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Christmas Presents for the Kitchen: 2010


Kerry Beal

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Sounds like everyone got some good stuff this year. I'm jealous of the "Asian Dumplings" book and the Williams Sonoma gift certificate - I could really go crazy in a store like that.

I got some good stuff too - a Chicago Cutlery magnetic knife strip, Oxo icing knife and veggie scrubber, and a stovetop smoker. I can't wait to make smoked salmon and bacon with this thing - has anyone ever tried using one?

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Immersion blender. Bright red. Life is good!

Basket of components to make an italian feast. Much fun.

All kinds of things to eat, of course.

Candy/deepfryer thermometer. Now all hell can break loose...

"You dont know everything in the world! You just know how to read!" -an ah-hah! moment for 6-yr old Miss O.

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For Christmas 2009, the only kitchen/food item I received (so far) is a gift certificate to Williams-Sonoma.

Jeff, how timely!! Now you can get those fancy gingerbread pans!

Thanks to this thread, I've added Asian Dumplings to my Amazon wishlist (thanks for the reminder). Next time I have some cash, I also plan to get me one of them infrared thermometers -- although it's more likely destined for my metalworking studio, not the kitchen. What's the highest temperature that they can register?

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This was a lite year for kitchen gifts, oddly (not counting the always welcome stack of kitchen towels). I did get a new cookbook, Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid, which looks like great reading as well as a terrific source of recipes.


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Duh. In addition to the cookbook, the other excellent kitchen present I received was a small jar of black truffle finishing salt. A little truffle goes a long way--this stuff is powerful. I'm already pondering recipes that will best showcase it.


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A longtime friend of mine traveled to Egypt for her 25th wedding anniversary. She made the mistake of visiting a spice market and saying "Give me some of this, this and that" and nearly fainted when she got the bill. :shock: It turns out that "some of this" was saffron and she ended up getting a lot of it not knowing what it was. :laugh:

She gifted me a small fortune of it so now I have to figure out how best to use it.

 

“Peter: Oh my god, Brian, there's a message in my Alphabits. It says, 'Oooooo.'

Brian: Peter, those are Cheerios.”

– From Fox TV’s “Family Guy”

 

Tim Oliver

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I got a really excellent bottle of sake from my friend who visited me from Japan. She also brought a killer bottle of yuzu-shu, which we're enjoying as a post-prandial drink on the rocks. I also won a table-top burner from our staff Christmas party, so we're looking forward to thirty nights of nabe in January! (We really need to stop eating all this pasta.)

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Michael Symon's new book "Live to Cook." His editorial notes are funny and direct, although I don't know how some of it got past one of my favorite food writers, Michael Ruhlman, who helped with the book. I have to think Ruhlman wanted Symon's personality to come through and it really does. Being a native Midwesterner myself many of the recipes are nostalgic for me. His pickling recipes are delicious--I've made some of those--and I can't wait to have a batch of pirogies in the house again.

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I got a 12" Lodge cast iron skillet (just in time, my chicken fryer was damaged in a cleaning incident and now has rust spots), a wine aerator, copies of La Cucina: Regional Cooking of Italy, My Bombay Kitchen, and Hometown Appetites: The Story of Clementine Paddleford, and Andrea Nguyen's Asian Dumplings.

Edited by Sartain (log)

Cognito ergo consume - Satchel Pooch, Get Fuzzy

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So far, it has been a good culinary Christmas...a WS gift certificate, nice sized chinois, and a wine rabbit. Also, Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, which I will be picking cooking two recipes a month with a friend of mine that lives in Paris. We will then cook a Christmas dinner together of Julia's recipes when he is home next year for the holiday. Can't wait.

I like cows, too. I hold buns against them. -- Bucky Cat.

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So far, I got a set of 4 Mikasa martini glasses - 10 oz! They are beautiful, but huge. I also got The Art and Soul of Baking, and bought myself Artisan Breads Every Day and A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen.

More likely to come on the 7th for Orthodox Christmas.

Ha! Be careful with those large martini glasses. I've gotten into much trouble at my friend's house with his huge glasses.

I like cows, too. I hold buns against them. -- Bucky Cat.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I got some wonderful food-oriented Christmas gifts this year:

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I am very excited about this! I cannot wait to try it.

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That’s the Southern Living 2009 annual, the SL 2009 Christmas book, Gale Gand’s Brunch, Ad Hoc and The Pioneer Woman Cooks (this is by a wonderful blogger that I’ve been reading over the last couple of years and really enjoyed – both the food and the writing) and I also got the Michael Symons book which is already upstairs beside the bed in my ‘to read’ pile. The stuff below are various, self explanatory gadgets – on of the peelers is the kind that shreds/juliennes and I’m very excited about the giant tweezers!

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I’m very excited about these gifts from Jessica. The Good Housekeeper’s Cookbook was published in 1908, the BH&G in 1951, the Good Time Cookbook in 1973 and the Jello one in 1977 (the year I graduated from high school). A truly amazing gift. The first two have notes in the margins, recipes and articles torn out from newspapers and magazines and the oldest one even has a couple of pages from a German-English bible in between some pages. I love this – my imagination just wanders!

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Some of those crisscross racks (I really wanted these) and something that is intriguing – a rack made so that you can stack casseroles in the oven – I will either never use it or find it invaluable!

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And a set of the cutest dessert plates that I’ve ever seen :wub: !

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Didn't need a whole lot of kitchen stuff but I did get...

8 ounces dried Morels

misc spices/herbs from The Spice House

Paderno omelette pan

Ove Glove

I love the Ove Glove, I have a pair that I use to lift the grill grate off the barbecue to add more charcoal, and I even pick up the hot coals and rearrange them sometimes. They're fantastic.

"...which usually means underflavored, undersalted modern French cooking hidden under edible flowers and Mexican fruits."

- Jeffrey Steingarten, in reference to "California Cuisine".

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I got some wonderful food-oriented Christmas gifts this year:

med_gallery_3331_231_85516.jpg

I am very excited about this! I cannot wait to try it.

. . .

And a set of the cutest dessert plates that Ive ever seen :wub: !

I have a similar vertical rotisserie though mine is made by Franklin. My daughter passed it on to me because she didn't have room for it. I have very little room too but it lives in my basement between uses and I would NEVER part with it. Despite that it does only one thing well (chicken) it is invaluable when I want a protein to feed the family that doesn't require my attention at all. I have also done duck in it and it does a fantastic job on that too but does require more attention (to siphon off the fat). I hope you enjoy it.

Edited to remove an extraneous "s".

Edited by Anna N (log)

Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

...I just let people know about something I made for supper that they might enjoy, too. That's all it is. (Nigel Slater)

"Cooking is about doing the best with what you have . . . and succeeding." John Thorne

Our 2012 (Kerry Beal and me) Blog

My 2004 eG Blog

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the Momofuku cookbook

a huge, beautiful oval Le Creuset dutch oven in gorgeous red (i was cooking in it within 5 hours of unwrapping it!)

a butcher block for all my knives

a set of garnishing tools (!)

"Baking with Julia" DVD

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med_gallery_3331_231_146735.jpg

That’s the Southern Living 2009 annual, the SL 2009 Christmas book, Gale Gand’s Brunch, Ad Hoc and The Pioneer Woman Cooks (this is by a wonderful blogger that I’ve been reading over the last couple of years and really enjoyed – both the food and the writing) and I also got the Michael Symons book which is already upstairs beside the bed in my ‘to read’ pile. The stuff below are various, self explanatory gadgets – on of the peelers is the kind that shreds/juliennes and I’m very excited about the giant tweezers!

I got the same peeler as a BD gift (6 days after Christmas). I also got Amazon gift certificates that I used to get Julia's MTAOFC volumes I and II, Larousse Gastronomique, and Michael Symon's Live to Cook: Recipes and Techniques to Rock Your Kitchen. I got a really cool little mandoline type thing as well, and a TOP CHEF apron. I have a tendency to buy most food and kitchen related things that I want for myself....so not too many choices left for my friends and family! I had bought the Pioneer Woman's book when it first was out. I have enjoyed reading it. Now I really want those giant tweezers, though!

Donna

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  • 11 months later...

Santa (aka me) brought us a table top convection oven. I. Love. It.

And, my husband got me a kitchen scale!!!!! I'm running around weighing EVERYTHING (except myself). Finally, I am part of The Kitchen Scale Manifesto

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