Things I TOTALLY NEED. No Really. I NEED Them!

So......... I had a date with a dear friend tonight, but before that happened I:
Put away groceries
Washed dishes
Polished various tarnishing kitchen items and vases
Washed the dark polish smudges off my shirt
Cleaned the kitty litter
Vacuumed the hallway, living room, and couch cushions
Broke up cardboard boxes
Dropped off the hubs' broken badass boots at Fluevog for repair
Dropped off my dying 2002/2003 limited edition Fluevogs for repair (mine have purple embroidered flowers climbing up the side rather than the sexy slit... they are my FAVORITE)
Stopped at Sur la Table to pick up one or two necessary things...
And then I found:

My new favorite pointless purchase:

FYI "aglio" is Italian for garlic

HOW CUTE IS THIS?!?!?!!

And of course I already had enough garlic at home to fill it right from the get-go. I might have to break heads in the future if I have more to store!!!

Still, I'm impressed that I managed to walk out of Sur la Table with only this, a new container for drying silverware, a folding electronic meat thermometer (I don't own a single thermometer!), salve for butcher's blocks, and narrow rectangular measuring spoons that fit inside spice jars.

Pretty thrifty by my standards!!!

But still... isn't that container just TOO CUTE?!?!

Kitchen Supply Stores are to me as Tanning Beds and Liquid Eyeliner are to the abomination that is the cast of Jersey Shore.

Only my IQ doesn't drop every time I open my mouth...

No, really kids. 

Put your money in the bank, fade to a human color, WASH YOUR F*CKING HAIR, and take some freakin' elocution lessons.

I'm out.

Fettuccine with Leeks & Prosciutto

Have you ever spent too much of one afternoon like a sloth on the couch watching Cooking Channel and Travel Channel shows and suddenly desiring whatever you've been staring at for the past hour? And then you realize that you don't have homemade pasta that is light as air, or a perfectly cooked loin of venison, or wild boar ragú, or the best Pressed Duck in NYC, or... or... or...
Because that happens to me frequently.
And it really frustrates me.

On this particular occasion I was craving pasta, and upon scrounging through investigating my refrigerator I found the following:
one medium leek
half a package of diced prosciutto
fresh thyme
open box of chicken stock
white wine

Score.
And of course, I had dried pasta and garlic on hand. Dinner was in the offing.

One sliced leek, one clove of garlic, and a bit shy of a tablespoon of chopped fresh thyme.

Sautée the leek in olive oil until soft and just starting to brown, and add minced/grated garlic clove.

Add cubetti to get a bit of color on them as well.

Season with salt (not too much because of the prosciutto) and throw in chopped thyme.

Use about 1/4 cup white wine to deglaze, and a couple glugs of chicken stock.

Cook to reduce.

Add pasta.

Garnish with a bit of grated cheese and devour.

Note: This did not make the thickest or richest of sauces, but it was lovely and delicate in flavor, and you should try it with a short pasta such as orecchiette, fusilli (which I loved as a kid), or cavatappi. I happened to only have long ribbons in my pantry at the time, hence the fettuccine.

Win My Schtick

So, would you enter to win things from my blog if I sold my soul agreed to work with some company to purvey their goods and wares?
Because this is the second time that I have been approached, and really, I didn't think with my whopping 50 official followers that anyone would want to see that happen...
Or maybe you would because the chances of you winning are REALLY good!

So, I ask all those silent enjoyers of my wit and cooking to step up and voice their opinion. Would you like to win pots and pans and bedding sets and whisks and so forth?
Do tell.
Go for it.

UPDATE!!!!

Ok, I was damned close on my predictions of how I would survive my "day of healthy eating post two days of über fattening mac and cheese". I was only off by about 20 minutes. If that.
My day went as follows:
Breakfast - steamed broccoli w/ olive oil, garlic salt, and a poached egg on top. (Angelic or what?)
Lunch - leftover onion soup, sans cheese. Delicious.
Dinner (almost an hour early. I was HUNGRY!) - the now-famous Duck Breast recipe, complete w/ cherry sauce and roasted carrots. (Once you carve away the skin/fat, it's not an unhealthy dinner option.)

Post dinner snackage - complete w/ The Marquis, about 6 thin slices of "sandwich" pepperoni (I know this happened just after 9PM because I was on the phone w/ my mom, checking in, right before 9PM, to tell her about a Miss Marple starting on PBS at 9...) followed by about 8 diced chunks of fresh pineapple... followed by one of the greatest orzo dishes ever concocted.
And YES that means I had to actually cook the damned dish, not just snack on something readily available.
But at least I only ate a couple spoonfuls, packed with peas. The rest is in the fridge... for future snacking.
Plus, writing about it has guilted me into stopping eating.
Oh well.
At least I know myself.