Merriam-Webster's definition of a foodie is :foodie noun food·ie | \ˈfü-dē : a person having an avid interest in the latest food fads. This is not just because I am relatively poor; I love traditional comfort foods. The only thing I would like to do is have some of the equipment and ingredients I see used on the food shows. My wife and I have for years gone Christmas shopping together and we just pick out things as we walk through the store. No surprises, no returns. It has worked well, but this Christmas I started looking for things earlier than usual and found a couple of items I thought we would like and could use. These are not the price or quality used by chefs on TV shows, but practical kitchen items we can use.
❶The first item I bought, is much the same as the one we use and love, so this is a backup with improvements. It happens to be an "as seen on TV" item. What does it do? It cooks EGGS. it is the Copper Chef Perfect Egg Maker. I first discovered this little gem under the name DASH Rapid Egg Cooker on clearance at Wal-Mart and we fell in love with it. In case you are unaware, boiling is not a heat, rather a function of air pressure. At our altitude, 4,488
feet, water boils at 180℉, NOT 212℉ as you were taught. All of this science-y stuff means if I want a boiled egg, it must cook LONGER. Steam, however, carries 5 times the cooking energy of water. These cookers use Steam to cook the eggs! Shown at left, are the 3 ways it cooks eggs. Hard boiled, omelette-like, and poached-like. The improvement over the original is adding a ring and a second tray. It can now cook up to 14 eggs! (my original - only 6). It was at a reduced price and now we have an improved model. If you get one, 2 things - to cook the eggs properly, you must PIERCE the shell on the wide end, and you will need so experiment to get it to how hard you want your eggs cooked. For my wife's liking, that meant 2 extra minutes in the steam after it shuts off. This may be the most used small appliance we own.
❷This may be my favorite gift this year. It is the Hessler Gourmet Series Surgical Stainless Steel Cutlery Set. I watched a demonstration in Sam's Club while shopping and I am a sucker for cutlery, but only when I can get a deal. The deal here is it is GUARANTEED for LIFE. The set included a VERY sharp chef's knife, 2 carving knives, and 2 paring knives.It also came with what they call a Robo Wisk, a small, spring action wisk, which my wife said was "cute".
❸We love fresh ground pepper and salt, however, my wife (a.k.a."Turkey") likes her pepper finely ground and I like coarse grind. For her I bought this gravity activated Salt & Pepper Mill set. Tip it over and it grinds! Fresh pepper makes almost every savory dish complete and is a requirement on egg or potato dishes.
If you think you may be over doing it with salt, try fresh ground pepper! You may find that you reduce the need for it because of the great flavor added by the fresh ground pepper. Not the pepper ground so fine you can barely see it. Fresh ground pepper and a nice, course salt can add so much. "...but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men". This is from Matthew 5:13 KJV. I think it means bad salt is only good to be used as ice melter.😀The same goes for pre-ground pepper!
❹This next item may be the most
foodie item, and is a gift from Daughter #1. It is a Brie Cheese Baker Set. We love Brie, but have never baked it. It is just the right size for a small wheel of brie, but I have the warehouse store large economy size wheel. When I bake some, I will keep the blog updated.
❺There was a time when mere mention of "Trader Joe's" evoked thoughts of
foodiness. I had never been in one. Finally! One opened nearby! It is just plain fun! The people are great, the prices are reasonable, and they have products hard to find or non-existent in other stores. This year 3 items caught my eye:
- Stroopwafels - a Dutch caramel waffle cookie. YUM!
- Cocoa Batons - much like Piroulines. Creamy and crunchy,
- Taste Test of Caramels - This one intrigued me most. It is a selection of 12 caramels, and the task is to guess which flavor is which. It is a lot of fun and one of the tastiest tests I've ever had. We make a game of it and see who's taste buds are best!
❻This next one is the most thoughtful. My dear mother-in-law, knowing I like to cook, bought me a
Veggetti. If you haven't seen the infomercial, a clip of it is on the right. We have a Veggetti Pro, and a Veggetti, but the thought was what made this special.
❼Lastly, we watch a lot of PBS cooking shows and my wife became enamored with the measuring cups
Annabel Langbein, a host from New Zealand, uses. I found some quite similar in the
Pioneer Woman collection at my local Wal-Mart, and knew she would like them. They have what I call a
flea market look, each having a different design and trim. They are porcelain and the measurements are marked on the inside. I gave this to my lovely wife and will never be able to use it, but thought it needed to be included here.
❺There was a time when mere mention of "Trader Joe's" evoked thoughts of foodiness. I had never been in one. Finally! One opened nearby! It is just plain fun! The people are great, the prices are reasonable, and they have products hard to find or non-existent in other stores. This year 3 items caught my eye:
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