Santa managed to stuff our stockings with a few gadgets we needed in the kitchen and Patrick gifted me a "want" and a surprise. Read on to see what they were...
Santa brought Patrick a pie weight chain
Santa knew Patrick was getting pretty frustrated with using dried beans as a pie weight. Pie weights are used when you are blind baking a homemade crust before placing the filling in it. The pie weights prevent the dough from rising and bubbling on the base. Dried beans or ceramic / stainless steel beads are commonly used as pie weights. Dried beans or ceramic beads pose a problem for quickly removing them and a pie weight chain solves that problem! Here's a visual for how it works:
We'll be using this pie weight chain when we make our go to pie crust recipe.
[The one Santa purchased from Crate & Barrel isn't available anymore but this is similar]
Santa brought Whitney some soft gel paste
Santa knew that one of Whitney's new favorite kitchen hobbies is making royal icing so she can creatively decorate sugar cookies. Unfortunately her pumpkin cookies and Christmas cookies were more pastel than vibrant. Santa did some research and saw that the Bake at 350 blog recommended AmeriColor soft gel paste so he brought her a starter kit. Once she masters these 4 colors she can move up to the 41 color kit!
[purchased this set]
Patrick gifted Whitney a new canner!
Whitney had been using an old canner that her dad had been keeping in his barn and gave to her. Over the years it had become quite rusty and even though it held water it needed an upgrade. Since Whitney proved she was serious about canning Patrick researched a super awesome canner for her to have. Come check out tomorrow's post and see what all she canned in the fall. She can't wait to test it out!
[purchased this one]
Patrick surprised Whitney with a tea infuser and a variety of loose leaf tea
Patrick knew one of Whitney's favorite parts of their Californian vacation was their tea tasting in San Francisco's Chinatown. He surprised her with an over-the-cup tea infuser and a variety of loose leaf teas. Though we haven't been tea drinkers before now we look forward to including more tea and less coffee in our life. We learned a lot of about the benefits of tea during the tasting and can't wait to explore the different varieties. They also had some tea gifted to them over Christmas so there is a lot to try!
[purchased this tea infuser and tea from here]
Parent Santa also gifted Patrick and Whitney some fun kitchen gadgets that included a tomato corer, oven rack puller/pusher, cat bag clips, a small funnel, baggy ties, and a Polish pottery tart pan. One can never go wrong gifting Whitney some pottery (I'm sure Patrick doesn't approve of that though)!
We also replaced a nonstick pan with a Le Creuset saute pan at the beginning of December. It was a Christmas gift to each other. Patrick shared the details in this post.
Want a more in depth look at what we're using in the kitchen? Here are linkbacks to our registry post where we detailed what upgrades we made in the kitchen after our wedding: cutlery, electrics, cookware, formal table setting, and our casual table setting.
Cheers to a yummy 2016 in the kitchen! Hope Santa brought you something to use in the kitchen.
I had no idea there were so many different things for the kitchen. Hope you like this Santas little ideas!
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