mango and Habanero Turkey. I won’t get a chance to try it for T-Day as I am not cooking this year (letting the in laws do that) but I will be trying it out sometime soon!

Personally, I never tire of Thanksgiving leftovers. I could eat turkey sandwiches for a few weeks before tiring of them, but for many people the leftovers quickly become tiresome. Luckily the folks over at Texas Less Traveled have come up with a couple of wonderful recipes that help take the boredom out of T-Day leftovers.

Every once in awhile I come across an item and think to myself, “Why have I never thought of this?” The concept is so simple or so logical I can’t believe I have never thought of it before. Such is the case with the Cranberry Pie offered up by Colleen over at Souffle Bombay.

Finally, in an act of shameless self promotion I offer up this article I wrote for Chef Talk, on my favorite way to prepare my Thanksgiving turkey, grilling it.

Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays and now that my daughter was born on Oct. 31st the holiday has taken on even more meaning for me. Since Halloween is so close to my heart I thought I would devote this month’s links strictly to all things Halloween. I hope you enjoy.

The Sweetest Kitchen-Zombie Halloween Cupcakes
There are a lot of sites and web pages out there with Halloween themed cupcakes. Many of them have some cute ideas but most of them just use the standard, old white cake or chocolate cake for the cupcakes themselves. Not only do I like the look of these cupcakes, but the recipe sounds awesome.

History of the Jack O’ Lantern
A brief but interesting story on the history of the Jack O’ Lantern for those who enjoy history.

Spiderweb Eggs
I try really hard not to like Martha Stewart, but I keep find things on her website and in her magazines that I really like. These might not be difficult to make but there is something about them that just catches my attention.

Extreme Pumpkins
I love this site and the crazy things people do with pumpkins. Some of these are not for the faint of heart. Fair warning! Who are some of these whack jobs that come up with these?!

This month brings another three sites that I have come across that I think would be of interest to everyone out there.

Local Harvest
I often talk about buying and eating local. This site has become an invaluable resource in my search for local foods. It lists farmers, CSAs, Farmer’s Markets, etc. all on an interactive map so that you can search out places close to you. Anyone serious about eating local needs to have this as one of their reference guides.

All About Apples
I just recently discovered this site, just in time for apple picking season. This site is full of more info on apples than you would ever want to know. The site includes an interactive map to help you find orchards in your area and has brief profiles of hundreds of varieties of apples. You could waste a lot of time on this site.

Beer Advocate
If you are a beer lover and haven’t discovered this site then you need to follow the link to this site immediately. Forget about reading the rest of this entry, get on over to Beer Advocate! I have spent way too much time exploring all this site has to offer. This is your one stop shopping for all beer related information. Once you get caught up in the site, just remember to come back and visit me every once in awhile.

Here are this month’s choices for “Links of the Month.”  I hope you find them as interesting and as inspiring as I do.

Chef Talk
I really can’t say enough about this site. I have mentioned it in a few earlier posts. This site is full of great articles on everything food related; from “how-to” articles to cookbook reviews, to essays on the history of food. There is also a very active forum board where people can discuss all things food related and ask their food questions. Chef Talk is also the place that got me into writing about food. I regularly contribute both articles and cookbook reviews as well as help to moderate the forums.

Michael Ruhlman Notes from the Food World
Many of you are probably already well aware of Mr. Ruhlman. His books really get to the soul of being a chef and the cookbooks he has co-written are destined to be classics, in my opinion. He blogs on many diverse subjects relating to food and brings a great insight to all he writes about.

New Glarus Brewing Company
Okay, the site might not be great, but their beer sure is. Any beer connoisseur needs to be familiar with this name. Dan Carey, the brewmaster, is making some of the best beer in the country as far as I am concerned and his beers are worth seeking out.

As a chef and foodie I spend a lot of my web-surfing time looking for new food and beverage related websites. Now as a blogger I spend a lot of time also looking for interesting and informative food blogs to see what others are up too. My “favorites” tab is packed with sites that I love to visit so I thought I would start sharing some of my favorites that I have come across. Each month I will highlight 2-3 sites that I think are worth sharing with all of you. Please feel free to let me know of sites that you think I should highlight, either by leaving a comment or by emailing me. While the vast majority of sites I will be offering up will be food related, occasionally I might slip in a site that has caught my interest for other reasons.

So without further ado, here are my picks for July:

The Food Timeline

For the total food geek in all of us, this site offers up tons of information on the history of food since the beginning of mankind. I have spent hours learning about the domestication of animals, how cheese was “discovered” and its development since ancient times, what medieval peasants ate, etc. In addition there are tons of historically accurate recipes to check out.

Three Men with Nothing Better to Do

Since it’s summertime I feel that a barbecue link is appropriate. This site may not be the biggest or have the biggest recipe archive on the web, but there is something about this site that I really like. What I will say is that they give great BBQing advice and the recipes I have tried all work well. It’s definately a site to check out.