gifts | Bewitching Kitchen

This post is dedicated to Kathy McMorrow, who left us on October 19th

In My Kitchen posts are hosted by Sherry, from Sherry’s Pickings. Please visit her site to see what everybody else is sharing this month. I join four times each year, on the first day of January, April, July and October. If you are a food blogger, considering taking part of this fun event. It is chance to share those little things you bought or received as gifts and that make your life in the kitchen easier.

Many gifts this time and a few things I bought myself, so let’s start this virtual walk,
shall we?

From our friends Tanya and Jamie…

When they came to visit us, they brought us this amazing honeycomb! It is like honey on steroids, I had never tried it before. Absolutely lovely!

They also gave us a bottle of honey which I used to make London Fog in one of my favorite tea cups… Thank you, TANYA & JAMIE!

From our friends Marijo and Vlad…

They sent us a huge basket of oranges and grapefruit… my beloved husband made this special treat for me every morning until the grapefruits were gone! He is a keeper, but you knew that already…

From my friend Jennifer…

All the way from California, a set of PERFECT kitchen towels, I just adore the border at the bottom, what a cute detail! Thank you, Jennifer!

From our friend Dave…

Most amazingly juicy pears, they were at perfect stage of ripeness when the family visited, and everybody loved them!

From our friends Pat and Bill…

A nice soy candle and a Christmas-y kitchen towel…. We love them!

From our friends Hal and Becky…

A huge box of Leonidas chocolate…. OMG in chocolate form!

From our friends Ines and Ben…

We are addicted to this delicacy from Siena, and they made sure we enjoyed it again this year! THANK YOU! If you’ve never had panforte, you NEED to try some.

From the beautiful Hayden family…

The world’s coolest apron! Thank you so much, the fabric is perfect and wipes clean like a dream (not that I am a messy cook, of course NOT!)

From our friends Keith and Sarah…

The most exquisite Christmas tree ornament… we made sure to place it high, so that the real Dalmatians would not hurt it…

As if all that amazing honey wasn’t enough, Tanya and Jamie sent me a total beauty of a Bundt pan for Christmas!

I intend to put it to use this coming week with a special bake for Friday! Tanya (and Jamie) I don’t even know how to thank you, but Jamie, expect a constant flow of nice puns (wink, wink). It is the MINIMUM I can do!

And now my unexpected special Christmas gift from the best husband in the universe…

MEET HELEN, my new Breville mixer!

I named it Helen, as my friend and virtual mentor Helen Fletcher was the one who got me interested after she wrote this great review about it. I was not sure if I should get it, as I have some KitchenAid attachments that obviously don’t work with that mixer, but Phil splurged and I must say I adore it! Thank you Phil, and thank you Helen!

Moving on… some home improvement stuff

Speaking of a real keeper of a husband! Phil built this set of shelves for the garage and organized all his tools. It is a French cleat system, in which the little things can be moved around freely. Super awesome!

We got a new rug for the kitchen, as a certain puppy damaged the old one pretty badly. Now that she outgrew the chewing phase (fingers crossed), we felt we were ready for the upgrade.

We also got a new rug for the living room, as ours was almost 20 years old and getting really beaten (and chewed by a certain female Dalmatian). Oscar approved the color scheme!

In our kitchen…

Two pretty nice ingredients to play with: Chestnut honey from Italy (I do have a weakness for honey), and Stem ginger from the UK. Stay tuned for adventures with both.

In our kitchen…

A set of bell shaped cookie cutters. I also have a weak spot for shapes in different sizes. I needed a large bell for a recent project (featured here), and this was the best option.

In our kitchen…

A new turkey-size roaster. Ours was super old, and I wanted to make sure we had something nice for this year. Guess what? We ended up roasting NO bird at Thanksgiving and NO bird on Christmas. Oh, well. There is always 2024.

AND NOW, LET’S SEE WHAT OUR FURRY FRIENDS HAVE TO BARK…

We simply cannot get over the funny ways in which Ziggy Star Barker sleeps or gets comfortable…

Funny, who me????

Hey, I can be funny too!

Yeah, let them be funny. I am FIERCE. POWERFUL.
THE ONE AND ONLY ALPHA-DOG!

The dogs were absolutely spoiled this holiday season, as we had two of the stepsons here with the kids (and one bun in the oven, to be born on March).

Here is our crowd at dinner, our house had never been so full!

Did the pups love their visit? Judge for yourself….

Hi, this is my friend Campbell! Guess what? He was a little scared of doggies, but I made sure to be super nice and gentle so that fear is now history! We are buddies for life!

Hi, my name is Sutton, and this is my big furry friend Oscar… he loves to be hugged and even though I am a little too small I do my best!

This is our friend Star, she loves to cuddle on the sofa to watch TV. She had a blast with The Grinch Who Stole Christmas…

Prince is actually partial to 101 Dalmatians…

My name is Greenlee, and Prince is my best buddy, he does tricks for me and I give him treats. Is that going to spoil him? I hope so!

All pups were absolutely gentle with the kids, in this picture Sutton was crying and Star did not know what to do to console her… it was super sweet….

Unfortunately, contrary to our pups’ expectations, their visit had to end…

But what matters is that we had a ton of fun together. Undoubtedly, dogs and kids are a match made in heaven… We wish you a wonderful New Year, and we will see you again in the Spring for another chapter of In My Kitchen, aka Life in the Kingdom of Tatarrax.