New Food Finds

MH and I celebrated 10 years of marriage in June 2012. As anniversary presents to ourselves, we decided to buy new cookware and towels to replace the respective ones we received as wedding presents...10+ years ago. Lest one think we were timely with those purchases: we ordered (and received!) our new cookware last week, and we haven't even found towels we like much less purchased any. Either our taste in towels has changed dramatically in 10 years or overall towel quality (for the price) has drastically declined in the same period. Either way, we replaced the guest bath towels with colorful stuff, but our master bath's towels are still doing the job just looking a little worse for wear.

Our 10 year old non-stick nice-at-the-time cookware should have been replaced long ago. We (ok, I) decided to go stainless steel in replacing it. It's pretty. I can use any darn utensil I pick up. AND! It's not coated in that non-stick stuff that chips off and looks like pepper in things that don't contain pepper. Something tells me that the lined through portion of the previous sentence can't be all that healthy. We bought Tramontina Tri-Ply Clad. With reviews like this, I figure I can recalibrate my cooking brain to help with sticking issues and cook at lower temperatures.

In other gleeful kitchen happiness, my sister ordered me a new crockpot for Christmas. It came in the same day as the cookware. I was ALL SET with recipes and ingredients for a cooking frenzy this weekend. Unfortunately, Tot and I were felled with colds this weekend, and the closest I got to actual cooking was putting two different frozen meals into the oven. MH and I did manage to wash, dry, and put away all the new items and rid the cabinets of the old stuff. Most of the old stuff went into the trash, but a few pieces that were still in good shape found a new home with Teen. He was happy with his "new" stuff too!

Here are links to all the recipes I hope to make in the next two weeks. I am super excited to give each of these a whirl.

BBQ Chicken Dinner in the Crockpot - Really, the whole dinner!
Cheeseburger Casserole - This sounds weird, but it gets rave reviews. (I made it, post tomorrow).
Cheesesteak style Sloppy Joes - I really think MH will LOVE this one.
Chocolate Meringue Cookies - the mixer is begging to whip some egg whites
Coconut Macaroons - I am just obsessed with these since our NYC trip

I also plan to try out some tried and true favorites like tacos and some soups to warm us up in this cold weather! I will update when I've tried the new ones!


*I know relatively nothing about cookware. I am not being compensated in any way for mentioning Tramontina cookware that I've never even used. I bought it because it's shiny.