Cottage Kitchen Haul from The Village

We bought a cottage recently and while we've not yet taken possession of it, we are certainly taking possession of items to kit it out and are shopping and stockpiling like an episode of "Hoarders." But in a good way. By the way, plenty more to come about The Cottage. Trust me, I never shut up about it. Consider yourself fairly warned.

A couple Saturdays ago, under the guise of buying yet another pair of leggings (or jeggings or skeggings) for Lauren, I swung by The Village (Value Village for the uninitiated.) In addition to replenishing the legging supply and making my lucky cookbook find (see April 12th post), I took a real good look through the "kitchen stuff" for a few items on our cottage supplies list. 

As always, at The Village, there are treasures to be found, amid the kitcsch, the bizarre, and the "eww, where's the hand sanitizer?" items. I mean - water bottles - who is going to buy a used, plastic water bottle? I gag at the thought. And lingerie. Let's not even go there.

I saw a bunch of crock pots but have decided to hold off on buying one, since I don't know that I would actually use one at the cottage. I plan to cook differently there (as in fresh and leisurely and somewhat wine-lubricated versus "throw something in the crock pot on the way out the door to work!") so I took a pass. And while we're in the market for some decent random pots and pans to supplement our partial set, I didn't find anything to meet that need yet. If I was in the market for beat up pots, I'd have been set. Just sayin'. 

So now that I've told you what I didn't buy, here's what I did get:

- Large white serving platter - perfect for a plate of mixed grill (steak, salmon, chicken, etc.) or the Thanksgiving turkey

- smaller apple-motif  "cottagey" serving platter for appetizers, vegetables, etc.

- hip looking 4-part appetizer dish

- glass measuring cup

- salad spinner

- muffin tin

- a whack of acrylic stemware, including wine and champagne glasses. Yeah, I know, I say I won't drink out of someone's plastic water bottle but I bought plastic glasses. I'm not always logical.

- 4 brand spanking new with labels still on them Isaac Mizrahi hot pink and white linen-look napkins that can double as placements if the kids don't cover them in spaghetti sauce, gert, and schmenk.

I washed all the items in hot temperatures and plenty of cleaning product so we're all set. 

Total cost for my haul? $34.00! Brilliant!

Here's a picture of my purchases:

And here's Coco photobombing/admiring my purchases:

She wishes she could shop at The Village.

More Value Village haulage to come, I'm sure, so stay tuned!

Patience and Karma

I'm a cookbook junkie. I have a collection  of close to 100 of them and love them all. I read cookbooks in bed like most people read a good novel.

I love the possibilities in the cookbooks and I love learning how to make amazing meal experience. My idea of a great night is cooking an awesome meal and enjoying it with my family, with wine and music. I enjoy going to restaurants but I also enjoy making a gorgeous restaurant-quality meal in the comfort of my own home and savouring the challenge of getting messy make something fantastic. I also like saving a few bucks to reinject into quality food and quality  wine.

So today I went to The Village (Value Village) to pick up some leggings for Lauren the Leggings Junkie and next thing I knew I was shopping like a maniac  to kit up our recently-purchased cottage. (Will post my cottage kitting haul later.) And then I was looking at cookbooks, since our cottage will need cookbooks as well. I plan to cook really simple meals there but I also plan to cook some hardcore awesomeness as well. And a house without cookbooks is a really bad state of affairs in my opinion.

As I browsed the cookbooks, I remembered "the one that got away" yet again. It's not just people who fish or romantics who reminisce about the one who escaped their grasp. Cookbook junkies have this sense as well.

A few years ago, as I browsed cookbooks at The Village, just as I was about to flip through "The French Laundry Cookbook", the woman next to me selected it and put it in her cart. Gone. I didn't know much about it at the time but had a feeling it was something good. I later found out was an awesome cookbook that had won "Cookbook of the Year" when it was published. (That's like the Oscars for cookbook junkies! Imagine walking the red carpet..."Who are you wearing?" Sigh...)

This particular book (fix) remained on my wish list although I was not willing to pay full pop at retail for it. (I never, ever pay full retail for anything.) And every time I browsed the cookbooks at The Village, I remembered the one that got away. Not in a psycho kind of way but just a brief flash of push anyone out of the way who reaches for anything while I'm browsing. Just kidding. No I'm not.

So today I was picking through the books when I noticed one lying flat on the shelf under a few books.  Pulled it out and...

Ahhhhhhh!!! Angels sang, harps were strummed, and unicorns doled out lollipops to everyone!  "The French Laundry Cookbook"! 

As I placed it in my cart I wondered: Maybe that woman never bought the book and it sat there for years? Maybe she donated it back again? Or maybe I was just patient and have good karma. Maybe I'm reading way too much into a random episode but I don't think so. 

Regardless,  I am feeling like the elusive book for my collection (addiction?) has found its way home. Can't wait to get my hands dirty, playing with the gorgeous recipes. Turn on the music and pour me some wine!