Salted caramel sauce.

I don't know about you, but salted caramel and I have a very intense relationship. As in, I make it, I use it for baking (salted caramel brownies, for example, or a doomed salted caramel banana cream pie), and then I slowly, over the course of several days, eat the rest of it by sneaking into the fridge, spoon in hand, and dipping into the jar. I'm planning on making an apple pie with salted caramel for Christmas dinner this year (my first apple pie ever; I'm a little scared!), and I already can't wait to make the caramel sauce.

If you're looking for a great recipe, I use Deb's, and it is perfect. Melt sugar until it's copper-colored, add good-quality salted butter (Kerrygold works well, I find), whisk in cream and stir until smooth. Oh, man. Yum. 

P.S. Salted caramel—poured into a Ball jar and packaged with pretty gift tag tied with baker's twine, maybe?—would make a great gift, too, for the holidays or for anytime. Also, for the next week or two, I'll tag posts like these—that would double as fun gifts—as "gift guide 2012," in case you're looking for ideas.

P.P.S. This post was totally an excuse to talk about salted caramel sauce.

Photo credit 

The Pink O'Clock 2012 Holiday Gift Guide.

Gift guides are a funny thing. On the one hand, I think they promote materialism in a way that I'm not very comfortable with during a time of year when I (maybe naively) think the focus should be on spending time with friends and family. And the really cynical part of me thinks that they're a way for advertisers and the not-so-ethical bloggers out there to make money via affiliate links and sponsored posts. (There are, of course, plenty of responsible bloggers who create sponsored posts and use affiliate links and are transparent about all of it, and they're absolutely excluded from that statement.)

But on the other hand, I really love picking out treats for people I love, and as I've been clicking through my favorite online shops and websites these days, I've found myself mentally cataloging items that would make perfect gifts for specific friends and family members. So I thought I'd share that catalog with you here today, as promised. The following 11 items are things I'd buy in two shakes of a lamb's tail for the people on my shopping list, and I hope you enjoy reading about what I picked. And hey, if gift guides aren't your thing, come back tomorrow, when we'll return to our regularly scheduled programming.