Value Village, ONS, Salvation Army, and St Vincent de Paul often have woks and they’re only a couple bucks. Good to try it out and then buy a new one when you have a feel for it.

Apparently they also regularly have yoghurt makers! :D

Value Village, ONS, Salvation Army, and St Vincent de Paul often have woks and they're only a couple bucks. Good to try it out and then buy a new one when you have a feel for it.

Apparently they also regularly have yoghurt makers! :D

“Also, just to note: If you are ever in the market for a wok, go to china town and pick up a carbon steel one. They go for about $15. Once seasoned,
they are 1,000,000,000 times better than the shitty teflon coated $100 abominations you can get at fancy stores.”

“Also, just to note: If you are ever in the market for a wok, go to china town and pick up a carbon steel one. They go for about $15. Once seasoned,
they are 1,000,000,000 times better than the shitty teflon coated $100 abominations you can get at fancy stores.”

A cheap substitute for airtight spice bottles is ziploc bags. I use the snack ones for spices I use infrequently and in small amounts (fenugreek, tamarind, star anise, etc.) and mason jars for spices I use in larger quantities. I bought a really cool antique post office cabinet at Kitchenalia a couple years ago that has lots of tiny drawers and is perfect for storing the bagged spices–I have so many that I’ve taken to storing them alphabetically for easy retrieval.

I have an authentic wok that I inherited from my Dad’s ill-advised foray into Chinese cookery, but I picked up a second one for $1.00 at Value Village. Make sure you get a wok that suits the type of cooking you will be doing, and don’t get one with wooden handles that cannot be removed. I have a deep one and a shallow one.

I, too, am coveting a full size food processor. We’ve had a KitchenAid with oodles of attachments for 10 years now and I have a lovely little 4-cup food processor, but a combination 4-cup/8-cup would be so useful. Some of them are designed so that you can put ice into the larger recepticle while using the smaller bowl–effectively chilling what ever you are processing. A good feature for certain soups, icings, etc.

We need a new blender. :o) Ours is one of those nasty Oster ones with the big top and the tiny bottom that can’t handle blending frozen fruit. WE drink a lot of smoothies, so this is a PITA.

Something else that is nice to have (which we don’t, yet) are Silpat sheets.

http://www.hendrixequip.com/contact.asp

- wok – make sure it’s not one of those flatbottomed “pseudo-woks”. The whole principle of wok cooking requires a curved bottom. The ones with the ring-holder even work well on an electric range

- preserves – lemons, tomatoes (as long as you do not add anything whatsoever but tomatoes) and jams are all safe to do without a pressure canner. Not much else is. Do yourself and your friends and family a huge favour and read a book! The ‘bible’ is “Putting Food By” (ISBN: 0452268990), but here is a very good freebie :

http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/publications/publications_usda.html

And something not on your list but you may find useful is a Food Saver vacuum sealer. Don’t get a cheapie brand. Best price in town on Food Saver is Costco. The good models also have an attachment for vacuum sealing jars of different sorts (read: coffee!)