2 nice sets of measuring cups given by 2 different family members, and a $25 ebay gift certificate that allowed me to buy a 2 qt All-Clad sauce pan at a reasonable price today. All will get great use at my house.

For me:
Two sets of spring-loaded tongs (I use the one I have constantly, so some extras are useful)
A salt cellar with red salt, small flour canister and sugar dispenser for the cooktop side of the kitchen
Dipping Oil

For MrsF:
A triple-setting electric timer
Vanilla beans
10lb block of Trader Joe's bittersweet chocolate (I hope it's good stuff)
Silicone rolling mat
Cooling racks

My gift this year was ..... Ogden Nash's Food.

A brief example:

THE SQUAB

Toward a better world I contribute my modest smidgen;
I eat the squab, lest it becomes a pigeon.

-Ogden Nash

A 7 1/2 quart oval La Crueset dutch oven
2 new pairs of heat resistant gloves
Diana Kennedy: From My Mexican Kitchen
Rick Bayless Mexican Kitchen (are you sensing a theme?)
Homemade bacon

I also got Washoku, which I've wanted for a long time-- God only knows if I'll actually dare cook that kind of Japanese, but I'm eager to learn more about it.

I got Paula Wolfert's Cooking of Southwest France, per BillSFNM's suggestion.

And I got another Mennonite cookbook from my mom the 21st century peasant.

i was lucky enough to receive some very nice food-related gifts this year. usually, since i'm a chef and most of my relatives are not hard-core foodies, they're somewhat inditimidated about buying me food-related gifts.

i cleared an area in my yard and built garden beds which i'm going to do some organic gardening in come spring, so my MIL bought me The Gardener's A-Z Guide to Growing Organic Food

i also finally got a benriner japanese mandoline after having asked for it for about five consecutive christmases.

then, knowing i wanted a large nonstick sautee pan, but that i also don't like nonstick teflon-type chemicals, my wife was savvy enough to clue her dad in about these awesome french steel sautee pans from jb prince.

and, perhaps the best of all--my sister in law, knowing how quickly i devoured a jar of peanut butter she bought at a local farmers market in denver, bought me four more jars--one of each flavor they make! let's just say that i'm peanut-butter fiend and this is the absolute best peanut butter i've EVER tasted. incredibly fresh-tasting, not a hint of rancidity, well-roasted, and, most importantly, seasoned correctly. i got peanut, cashew, honey-roasted peanut, and honey-roasted cashew.

no website for that one. the producer is rose's creamery of denver, but i couldn't find a website for them.

oh, and food-related books; omnivore's dilemma, heat by bill buford, and molecular gastronomy by herve this.

i'm a lucky guy! merry x-mas all!

Since we had two of these threads going, I merged them together. Now I'm going to move it to Other Cul. Chat, but I'll leave pointers everywhere. Hope this isn't too confusing.

A daughter gave me a Freeloader's Fork, which I intend to try out this weekend.



It has a telescoping handle and enables one to grab a food item up to two feet away -- handy for those Chinese places that don't have lazy Susans.

To go with a ridiculous number of sweaters which all landed somewhere in the same color range, I did score some kitchen delights.

One was Hot Sour Salty Sweet: A Culinary Journey Through Southeast Asia by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid.

Also got an All-Clad Stainless 12" fry pan, an All-Clad Stainless 3 qt sauce pan with lid, and the America's Test Kitchen pick Calphalon Stainless roasting pan with rack. This rack was put to use before I even opened presents from my family as they waited for me to arrive to cook the $160 8lb beef tenderloin roast my father had grabbed from a local butcher for dinner. As we were at my sister's house, I asked if she had a pan we could use to roast it, to which she answered by pulling out a 9"x9" cake pan. Luckily the problem was solved by a simple "Mom, did you get me that roasting pan I asked for??!!". It was being washed and used within minutes and I got to take it home dirty. I can say it certainly did a great job, even though the roast had to sit diagonally to fit (it was one hell of a big roast)

And my favorite gift is my Iowa Hawkeye 24oz Tervis Tumbler, simply because it wasn't something I asked for, and I am a sucker for a good insulated drinking vessel

And while technically not a kitchen device, but certainly a kitchen fixture is the 6 year old Shiba Inu my fiance and I adopted from a rescue society on Xmas Eve:



Jamie

My in-laws gave me two more pieces of the Polish stoneware that I collect - a garlic crock and an oval baking dish. It's available from the King Arthur Baker's Catalog. I started collecting it a few years ago and now have complete dinner service for 8, coffee mugs and assorted serving pieces. I love it because it's beautiful to look at but also very durable and sturdy - goes in the oven, microwave, dishwasher...

Baker's Catalogue
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/lis ... egory=C379

My favorite present is an antique bean crock that used to belong to my husband's great grandmother. It looks something like this:



I also got a crazy glass box like contraption that claims to keep cheese quite well on the countertop for years (or a week? Need to read up). I'll buy a hunk of cheese worthy of the expense of salt and vinegar soon.

Kristen

Some of the best cookbooks in my collection are given to me by relatives visiting from Mexico City. The latest gift was this 1992 book by Patricia Quintana on the cuisine of the state of Puebla. It is full of gorgeous food photos and some recipes I am dying to try.



I also received a macro lens for my digital camera so I can I try my hand at some close-up food photos.

Happy New Year to All!

Bill/SFNM

I received the best gift ever. An LTH Pork Clock, LTH apron, and 2 LTH golf shirts. Sigh! Thank you rib doctor.

You, sir, are the luckiest man alive.

Jamieson22 wrote:And while technically not a kitchen device, but certainly a kitchen fixture is the 6 year old Shiba Inu my fiance and I adopted from a rescue society on Xmas Eve

Are you kidding? How else are you going to get the spills off the floor? I consider our dogs to be essential components of a well-run kitchen!

That being said, I was blessed with the following:

From the 'spouse:
A stainless-steel wood-topped salt cellar
A "hand held mandoline" e.g. truffle shaver

From my brother:
A copy of "Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany " by Bill Buford, which I have already finished and quite enjoyed.
A copy of "The Nasty Bits: Collected Varietal Cuts, Useable Trim, Scraps, and Bones" by Anthony Bourdain, which I'm starting on tonight and can't wait...

Have a very happy merry everyone, and happy New Year!

I got a copy of Heat too!! And Amy Sederis' I Like You - which I made the mistake of reading on the train yesterday. I had tears running down my face and was chortling like a crazy woman. Some of the recipes actually look good.

The ex-husband gave me a set of very sharp knifes from Lee Valley Tools and a Chinese cleaver that looks able to butcher just about anything.

A very satisfying holiday for me. Oh, the two cats got real liver for a treat.

Now where can I get some of that Mayor Daley Honey?

So..... What did you GIVE for Xmas?

I sent pig head molcajetes to my siblings. They thought they got a rather large lump of coal. At my brother's, I gave a guacamole demonstration and gave up counting the number of batches that followed. Any time the kids had friends over the molcajete was center stage.

I got them from www.mexgrocer.com.

Happy New Year,
Kit

LTHForum pork clocks, of course!

I sent my mom and my sister both packages containing Paulina summer sausage and other such things, and my mom got a bottle of truffle oil and some Dinkel's stollen (the truffle oil VERY carefully enclosed inside multiple layers, under the circumstances).

On the receiving end, I was lucky enough to receive a John Boos 10x10 herb cutting board with mezzaluna. I've heard a lot about Boos boards and am so excited about receiving it!

On the giving end, I made vegetarian gumbo for my friend. Eight quarts of yum! Baked a bunch of chocolate chip cookies and shipped them out to co-workers. Still making cheesecakes.