Weekly Roundup: Lazy Susans, recipes worth making, and more!

Hello again and welcome to this week's roundup! Let's get right to it (I've marked affiliate/referral links with an *, which means I may make a little bit of money if you make a purchase or sign up using that link - thank you!):

• We recently remodeled our kitchen and I've discovered lazy Susans. I'm not sure why I doubted their usefulness before, but I bought so many Brightroom products* at Target while kitting out my new kitchen, including this lazy Susan,* which holds salt, pepper and my most-used spices. I got a larger lazy Susan that I can't find online to hold my oils and vinegars. The best part? I spotted lazy Susans in Bullseye's Playground this week. (Is that area still called that?)
  
  
• If you're in the market for TurboTax, Costco seems to have the best price so far. I bought the Home & Business version for $75.99, which is the same price I paid last year at Amazon. Last year's came with a $10 Amazon credit; this year's comes with a $10 in-product credit that I will use toward our state filing. FWIW, Home & Business is $75.99 at Amazon* right now, but without the $10 credit.
  
  
• If you have a child heading off to college for the first time, I recommend planning something big and distracting for the first month or two that they're gone. As mentioned above, we remodeled our kitchen, and it was the best thing I could have done to keep myself from dwelling on my son's absence. There were still tears, of course, but for the most part, I had so much to think about that I didn't spend nearly as much time thinking about how much I missed him as I would have. 
  
  
• I've been meaning to try chia seed pudding for a while, and my first venture was an orange and vanilla version from Cookie & Kate. Add some maple syrup and it's delicious!
  
  
• Another favorite breakfast treat is the peanut butter acai bowl from Whole Foods. It's a bit of a splurge at $10, but I don't keep peanut butter in the house since my son is allergic so once in a while, I like to pick one up.
  
  
• For a New Year's appetizer, I made a variation of these Cheesy Prosciutto Puff Pastry Twists. I used sliced Swiss cheese, since I needed to use some up, slices of prosciutto (instead of tearing them into pieces), only one layer of puff pastry, sprayed the twists with some olive oil instead of egg washing them, and just sprinkled some fresh thyme on. They would have been prettier with two layers of puff pastry, but I liked the higher ratio of "stuff" to pastry, and they were absolutely delicious. They would be a perfect for a Super Bowl party - a bit fancy, but easy finger food.
  
  
• Another recipe I made recently was Croque Monsieur. I had some trouble with the amounts and ended up with way more bechamel, ham and cheese than bread, but I just bought more bread and made extra sandwiches the next day. Those are in the freezer, which I am super excited about. (I love freezer meals - they make life so easy!)
  
  
• While my son was home from college, I also made tempura using my favorite gluten-free tempura recipe. I'd forgotten how messy it is to deep fry, but it was so good. (You can't see all of the splatters and drips on the stove top in the photo below.) I just cooked shrimp and acorn squash (because I couldn't find kabocha wherever I was shopping). We toasted the leftovers the next day and those were good too. (I picked up the wall of foil at Daiso - it's a common sight in Japanese kitchens and great for protecting the backsplash.)

Please let me know if there's something you'd love to see in the roundup. And I'll send out a monthly newsletter via email, which you can sign up for.