Tasting Table – I am usually weary of sites that work on an email newsletter-only basis rather than offering open, surfable pages. Tasting Table is an exception to this rule of thumb of mine. This food savvy hot spot offers a daily serve of “one delicious idea about dining, wine, cocktails, cooking or restaurant personalities. We feed you only first-hand recommendations that we have tested thoroughly ourselves—one bite at a time.”

Tasting Table is a refreshing take on gastronomic and recipes recommendations online, and it currently covers the culinary arenas of NYC, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington DC and San Francisco. Hopefully with time Tasting Table will offer the same superb food & wine content for other cities as well. Either way, I am subscribed. Here’s an example of one of the daily emails I received from Tasting Table (my apologies for the incomplete image, the full recipe is below):

Turnip and Rutabaga Gratin

Recipe adapted from Steven Satterfield, Miller Union, Atlanta

Yield: 6 side-dish servings

INGREDIENTS:

1 medium rutabaga (about ¾ pound), peeled and thinly sliced

1 teaspoon thyme leaves

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for buttering the baking dish

1 medium purple turnip (about ¾ pound), peeled and thinly sliced

2 cups bread crumbs, preferably homemade

1 cup chicken stock, preferably homemade

1 cup heavy cream

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 450˚ and lightly butter an 8-by-8-by-2-inch baking dish.

2. Arrange a thin, even layer of the rutabaga slices across the bottom of the dish. Sprinkle with a pinch of thyme, salt and pepper, then dot with tiny pats of the butter. Arrange a thin, even layer of turnip slices over the rutabaga. Sprinkle with thyme, salt and pepper and dot with more butter. Continue the layering process, alternating between the rutabaga and turnip, until the dish is approximately two-thirds full and all the vegetables have been included.

3. Season the bread crumbs with salt and black pepper and spread over the vegetables. Pour the chicken stock and cream over the bread crumbs; press down on the bread crumbs gently to absorb the liquids. Drizzle with the olive oil.

4. Bake until the gratin is golden brown and the vegetables in the center of the dish are tender when poked with a paring knife, about 35 minutes. Remove the gratin from the oven and let rest for 20 minutes, then serve.

Cowboom – Deal grabbers, this one’s for you. Cowboom (a Best Buy brand) offers deals on brand-name new, pre-owned and refurbished consumer electronics and more. You can find anything here from Apple notebooks and home theater systems to cameras and portable music players, all part of a huge variety of brands, and all offered at great discounts.

Each product category on Cowboom offers lots of tempting deals via both regular and auction purchases. To stay on top of all the great deals available on Cowboom, it would be worth while subscribing to the site via email (homepage, form on the right hand side).

Here’s an image from the camera section on Cowboom for you to explore. Enjoy!

LivingSocial – Groupon is probably one of the most talked about websites this year, and for a good reason. The group deals niche is growing at an exponential rate, and keeps drawing more and more participants as time goes by. LivingSocial is another promising Groupon-like site that aims to offer rewarding deals in American, Canadian, even Australian cities, while boosting local businesses.

Sign up by providing your email address and picking your city, and get a daily offer of something cool to do in your city. What I like about LivingSocial is their Escapes feature, which offers affordable weekend getaways and short vacations across the US and Canada. I’m already subscribed. What are you waiting for?

Loviu – This innovative T-Shirts store offers users – designers and simple T-shirt wearers alike- the chance to actively influence what people are wearing: “now you have a chance to decide what people will wear tomorrow and make some nice cash along the way.”

Aside from voting for tee designs you love (highest scoring designs result in some serious Euro cash for winning designers!) and submitting your own design, you can earn sweet cash by allowing Loviu to advertise the daily tee on your Facebook profile page.

Here are a couple of designs I immediately craved for myself, but sadly shopping is no longer possible; you can only vote for these:

Valentine’s Day Gifts – Next Monday, Feb 14 will be the holiday of hearts, St. Valentine’s Day. Show your special someone that you love her or him, and treat them to a gift that says I love you. Amazon’s special Valentine’s Day gift ideas for men and women have something for everyone. My two favorite gifts (one for him one for her, shown below) are The Beatles Stereo Box Set, and Anne Klein’s Swarovski Chrystal Gold-Tone Charm Bracelet Watch. My ultimate gift however is saying those three little words that are worth so much more than any gift.

Buzzillions – The next time you plan on making an online purchase, I assume you will first compare prices. Sites such as NexTag, Shopzilla and the like spring to mind, right? Well, there’s yet another price comparison and product review site you should add to your repertoire: Buzzillions. They claim to have over 13 million genuine product reviews submitted by actual online consumers (as opposed to paid reviews). Buzzillions is easy to use, nice to look at and it’s pretty straightforward.

See the screen shot below of the snowboard search I did on the site. I honestly couldn’t think of any downsides to Buzzillions, but whatever lowest price you find here for any given product search, I suggest comparing with Amazon. By the way, you should check out the Buzzilions mobile app -a particularly handy tool on the go.

Soap.com – Don’t you just love it when you can find all you need in one place, especially when there are discounts and coupons involved? Soap.com is a personal care one-stop-shop where you will find hundreds if not thousands of products for household and personal care products (face, body, personal hygiene and more) at discount prices.

The site looks amazing, and finding what you’re looking for is a breeze.You have a variety of categories to choose from, including products for the home, body, hair, face (including cosmetics), drugs, vitamins, diet and nutrition, sexual wellness products, cosmetic and hygiene products for men, even organic products in practically every category mentioned above. Since quality and discount are Soap.com’s major characteristics, here are a couple of coupons for you to use in your next purchase.

20% off your first purchase of any brand of vitamins by using the code 20VIT:

Save 20% on your first purchase of Bath & Body with Code AFFBB:

Nuji – The idea behind Nuji is simple; “a free service where you can share and discover products you love with like-minded people.” How does it work? Use the Facebook Connect to log in, install the Nuji bookmarklet (a simple drag and drop installation), download the iPhone app if you wish, and start tagging. The Nuji innovation is simple, yet so powerful and useful I fell in love with it at first tag! See the screen shot below of one of my Nuji tags I did over at Urban Outfitters.

Once you’re all set up with the bookmarklet, you simply surf the Web as you would normally do, and when you stumble upon an interesting product of any kind, you click the ‘Tag with Nuji’ toolbar in your browser and select the tag location. After you have made some tags you can then proceed to start following other Nuji users with your line of taste, be it fashion and style, technology or any other field. I had a terrific time using Nuji, and I’ve already found several Nuji users to be inspired by.Here are but a few products I added to my Nuji list.

eBay Deal Finder – A new beta feature from eBay, the Deal Finder puts hot deals in the spotlight, with new grab-it now sales in various popular categories (music, video games, books, movies and electronics). The last mentioned category is super sweet -see the screen shot below.

The ‘only 2 left’ notice is a genius marketing incentive, and eBay makes great use of all its e-commerce power to make this site as attractive as possible. I know I was tempted… All products listed here are ‘Buy it Now’ deals, so the entire bidding aspect eBay is known for is taken out of the equation to create a simple, direct and rewarding online purchase experience. See anything you like here? You may also want to stop by our Happy Holidays and Gift Guide pages for some extra great deals to grab before Xmas.

AMF Gift Guide – Are you only partly done with your Christmas gift list? Perhaps you haven’t even started, and find yourself postponing it to next week? Well, no worries, because All My Faves has got you covered. Meet our spankin’ new special Gift Guide, your ultimate Xmas shopping hub.

This time we’ve created a visual page, neatly listing product images for your convenience. We are stern believers in the ‘picture is worth a thousand words’ expression, and in offering a no-nonsense service. That means that what you see is what you get, only that the items showcased in the Gift Guide page are all best sellers at discount prices, so you have nothing to lose. There is much to choose from – you’ll find the top selling gifts in gadgets, for her, for him, cooking, best selling books, DVDs and toys. There is something here for each and every one in your family, so stop procrastinating and finish your gift lists now. It’s easy, affordable and you can finish it all right from home!

Happy Holidays everyone!

The All My Faves Team

AMF’s Happy Holidays – I’ve already talked about this super holidays page on several occasions these past weeks, mostly as the ultimate hot deal grabbing page, and a good source for gift ideas (again, I recommend checking out the For Her and For Him categories). But the All My Faves Holidays page is not only about gifts, it’s also about making this holiday season a great time for family moments.

Cooking for the holidays is a special occasion in and of itself, and that is why you’ll find on this Holidays page amazing recipes resources and great cookbooks – under Cooking. Other great favelines to check out for good holiday times are Hanukkah & Kwanzaa, and Holiday Spirit. Both are packed with holiday goodness for the different religious holidays, for the entire family. So if you haven’t already, stop by the AMF Holidays page and be inspired! You’ll find all your holiday must haves -weather gifts or experiences- right here.

Happy Holidays from the All My Faves Team!

Cyber Monday, or should I say Cyber Week deals are still alive and kicking at every major online retailer store, some even lasting until Saturday, Dec 4 (see Amazon for example). Even if you have already found the perfect gifts for all the people you care about, what about you? We are curious to know what’s on your wishlist? If you can’t find it on our Holidays page, let us know what we’re missing – post it on our Facebook fan page wall!