Merry Christmas to... me!

Christmas is the season where everyone gleefully buys things for others. Most of my wish list -- well, all, probably -- is composed of food items. Books, mostly, though sometimes gadgets. I've gotten pretty good at not buying useless gadgets just because they sound cool. Although I have to admit that the food mill that I finally got out of the box was one of the best things I ever did.

It all started off with the search for an Indian recipe to make for dinner. So many things we didn't have on hand, and not knowing what DFM would have, I didn't feel we could commit to any recipe. But when I got there, I found almost everything I needed. Black cardamom pods. Green cardamom pods. Ground fenugreek. Garam masala. Sadly, there were no nigella seeds or asefetida, but there were few recipes that called for those anyway.

And when I was positioned to place a large order with Amazon anyway -- and I don't know why I wait when I always get free shipping anyway -- I felt I needed to restock/replace some things.

So here are the things that are excitedly on their way to me (or will be soon):

French rolling pin: I have a crappy rolling pin that I bought at Bed Bath and Beyond several years ago. I hardly ever need a rolling pin but I failed at rolling out pizza dough more than once. When I was rolling out the Momofuku pork buns, I decided: to hell with this crappy rolling pin. I'm getting a new one. And so I am!

Cast iron tortilla press: We bought a cheap aluminum one at probably BHFM a long time ago. It does its job, but you can't help but worry about the aluminum these days. Plus, it takes SO much effort to press. So I went with a cast iron one and am looking forward to using it.

Fat separator: I've had one for years but the handle cracked a long time ago and it's always a pain to use. Plus, the spout is so thin that it never gets cleaned. Gross. So it was time for a new one.

Cocktail cutting board: Josh is always using my little cutting board. So I got him his own. Or another for me. It depends on how much I like the new one I bought. :)

Knife sharpener: I bought a three-stone sharpening system so I could learn to sharpen my own knives. I wanted to buy a guide also, but they were all crappy/flimsy-looking so I figured I would just have to learn about the angles on my own.

Colanders: We have a set of metal colanders that I've had forever and I don't think the bottom gets very clean. So I bought a new set specifically looking at the ease to clean them.

Spice grinder: We have a grinder for the house, but it does double duty. Mainly it's for spices, but sometimes we need it for coffee. When that happens, I have to clean it a few times with rice to clean out the flavor. So I bought a new grinder for spices exclusively. Since coffee is stronger, it will have to be the old one.

I also wanted to buy a new pressure cooker because ours sucks. I can't get it to seal and it doesn't have that little rocking piece that my father's pressure cooker has. Plus, it's made of aluminum. But I didn't in the end because I don't have much cause for pressure cooking and my order was getting quite big.

Well, that's all that's coming. It's not really that extreme, is it?