A Kitchen Christmas

Hello all!  I hope you’ve been doing well in my absence and had a scrumdiddlyumptious holiday season.  Lest you think that I have not been cooking the last two weeks, well, it’s been a combination of favorites, the Christmas turkey, corn casserole, leftovers, and this week, the name of the game has been detox from all the richness with a lovely, light beef barley soup (recipe coming tomorrow for Thoughless Thursday).  Only one and a half pounds to go to undo Christmas!

I had a marvelous Christmas in the gift department.  My in laws gave me the Kitchenaid Cookware I so desperately wanted to replace my well-loved set of Simply Calphalon that I’ve been using since I got married.  I’m ashamed to say that I’ve been so busy since Christmas, I haven’t even unpacked it yet!  I intend to rectify this shortly.

Hubby got me a fantastic and wonderful set of Furi knives that have their own bamboo case.  I’m in love with bamboo in the kitchen.  I have no idea why.  These are awesome.  Well balanced, comfortable, sturdy (and he got them for 50% off).  I also got one of Rachael Ray’s Gusto Grip knives, which I haven’t yet tried, being so enamoured with the Furi set.

From my mother in law, or perhaps one of the dogs (don’t your pets give gifts?), I got Witch in the Kitchen, another kitchen witch type cookbook from my Wishlist.  (I’d already bought myself a copy of A Kitchen Witch’s Cookbook.)  I don’t expect to make magic of the paranormal variety in my kitchen, but both of these should provide delightful research for a book series I’m cooking up. My mother bought me a rice cooker, which is appreciated, though I already have one.  And though it wasn’t for me, hubby got a lovely set of BBQ tools, which I’ll no doubt use at some point.

Over the holiday I got to finally watch Julie and Julia.  I’m sure I’m the last food blogger to do so.  I loved it.  I believe I will add a copy to my wishlist for birthday perhaps.  I’ve been reading through the actual blog that inspired the movie this morning.  Chick is funny.  But I really must drag myself away and get to my hour of workout before I high tail it to the office to record more lectures.