Paderno Factory Sale!

Yesterday may have been a Tuesday for you.

For us, it was Manna day.

I dragged the Pie out of bed at the crack of nine-thirty and towed him the block and a half from our apartment to the ReMax Centre, home to the St. John’s Curling Club.

We had come to take advantage of the Paderno factory sale, a rare opportunity to purchase some quality Canadian cookware.  Yes, there is a Paderno Kitchen store in the city, but without a car, it’s practically in the middle of nowhere, so we don’t go often.  Plus, we hit this shindig last year and found some RIDICU-sales, even though we came at the end of the event.  This time we got there nice and early.

For those of you in St. John’s, the event runs from May 11th to May 16th, and is open from 9 to 9 during the week, 9 to 6 on Saturday, and 9 to 5 on Sunday.

Here are some of the things we saw that we’re thinking about going back for:

I am firmly of the opinion that you can never have too many mixing bowls.  Especially nice ones.  These two sets were especially alluring due to their cheapness. 

We might come back later and get this nice medium-sized cast-iron skillet.  We are trying to use cast-iron more often these days, and now we have a wee one and a huge one and it would be nice to have a medium one.

These are fish tongs.  I’m not going to buy them.  But I thought they looked ridiculous.

My parents have one of these oil sprayers, and it works really well.  It means you never have to buy aerosol cooking spray again.  I have to say that I am rather tempted.

These tiny wooden spoons were so cute!  There’s no way the Pie will let me have even one of them.

We probably won’t come back for this, but it was interesting.  An egg-toss pan, with a little bulge on one end to help you flip your egg.  The Pie might want it.

A selection of cheap serving spoons.  We really don’t have any serving spoons at all, so this is a definite maybe.

I thought these mugs are cute.  I am, however, banned from buying mugs.  Stupid husband and his RULES.

The Pie really, really wants this pizza cutter.  Like REALLY.

Here’s what we ended up with:

This little cast-iron pan is our triumph.  We picked it up from the salesmen’s sample table (basically, the scratch & dent) for ten dollars.  It’s a little dirty but we don’t think those scratches are permanent.  The ones that aren’t scratched are selling for twenty dollars, which is 50% off their original price.  So it’s a real steal.

Also from the scratch & dent table came these two wee darling cafe latte-style bowls.  The littlest was a dollar and the larger one was two.  You can pretty much justify anything for two dollars.

Our most expensive purchase was this pan liner for $10.99.  It makes a good alternative to parchment paper and as I’m planning to make a lot more bread these days I think it will come in handy.

I had to have this silicone spoon, merely because it was turquoise.  And it was only $2.99.  The Pie mocked my choice: “do we really need another spoon?”

Of course, that is coming from the man who insisted we get these miniature tongs (red to match our larger tongs) for $1.99.  So I can’t really trust his judgments.

The Pie is also exceedingly fond of egg mcmuffin-type breakfast foods, so we picked these up for $3.99.

A small icing spatula came away for $2.75.

I also picked up two 9″ pie plates, both deep dish.  This lovely ceramic one was only $7.50, and normally this vintage-style goes for $40 or more.

This nice clear one was only $5.49.

All this loot for a grand total (including HST) of $55.03.  Can’t beat it.

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Pineapple Corer – A perfect gift

I know what you’re thinking.  A pineapple corer is some elaborate gadget that you don’t really need.

I was like you.  Then my mother-in-law, knowing my obsession with fresh fruit (seriously, offer me a plate of cut fruit and a plate of chocolate and I’ll take the fruit every time and eat myself sick), gave me one for Christmas a few years ago.

HOLY SMOKES.  This is the best thing ever.

Normally when cutting a pineapple you slice off the outer skin, then you either cut the fruit away from the core or you manhandle your way into cutting through the core and you cut it away after.  This little gadget does away with the core all together.

Pick a nice large one with lots of leaves.  You can smell a good one by sniffing its bottom.  If it smells nice and fruity then it’s good.  You can leave less aromatic ones to ripen on the counter for a few days.  And in my experience, a wee bit of mould at the bottom is okay.

Simply cut off the top and bottom of your pineapple and set it in a pan to catch the juice.  You can leave the bottom on if you want to use the shell for something decorative but it’s a neater job if you cut it off.

Put the corer on top and start twisting it like a corkscrew.  The jagged teeth will bite in a circle around the core.

You can see the pineapple fruit start to feed itself through the little hole as you twist it further and further into the fruit.

The juice will start to bubble up around your cuts.  This is why you have the pan.

Keep twisting until you break through the bottom.

Lift the corer out of the pineapple shell.  It’ll make a lot of revolting sucking sounds.  It’s great.

The fruit has been cored and already sliced in a nice spiral for you.

You can just pop the handle off the corer.

Tip the corer upside down to get your spiral off.

Push the core out with your thumbs into the compost.  And you can drink all the juice you produced.

GENIUS.