Shop Small Saturday

In the midst of Black Friday weekend, with a frenzy surrounding the big box stores, how nice to celebrate today as Shop Small Saturday, a day to enjoy the small and preferably local. Boulder abounds with options, including lovely Peppercorn for your food-related gift buying. Cured, now with two stores near downtown, would be another excellent place to patronize.

Quest For Perfect Pepper Grinder Continues

Sorry to continue my grouse about the difficulty of finding the perfect pepper mill for kitchen use, but here goes. As previously related, I did have the perfect one, able to grind anything from very fine to a good coarse crack, even though it was a little acrylic thing given to me in a wedding shower and looked to be as inexpensive as they come. After years of fine service, that wonder finally cracked its own self, and my quest began. Peugeot has a reputation for being the finest, and they've long been on my dining table, but I hadn't employed them in the kitchen, where my use is more demanding. I even checked at the hallowed E.Dehillerin, Julia Child's cooking store of choice, while in Paris, where I was told I should only use Peugeot. But trying it out in the kitchen, I found I just couldn't get the range of grinds I was looking for.

Since my original perfect mill appeared to be quite cheap, I tried going less expensive than Peugeot, experimenting with the acrylic from Cole & Mason (for use by the cooktop, I think acrylic is a much better choice than wood). The Cole & Mason in fact proved excellent for a medium to coarse grind, giving me everything I usually was looking for in the kitchen (plus fine grind from the Peugeot on the table). But alas, the Cole & Mason irreparably broke after only a few months use. Thinking it possibly a fluke and having been so pleased with its performance, I bought another one, but am sad to report that yet again, that broke in just a few months.

In a trip to Peppercorn, I found that for my uses I was again looking primarily at Peugeot and Cole & Mason. Since Peugeot now offers an acrylic version, better suited to sitting by the olive oil splashing from my stove, I bought that one with fingers crossed. And the preliminary results are indeed promising. That mill is giving me a much better grinding range than the older wood Peugeots on the dining table. Maybe I've found the perfect pepper mill for kitchen use yet again!

Free Shipping But Shop Local Anyway

If you're looking to expand on some of your kitchen wares before the holiday season is upon us, you might be interested in knowing that Chef's Catalog is offering free standard shipping on any size order (excludes some obvious things like their wine club) if you enter promo code BW1EM6085 through October 24th. They frequently offer free shipping on orders topping $99, but this unrestricted freebie is a rarity. However, if you're looking for excellent customer service, good advice, and highly competitive pricing, I'd suggest you shop our own local Peppercorn first. For the items I've priced, Peppercorn's prices were identical to those listed by web retailers like Chef's, plus you get the warm fuzzy of helping our local economy, and the fun of being in a real store with real people.