(Early) Kitchen-y Christmas

I love getting mail. Well, FUN mail...not bill mail. Who likes bill mail? Not I!

While I was stateside, I managed to buy a lot of stuff which wouldn't fit in my suitcase allowance..hey, what can I say..I go for gusto. Anyway, I had to ship a lot of it home, which included some Le Creuset I managed to get my paws on from Gilroy. Given, I bought these about a week before I actually went to the Le Creuset factory, but I didn't wanna risk waiting and the factory not having my color (by chance). And, good thing I DID buy them when I had the chance since the factory store, shockingly, didn't have it. They had some items in the "Flame" color, as you see pictured in the tea kettle I got for Eric, but they didn't really have anything in the "Caribbean" blue which would've been a total buzz kill for me. Not only that, but I ended up getting these pieces for WAY cheaper than I would've got them in France..and yes, it was still cheaper even when shipping them here.  

My 7.25 quart round French oven and my  2.75 quart sauce pan:

As silly as it sounds, I was stoked about the tea kettle cause the handle on top folds down so it'll allow you to put it in the pantry / cabinets. 

Plus, my "Flame" peppermill came in!

In addition to getting my Le Creuset stuff in, I also mauled Amazon for some cookbooks since our "Book Mark" at the local commissary didn't happen to carry them. Buying books on the economy isn't all that easy considering everything is in Dutch...besides, we seem to live off of Amazon anyway! So, I'm really excited to try these out:

Oh, and I did an experiment. Ya see, my cute Belgian house has not so cute cubbard space, especially above the stove area. I like to cook, which involves using spices...a lot of 'em. When ever I try to pick out a specific bottle of whatever it is that I'm looking for, I usually end up with an avalanche of stuff falling all over the place..makes things REALLY frustrating. So, I cruised all around Amazon and ended up find this pretty cool spice rack: 

It fits PERFECTLY (thank gawd for accurate measuring) and holds 18 bottles. Not only that, but it holds the drawer when you pull it out, so you don't have to worry about it actually falling out all the way when you're looking for that specific spice because it locks into place. Now that I know it actually fits AND works, I'll be buying a few more so I can organize the rest of my spice cabinets!

Aside from those goodies, I got my handy dandy "Candy Thermometer" that I ordered from Pampered Chef. 'Tis the season for candies, and when it comes to making a specific kind of fudge..I gotta make sure I'm hitting the right temperature for it:

Last but not least, there was a "scooper" I found while I was shopping around Carmel, California. As I plugged around this amazing store (seriously, it's like Toys R Us for cooks!), I came across this Texas size scooper. In the picture, the one on the left is the Texas sized one while the scoop on the right is Pampered Chefs largest model:

"Gluttony" sized, is how I refer to it. 

SO, there ya have it! Merry EARLY Christmas to meeeee!!!! YIPPPPPYYYY!!!