splurge

I've got a new card in my shop! If you've seen the illustration before, it's one I created for a vegan cookie recipe on my food blog. I always liked the illustration and figured that it was about time to turn it into a cute card...and plus, it's 100% vegan! Hee hee.

In other news, I finally cashed in a gift certificate at a local kitchen shop that I had received for my birthday back in May. Gift certificates and me don't get along. I stall, I hem and I haw. But Saturday offered a bonus knife sharpening, so I brought in my old trusted Henckels and walked away not just with a sharp blade, but a Benriner, which is a fancy Japanese mandoline. I also bought a few other things, but the mandoline was by far the most exciting and least practical purchase. And while I always remain practical, gift certificates allow for a bit of splurging I think.

etsy seller: PataPri

I don't need new kitchen towels or a new table cloth for my kitchen, but if I did, I'd certainly shop at this etsy sellers shop. Total eye candy! I love all the prints, especially this dancing elephants kitchen towel, this fantastic mushroom kitchen towel and the pear table cloth! Perfect to give as gifts!

reduce, reuse, recycle

See that pretty box? For my birthday I received a food processor, but decided it just didn't suit my luddite lifestyle, even though it was something I had coveted for ages. I'm now thinking of getting rid of my microwave since it takes up precious counter space. Yesterday I heated up leftovers on my stove with excellent results, so I decided that I don't need a microwave to reheat. Softening butter for recipes? Hmmm, is that enough to justify keeping a microwave, especially when I can plan in advance to take out the butter? Thoughts? Opinions?

This is interesting because last week in the New York Times, Mark Bittman writes about how to stock a kitchen on the cheap. While I can't agree with his claim that a food processor is a must-have item, most of his information is pretty good. However, there is no mention of thrift shopping for kitchen scores. All my pretty cruset comes by way of Value Village. Cake tins, muffin pans, dishes, pyrex, glassware? Thrift scores. Scouring thrifts certainly won't guarantee yourself an instant kitchen, but it's nice to piece something together that has a bit of history. I like that.

still unpacking

Since I've lived in Vancouver, I've moved 6 times. The last 5 times, I was able to get everything unpacked, organized and settled within a day or two. However, with this last move, my timing is completely off. We've been here almost 2 weeks and still there are boxes lining the walls in every room. I'm completely off my game! My new apartment still hasn't been transformed into something I recognize as mine. It's not that we've been lazy...really, we haven't! Our current workload is high and we're using every waking hour to finish up projects, begin new ones and we don't see an end in sight. Not that we're complaining, mind you. Work is good. It pays the rent, gets us movitated and keeps us learning....but is it too much to ask for a little break to make our new place really ours? Lucky for me, there is a 4 day weekend starting tomorrow so maybe that will be the kick in the ass we need to get this place into tip-top shape!

new toy

This weekend, I got myself a kitchen scale! Even though we have a pretty sizable kitchen, our counter space is precious so I always put off the notion of needing a scale. But, when I saw this pretty little number at Lee Valley this weekend, I knew that the time for dealing with grams and ounces had finally come. Now, I can whip up the drool-worthy recipes found in my Nigella cookbooks. Feast and How to Be a Domestic Goddess, here I come!

We also purchased a new kitchen garbage bin by Umbra this weekend which is also pretty thrilling for me. Yes, I used thrilling and garbage in the same sentence. Now, if only there was a Container Store in Vancouver so I could purchase this trash bin for our bathroom. Sigh...my dreams have gone to trash.