The sad state of our kitchen.

Grandpa noticed the sad state of our kitchen, including our cookware, when he visited. We have the necessary tools and appliances, but they are mismatched, and old. There just has never been a good time to buy everything new and have things match. When we began living together we were both in school, and were raising a teenager.  Our big expense and priority was braces for JJ. Once we started working we needed decent living room furniture, a good bed for JJ, a decent mattress set for us... Our big kitchen purchase was a set of pots and pans, then P gave me a good set of Henckels knives for Dia de Reyes.  Wow, that was such a long time ago. Then we made the decision to bring SS home, and saving became our focus.  Add to that the fact that we didn't have a wedding, forgoing the opportunity to make a list of pretty things we wanted, and have others buy them for us. It is really obvious why our kitchen is in sad shape. Grandpa suggested that we should think about what we want and start replacing. We reminded him that we had just moved, which was not cheap, and there is a possibility of private school looming.  Nope, not the time to indulge in pretty things for our kitchen. Grandpa then decided to gift us pretty things, and we are grateful. Although we really have limited space.

First we received the pretty blue pots, nice enameled cast iron dutch ovens. We did not have one dutch oven, and all of a sudden had three, and away cooking we went. Grandpa had mentioned a fourth one he wanted to send, but it was not available in blue. P said that it is obvious we are not attached to matching things.

They actually had an eggplant color that was close enough for us. Grandpa sent this one next.

He added a set of storage containers. Funny because I had my eye on a similar set, but was focused on finding containers that SS could open. I thought the snaps would be more difficult than a Z*ploc lid. When SS saw the containers she asked if she could use the little ones in her lunch box. I explained that she would need to open them herself. SS surprised me by easily opening and closing the snaps. Score one for Grandpa, without even knowing what we needed.

Grandpa later mentioned that he bought P another gift, and threw in he had never spent so much on a kitchen item.  That's scary because Grandpa owns every kitchen gadget available. P asked me to open the box before he came home, because he was really curious. Holy cow, a freaking Le Creuset whatever. When I allow myself to dream about cookware, LC cookware is what occupies my dreams.

As soon as I opened the box it made perfect sense. Grandpa loves food in general, but he has a great fondness for a good steak. That is why he gifted P a grill, to make sure he would have a nice steak when he visited. Grandpa likes his steak rare, which is a rather difficult task to accomplish well.  Luckily P had watched an episode of Master Chef where the three finalists had to cook steaks rare, well done, and medium. P paid really good attention, because Grandpa declared his steak the best rare steak he had ever had. It appears that Grandpa was worried about P depriving himself and his family of steaks during the winter. And yep, that is how P became rewarded with such an expensive grill pan. So we could rough it inside during the harsh southern California winters.

The day before SS's Thanksgiving break began, we arrived home to find two very familiar looking boxes.  I sent P a picture and he texted back, "Oh G0d, we don't have any more space!"

This time we received a baking dish.

We also received a roasting pan. We have one, but have no idea where the rack is since the move. Problem solved. We thanked Grandpa profusely for his generosity, and thought that was the end of it.

We received another baking dish today, to match the previous baking dish.  Man, our kitchen must be in even worse shape than we thought.