Kitchen Gadget Shopping March 13

As I mentioned last night we had a very productive day shopping yesterday. Let me set the stage for you. Dan and I met our friend Louis at the Lancaster Outlet malls. Our friend Louis is actually a professional shopper. Louis and I met when we worked at a hospital together where he was the director of pharmacy and materials management which meant that he purchased everything for the hospital. He is a fabulous shopper so we always have a great time on these excursions. When we go shopping with Louis there is always a contest to see who will win. Normally it is either me or Louis but yesterday Dan had the most stuff. To be fair his was entirely clothing and he needed to replenish his wardrobe. Yes I am making excuses, but I came in a close second so that had to be a reason. ;-)

We started at the kitchen gadget store. There is a large shop in Lancaster called “Reading China and Glass” that exclusively carries home goods. It is the size of a small chain grocery store so there is always something to find. Yesterday I hit the motherlode of stuff. Here are some of the more interesting things I picked up:

Tasting Spoons, because you never know when you want to make something decadent and just a little bite of it will be enough.

Jelly strainer for making almond milk and soymilk. I can’t take credit for this it was an idea that Bryanna came up with and it seemed so great I wanted to give it a try.

More sushi molds well, for sushi of course.

If you haven’t tried magnetic measuring spoons these things are great. I have another set and use them all the time.

When I saw this silicon egg poacher I started thinking of what I could make in it with tofu or okara. This is definitely something for area 51. Not exactly sure what yet, but I will figure it out.

My hubby loves candy so I picked up a two more candy molds. Now I need to come up with some recipes for healthy candy. The recipes will be the hardest part of this process.

Of all the kitchen gadgets this gyoza maker is one my husband couldn’t believe I didn’t have. I normally make them by hand but that takes a long time so I wanted to try the mold in the hope that it is faster. We will see.

I am very short 5’2 ½” to be exact. As I say to my hubby that half inch makes a difference when you are as short as I am. Because I am vertically challenged I also have small hands and this makes it difficult to open jars. I was very excited to find this jar opener. Dan told me his grandmother had something very similar decades ago that worked like a charm. If this works well you will all know about it. This may be my favorite gadget today.

The taco shells mold are pretty awesome as well. I love the idea of being able to bake taco shells. However I plan to dehydrate them so we will see if this works. It is another experiment for area 51 but one that I am really looking forward to. I can be such a food geek.  Nicco (aka Binky) was checking them out as well.

Finally there was a tart maker. I had never heard of this before. But when I was reading the back and it said you could use phyllo dough I knew I had to give this a try.

After a few hours of kitchen and clothes shopping we stopped at Ruby Tuesday and got salad bar since it is always possible to stay vegan there. I did notice that the salad bar didn’t get much traffic while we were there. However I did see many plates of greasy fried food and quesadillas coming out of the kitchen. I am going to guess that healthy eating isn’t at the top of the list for shoppers in Lancaster. Once we finished lunch we went back to shopping and both bought more clothes before we headed for home.

We met Louis for dinner at Jesse Wong’s and had our usual, veggie sushi and Faux duck Szechuan style washed down with a big pot of green tea.

Then it was off the Wegman’s for provisions and home. By the time the day was over we had been running around for 12 hours. Dan and I were both very tired.

Today we spent lounging around and putting away all the “stuff” we purchased. It always seems like more when you have to put it away. Thankfully I had made some space for the new items. It looks like now I should make just a little more space.

For dinner tonight we had white bean chili with homemade seitan chorizo. It was quite tasty, but is now another back log recipe to add to the queue. I am feeling as though I am never going to get caught up.

Tomorrow I have a few things to do. I may not have a chance to post anything until dinner time. Until then, I hope you all have a great Monday. If I can sneak a post in between now and then I will. Talk to you later.