First off, I must apologize for being absent last week. Between visiting and entertaining family and friends, a sick husband, butt-loads of eating, followed by tons of guilt, followed by lots of running and workout videos, I was beat.

I had to take a week of vacation….to gain 5 pounds from devouring absolutely amazing food. I swear I never was hungry, yet there was always another meal where another grandmother asked, ‘You’re not full yet are you? There’s still plenty in there! Go fill your plate again! And don’t forget to save room for the entire dining room table filled with sweets.’ Ahhhhhh! Save me! But it was so good…and I digress.

Back to my original message for this post: ‘Looky Looky!’ I have to be the most lucky baker. My family knew exactly what I was dreaming about for months and months.

Be prepared for lots of new recipes and fun ideas with all of these amazing gifts!

Pictured above:

• Silpat Silicone Half Cookie Sheet Liner If you don’t have one of these, they are amazing. It’s so easy! You use this in place of the parchment paper and non-stick aluminum foil that you used to cover your cookie sheets with. Eco friendly and cheaper from not having to purchase and then throw away your aluminum foil and parchment paper for your cookie sheet. 🙂 Plus they are really easy to wash with a sponge and a little bit of soap. Then, just dry it and place it back on your cookie sheet for flat storage!
• Nonstick Rolling Mat This thing is awesome! I had been rolling out my pie crusts, cookie dough and pizza dough on my wooden cutting board that had been covered with flour. And no matter how much flour I spread on that thing, there is always a spot right smack dab in the middle of the dough that sticks to the cutting board. That problem is no more, now. It is huge, sticks to your table/counter top, and you don’t have to load it with flour…just a sprinkle!
• Joseph Joseph Adjustable Rolling Pin Okay. Thank you so much Joseph Joseph for inventing this baby! Whenever I would roll out dough, it’d always be a guess as to how thick the dough was getting. Then, inevitably, the outside edges of the dough would always get rolled out thinner than the middle. Plus, when eyeballing it, my 1/4″ thick is different than yours. With the help of this rolling pin, you just choose your thickness and go to town rolling! Genius!
• Bodum 8-cup Double-Walled French Press My dear husband got this french press for me. I so didn’t need this fancy-dancey one, but it is awesome! In the mornings I go ahead and put my kettle on the stove while I grind the coffee beans. Pour the coffee in, pour the hot water in and set the french press on the table while I make breakfast. Twenty minutes later, while we are sitting down to breakfast, the coffee in the Bodum is still steaming hot as we pour our coffee. Delicious! Being a coffee snob, the flavor difference between the french press and the coffee maker is amazing. The paper filter of my coffee maker just soaked up all those oils and flavor of the freshly ground coffee beans that you get to experience with the Bodum. At Starbucks, we would always use the french press to do coffee tastings. Yum!
• Cuisinart Elite Collection 4 cup Food Processor I have been dreaming of a food processor. When I got married, I never thought I would really need one. So we didn’t register for one. But, boy was I wrong. It is a life saver! I had been using my junk of a blender that I got for $11 at Target to crush my graham crackers, oreos, nuts, falafel, etc. This thing makes it worlds easier. When I made the oreo truffles, I had to blend them 5 cookies at a time for quite some time and even then some oreos just didn’t want to be crushed to death! Yay for food processors!
• Assortment of Tart pans: Fluted French Tart Pan, Tartlet Pans, Mini Tart pans Look out tarts! Here they come!
• Digital Oil & Candy Thermometer I know my mom’s motivation for getting this baby! If you’ve ever tried to make homemade candy (besides chocolate covered whatever) you know that getting it the correct temperature makes all the difference. You see, my mom loves loves loves pecan pralines…look out for the recipe soon….and I make some mean pralines. However, I’ve always been scared to post the recipe because I didn’t know exactly at what temperature you should get it to. I just time and eyeball it. Now that I have this thermometer I will be a candy making machine! 🙂 Look out for pralines in the mail, Mom!
• Stainless-Steel Pastry Blender If you’ve ever had to ‘cut in’ butter to flour when making biscuits, pie dough, scones, etc, you know it can be annoying. With this pastry blender, you can easily cut the butter up and blend it with your flour. Mmm…now I want a warm Lemon Blueberry Scone!
• Bialetti Crème Brûlée Set Once upon a time, Logan, Kala and I made crème brûlée. Logan likes fire. Logan has a giant blow torch. Logan caramelized burnt our crème brûlée’s with his giant torch. The End. Now we have a kitchen torch for this sort of thing. 🙂
• Ceramic Pie Weights
• Fluted Pastry Wheel Excellent for ravioli, pie crusts, cookies, crackers, etc.
• Silicone Spatulas They are essential to baking and cleaning out bowls…especially when chocolate batter is involved. But, they can go up to 800°, using it on your non-stick pans so that the non-stick surface stays non-stick! 🙂
• And last, but not least…the greatest ever…Star Wars Cookie Cutters! Logan is super stoked to eat some of these!

Is there a kitchen essential that you can’t live without?

Note: I did not receive any compensation for these reviews and I am not affiliated with any of these companies. The above are only my opinion, take it or leave it. Thank you!