Mike got me a Hamilton Beach Liquid Blu 5 Speed Blender for my birthday and I tried it yesterday for the first time. It was OK. It did do a good job of blending and crushing the ice - a godsend after my old blender which took forever to crush ice and would start to smell after trying. But adjusting the bottom to the top seems tricky, apparently it needs to be adjusted really tightly, and my blender dripped all over the place. I'm hoping that next time it won't be as bad.

I'm a little concerned because I only found two reviews of the blender online, one by an Amazon customer and another by the never-to-be-trusted Consumers' Guide. But I'm not a particularly heavy user and only time will tell if the blender will perform. As it does, I'll comment here :)

Last Xmas I got a KitchenAid K45SS Classic 250-Watt 4-1/2-Quart Stand Mixer from Mike. It's the lowest KitchenAid model, but I'm not a big baker and it got pretty good reviews. It was also VERY CHEAP ($110, it's currently selling for about $200). I hadn't used it until now, however, because I needed a three prong adapter for my kitchen. Apparently we had one, but I couldn't find it when I looked for it.

In any case, it's been found and yesterday I used the mixer for the first time. Now, keep in mind that this is my first stand mixer - I've been using cheap mixers that you have to hold until now. But I loved it, it was so great to leave the mixer to do its job while I could prepare the next step in the recipe. And I thought it did quite a good job of mixing things. Anyway, for the time being at least, I'm happy with it.

I got Mika an Easy Bake Oven for Christmas. She'd seen it, wanted one, and I figured it would be a cool thing to have. So far, it hasn't.

The problem may be that Mika may be too young for it - it's designed for kids 8 and over, though it still says kids should be supervised while using it. It may be that once she can read the instructions, and do the baking all by herself, it'll be a blass. But at this age I still have to premeasure the water that goes into the easy bake mixes, which is really no different than premeasuring the water that goes into a grown up cake mix. And for a grown up cake she gets to break eggs, which is exciting. And then, it's all a matter of putting it into the oven, whether it's the kids one or the adult one, she needs my help to do it (though today she took the cake out of the oven all by herself - while I was on the phone - and managed to only burn herself slightly). So I don't see much of an advantage *at this age* between using the easy bake oven and using a regular mix and the regular oven. Maybe that will change.

My Christmas list is full of food items, so it's no surprise that I got quite a few food gifts. These included:

-A 11-cup Cuisinart Food Processor. I've wanted one for a long, long time (a decade even), so I was quite happy to get it. Of course, I knew it was coming - I'd asked Mike to not get it given our financial situation, but he said he'd done all the research and was committed to buying it. Well, I can't really complain. As soon as I have the house clean and ready - and all the dishes done - I'm going to use it. Come to think of it, my friend Paz is having us over to her house for a cooking lesson at the end of the week. I may just make some stuffed kibbeh to bring anyway.

-Balsamic Vinegar. It was the 12-year-old kind and I can't believe just how wonderful it is. Beautiful, delicious, with the strongest imaginable flavor. I can only imagine what older and more expensive vinegar can taste like. But this, really, is good enough for me. Now I need to figure out how I will consume it, other than in drops directly from the bottle.

-Metal measuring cups and spoons. Last year, when I went to Argentina, I saw my aunts cups and measuring spoons and almost started crying. I could remember perfectly using them and having my grandma use them so many years in the past. Just by looking at them, I could think of my granny. So I wanted to have my own measuring cups and spoons that one day I could give to my children and to my grandchildren. So, of course, I wanted the quality stuff. I must have wanted it really hard, because I got three sets of them. One from my mother, another from Mike, and another from my friends Regina and Boris. I couldn't be happier, though clearly I can't keep them all. I'll probably return the one Mike got me and get something else at Sur la Table instead. So much to chose from :)

-Food storage containers. The Sharper Image version of Tupperware. My mother swears by them. I'm somewhat suspicious of the drawings on the cover (which have grapes going rancid after a week in the fridge in the "other" containers - which definitely does not happen to me), and I'm not sure if I need them, but I probably can put them to use. I should actually transfer the leftovers to them.

-Cookies and candies from our friends Aamani, Victoria and Carla and Astrid.

That's all I can remember now.

I saw these little bowls in the window of a Japanese restaurant on East 14th and I fell in love with them. Fortunately they were for sale ($17 for the set). They are made in Japan and they're sooo cute. Now I need to figure out what to serve on them. I figure I'll debut them at my salon in a couple of weeks. I'm planning to serve just wine and cheese, what can I put in the bowls? Some olives? Some almonds? They're pretty small, bear in mind.

I just bought a new ice cream maker, a Cuisinart ICE-20 on sale at Amazon for $50. It had gotten mixed reviews, many people were complaining that the ice cream didn't really get too thick and was more like soft-serve. But most of them liked it and the complaints seemed generalized to all ice cream makers.

It arrived last night and I quickly put the bowl in the freezer and couldn't wait to make ice cream. I made some today following the most simple recipe from its manual, and so far so good. The ice cream (cookies n'cream) was soft but firmer than I expected it to be. It's now firming up in the fridge. It tasted very much like Dreyer's. I bet Mika will be happy to have some when she gets home.

I'm already re-freezing the bowl to make some more tomorrow, I'm thinking of strawberry sorbet!