Holy cats it's SECRET SANTA 2017 (11th ANNUAL)

My Santa must have stalked the hell out of me, all of the books here are right up my alley. What Santa did not know is that both my girlfriend and I are into cooking. I immediately picked up and started going through the larger of the books by Jacques Pepin. My girlfriend asked me about the book by Lidia Bastianich and I mentioned, “yes, from the show Lidia’s Italy.” She then snatched up the book and dove in. She is part Italian. This lead to our first attempt at lasagna yesterday. We still have work to do, but this is going to be fun. I really, really wanted a great finished product shot for Santa, but alas, we made the equivalent of shredded wonton noodle soup kind of pasta consistency.

There are so many recipes and tips in these things. The rarer of the set, the book by James Beard, seems to cover just about anything and should be a great reference.

Action pic,'attempt at making lasagna (sorry for the kitchen mess, we dove into trying things out):

Questions for Santa:

  • Who are you, great wonder?
  • If we make an additional 6 curry types, what happens?
  • Can we send you food?

Holy fuck @Skipper is a hero. Like, seriously man, read me like a book. And speaking of books. . .


First up, Arika’s adorable re-wrapping job.

Second, the incredible and insanely generous collection of gifts.

Harold McGee’s On Food and Cooking is a landmark volume and, from what I hear, essential reading. And J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s Serious Eats is seriously my favorite cooking website by a mile. I can’t wait to have it all collected like that!

The Quarter to Three-branded apron seems like a one-of-a-kind item and I can’t wait to stop mussing my old shirts with random stuff :)

And of course, that induction cooktop seems like a great way to do more and better cooking on the countertop where there’s lighting and space. . . hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. . . .

Seriously man, I was beaming from ear to ear this morning opening that stuff. You’re amazing. And we’ll grab that beverage sometime this year for sure!

Well, I wasn’t part of the official secret santa, but I did take @Kadath up on his incredibly generous offer earlier in the thread.

It was a rough morning being our first Christmas since the divorce, but the gifts that arrived put a big smile on my face and I’m looking forward to breaking out the games with the kids his week.

Thanks @Kadath you’re a boss!

So glad you like 'em, man. Merry Christmas!!

Also, every chef needs an extra burner: simmering stock, boiling water, keeping something warm, a long saute, portable burners for events, etc. You’re more of a chef than most of us that pop in over in the cooking thread. I hope it helps.

Also, you get to beta test it for the rest of us there. ;)

@fire is a great secret santa. The packages were tastefully wrapped by Amazon and she added a little note to each one. Thanks!

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I need to upload pictures, but holy crap! I love my gifts!!! Pictures to come soon!

OK, here we go!


First, I opened the box I received a while back. This game looks awesome! The artwork is pretty fantastic and I really dig the idea of working for transcendence.

Now, the next package



I absolutely love Stroopwafels! And the coffee cup has something on it…


Holy crap! This is the best coffee cup ever. EVER!!!


Thank you Santa!!! I hope you have a wonderful holiday!

So legit, we desperately needed one last night. At the end of meal prep, I was trying to simultaneously cook potatoes for the mash, boil rice, cook the Biryani itself, and mull some wine. It was, uh, difficult.

My Santa got me the Fallout board game! I love new board games. Nice stalking and it wasn’t even on a wishlist yet! Super excited to try it out.


I should have known it was you. There were hints.

The toes belong to the wife. Christmas themed. The white one has a Christmas tree on it.

The main hint. Who else writes like this?

Brilliant! After Christmas is over, pizza is a certainty. Many thanks, Armando, you do indeed rock! Great stalking. Well done.

I was unsure whether or not I was duplicating something you had already. But you did say you just got it so I took a chance. Enjoy!

Triple post! Thanks again to @fire for all of her work on this. Above and beyond the call of duty.

I opened my present - a drone! This should be super fun to play around with. Problem is, it’s not clear who sent it, the card said “your QT3 friend in a Scandinavian Country”… tried searching… hmm… who is it? Thanks!

Wow! I have been eyeing one of those steels for a long time. I used a baking stone, but from all I have researched, the steel is better, and works as a great heat sink as well to keep a good consistent oven heat!


Here is my stack of goodies!


The first was one of two different metal miniatures. I collect these as they are a nice way to get a creative bent while watching TV.


And the second one, the space shuttle. Most of my collection is around Sci-Fi, but this will definitely find a place when I construct it.


And my cats weren’t left out! I was just about to buy a new one of these, the old one is all bent and was thrown away just a couple of weeks ago. They love this, and being a bit on the fat side, they both definitely need this as well to help get a bit more activity into their lives.


A new board game I haven’t hear of. I watched some YouTube let’s play and my wife and I are excited to bring this one to the table. I am not a huge dexterity gamer, but anything like this is much more interesting for my wife to play so I am looking forward to some more game nights now with her! And I am sure when our nieces/nephew come visit this will get pulled out as well.


And finally the big item! My Saitek X52 was getting very old in the tooth and I was looking to find a nice HOTAS to replace it. This definitely fits the bill, now to really get into some VR flight simming!

Thank you so much DennyA, I am one of the quieter members on the board so I am sure it must have been a challenge to stalk me, but everything was perfect. Even the Metal Earth items were both brand new for my collection!

I was checking out the website. If J Kenji Lopez-Alt calls it “…the world’s best consumer cooking surface.” I’m sold. It also seems to bake great bread as well. It’s going to get a lot of use.

Edit: I have to try this.

Now that I have both a stone and a steel in my oven, for my next test, I tried emulating a more traditional pizza oven by placing my stone on one shelf with the steel on the shelf just underneath it. The idea is that radiant energy from the stone would help cook the top of the pizza faster, creating better charring on the top surface, and hopefully reducing cook time even more.

I’m afraid I can’t post an opening photo, since my Secret Santa’s gift was an Amazon.com gift certificate that arrived in an email. But thanks to @rei for the gift and kind note!

-Tom

Nope, all new to me and a big surprise! Thanks again.

And happy to bring a small smile @Shellfishguy. May 2018 be even better for ya!

@Scott123 heeeyy happy holidays from your Secret Santa! I tried to tick as many of your boxes as possible, you sure weren’t easy to stalk! Hopefully you’ll get to play around with it with your family.

Also it is SO NICE to check this thread, it makes me all warm and fuzzy inside to see all the great work all of you put into your gifts!

My Secret Santa did a great job! Two board games and stuff for each of my kids! Thanks a bunch, I have enough kids that I have trouble remembering to get each of them a gift! :P

My wife was nice enough to open the Amazon packages and wrap everything for us to open on Xmas morning. Pictures follow, with the people in the family who are still cute and photograph-able.

The dogs come check out my daughter’s gift:

Kisses ensue:

The kids get into their new fantastic books:

Then there was some video stuff instead of pics, so you miss the part where they happily read the included notes and check out the books, but they are awesome, thanks Santa!

For me, I got Valeria: Card Kingdoms and Lovecraft Letter:

Along with a nice note about selecting Lovecraft Letter because it’s a neat twist on Love Letter which was one of their favorites. I also enjoy it, so I’m sure this will be right up my alley. Thanks again, Santa!