Tools of the Trade + Steamy Kitchen knife giveaway

One of the bonuses to my flexible schedule is that I can make the time to cook wonderful, creative and diverse meals every day. Perfect example: yesterday, I made pierogis. From scratch. And while I'm not sure I'll ever do it again due to the four hours it took to crank out 50 delicious pockets, it's nice to know I could if I wanted to.

Since I'm doing a lot more cooking, I've also been spending more time investigating the higher-quality, more advanced tools that I could and should be using. I've granted my husband one-time-only permission to give me an appliance for Christmas as I am sure I can't make it much longer without a food processor. Next on my list of must-haves is a instant-read digital thermometer, a la Alton Brown. As soon as I move out of our current apartment into a place where I have more control over water quality (our current water situation has stripped the finish off my pots, is killing the non-stick coating on my baking pans and leaves rust spots on my knives and silverware), new cooking pots and knives will be moved WAY up in priority.

And on that note, I want these.

In the meantime, I'll have to settle for the prospects of winning Steamy Kitchen's giveaway, which you can enter here.