Oh I gave up on Santa many years ago. I wasn't even on the naughty list anymore.....I was blacklisted.

Every year I clear my amazon wishlist of all the pink kitchen delights I find throughout the year, at SOs expense, bless him. I do not have many this year. Some new non stick skillets and some utensils. I may order another pink air fryer. I have a dash, which I love, but they stopped making them in pink,the fools. So I am paranoid that if my dash air fryer goes out,I will have to replace it with some dreadfully tasteful little gray or black monstrosity. (Shudder, gag) So I may get a back up of another brand, just in case.

I’m currently in the market for 7 somethings. Our cookbook club, which has never before done a gift exchange, is doing on this year - spur of the moment. I had an idea of something to buy but could only come up with 5 of them. Tomorrow I will be scrambling at the one teeny tiny kitchen store in town. Or I might go to our Tuesday farmer’s market and buy bread for all of them. They can freeze it!

Any and all suggestions in the ”below $20, preferably below $10” range are welcomed.

(My original thought was Emogene Lavendula Soap which is the best soap ever made. It doesn’t dry my hands out! Even giving up the bottle that I have not yet opened, I couldn’t find enough units without ordering and I don’t have time for that.)

@bbstx I rarely cook out of a book anymore, but given that your club does use a book, how about an acrylic cookbook holder? I used mine for years and years, and will again if I use a book. I have a stand cover for the iPad and put it on top of something (e.g., small canister), but one could put a phone or table in the holder as well if it doesn't need to be scrolled. If you got them locally, you could probably get a good price on multiples (don't be afraid to ask!) (Even on Amazon, where shipping is built in the price, they're $16, so maybe doable.)

https://www.amazon.com/Norpro-Acrylic-CookBook-Tablet-Holder/dp/B0002ZFXOQ/ref=sr_1_9?keywords=cookbook+holder&qid=1639450544&sr=8-9

I don't know if you could get something like this by you, but I think these tea balls that look like tree ornaments are darling. They'd take too long to ship. :( They're the right price, but probably more decorative than useful. https://www.amazon.com/Tidorlou-Infuser-Strainer-Stainless-Filter/dp/B097P3Q5FX/ref=sr_1_17?keywords=tea+ball&qid=1639450831&sr=8-17

More under $10: How about an arcane little kitchen gadget like a strawberry huller or a pickle fork? There are decorative ones, and I have one that comes with a holster to attach to the jar (it's silicone and has a big ring that goes over the rim).

Do you have an Asian foods place? A pretty little bottle of toasted sesame oil might be nice.

Do you have a crafts supply? How about small decorative tins? You could even set them up with a few band-aids and alcohol wipes. Or perhaps a ring holder with a weight or suction cup.

I was thinking maybe a masala dabba but the nice ones are too expensive--so what about a travel spice holder? There are some really clever ones out there.

IIRC most of our group have a cookbook holder. We do not have an Asian grocery. We have an odd mix of stores and shops. Our grocery choices are Walmart and a national grocery chain. No craft stores. But one of the independent pharmacies carries a lot of interesting foodstuffs. The gourmet/kitchen store is relatively new and I’ve never been in there. Guess I’m going tomorrow. For a while, we had an olive oil shop. It went out of business. Our lumberyard carries cute cocktail napkins. Maybe a pack of cocktail napkins and a bottle of Prosecco?

Sure! Or...maybe you can make some simple trivets with scrap lumber? Or maybe they can cut and sand a log section for you to be trays or trivets? You might find something great at the gourmet/kitchen store. The thing to beware of is that the other members of your group are probably shopping in the same places, and it would be funny, but kind of disappointing also, if everybody gave everybody the same mini-rolling pin and colander ornaments. :)

How about a couple of shot glasses, a couple of cocktail napkins, a couple of fancy toothpicks speared through a piece of dried fruit, and mini-bottles for making cocktails or shots, and call it a post-Christmas recovery kit. You can buy the booze in a gift set and break it up.

Good news. The new big baking dish fits in the pie keeper, and the big baking dish fits barely. Better than not fitting at all, but no little bits hanging over the edge. Still, good news. :)

We're getting a new kitchen table delivered on Dec 26, and so I guess that counts

Palm Springs Kitchen · More Info

On Saturday, we bought a new chandelier and pendant for the kitchen and installed them on Sunday and Monday, as Kevin took Monday off for a root canal.

This chandelier looks very different from different angles. I adjusted the lengths of the wires before we installed it, but since it is on a slanted ceiling, the lengths look different from how they looked when I determined the proportions I wanted. The chandelier took almost two hours to install, and the pendant took one hour. It took us a while to figure out which was the correct circuit breaker for the pendant, which is the same one for the chandelier. The chandelier is on a dimmer and is dimmed for the photo, but the pendant is not. However, I do not think that I need the light to be dimmed over the sink, and I turn that light on only when using the sink at night.

The new table will be centered under the chandelier and will be 29" high instead of 36" high, which was always awkward for me. We will be getting rid of the old table and the barstools that go with it. I already have chairs for the new table, which I brought from our garage in L.A. I had been storing them on a shelf above the garage door, and I'm glad I kept them. I originally bought them in 1989 and had been using them until we moved to Westchester in 2009.

I have two pie keepers - one is an old Tupperware that Oklamoni sent me, and it holds a 9" pie pan perfectly. The second is larger, and I bought it at the Container Store. It will hold my largest glass pie pan, but normally I only need the Tupperware keeper. My tart pan is 10" diameter, and so I have to use the new pie keeper for when I make lemon curd tarts.

I'm thinking of getting one of those over-the-sink roll-up drying mats. Stainless steel covered in silicone. They look nice but I’m kind of attached to my old plastic one which has served me well for years. It would be an updated look that’s for sure.

Gifts dilemma solved: Prosecco for you, and you, and you…. I just wasn’t very imaginative. I didn’t even go to the lumberyard for cocktail napkins!

Hey, one size fits all with Prosecco! It's very holidays but can be saved for later as well. Fine choice! Glad that's done. :)

@socks, I've had one of those grids for years. It's great but I wouldn't want it for my main drying rack. It only holds a few things at a time. There are pictures with plates stuck on end between the wires, but it's not meant to be used that way. That's a marketing photo. It's not steady or secure. What it's fabulous for is pots and other large things, really really wet stuff like drippy sponges and items that shed water too slowly to shake off, and for making an extra level if your sink is big enough to work around and under it. Dishes are fine on it laid flat.

Lars, that's a pretty table! It looks "right sized" for your spot. Love the new lighting! You're really doing it up. :) IIRC, didn't the bar height table come with the house? I also dislike tall seating--my spot remover consumption went way down when I got rid of the counter seating. My Pyrex pie carrier is molded to fit the dish it came with, which is the most popular 9" designated on and is useful looking, not pretty. My bigger dish is one I roll out as for 10", but I think the official designation is 9.5", but deeper. That's the one that barely fits the new, pretty, clear keeper.

I am really watching my kitchen accoutrements. I have no more room.

I am trying to break the habit of buying every blue glass plate I see :-).

I bought some new oven mitts as they were the colour I favor. Blue of course; turquoise in this case. Then I went to my sister's and she handed me a pair of a different colour blue oven mitts. Now I have no room for all my oven mitts.. Oh well I tend to use them all depending on my mood so I will have to find a place.

About 6 months back I bought a Vitamix and I haven't gotten used to using it so I'm going to stick with working on incorporating the blender stuff that I wanted to make before into my repertoire. It is the last kitchen thing I bought besides the oven mitts. So I am listening to me about not buying more.. most of the time..

Glad I didn’t make it to the lumberyard for cocktail napkins. One of our members is a very accomplished artist. She had one of her paintings turned into cocktail napkins at Zazzle. They are really nice and the quality of the paper is first-rate; it is heavy, soft, and absorbent!

I'll try again. Nothing would post yesterday. (my end in local sevice in and out)

THERMOWORKS has been having good sales on and off since before Thanksgiving. My thermopen stopped working just before so i ordered a thermopop on sale and noticed all the silicone stuff i was unaware of. Most of it was BOBO, so i stocked up for gifting.

Game changing trivets replaced my annoying stack of three always in the way. I'm keeping three. One on each side of the stovetop and one in rotation in the dishwasher. The pair of mini spatchula/spoonulas are an excellent size at 8 inches. This is probably the last day for delivery on time for x-mas.

The shipping was, i think, 4.50 for a box of 6 trivets and a few sets of the minis. Also picked up an extra fridge/freezer thermometer.

Another kitchen treat but necessary. I've only had it a few weeks at the sale price so no user review from me but Amazon has over 3 thousand reviews. It is small and really quiet. Has a pulse button and much easier to load over the FoodSaver brand. (mine no longer cuts the bag and has become fussy the past few years).

My local farm share and my Alaskan wild caught salmon and Cod and most freezer foods i've been purchasing all come in cryovac'd thick packages in small portions now so i'm using sealers less than before. Some extra meat balls and cod cakes last week i sealed.

La Cruseut had a sale on pans and I got myself a smaller one. Does that count? I didn't need it, but have gotten a good deal of use out of it since its arrival since its the "right size". At my age I guess that's what counts.

Of course it counts! What color is it?

Orange.... more of a frying pan, I guess. I haven't had a lot of chance to use it, but the couple of times I have it was perfect. Merry Christmas to me!

Pretty!!! A braiser maybe?

I've only used it to fry things, like chicken and pork chops. I haven't braised or roasted anything yet, but, why NOT! It is lighter weight than is normal for La Creuset... and better for me.

Welp, my air fryer must have heard me talking about her. I went to heat up a slice of pizza for SO and the dial came off in my hand. NNNOOOOOOOO!!

Oh well, Macys had a pink one for 40 dollars, which is 60 dollars off normal price, plus I used Rakuten so I get 10% of that cash back.

Then I went to Amazon and bought another one. Because I liked it. So now I have a new one and a backup. I am officially happy. Although I did spot a pink ice cream maker that is calling to me.....