It used to be that the word "granola" brought to mind nutty cereal, dense-cardboardy bars, or hippies in Birkenstocks. After discovering and trying Mix My Granola, the word granola now suggests personal breakfast chef, tasty afternoon snacks, and excellent stocking stuffers. Mix My Granola is a cool site and idea that allows you to create (and name!) your personal granola mix by choosing from their delicious all-natural granolas and fifty extras like fruits, nuts, seeds, cranberries, blueberries, goji berries, and even gummy bears. Premixes available too. Packaged in a sleek 16-oz recyclable tube.

I prefer books to video games and libraries to Google (in theory at least), but I've just found a video game that it seems was made just for me. It's a high-tech helper chef by way of interactive software for Nintendo DS. I can cook by reading the recipe steps onscreen or I can choose to have the recipe read out loud. It has voice recognition, so I never have to touch my [son's] DS while my hands are busy with knives or ingredients, and I can even adjust the speaking speed to be as slow as I am. Handy features include the ability to search for recipes, create shopping lists, and even get detailed descriptions of cooking terms.

I fell in love with a spoon. Actually, first I fell in love with the story of a spoon, and then the spoon itself. It goes like this: Dad and Daughter live 4600 kilometers apart and they send packages. They both love wood and Dad is an amazing craftsman. Dad sends Daughter spoons. She loves his spoons. They are handcarved from salvaged wood and each spoon is one of a kind. Happy ending is that Dad and Daughter now share their beautiful spoons with the rest of us.