The Loot

So this Christmas has been extremely abundant for my inner foodie. All the gifts we got were food related and oh so appreciated. I have no idea where all these appliances are gonna fit, but I'm now a proud owner of an espresso/latte maker;


an ice-cream maker


and a pasta-maker.

My mom got an electric meat-mincer and a slow-cookerˇ

so I'm expecting I've got access by association there too :).

I've obviously already made the first Lattes. The first batch of ice-cream is planned for tomorrow or the day after (today is the Pavlova day and we've made an army-sized one). And I guess I'll be starting off 2010 with some fresh pasta.

Also on another, still gift-related, note - this was the first year when I finally got around to compiling gift baskets with home-made ingredients in them. I made cheese-lovers baskets that had a bottle of wine, a Brie, a soft cheese with walnuts and a hard Mediterranean cheese with herbs in it, also grissini and saltine crackers and then I made a jar of pear chutney and a jar of red-onion marmalade to go in there as well.

Initial responses are positive, so I might try that again next year. Although I must say, chopping and cooking that mounting of red onions that I needed for 5 jars was quite a test on the patience of the men in my family :)