Blessings

The gift my parents sent arrived the other day.  My mother had it gift wrapped from Sur La Table.  Then the company placed the invoice on top of the present so it immediately told me what it was.  Surprise!  Eh, we were pretty sure we knew what it was when we realized it was heavy enough to go through the floor if we were to accidentally drop it.  Since that occurred my maman told me to go ahead and open it and use it if we wanted to.  My parents generously blessed us with the Staub coq au vin pot we had had our eye on, and as I type it's finishing up a roasted chicken that will be made into soup in the same pot.  Might as well break it in immediately, yes?

*EDIT* The first part of this post was written last night (I ended up being up a total of 39 hours, madness I know).  The soup turned out amazing, the chicken was delightful, I roasted it with the lid on for most of it, removing it at the end to get a golden crisp skin.  The chicken was hands down the most moist poultry of any kind I have ever made!  Those little nubs on the Staub pot lid worked perfectly! I'm considering ordering the cassoulet kit from Sur La Table for our Christmas dinner rather than making a large meal. 

G and I loved the way the skin got super crisp....we forgot to take a photo until after it had been sampled!

Then we decided to go ahead and order our Simplex tea kettle, since this summer the company decided without further explanation to close their doors after 103 years of business.  I had contacted the company that distributes them here in the U.S. inquiring about the product and was told they had shut down and that the distribution company was sold out.  But still, Sur La Table seemed to still have some.  So I went to order it and realized that they were completely sold out of every version.  I had a minor panic attack and made G instantly call the store in Annapolis to see if they had any in stock.  Well, thank the heavens we got the last one other than the floor display!  They held it for us, we went immediately to pick it up, and it just brewed a perfect pot of water for our french press (our tea is in the mail, so it's coffee for now). 

So two of the 3 big items we were wanting from Sur La Table are off the list and we could not be more happy with them.  We were not expecting such an amazing gift from my parents, but we promise to put it to lots and lots of use!  The tea kettle should last us at least a decade with proper care and the pot should probably be something I pass on to my grandchildren when I no longer cook.  Thank you Dad and Maman!