Xmas Loot.... (merged w/ "Santa" topic)

[kitwilliams]

I got a huge, beautiful ~very fresh~ white truffle from my new BEST FRIEND!!

I am going to have to make some fresh cappellini to have with it next week.

Best gift I ever got! I sniff it every 1/2 hour.

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I'll bet you sleep with it too!

[kitwilliams]

my boyfriends mom gave me a nutmeg grinder! it's so pretty. Stainless steel with a little heart (awwwww) it's very cool looking and grinds very nicely. now I just need to find ways to use nutmeg... man, the sweetest gift...from a woman I barely know....

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There are some lovely nutmeg cookies in Rosie's All Butter All Sugar No Holds Barred Baking Book (or some such title). Cake-like cookies with a dream of a browned-butter glaze.

Nutmeg is a wonderful gift in and of itself. Especially for newlyweds. They say that as long as there is a whole nutmeg in the house, your marriage will be sound. A lovely thought. I usually include a pound of nutmegs from Penzey's and a microplane in wedding gifts. But why not for Christmas too?

[Maison Rustique]

Nutmeg is a wonderful gift in and of itself.  Especially for newlyweds.  They say that as long as there is a whole nutmeg in the house, your marriage will be sound.  A lovely thought. 

Kit, thanks for sharing that! I've never heard it before, but now have a new idea for a wedding gift!

[patti]

I'm very pleased with my food related loot:

7 quart Le Creuset dutch oven (Used it Christmas Day, LOVE it!)

Henkel Chef knife

Barefoot Contessa cookbooks

GC to Barnes & Noble for more cookbooks

[jgm]

I bet no one got the same gift that I did!  It's a TEA-BOY!

...

How did I EVER live without this?   Thanks to my DH for this clever gift.

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This is way too cool and I am jealous. I've never even seen one of these before, and now I must have one.

However, DH did pretty well for me:

2 Carrabba's cookbooks (I asked for them)

A wine opener that uses a blast of carbon dioxide to pop the cork

An inert gas dispenser for preserving wine

A Cole & Mason battery operated pepper grinder. Lest this sound very gagety, I have arthritis in my hands, and there are days when the battery-operated feature is a godsend.

Then Mom came through with:

Batali's Simple Italian Food

McGee's new On Food and Cooking

Marcella Says

Peterson's Splendid Soups

And with the year-end bonus from my employer:

Various goodies from Williams-Sonoma

Thomas Keller's Bouchon

Peterson's book on Sauces

Julia's Kitchen Wisdom

Paula Wolfert's Slow Mediterranean Kitchen

Zuni Cafe Cookbook

The Splendid Table - Kasper

Grilled Cheese - Speiler

Mastering the Art of French Cooking, vol. 2

And with a gift card from my boss:

Manchego and Membrillo from Dean and Deluca, as soon as they restock

Despite the fact that I was just outbid on The Professional Chef from the CIA, I am happer than a gopher in a mound of fresh dirt. 'Scuse me. Got to go read some cookbooks now.

[NulloModo]

Hehe, I actually have a story regarding food related xmas gifts...

I had hinted a couple times over the past year to my parents that I really would love to have a La Crueset dutch oven, mainly because my father does an active Antiques/Flea Market thing on the weekends, and figured if he saw one cheap, he might alert me.

Well, Christmas morning, while helping my mom prepare the brunch for the day, she recounted the tale of how she and my father had wandered into a kitchen store of some variety, and he had seen one, and taken it up to the counter. Apparently, when it was scanned at the price showed up on the register a stream of obscenities and about ten minutes worth of rambling about how they could charge that much for a 'pot that was too heavy to lift' ensued. Needless to say, no La Crueset was waiting beneath the tree ;).

Oh well, the smoker was confirmed, which was way more than I could have ever expected/asked for anyway. This is going to be the longest week in history watching that UPS tracking thing get closer and closer...

[patti]

Hehe, I actually have a story regarding food related xmas gifts...

I had hinted a couple times over the past year to my parents that I really would love to have a La Crueset dutch oven, mainly because my father does an active Antiques/Flea Market thing on the weekends, and figured if he saw one cheap, he might alert me.

Well, Christmas morning, while helping my mom prepare the brunch for the day, she recounted the tale of how she and my father had wandered into a kitchen store of some variety, and he had seen one, and taken it up to the counter.  Apparently, when it was scanned at the price showed up on the register a stream of obscenities and about ten minutes worth of rambling about how they could charge that much for a 'pot that was too heavy to lift' ensued.  Needless to say, no La Crueset was waiting beneath the tree ;). 

Oh well, the smoker was confirmed, which was way more than I could have ever expected/asked for anyway.  This is going to be the longest week in history watching that UPS tracking thing get closer and closer...

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I searched all over for the best prices on Le Creuset and my dutch oven (yes, I helped my husband out by finding one of my presents for him ) was significantly cheaper on eBay, even with $20 for shipping.

Comme ça: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...me=STRK:MEWN:IT

The seller let me switch it for the blue, in place of the white.

[Shannon_Elise]

I recieved:

miniture bundt pans

a larger bundt pan (I sort of collect them, this one is the one with all the diagonal lines on it)

Chocolate and the Art of Low Fat Desserts by Alice Medrich

The Gourmet Cookbook

A Coffee Maker

and a Salt Pig

(coolest non-food item: an at home hot stone massage thingy)

[viva]

I got:

- huge marble pastry board <happy dance>

- chinois

- cuisinart mini prep plus for choppin'

[tejon]

Got a 7 inch Wüsthof hollow edge santoku knife. I think I'm in love.

[MarketStEl]

My partner's sister gave us a big Omaha Steaks gift bundle--strip steaks, filet mignons, pork chops, flounder fillets, potatoes au gratin, burgers and hot dogs.

His nephew gave him one of those Figi'ssnack-size cheese-and-sausage samplers.

I was silently hoping someone would give us some of that Trappist cheese from the monastery in Kentucky, but alas, it was not to be this year.

No cookbooks, no gadgets, no tools this year. (Last year was the Wusthof chef's knife.)

Remind me to put cookware on my Amazon.com wish list for next year.

[winesonoma]

Got a 7 inch Wüsthof hollow edge santoku knife. I think I'm in love.

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That's what I gave Pat she also loves it. I got A tin of truffles, a current issue of Gourmet, Bon Appetite and Gastrominica for My corner of her nest. Some nice kitchen towels , lunch today,a silver wine glass with a garnet to represent a glass of red wine to go with the martini glass on my hat. And we watched the entire 2nd season of the Sapranos and ate Lasguana. Oh we gave our selves a trip to New Orleans.

[Safran]

I got a gorgeous light green Berger lamp. Its purpose is to clear the air of any cooking odors and it works like a charm!! I checked their web site and realized there's a whole collection of those lamps.

[slbunge]

Had a splendid food related haul from wife and her family. Schott's Food and Drink Miscellany, a really cool Rifi hand-formed Tagine (from, of all places Tagines.com), a big silpat that indicates it is a 'kneading mat', and a really cool dough whisk from the King Arthur catalog that I will put to use this week when I make a couple of loaves of bread. I think there is more but I can't remember.

[Mulcahy]

Totally cleaned up this year.

On Food and Cooking

Les Halles Cookbook

The Babbo Cookbook

Simple Pleasures (Alfred Portale)

The Professional Chef

Sotheby's Wine Encyclopedia

Le Cordon Bleu: Professional Techniques

$90 in gift certificates to Williams Sonoma (total from 2 different givers).

$400 in gift certificates to Broadway Panhandler (super-cool NYC kitchen store)

New Dansko kitchen clogs.

A cute chef potholder.

Chef snowman christmas ornaments.

2 Riedel stemless glasses.

A chefs hat with my name embroidered on it.

Karen Mc'Neil's Wine Page a Day Calendar.

It was a very very nice (and generous) christmas. My husband, relatives, and in-laws were exceedingly good to me.

[Basilgirl]

Nueske's Applewood Smoked Ham and Smoked Turkey, Breakfast Trio, and a cheesecake Kringle. Good stuff.

Vic Firth's "Mario" 12" pepper grinder - I got to pick the color - it was hard - so I went with Mario Orange!!!

[elswinger]

What I got from friends:

$50 Gift Card at Whole Foods, which I used for a dry-aged NY Cut steak, sashimi Maguro, and a 4-pack of Virgil’s Natural Vanilla Cream Soda.

The Complete Peanuts (Volumes 1 and 2) by Fantagraphics Books.

What I got for myself:

X-Men: Legends and Need For Speed 2 for the Nintendo Gamecube

Lunch at the Oceanaire Seafood Room (Grand Shellfish Platter and Chowder)

Six pack of Coke from Holland (with real sugar!)

Belvedere Vodka

plus I saw two movies: House of Flying Daggers; The Life Aquatic with Steve Zisqou; both of which I really liked.

[andiesenji]

Had a splendid food related haul from wife and her family.  Schott's Food and Drink Miscellany, a really cool Rifi hand-formed Tagine (from, of all places Tagines.com), a big silpat that indicates it is a 'kneading mat', and a really cool dough whisk from the King Arthur catalog that I will put to use this week when I make a couple of loaves of bread.  I think there is more but I can't remember.

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If it is the Danish dough whisk, you will find it does an extremely rapid job on quick breads thus insuring a more tender result. It also is great for slack doughs. I have been using them for years and it is very helpful for those of us with arthritic hands.

[slbunge]

Not sure if it is Danish but it's the one shown here.

[judiu]

At the risk of making myself cry, I will say that the best thing I got for Christmas was from Florida Daschund Rescue; they found a foster home for Max.

I'm moving to a "no pet" condo, and was traumatized about what might happen to the dog, but I contacted FLDR, and within 48 hours they had a place for him! Now I'm lonesome, but happy! (smiling thru my tears...)

[sequim]

Not a bad year.

A beautiful set of pasta plates and serving dish from Williams Sonoma (I'd been borrowing my sister's whenever I made pasta)

Immersion blender

Bamboo cutting board

New stove (present to self. )

[Chef Fowke]

late addition:

How could I forget? The inlaws gave me two sets of the 'O" series...interesting glassware, I am not sure how I feel about them yet.

[Daddy-A]

late addition:

How could I forget? The inlaws gave me two sets of the 'O" series...interesting glassware, I am not sure how I feel about them yet.

Guess you'd best invite some people over to "test drive" them and get some varied opinions

I also have one I just received yesterday ... a GC for Cru! Happy happy happy.

A.

[Okbrewer]

I did alright even after telling everyone I didn't need anything!

Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook

Fergus Henderson's The Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating

Microplane grater (fine)

OXO potato (vegetable) masher

an assortment of bags for my Foodsaver

a few bottles of wine

and

AH Hirsch Reserve 16 year bourbon!

[winesonoma]

late addition:

How could I forget? The inlaws gave me two sets of the 'O" series...interesting glassware, I am not sure how I feel about them yet.

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My GF got a set of those and I find the red wine ones almost to big to pick up. I used it 2 handed.