Kitchen gadgets make me happy!

At the base of Pikes Peak in Colorado, lies a smallish down called Manitou Springs. We go there often because of the nice shops (unique clothing boutiques, an old fashioned candy store, artist co-ops and galleries, and an arcade with games I can imagine my dad playing when he was young). My husband and son really enjoy the arcade so we synchronize our watches and agree to meet back up at the candy shop at a predetermined time. I venture out to my favorite few shops and I always end up at the Manitou Kitchen Shop. This is the kind of store where you find something new every time you make a lap around the store and every time you go for a visit because the store is absolutely bursting with anything and everything kitchen related. I have a system... I limit myself to one purchase per visit. After I select my purchase for the day, I scope out what I might like purchase on a future trip. I love all my gadgets from the Manitou Kitchen Shop. A tiny strainer which is the perfect size to drain one can of beans or one pound of hamburger, Microplane graters, silicon spatulas, a cookie cutter shaped like a football. This past Saturday, I splurged and bought four items. Shame on me! But I am excited about my purchases. For the longest time, I have wanted a really high quality peppermill. I've been adding red accents in my kitchen and I think this one fits in well! In the picture above, you can see my new peppermill next to my salt cubby... you'd think I bought them together they match so well (I also got the salt cubby at the Manitou Kitchen Shop on a previous visit... imagine that!) My other purchases included a super fine mesh stainless steel strainer (needed something this fine to rinse quinoa for all the quinoa I've been making lately). I bought a little veggie scrubber which fits on my finger (true story... I no longer have a veggie scrubber because my scrubber brush ended up in the garage a few summers ago when I needed to scrape paint on the outdoor window trim!) Finally, I got this great looking yellow sparkly coarse sugar to decorate cookies, cakes, etc. They also had hot pink sugar but I decided the yellow sugar would look great on some lemon cookies (which I really need to get to before my lemons go bad). Here's another photo. Silly I know, but some folks might be almost excited to see these as I am to have them in my kitchen. Hee, hee!