Christmas Presents for the Kitchen: 2010

[prasantrin]

Some Cambodian Kampot peppercorns and Cambodian wild honey. OK, I bought them for myself, but it is Christmastime, so can it still count as a gift?

[Anna N]

So I am guessing the snow slowed Santa down somewhat but today I got - count 'em - 30 gently used cook books. Oh boy I am paralyzed with indecision - which one to open first! I am in heaven and expect to stay there for weeks as I work my way through reading each and every one. Thank you, Santa! Only a Santa who knows me better than I know myself could have delivered such a cornocupia of reading matter.

[judiu]

So I am guessing the snow slowed Santa down somewhat but today I got - count 'em - 30 gently used cook books.  Oh boy I am paralyzed with indecision - which one to open first!  I am in heaven and expect to stay there for weeks as I work my way through reading each and every one.  Thank you, Santa!  Only a Santa who knows me better than I know myself could have delivered such a cornocupia of reading matter.

←

Wow! Lucky you!

[The Old Foodie]

I win.

Santa gave me Heston Blumenthal's The Big Fat Duck Cookbook.

It is one of the the most gorgeous cookbooks I have ever seen. The designer should get an award.

It doubles as weight-lifting gear too. Not that that's what I wanted for Christmas.

Edited December 31, 2008 by The Old Foodie (log)

[Tangelo]

I got " A Day at El Bulli" and "Happy in the Kitchen". I got a super cool Salter kitchen scale. And a remote read-out meat thermometer! And the coolest measuring beaker with normal graduations as well as stuff like, "volume of half of a brain" on it, haha!

[KatieLoeb]

I didn't get, but I gave a nice set of Cuisinart knives (a chef's knife and a nice paring knife) and a 10th anniversary edition of Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything to my dear girlfriend that is just getting her feet wet in the world of cooking-for-ones'-self. Since I was always the one at the end of the panic stricken phone call or the odd "I bought this cool fruit/vegetable/piece of protein now what do I do with it?" call, I figured I would give her the tools to fend for herself now that she's moving back to Florida and won't be close enough by for me to come over and try and fix the impending disaster.

She did tell me I won the "Best and Most Useful Christmas Present Award" and is genuinely excited by the book and proper tools to start cooking more things on her own. I hope this launches a new home cook after some practice.

Edited January 2, 2009 by KatieLoeb (log)

[lancastermike]

One of thosw hipped cream things with the nitrogen cartridge that the fancy guys use to make foams and a yogart maker.

←

My apologies for bad spelling in the original post. I used the Salton yogurt maker yesterday for the first time and it really did a nice job. The milk was thick and tangy. I than added a little sugar free vanilla syrup and it was damn tasty. Nothing to it either. This looks like a gift I will get good use out of as I enjoy yogart most days in my work lunch

[maggiethecat]

I suspected that I'd been a Bad Girl in 2008 and Santa would ignore me. I was right -- not even a battery-operated pepper mill.

Fearing that my suspicions would pan out as they did I took preemptive action and ordered a Presto FlipSide Belgian Waffle Maker at a recession-priced 34.95 for my husband. I love this thing! In Ottawa we churned out a dozen or so and I got to see three young men chowing on Belgian Waffles topped by half a pint of butterscotch ripple ice cream apiece(their happy idea) and hot maple syrup.

Priceless.

[andiesenji]

A collection of cheeses.

A collection of teas. (Like coals to Newcastle!)

A selection of Stonewall Kitchen jams and jellies. (Ditto Newcastle)

gift cards for Williams-Sonoma.

gift cards for Sur-La-Table.

a gift card for Chef's Catalog.com.

gift cards for Amazon.com.

a box of Aplets and Cotlets (more coals to Newcastle!)

An ultrasonic jewelry cleaner (which can be used to clean some little kitchen gadgets)

A set of 2 collapsable cutting boards

A set of 5 pairs of Wusthof scissors.

and a pajamagram - sent by someone who is not so good at estimating size, I would have to lose about 70 to 80 pounds to fit into them - with sort of a "cooking" theme, printed all over with chile peppers!

However this is also the person who gave me a bottle of Glenfiddich a few years ago and they had been told many, many times that I am allergic to alcohol. The bottle remains unopened along with many others.

Edited January 6, 2009 by andiesenji (log)

[LizD518]

Santa was good to me this year!

The Alinea cookbook - Fascinating

Eric Ripert's "A Return to Cooking" - Simply gorgeous - and the food isn't bad either!

The Waldorf Astoria Cookbook

a $100 giftcard to Sur la Table which purchased:

A set of nesting bowls with rubber grips on the bottom

2 mini silicone spatulas

a bread-shaping basket mold

a "salt pig"

a ceramic y-peeler

a $25 gift card to Amazon which purchased:

a baking stone for making bread

[Special K]

My favorite aunt sent money! I got myself:

Everyday pan - the one eJulia recommended a couple of years ago on the "Bare Minimum" thread. I got the one with the glass dome top, on sale from Amazon.

Truffle Salt - I got some for a friend for Christmas and went back and got some for myself because I couldn't stop thinking about it. I'd never spend my own $$ on it, but as it was a gift . . . (the secret to gift $$ is to spend it as soon as possible!)

One of those little plastic tomato-shaped tomato savers - I've had a whole tomato in it for over a week; I need to use half of it and put the other half back in and see how long that lasts.

A bottle of Pernod -

Mom sent me a Barnes & Noble gift card, but I frittered it away on non-cookbooks.

[MomOfLittleFoodies]

My sister gave me $25 to shop at Marukai with... I ended up getting some pantry staples, some new bowls and some extras I normally wouldn't have gotten. Needless to say, I spent over that $25.

My uncle and auntie gave me a Cuisinart Waffle Iron, which is destined for the "regift" pile as I already own two waffle irons.

With a Bed Bath and Beyond gift card, I bought some neat bamboo cooking utensils, new cutting boards and new measuring spoons.

[Kim Shook]

heidih – the new slow cookers always do that funny smell thing – it’s fine!

lcdm – will you please let us know what things you do with the pressure cooker? I got mine awhile ago and haven’t done as much with it as I thought I would.

K8memphis – those cupcake wrappers are the cutest things I have ever seen! I want all of them . What lucky kids!!

BigDan – how nice about the knives! Amazing gift! And they got an incredible price – the 7 piece set is almost $350 at FN!

Anna N – Wow – what an incredible haul! I’d have to take a leave of absence from work just to go over them. I can’t imagine a better way of spending the cold winter than in a comfortable chair, in front of a fire reading cookbooks and planning wonderful meals! Someone gave you a rich gift!

Andiesenji – I used to get gifts like that from a family member – everything he gave was for someone at least 3 sizes smaller.

I got a very nice bunch of stuff:

Apron, cookbooks including: Cooking in Oz (I am a Wizard of Oz freak), The Complete Book of Greek Cooking, The Elements of Cooking and two self-published cookbooks from a friend whose family and office participated (I am in both of them) and assorted cool utensils including a skimmer – now I need to get to work filling those empty freezers with stock!

More cookbooks and a silpat.

Two Le Crueset bakers from my dad, a Giant Cupcake Pan, Foodie Fight Trivia game (wish I could get y’all over for a night of that), onion and lemon savers, lettuce knife, 10X sprinkler, cherrywood smoke in a cup (pretty cool, actually), new butter dish (my favorite kind – it holds ½ lb. of butter) and, just so I’m sure to go to hell for the holidays a Holy Toast Miracle Bread Stamper – you press it on a piece of bread and when you toast it, the holy Mother appears (Mr. Kim is a current Episcopalian, former RC who delights in all manner of blasphemy) – it goes perfectly with the Jesus griddle he gave me last year – it brands the face of Jesus in the meat/pancakes/etc. that you place on the griddle.

[Marmish]

Almost everything we gave each other was food related:

For LBK, a cocktail shaker, a "Marvin" sugar caddy from one of the restaurants we go to occasionally. We have been looking for one and last time we ate there found out they sell them. A Reidel wine carafe, Toblerone chocolates, which is a stocking tradition, a crumb catcher and a sweatshirt to replace the one he gave me because it was from Target and shrunk.

For me, a muddler and bar spoon, French press timer, madeleine pan, subscription to Food & Wine magazine!, Chicago Cooks cookbook by Les Dames d'Escoffier, 8 cup French press, bringing our coffee making device count to a rather embarrassing number, and a very nice Cross pen.

I also got a set of 3 veg peelers from my MIL, a cookbooks from my mom and BFF and a subscription to FoodTV's magazine from my staff along with some other things.

[jgm]

My husband gave me six silicone prep bowls with lids; they're 2 cups each. He tried to find the really small ones, but couldn't; they were what I really wanted. But I'm absolutely certain I will put these larger editions to good use.

The other gift is what we're giving each other: a new mattress. For several years, I've thought my back and knee problems were simply part of life, and weren't going to go away. Then I stayed at my sister's house, on her new pillow-top mattress, and discovered that my back and knee problems are not necessarily permanent. I'm hoping this will translate into more cooking time in the kitchen, since I often cut it short because I'm in pain.

[prasantrin]

Almost everything we gave each other was food related:

For LBK, a cocktail shaker, a "Marvin" sugar caddy from one of the restaurants we go to occasionally. We have been looking for one and last time we ate there found out they sell them. A Reidel wine carafe, Toblerone chocolates, which is a stocking tradition, a crumb catcher and a sweatshirt to replace the one he gave me because it was from Target and shrunk.

←

I love that sugar caddy! I think I need one...I just have to think of a reason to go to Chicago, so I can get one (which restaurant, and do they sell online?).

And the crumb catcher--where is it from? My mother fell in love with crumb catchers when we were in Kuala Lumpur. I might have to buy her one some day.

[nakji]

I got a whisk.

I haven't used it yet, though. I'll have to make some custard to try it out.

[CaliPoutine]

Foodie Fight Trivia game (wish I could get y’all over for a night of that)

eG member Pookie gave me the same game for xmas. The trouble is, I dont have anyone to play it with!! Maybe I'll have to drag it along to the eG Heartland Gathering.

[TimmDavis]

Good way to get that first post thing out of the way.

I got mostly books so here it goes.

"The Complete Art To Modern Cookery" Auguste Escoffier (obviously the translated version, though I would love to have a French version just for collection sake.)

"On The Line" Eric Ripert

"Alice Waters and Chez Panisse" Thomas McNamee

Knife Guards for my knife kit (Most definitely needed, they didn't give us knife guards when we got our kits at school)

[grayelf]

Okay, I'll play :-).

An Epicurean cutting board with the little trough around the edge (cut our very first home-cooked turkey on it)

A Calphalon 8-egg poacher (made my very first eggs Benny on Christmas Day)

Gomashio (Japanese sesame salt)

Cyprus mediterranean finishing salts

Some gorgeous home-made ginger molasses star cookies (these were actually for New Year's

A gift card to Gourmet Warehouse, which I used to stock up on Feridie's peanuts, Cosmos caramel corn, Callebaut chocolate chunks, fancy chips and various cheeses.

What I gave was a really good way of preparing brussels sprouts which won over even the haters :-).

[Dr. Teeth]

Oh, I forgot the best gift of all. I got a 10" Griswold cast iron frying pan that had been sitting in my in-law's garage gathering dust. Seasoning seems to have been stripped off of it somehow, but otherwise in great shape. Can't wait to re-season it and put it to use.

[Marmish]

Almost everything we gave each other was food related:

For LBK, a cocktail shaker, a "Marvin" sugar caddy from one of the restaurants we go to occasionally. We have been looking for one and last time we ate there found out they sell them. A Reidel wine carafe, Toblerone chocolates, which is a stocking tradition, a crumb catcher and a sweatshirt to replace the one he gave me because it was from Target and shrunk.

←

I love that sugar caddy! I think I need one...I just have to think of a reason to go to Chicago, so I can get one (which restaurant, and do they sell online?).

And the crumb catcher--where is it from? My mother fell in love with crumb catchers when we were in Kuala Lumpur. I might have to buy her one some day.

←

I can't remember where I found the crumb catcher - maybe Bed Bath and Beyond? The sugar caddy is from J Alexanders. There are lots of reasons to come to Chicago (like to visit me), but they are in other cities, too. I know you are often on the move.

Edited January 13, 2009 by Marmish (log)

[Porthos]

We replaced our 27 year-old KictchenAid 5 qt lift bowl mixer with a 6 qt KitchenAid lift bowl mixer. The old one is still running fine but we wanted the much more powerful motor that the Model 610 has. Some of our Christmas cookie recipes tax the 5 qt machine. We bake eoungh cookies to fill over 30 tins (18 variaties this year). I also bought a second bowl on ebay. We cleaned up the 5 qt to put away for the time being. My sweetie is using it for the first time as I type.

My sweetie gave me a contacless laser thermometer.

Edited January 13, 2009 by Porthos (log)

[Simon Patrice]

This year, my wife just got me a huge Revol roasting dish (about 17'' X 12'' X 3''). She bought it mostly so that I could cook bigger lasagnas but I'm pretty sure I'll find lots of other ways to use it. Last year she gave me a set of All-Clad "Culs de poule" and for my birthday an 18 year old Highland Park single malt.

Did I say how much I love my wife?

[Anna N]

A late Christmas present of cash (always the best!) from my sister in England bought me the BRK200 Cuisinart Brick Oven. It arrived while I was out yesterday so have yet to put it through its paces but am hoping it meets my needs for a second oven.

Brick Oven

Edited to add link to oven on Amazon.com - but I bought mine from HomeDepot in Canada.

Edited January 15, 2009 by Anna N (log)