Greg Zywicki > wrote:
>My great Christmas food related gift bounty:

I got a pot of beans. A clay flowerpot. Decorated in
paints. With pens wrapped in green tissue paper and topped
with yellow and brown paper daisy heads. It's funny and
it's great.

I got myself one of these, and it came today, and it's
even more impressive in person than it looks in the pictu

https://store.merchantduvin.com/e/md...to=f/co=1.html

6 inches long, 2 inches wide, just a lager-bubble less
than a quarter of an inch thick, and weighing in at 5 oz.

It's bigger than some premature babies. It looks a little
like it's made by lopping off the sharp business of a
broadsword and punching a hole.

So it's probably the heaviest and last bottle opener I'll
ever have.

>(In a related story, I heard on the radio this morning that, in men,
>consuming 6 or more cups of full caffene coffee per day reduces the
>risk of type II diabetes by 50%.)

Because you're so wired you run instead of driving your
commute. (Some studies suggest exercise is the key to a
healthy pancreas).

>3.)Minitorch - the surprise hit of the year. Mom-in-law bought me a
>creme brule set. I love the torch. It was great for carmelizing the
>sugar on the brule, for melting the red licorice "eruption" on
>5-year-old's volcano cake (just enough melting to make the sliced
>licorice droop a bit) and for lighting the birthday cake candles

And you can use it to reattach the handles on your pasta
pots, or cut your forks in half in case you have too many
people down east for lobster...

>(well, it's a bit too efficient at that.) Another digression - I
>opened the second part of the gift first - two cans of butane and a
>miniature measuring cup. "Look! Mom got me lighter fluid and a shot
>glass.")

Bartender! I'll have what he's having!

(Actually, I'm inaugurating this with a nice eponymous oatmeal stout:
https://store.merchantduvin.com/e/md...to=f/co=1.html
That page lies; they also come in 12 oz, but who wants only 12 oz
of the good stuff?)

>4.)Microplane grater. Entirely the idea of the five-year-old son. He
>has amazing taste in gifts. Light shines down from heaven, and
>angelic voices sing, when it is brought out for use.

I need a coarse one. The only one I have is really a zester,
and it's no good for parmesan.

>What an amazing tool.

Don't be so hard on yourself.

--Blair
"Cheers."