The end of 2012

I had great intentions for the last few weeks of December, 2012 but a cold/virus got the best of me.  The week before Christmas was spent mostly comatose while liquids spewed from my ear, nose & throat.  Eeww!  Thank goodness I woke up on Christmas Eve feeling much better, but that didn't leave much time for all the shopping & baking that I'd planned.   The week since Christmas has been spent frantically cleaning up the messes made during the week before Christmas and knitting a custom ordered afghan.  Anyway, let's just say I haven't accomplished a tenth of what I'd hoped to.

One of the things I'd planned was a big novella blog post about a couple of my favorite purchases of 2012.  Rather than writing a novel about them, I'm blogging Twitter style.  The first purchase was a set of knives.

That's one of the set of eight.  I got them at BJ's, our local wholesale club & the set of eight cost less than $20.  Each knife is a different color and there's six different sizes.  I absolutely LOVE these knives.  I'm not sure what I was thinking when I bought them.  I think I was simply attracted to the pretty colors.  I didn't need any new knives, although I had been wanting to try out a ceramic blade to see if it really did make a difference cutting lettuce.   I still haven't paid any attention to whether they keep the lettuce from turning brown or not, but who cares!  They cut like a dream.  They are comfortable in my hand.  They are dishwasher safe.  And even if the dishwasher does dull them, who cares.  They cost less than $3 a piece!

That's a close-up of the manufacturer in case you are wondering.  If you ever come across a set of these knives at your local warehouse club, buy them!  I actually prefer them to my expensive Cutco knives!

Did you notice the scratched up cutting board the knife is resting on in the first picture?  My dad made that cutting board for my mom as a wedding gift in 1942.  Mom used it every day for over 65 years.  It's one of my favorite inheritances.

My next favorite purchase of 2012 was another BJ's find.  An enamel lined cast iron pot.  I've been wanting one forever but could not justify spending over $100 for one.  After all, microwaved popcorn tends to be about all I cook these days.  But, there it was, sitting on the shelf at BJ's for a grand price of $39.95.   It was mine!

Of course, I practically needed help lifting it into the shopping cart.  It is heavy.  But it's also a beautiful sunny yellow color, it cooks as well on top of the stove as in the oven, and clean up is a breeze.

See all that splattered stuff on the sides?  You'd have to scrub a normal metal pot pretty hard to get that burnt on potato & corn splatter off, but this pot washes right up with a normal dish cloth & normal pressure.  No actual scrubbing required.  It even came clean with just a regular pot scrubber that time I forgot I was cooking (on high heat of course) and the spaghetti sauce burnt so bad it was crunchy on the bottom.   So again, if you see one of these at your local BJ's, snag it.  You won't be sorry!

Because I'm running so late with this post, I won't bother with a ton of Christmas photos.  If you are really interested, you'll be able to find a few more on Facebook but, we did have snow on Christmas Eve.

Okay, so we only got about 30 minutes of snow & it didn't accumulate.  That snow must have fallen off a tractor & trailer when it stopped at the truck-stop for fuel.  But still - a pile of snow on Christmas Eve!  In Virginia!

Minnie & Max would publicly like to thank Zack for helping them hang their stocking.

The dogs love their Christmas stocking and got super excited when I brought them out of storage.  I swear they remembered them from last year.

Okay, that's all for now.  It's time for me to go get ready for the New Year festivities.

Have a safe & happy New Year!