International Delight Iced Coffee. NOM NOM NOM.
One of my favorite things about food packaging is the “serving suggestion” disclaimer. It’s like, “Hey listen. You may want to pour this yummy beverage in a cup with some ice. But you don’t HAVE to. This is AMERICA.”
I’ve recently started cooking a lot more, so when we moved into our new apartment in March, I decided that my old method of haphazardly storing all my spices and seasonings in the cabinet above the stove was no longer going to cut it. I found myself spending inordinate amounts of time shopping for spice racks only to find myself disappointed and dismayed because they were all lame.
Surely somewhere in the world there was a spice management system that would encompass my unique spirit and serve as an extension of my very soul.
Or not, but I did want to find something that would look cool on the countertop. Enter: the test tube spice rack. It’s adorable! It makes cooking feel like a science experiment!
Not satisfied to stop there, I decided to up the science ante and round out my collection with a set of Erlenmeyer flasks. These are perfect for storing cooking oils- I use mine to keep veg oil, olive oil, sea salt, brown sugar, and whatever fresh herbs I’m using that week (basil is pictured, YUM).
I’ve been using my test tubes and flasks for a couple of months now and I’m still totally stoked about them. I no longer have to shake my spices out of the bottles they came in like a total heathen and I can keep them in a location conveniently adjacent to my stove top without looking like a sloppy chode.
Not surprisingly, I am a big fan of shopping for housewares items, especially stuff for the kitchen. An eternal apartment dweller, I will never have the space for all the objects I would like to own, so I usually slow my roll when I’m about to buy something needlessly. If I had a mansion I would give it like four kitchens and then spend all day filling them up. Unfortunately, I spent all my mansion fund on the stuff to make tootsie rolls (root beer and Kahlua, from the Halloween episode of How I Met Your Mother) so that’s out for now. Which brings me to my most recent kitchen purchase, an utterly gorgeous set of knives that fit nicely in my silverware drawer.
I found this wonderful set of steak knives at TJ Maxx the other day for $16.99. They are the coolest steak knives I’ve ever seen. Made in France, they all come with a bee icon on the back, which the the internet assures me is Napoleonic. I have no idea what bees and Napoleon have to do with each other, but I don’t even care because all it does is make these knives cooler. The colored handles are beautiful; they are super sharp and easy to use; these knives are a home run.
Don’t take my word for it about the utter radness that is this set of Laguiole knives. The undeniably cool Anthropologie has a set of four of these for $58, confirming two things: my amazing taste in cutlery, and my shocking and subversive theory that Anthropologie costs too much.
If you’d like a set of your very own, I suggest trying your local TJ Maxx store; alternatively you could always get the Anthro set I linked above or buy directly from the Laguiole website. Amazon has a good selection as well.