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Love: My friend Lisa's idea, from her blog Picnic, for inexpensive, stylish present wrapping:  brown paper bag + binder clip + any wintery Instagram picture. This is especially brilliant for people like myself whose presents tend to look like they were wrapped by a small child, or perhaps even an animal lacking opposable thumbs. 

Like: This always reliable, always delicious Smoked Salmon Dip from Bon Appetit, for any holiday cocktail party.

Smoked Salmon Dip Recipe

Discovery: Some of my favorite gift ideas for the year...

For the geek, any (all?) of these Star Wars prints from etsy's CONCEPCIONSTUDIOS. 

For ladies/readers, these lovely versions of the chick canon, sold at Anthropologie.

For the entertainer, monogrammed cocktail napkins from Mark & Graham, in the typewriter font.

For me (hopefully), some new rain gear: a Pendleton umbrella and L.L. Bean Maine hunting boots, based on their original 1912 model.

Obsession: My new favorite weeknight dinner - Eggs with Chickpeas, Spinach and Tomato - which is as easy as it is comforting during this hectic holiday month. Bonus: it's healthy too.

Recipe here.

Complaint: Stella's, not mine: that we only have "totally, completely not-exciting" strands of white lights decorating the trees in front of our house.  She is deeply disappointed that we haven't gone full Christmas Wonderland like the houses on Alameda's Thompson Ave, who've been putting on a show every December since 1938 (save for during World War II mandatory blackouts), and where we went to walk around and mail her Santa letter last weekend.  For my part, I'm glad that other people go for it, so I don't have to.

List 93

Love: The Meatball Shop in New York - and especially their terrific cookbook that lets you easily recreate their many different kinds of balls at home. For a birthday dinner for Erich this past Friday, I was feeling ambitious and made three different balls (classic beef, spicy pork, and chicken) and three different sauces (classic tomato, mushroom gravy, and parmesan cream) for a group of friends.  I'm tempted to compare my efforts with the real thing by attending The Meatball Shop's pop up at Oakland's Hopscotch tonight, but have a bit of a meatball hangover still. 

Like: Speaking of meatballs, a meatball shaper is one of those kitchen gadgets that could prove to be a lame waste of money (I'm thinking about you, mango slicer) but is actually massively useful, letting you create consistent, perfectly shaped balls.

Discovery: West Elm MARKET which sells well-designed utilitarian goods.  Almost makes me want to iron.

Obsession: Friends turned us onto early 1970s Detroit musician Rodriguez, subject of the well-reviewed documentary Searching for Sugar Man, which is about how some obsessed fans from South Africa (where Rodriguez had become a cult favorite) tried to determine if he was still alive and track him down. His song "I Think of You" is stuck in my head like crazy.

Complaint: That Syfy didn't order a full series of Battlestar Galactica prequel Blood and Chrome, which focuses on young Bill Adama during the first cylon war.  I'm watching the webisodes - new ones are released every Friday - and will tune in for the full movie when it airs in February, but think it had potential to be more.