Valentine’s Day is just around the corner. You’re serious about this one, so drugstore chocolate in a heart-shaped box won’t cut it, but you definitely want to treat your girlfriend like a lady - problem is, you’re something of a tramp in the financial sector. What to do? Easy; whip up a romantic, DIY-style Valentine’s Day dinner with a twist. This little kit is sure to blow her mind and preserve your wallet - and save you the time it would actually take to do it yourself.

Melissa of Alotta Errata is trying hard to live a good, green life, including pondering the packaging on organic foods that makes it just as tough to recycle as any processed food. She’s also discovered something simple, smart, and delicious: Hodgson Mills European Cheese and Herb Bread Mix as the key to the world’s greatest breadsticks. “I use the bread maker on the dough cycle, and then simply make breadsticks from the dough and bake them at 350 for about 12 minutes. The whole box yields nearly 20 breadsticks so you can imagine the joy and temptation of a kitchen filled with breadsticks. What we don’t eat I freeze in packets of 4, though a request was put in that the packets have more than four, because really 2 breadsticks per person is just not enough. Really. what was I thinking?

At ThisNext, we’re all about leveragin untapped resources. You’ve seen all the public service announcements and news stories about how hot it gets in your car, right? Well a woman in New Hampshire used that solar energy to bake cookies on her dashboard. It turns out that when the outside temperature breaks 95, the internal temperature in her car exceeds 200, which is enough to bake with. At last, a suitable substitute for new car smell.

My friend Kathleen is a self-proclaimed cookie monster. She has never met a cookie she didn’t like, and can turn out some mean confections from her modest kitchen. Myself, I’m not much of a baker, which is why I have unlimited admiration and respect for those that are. And Anna at Cookie Madness has my undivided attention. She serves up an astonishing array of sweetness, neatly categorized for easy research. Check these scrumptious-looking New York Brownies, for example. Wait, are brownies cookies? Oh, who cares. Just send ‘em our way.

Before you quit your day job and pursue your dreams of becoming a professional baker, pop by chef JoAnna’s ChefBlog. That shiny new 12-quart stand mixer you want, nay need? You might be astonished to learn that it will set you back a whopping $3,200. But hey, it’s a relative bargain at the store she links to, marked down from over $4,600 retail. But sometimes, only the best will do. Perhaps JoAnna can whip us up a little big something with her new toy.

We at ThisNext embrace creativity and innovation. So when Michelle at The Baker’s Rack spontaneously decided to introduce Snickers bars into her blondies, our ears perked, our eyes widened and our mouths watered. She managed to take two things we love and meld them together into something we just know we will love even more.

It’s not that I don’t like to share. You can have as many of my Brussels sprouts as you like. But you’d fare better standing between a mother bear and her cubs than between me and a batch of fresh-baked cookies. Hence, I am so buying these hilar ABC Cookie Cutters. (And yes, the ABC stands for Already Been Chewed. How deliciously grade-school!) Now, all I have to do is perfect my frosting technique to follow the toothy contour. I especially like the headless gingerbread man.

That’s what we’re all about: Products that make living a little better. (For me.)

(via In the Kitchen)

Put down the box of yellow cake mix. If your sweet tooth is aching, try whipping up some cupcakes from scratch. While you’re at it, try something a little different. The prodigious cupcake chef at Cupcake Bakeshop focuses on one thing and one thing only — delicious, delectable and diverse versions of this diminutive delight. Flavors range from Chocolate Chai Spice to Vietnamese Coffee to a cupcakey rendition of Samoas Girl Scout cookies. Detailed instructions and painstaking photography make it seem easy as, well, cake.

Singular passion and the desire for a world made better through the power of pastry. She’s our kind of gal.