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the machete I keep tucked between our mattress and box spring. handy for cracking coconuts. or masked villains.

I love villeroy and boch. Very durable, reasonably priced and very well made. I use their juice glasses for very casual wine drinking also. I've dropped them squarely on a tile floor and the glass hasn't broken.
I do enjoy wine much more out of a nicer glass. I think it heightens the experience (whether or not the wine itself is "nice")

on the door: capers, horseradish, dijon mustard, coarse mustard, yellow mustard (ick, only for the husb) tomato paste, apricot jam for mustard-based vinaigrette, soy sauce, siracha, franks red hot, Rasta Fire hotsauce, fish sauce, hoisin, chili-garlic paste, sesame oil, harissa, oyster sauce, VT maple syrup, red and yellow curry paste, hot chili oil, fish sauce, TJs chutney

of course usual suspects such as bbq sauce (homemade and sweet baby rays) mayo, ketchup, curry ketchup, cherry preserves

other weird things: duck fat, tahini, truffle butter, pickled RAMPS, yum. simple syrup and minted simple syrup (for easy-peasy mojitos), and Ghee, guajillo peppers, and anchovies, garlic confit

i have an abnormally small fridge, so I repackage a lot of things in tall glass jars from the container store to maximize door space. a lot of plastic containers are very space inefficient

Capresso. It has a glass carafe which makes the exterior easy to wipe clean, a wide mouth so the interior is easy to clean, looks really nice on the counter if you choose to leave it out, and the base plugs into the wall (so you can take the carafe anywhere). Excess cord also can be hidden and wrapped inside the base so it doesn't clutter your counter. I've had mine for 4+ years, no problem at all. I have about 4 square feet of counter space in my manhattan apartment (so things have to be awesome to make the counter cut) and it sits out full time.

location (either of yourself or the hospital) please!

I just bought peas! I just got a new food processor! Thanks for the dinner inspiration. I love french in a flash. The drunken angel hair with leeks and cream is an All Time Favorite around these parts.

delizia. its awesome.

its funny you mention that.
Last weekend I poured rancid heavy cream into my already cooked, ready to go mashed potatoes right before getting ready to serve them. Ruined. And the container was brand-new, unopened.
Baked some sally lunn bread (my third attempt) and realized on the third try that the yeast expired 2 months ago. Which resulted in a leaden bread brick. Fail.
Last night I poured polenta into the pot, but missed the pot and it all went into the crevice between the stove and the window. Which is impossible to clean, of course.
And then, to top it all off, the 3 quart all clad SS saute pan (you know, the super heavy one) filled with juices and fat from the roasted chicken thighs I just pulled out of the FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY DEGREE OVEN fell off the stove top.. And I, brilliantly, tried to catch it with my bare hands. An awful decision which resulted in 2nd degree burns on my right hand, chicken fat splattered across the entire kitchen, ruined pants and shirt, and a ruined kitchen carpet. And the nail in the coffin: no sauce for the chicken.
Needless to say, we are doing take-out tonight.

I got a bunch of spiegelau for a song at Tuesday Morning discount store. Not all at once, though, and it took a couple of leaving-empty-handed trips. Champagne coupes(!!) and V, rocks, highball, champagne. Delicate and not used all of the time. However we have a pretty complete collection suitable for any drink you could ever want and it probably cost me less than $50 for about 40ish pieces. And to their credit, none have broken in the 3+ years I've had them.

BUT I think one of the most versatile glasses available is the villeroy & boch Bernadotte line. They make a highball, highball tumbler, and old fashioned. I put everything in these, from juice, to water, wine, gin & tonic, burbon & water, mixed drinks. And they are INVINCIBLE. I've dropped them on our stone floor and they've never chipped. I have 8, put them in the dishwasher, crash them around and they never fail. They are thicker glass so they keep the temperature of your beverage steady a bit longer before warming. And they are really casually french in style, but not stuffy. Pretty sleek.

FreshDirect has had this on their veggie page for a week or so now...I've noticed a slight increase in the prices of the vegetables mentioned above. Bummer as I needed about 4 lbs of red bell peppers to roast and turn into a appetizer for a dinner party a few days ago. Obviously scratched that idea.

what do you think about using duck fat instead of butter in the gravy? I can't use the turkey fat drippings this year b/c I'm trying the ATK's recipe that calls for covering the bird in salt pork.

Yum. Made this today with lots of ugly tomatoes from the farmers market and it tasted great. Added some homemade rustic bread croutons at the end. Also added just a bit of tomato paste to deepen the flavor. It is the perfect "goodbye-summer-but-I-am-totally-ready-for-fall" type of soup.
Thanks SE/Martha!

cheez-its, goldfish, tortilla chips..... so lets just say all salty, crunchy, bite-size things. oh and jellybeans or anything Haribo. mmmm-kay this list is getting long....