After Christmas Chit Chat

My kitchen has had a bit of a rest with the new grandbaby. She is doing well and we are enjoying out new roles as grandparents. We have determined that she is very photogenic! The digital cameras are getting a real work-out and pictures have been making the rounds via email.

January is obviously going to be a lower cooking month with the traveling and our fast approaching winter vacation. We were out shopping preparing for the vacation today so stocked up on more cheeses. I thought I would share some of the neat food related gifts I got for Christmas.

There is always an element of truth in humour and one can accuse our kids of not having a sense of humour when poking a little fun at their parents. I can immediately find the truth in the figurine for my husband. Years ago he was trimming a large pine tree in our front yard when the saw kicked back but hit his wedding band saving his finger. The hospital had to cut the ring off but other than a scare, he was fine. I'm not sure where the truth is in my figurine yet and the adorable now adult child isn't spilling the beans. These cute figurines are being put out by TLC.

I collect hot sauces so this gift makes a nice addition to my collection. The ingredients are water, red wine vinegar, tomato paste, habanero peppers, hone, lemon juice, sugar, Kosher salt, corstarch, granulated garlic and red pepper. That is a table weight poker chip hanging on the lid. It comes in a whiskey flask completing the theme. Their website, Texas Hold'em Hot Sauce is rather cute playing on the poker theme. They say this is a real Chili Head hot sauce according to their site. I can't wait to try this hot sauce! I'm the Chili Head while my husband is the serious poker player. He definitely is not a Chili Head!



I had ordered a copy of this cookbook online back the first week of October. By mid-December it still hadn't showed up so the company refunded my money despite their horrible customer service. Somehow my husband found this cookbook online and had it here in time for Christmas. Obviously the second company has considerably better customer service than the first. I am absolutely thrilled! This cookbook fits right in with my ancestry, genealogy and love for cooking. I can't wait to start trying out some of the recipes.

A Taste of Quebec was published in 1990. The author Julian Armstrong is food editor of The Montreal Gazette, the largest English-language newspaper in Québec. The recipes are divided into the Québec regions with a brief description of each region. Historical notes and stories are included along the margins. As cookbooks go there are few colour pictures of the recipes.

Cookbooks are a very popular Christmas gift in our family. One of my kids gave me this cookbook published in 2004. This is the second cookbook I have written by Emeril Lagasse, the first being Prime Time Live published in 2001.

This cookbook is geared to cooking for a crowd with recipes serving 8 to 10 people. I like that the focus is on comfort foods so am looking forward to trying some of these recipes.