geeking out on cookware?

okay. i am so excited right now and it is because of cookware.
i think it is pretty ridiculous actually but i found a great deal on a big set of stainless steel cookware and i bought it.

28.6 pounds of stainless steel heading my way.
i can't wait to cook with it.
i have a tiny kitchen, and i have no idea where i am going to put it when it is not in use. i can worry about that later. the point is that i am so excited for it to get here. i want to freak out and do a dance. it is the silliest i have felt in a long time.
what will i cook first?

mix it up!

I had the most amazing gin today.
I generally go out and drink Bombay Sapphire - it's tolerable and sits better with me than whatever house gin you get when you order a drink. I will gladly pay a little extra for this.
So I go out today and I was stumped by the selection of gin I was confronted with. Befuddled even. There were quite a few I did not recognize and I had no idea what to order. I had to trust the guy behind the bar on this one. . .
Have you been to FARM yet? Sit at the bar, talk to the bartender, let him make you a drink or two, trust him - he is good.
So - back to the gin - there were four or five that I did not recognize and I ended up with Magellan over ice with a twist of lemon, light on the tonic water. It was simple and really let the flavor of the gin come through.
I love the herbal and floral overtones. It was a gin I could drink on the rocks - there was no bitterness, none of the bite you get with some other brands (that will remain nameless for now.) I am ready to run out and buy a bottle to add to my collection at home - and I look forward to trying the other gins I did not recognize. . . . cheers.

food rant

i love working with people so passionate about food that it practically consumes us.

we get all mushy over great new desserts we have had - there was a day last week when a simple sugar cookie, coated in the most delightful icing made from actual strawberries, had us distracted and raving for about 15 minutes. the rest of the world stopped in the face of this cookie.

we live to tell tales of how we rehashed our leftovers into some epicurian masterpiece.

we delight in discussing just how difficult it is to dice carrots and get them all the same size (and who can do this the best) or the evolution of the mother sauces since the time of Escoffier.

lengthy discussion takes place on the appropriate number of utensils for various meals - did you know about the fish fork:

Both a fork and a knife are provided for fish. Sometimes the fish knife has a silver blade, because fish, which is often served with lemon, reacts with the steel in old knife blades, causing an unpleasant taste (the invention of stainless steel in the 1920s made this problem obsolete). The fish fork is usually shorter than the meat fork.

nope - i really had no idea until a rather impassioned discussion one day about place settings.
every day is like this.

what is the very best chef's knife? is an 8in blade appropriate for most home kitchens or do you really need to splurge and go for the 10in? is the size of knife you use related to the amount of counter space and size of cutting board and exactly how - can we quantify this?

we savor exotic new cheeses - discerning subtle flavors and insignificant overtones. your average cheddar consumer would think us crazy to pay $21.99 a pound for a hunk of stinky cheese but we live for it.

personally, i get excited when my coffee beans are freshly roasted and there is a thick layer of bubbles at the top of my french press. it gets poured into a wide cup - almost a bowl - and a generous helping of the highest quality cream is added until i find heaven in the cup.