kitchen wish list

I love to eat.. no really. I am a total foodie and am constantly trying new places and new recipes. I just saw a commerical for Patak's Tikka Masala and am scrambling to figure out how to get this on my menu at home ASAP. Usually my tv stays on Food Network all day long. I even found myself actually wanting to pick up this month's Southern Living magazine at Publix. I chuckled and said to Paul, I know we're really married now, since I have never ever wanted to read that before in my life. My mom reads it!! Enough said. The only downside of my food experimentation is that Mr. P isn't. He is strictly, meat and potatoes guy. Only a coveted handful of veggies are in his diet. This makes our dinners and other meals very simple, yet boring.

Anyways, more than eating.. I just am at home in the kitchen. I would cook all day if I could. In fact, I hate those easy to throw together dinners simply because I love the challenge something new brings me. Shortly after we married I got my KitchenAid Artisan stand mixer and my Cuisinart food processor and got to cooking and never looked back. I've had moderate success since then and even have spread the love of these two products to the husband. He originally laughed at my desire for a food processor. Now we come to the two things that I am waiting on patiently to add to our kitchen to finally make it complete.. Okay, so that might be a little fib, there is always something I want next.  These two items are..


the toaster oven,

I'm dieing I feel like without this. So many times I'm fixing for two, or even just myself and want to bake/toast something and don't because I hate to use the whole big oven for it. NYC housewife Sonja Morgan is  mid writing a cookbook dedicated to her use of this wonder appliance. Yes there are others out there but I just love the Housewives and am sooo excited to get my hands on this!! Not to mention, the clean up is nearly non-existent  Now that we've done some rearranging in our own kitchen I actually have room for this. I am hoping to find an under cabinet mounting one,  but I don't think they make those anymore.

The next thing I am wanting is a waffle iron, a deep Belgian waffle maker.

Cuisnart makes a nice one.. Hah, you'd think they were paying me to talk about their products but they aren't. My dad has always done his research on appliances and that has led to sort of being brand loyal with them in me (and now Mr. P). I don't mind the $$$ price tag because I know one day I will be teaching my kids and what not to cook with these same appliances. They make a great product!  

This week in the kitchen so far I've experimented with pimento cheese and crisp. The PC was super easy. Sharp cheddar, mozzarella, pimentos and mayonaise. I got the original recipe from a coworker who just said she used cheese, mayo and pimentos. I did use low-fat mayo and it has worked just the same. I added the mozzarella cheese to it because we had some in the fridge and wanted to save some of my cheddar for grits in the morning. We also had some spicy mayo in the fridge as well from a friend of ours so I added that and a dash of ranch dressing to bring a little more dimension to the mix. It turned out great, I love PC that is thick and with whole cheese in it. This is perfect on crackers and on sandwiches. Mr. P loves it, despite his original hesitations. Don't you just love it when that happens..

I also made an apple crisp, and a blueberry crisp, but have gotten quiet reviews so I am taking that as those being an epic fail. Slightly embarassing. I followed a recipe found online and combined them with some pie filling and frozen berries. They looked pretty and smelled nice, but I never actually tasted them myself.

Happy Cooking!!