It’s the hap happiest season of all…

It’s that time of year again.  Time for shopping!  and recession means sales!  Lots of them! Sometimes it’s good to see the glass half full.  Anywho…I’m beginning to start my Christmas shopping and am looking for some good deals.  Today I’m on the look out for the Le Creuset Halo Tea Kettle.  My mom really wants it.

I tried to talk her out of it.  I think an electric tea kettle is faster and more efficient, but she loves the old school look and feel of the Le Creuset tea kettle.  So today I’ll review the Halo and then go deal hunting.

Description: Unique locking handle makes lifting, filling and pouring whistling tea kettle extra easy. Heat-resistant phenolic knobs and handle. Heavy-gauge steel coated with glossy enamel. – Sur La Table

What are the benefits of buying Le Creuset?  Mostly Durability and longevity.  This will be a teapot that you’re never going to have to replace whereas an electric tea kettle will most likely be replaced within 10 years.  Le Creuset’s glossy enamel also makes it super easy to clean.

If you ask me there are really two kinds of shoppers: those who will wait and then pounce when a good deal comes around and those who look for the best deal right now.  I love instant gratification, and I love a good deal.  Guess which one I am?  Anyway…back to things…

The Le Creuset tea kettle retails for $55.00 and getting a good deal on this tea kettle will definitely be a challenge.  When I went to Marshalls the other day, I saw a similar Le Creuset tea kettle selling for $30.00.  If you’re not picky in terms of style and color, I would definately recommend it.  Unfortunately my mom wants the halo tea kettle, but in the cherry hombre pattern.  If you search with microsoft’s live.com an ebay link shows and you can get 15% cashback on your buyitnow ebay purchases.  But no cherry halo tea kettle =(  Boooooo…

Cooking.com has a coupon code for $15 off $100. C88966.  and an addition 6% cash back with ebates.com! That’s a pretty good deal with LeCreuset.  And you can pick up a little something for yourself when you get the tea kettle!  I’m all over that.

After the turkey…

I’m back in Berkeley after visiting my parents in LA. I didn’t do much Black Friday shopping, but I’ve had my eye on buying a saute pan for quite some time. After some research, Demeyere and All-Clad made it to my final two.

All-Clad 3-Quart Saute Pan above
Demeyere Atlantis 2.6 quart Saute Pan below

I checked them out at Sur La Table, but the Demeyere was really heavy. I’m sure the thicker core would help with more even cooking, but I could barely lift that thing. After I got home I checked out prices online. Amazon has the all-clad for 175.50, which is a pretty good price. I ended up buying mine at Bed Bath and Beyond with the 20% off coupon. It goes for $194.99 in store, but after the coupon it came out to be around $168 after taxes. If I hadn’t been so impatient, I think Macys might have been a better deal. They currently have their 20% off all items after donating the $5.00 to charity. On top of that there was a 12% Black Friday cash back with Ebates. Now it’s 8%, which is still pretty good. I also checked out Marshalls before heading out to Bed Bath and Beyond. They had quite a few pieces of All-Clad for good prices. There was a frying, saucier pan, and brasier pans. There was also a 6-quart copper core saute pan, but that’s a bit much for me.  My mom picked up a nice All-Clad 2-quart saucier pan for $70.00.  Good deal…  I also picked up a Le Creuset Casserole for $14.99 (Retail is 30.00)

Le Creuset Oval Dish

So, my roomie picked me up from the bart station, and I was starving.  I really wanted to use my new toys (does this sound dirty only to me?)… We decided on making Mama Romano’s Lemon Chicken from the Union Square Cookbook and the Macaroni Gratin from The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters.  I love these dishes because the ingredients are really cheap.  Most of the ingredients are items that you have around the house.  However, I did have to go to the store to get lemons, an onion, bread, macaroni, and cheese.  Wait…maybe I didn’t have that much in the cupboard this time.  Anyway…you don’t have to be in the bay area to get these items.  We used a 5 year old cheddar for the gratin.  After tasting it, it got me a little scared because it was really sharp and pretty salty.  But once we put it in the milk mixture, it totally mellowed out.  The recipe says you can use basically any cheese for this recipe except for mozzarella (it gets a bit stringy); however, gruyere is recommended.  One of these days I will make it with gruyere, but the one they sell at Andronicos is a bit pricey for my tastes…19.99/lb.  I might try going to cheeseboard next time to see how much it is over there.  Anywho…the gratin was soooo og (food orgasm)  I could eat that thing for the rest of my life.  It definitely hit the spot.

And it looks absolutely stunning in my new Le Creuset Casserole.  Love love love!  Now…CHICKEN!  It browned beautifully in my new saute pan.  My roommate and I previously made the lemon chicken dish in a non stick frying pan.  It was still very good, but I don’t think it browned as nicely as it did in the all-clad.

I love the lemon flavor of this chicken.  It always turns out very moist too.  However, I have been having trouble keeping the chicken crispy after I’ve sauteed it and place in the oven.  The recipe has me place the chicken on top of the onions and the chicken stock.  An anonymous friend 😉 recommended that next time I cover it with foil until it’s 75% finished cooking and then for the last 25% I should turn on the broiler.  This seems like a good idea.  I’ll try it next time.  I will let you all know how it goes.  Until then…Happy eating!