Christmas Gifts

It has been years since we received any type of kitchen appliance for Christmas but this year Liz and I received both a Breville immersion blender and a Cuisinart food processor; both are welcome. We make a few different types of soup and I will no longer have suffer watching Liz ladle small quantities from stove to blender. My sister sent a large selection of cheeses from Cowgirl Creamery, also a very welcome gift. I only hope we gave better then we received but that's in the eye of the receiver, I guess.

[Jenise]

Liz will love love love that immersion blender. It's one of those things that once you have it, you wonder how you lived without it.

No kitchen related gifts to report here, this year. Just wasn't a thing I needed.

I gave Len the straight potato peeler he'd requested so he will peel potatoes in the future. He didn't like mine and called them "backwards" last time he tried them and kept cutting himself. I called that "Learned Helplessness." Hey, I minored in Psych! He bought me (us) four bottles of nice, albeit somewhat obscure wine. Looking forward to getting some info on them. Creatively, he put them end on end in a golf club box, so I thought it might be a new set of irons. Other than that we bought ourselves Williams Sonoma Croissants (Chocolate and Regular). They are soo good--the perfect Christmas morning breakfast.

[Robin Garr]

After reading about them here, I hinted for, and got, an OXO pepper grinder.

I'm very happy with it. Good looking, easy to use, holds a big load, and the bottom has not fallen off yet.

Santa brought us a Waring Pro blender to replace one of another make that died after two years of normal use. It only has two speeds, but that's all it needs. First job was to make an absolutely perfect Hollandaise for Christmas Eve dinner.

I called that "Learned Helplessness."

That's priceless!

We received a lovely Staub grill pan from my wife's business partner and a Microplane herb grinder from one of our neighbors. The herb grinder is pretty neat - it's like a pepper mill but with a couple of sharp, serrated blades on the bottom. I tried it out on some parley and it worked very nicely. It didn't really grind the parsley - it chopped it up finely and evenly. Only limiting factor is that the herb being chopped must not be wet. If you've just washed your parsley, you're out of luck.

I got a Sodastream (seltzer maker) from MiL. My old fashioned siphons are going on the reserve list.
My pesce-vegatarian SiL and family gave us a theme gift-ham, a bottle of Riesling to match (basic Trapet), and a book called "Ham: An Obsession wth the Hindquarter"
My parents also gave us ham, a package of country ham they get from NC.
We got a couple of restaurant GCs.
And I slipped a ceramic peeler in Betsy's stocking after a recent rec here (Frank?).

[Jenise]

After reading about them here, I hinted for, and got, an OXO pepper grinder.

I'm very happy with it. Good looking, easy to use, holds a big load, and the bottom has not fallen off yet.

Hey, I've got some unfinished business with you re pepper grinders. I promised you that German one. But I didn't have a suitable box for mailing so it waited until something came and I then had a box I could reuse, then I put it in said box on the kitchen counter. All it needed was tape and a trip to a post office, a branch of which is neither close nor convenient. It sat on the counter for a week or two and then dear husband decided to 'clean up' for me one day, and suddenly the box was gone. A week or so passed before I remembered and asked what he'd done with it, by which time all memory of there ever having been a box had completely vanished and along with it, his memory of what he did with it. We thought it would pop up in a day or three. It never has.

[Jenise]

Oh, we did buy an 'us' gift that's somewhat kitchen related: a new electric smoker with a remote monitor. It's "temporarily out of stock" so not sure when we're going to get it from Amazon, but I presume one will be here by spring.

[Robin Garr]

Hey, I've got some unfinished business with you re pepper grinders.

No worries, Jenise! As it happens, I'm delighted with the OXO for the kitchen, and we still have the little Penzey's ZzazenStrudelSchnitzelBank grinder (the older one that did not break down) for the table, so we're pepper mill'd up. It's the thought that counts, and I appreciate it.

Oh, we did buy an 'us' gift that's somewhat kitchen related....

Our "us" gift is the quartz kitchen counter top. I think it's pretty grand! We got the Cambria brand, made in Minnesota, I think. You can see our pattern here: http://www.cambriausa.com/en/our-collection/design-palette/Bradshaw/

I've got an immersion blender. Never had one before. I made soup with it yesterday and I really like the slightly rougher texture it allows you to keep, drawing the blender through the cooked soup, as compared with blitzing it in a blender. It's easy to clean, too, which is a bonus.

It's easy to clean, too, which is a bonus.

I think that's the biggest bonus!

and the bottom has not fallen off yet.

I heard that, Robin. I've come to the conclusion that the bottom wasn't on tight to begin with as I've had no problem since.