Showing their support

[Malawry]

My spouse is a big supporter of my culinary career, and he truly enjoys most of the food I prepare for him. He's even allowed me to teach him a little bit here and there. We already have pretty much all the equipment we could possibly desire, but he knows that I am extremely specific about what I do and don't want so he only buys me equipment that I pick out by brand name (like off an Amazon wishlist, that sort of thing). Same goes for books. I am now the proud owner of Larousse Gastronomique as a birthday gift yesterday from my Amazon wishlist. He does not try to get me a substitute for the things I specifically asks for--he too is very specific about the tools he uses for his passion (music) and understands that it's worth it to invest in the good stuff.

The rest of my family? They sorta get it. I wish they'd ask me which cookbooks I actually want rather than just winging it though. Grandma especially tends to give me useless large cookbooks off the bargain shelf at Barnes and Noble that are often unreturnable, so they sit on my bookshelf gathering dust. I finally found a polite way to tell her last spring that I'm actually rather picky about my cookbooks. For Hanukkah this year she gave me a Williams-Sonoma fruit desserts cookbook, which I regard as a big step up--I really appreciated her effort to get something with really good recipes in it, even if I rarely make fruit desserts. Mom sometimes gives me goofy gadgets which are amusing but otherwise not that useful. Then again, the cheap plastic basting brush she gave me last year (molded handle etched with a guy in a chef uniform, very thin sparse bristles) saved me after we moved this summer and I couldn't find my boar bristle brushes to baste some summertime ribs. So who am I to complain?

I don't think one has to be married to a fellow foodie to have a fulfilling life together. I'm not married to one, but I'm extremely happy in my marriage and have every confidence that I married well. Just sayin'. So what if you gotta explain to them exactly what you want for the kitchen? Surely they know how to pick out other, nonfood gifts that you'll love as well? (My sweetie is very good at that!)

[Priscilla]

Dozens and dozens of empty spice bottles from Penzeys.

Wow. That is one incredibly cool gift!

[Lori in PA]

My folks host a Valentine's Day party each year and often give the husbands and wives special "assignments." Several years ago, the husbands were told to get their wives a gift that would really pamper her -- something SHE wanted very much. I knew the assignment and let it be known that what would really pamper me was a set of metal dry measuring cups and oblong measuring spoons from the King Arthur Flour catalog. Dh was aghast and thought he'd be SO embarrassed for the other guys to think he'd bought his wife something so impersonal. I CAMPAIGNED for those gifts -- told all our circle of friends how much I wanted them, etc. That was when dh, a non-cook and fairly plain eater, really got it. We have laughed about those tools so many times over the years. I use them nearly every day and they delight me still.

[divalasvegas]

Unfortunately for me, no, not even close to getting it, at least with cookware. Recently I informed a family member how impossible/difficult it is to cook without decent pots and pans, how, at least for me it, takes the joy out of cooking (pun intended) and how I had to get some really good new stuff before Christmas. Well, he just looked at me quizzically and blank faced, as if I had said that I couldn't possibly put together a good meal without the addition of human flesh or something. I won't even tell anyone in my family about me lusting after my first piece of Le Creuset; I mean paying $100, $200 or more for ONE piece of cookware? They would have me institutionalized.