My New Toy

This year for Christmas my family combined forces and upgraded my mixer to the largest capacity mixer KitchenAid makes. My 25 yr. old workhorse has performed well and without a single repair, but 16 Christmas stockings later, growth in numbers in this family is inevitable. My daughter is helping out here in 1987 with my first KitchenAid, and now she is married and is a labor and delivery nurse at Centennial Women's Hospital. My new toy from Williams-Sonoma just fits underneath my cabinet in the same spot as the old one with a mere 1/16" to spare. Whew. Glad not to have to do a tear out to accommodate the titan. Husband would not have been happy. But, alas, not only does it fit, I have learned to operate it and have officially christened it with a new copper cookie cutter also from Williams-Sonoma. Happy Winter Cookies! A 3-times recipe hardly even filled half of the 7-qt. bowl. I am on my way to even larger batches. Awesome. Thank you, dear family!

The Spice of Life

My spices, rubs, and seasonings needed some consolidating, so today was the day. Alphabetically arranging helps to prevent redundancy, and visibility is essential, too, since currently I have over 60 items in this area. I had purchased some Sam's-sized spices some time ago and had worked them down enough to be able to put contents into smaller recycled jars. These jars fit into the inventory of the rest of the spices, so a whole area has been emptied where those 7 huge containers were. I actually have 2 areas of alphabetized spices: the white rack on the left in this picture (affixed to the door) and the turntable rack on the upper shelf. The turntable rack is my favorite, especially for higher reaching. A Pampered Chef product, it holds 21 spices, 6 of which can be oversized. As you can see on mine, McCormick cylinders fit perfectly, so you are not confined to purchasing only PC spices. With a twist of the wrist, all 21 spices, herbs, and rubs on the turntable are visible and secure.  I have studied the whole spice conundrum for many years of cooking, and this has proven to be my most favorite organizational tool for the money - $19.50. You can check out more specifics/dimensions on the PC website, and if you know me, you know where one can be purchased! I am in and out of this little area numerous times on cooking days, so efficiency is important. Order one for yourself for Christmas and resolve in 2012 to get organized... at least in one little spot. It might motivate you to take on a closet next!

New Twist On Old Recipe: Strawberry Pudding

My first-born daughter put me on to this idea: banana pudding with strawberries instead of bananas. I took it last night to a holiday dinner and it was devoured. Yes, the homemade custard is the critical step, but remember... microwave and oh. so. easy! I considered sweetening the berries but did not. They do not need additional sugar as long as you have plenty of custard. Once you have tasted this custard, you will never use instant pudding again. If you are new to my blog, the custard recipe is noted in July and is entitled, "Zappyoca... That Custard Thing." I doubled the custard recipe, used a Costco-size box of berries, and used a full box of vanilla wafers. I served it in the Pampered Chef trifle bowl which traveled with ease since it has its own lid. So festive for Christmas... it will definitely make another appearance at my house this holiday season.