The Cooks Shop, Brewster, MA

One of the great passions of mine besides baking & cooking is exploring new or old cook shops. Going to places like chinatown in Boston is a weeks worth of day trips. Literally I could spend days there roaming about, learning about new gadgets, and exploring useful ways for old gadgets for the kitchen. The vast array of cook shops, hard to find spices, varieties of fish sauces, oversized cookware that you don't need but have to have anyway--that's my kind of field trip. Really cook shop hunting is a passion but has turned into a hobby once I fell in love with chinatown. New York city is another great place for finding new cook shops.
Here on cape cod we are limited to cook shops. Maybe two or three? There is one fabulous little cook shop in Brewster called The Cooks Shop. It's small but then again this is cape cod, so in actuality its big for cape cod. And its open year round. Many places on the cape shut down for the fall/winter. The Cook Shop is located in Brewster, MA along route 6A, has two floors of of everything kitchenalia. And thankfully a very knowledgeable staff with loads of patience for curious inquisitive cooks like me. They are also known for their own "clam ram". What's a clam ram? A nifty little device that helps you open clams safely.

It's a tiny little shop. Every nook and crannie of the shop is filled with something. The company Stonewall Kitchen has a grande presence here. Sauces, jams, jellies, spreads galore. This is the store to come to to see what new product Stonewall Kitchen has.

Really hard to find food items are most likely here.

Dry glazes? Have I ever heard that term? No. But that's the fun part of foodie based field trips. It makes you want to try them--experiment.

Props for photos? Oh yes, they have you covered on that one. I'm slowly starting to appreciate little tiny props for enhancing photos.

Those special flavored/scented waters for pastry. So glad they have them. I actually got a request for making a special french cake that needs orange blossom water.

Little mini stainless steel mixing bowls that you really have no use for but must have anyway because they are small and cute? Yes please!

Mortar & pestle in all sizes. I should have photographed the really big one. The one you could easily fit a baby into.

Ahhh bliss! Spatulas in every shape, size and color. Are you one of those people that just has to have a new spatula each time you visit Williams Sononma? Yeah me too.

Copper cookie cut outs. Haven't seen these in ages.

I was amazed at the amount of tea kettles they had. Pricey but impressive. I know there are people who love to collect tea kettles; this would be a good place for you.

There is two walls just dedicated to thermostats, thermometers. Had no idea there was so many needed for each and almost every cooking technique stage.

One might need this....perhaps?

For real latte aficionado's.

And yes, would you believe there is a section for cheese cutters, cheese knives, cheese cutting boards and surfaces. Amazing.

No idea what this is. Could be a measuring device for liquids inside a glass or cup?

But it has the word butter on there. So perhaps a device for grating butter or cheese? It was in the cheese cutting section.

Mini glass cake covers. I don't know what I love more, the mini cover or the fact that a mini cake would safely be inside. Cute!

Baby tip heaven.

Jumbo tip heaven.

Vanilla sugar, powder, extract heaven. :-)

Now this makes sense. Have to get it.

Hmmm. What would a chef do that would cause such hard to get out stains? Like that of an auto mechanic? Curious to know.

This one has me puzzled. I wonder how you use this? I'm certain you tie this around a large slab of loin/protein but I don't know if you need to then set the wire on fire. Any ideas? Anyone seen this before?

Love these. So pretty I just had to take them home.

first snow

Our first snow of 2008. It started early this morning and has been snowing all day, it's now 4pm and still light snow. This is the kind of snow that is light, wet and not sticking (yeah). As much as I hate winter and dream of summer, I have to admit it did look pretty outside with the light snow falling and gently covering everything white outside. I decided to let the pictures share with you what I saw today on my walks. Very pretty on a cold almost too dark day in winter at 2pm. (click on any picture to enlarge)


my front/side door--just thought this pic was too cool to pass up


my side yard under the old trellis--can you see the rose vine?
so pretty in the spring when it's in full bloom.


my backyard. something about the blanket of snow that makes everything so clean & fresh. see that bottle to the right? that's a bottle of Prosecco we shared one late August night when the temp. was 80 degrees at 7pm. I remember vividly the crickets that would sound-surround our house with croaking all night long; I loved that intensity.


my front yard, my neighbors to the left and straight ahead is our barn/garage. can you see the church tower on the left in the back? many decades ago that was a church; it later became a museum, then an antique shop, a doll museum, B&B and now it's owned by some very wealthy couple that bought it, gutted it, fixed the tower, added in stained glass windows, only to live there a few times a year. I saw the inside when it was a B&B and it was very cool; think gothic inside with a lot of light, stained glass windows and all open rooms, even the bathrooms (like a giant loft in SoHo).

those stained glass windows look wonderful when the sun is out.



the front of the above remodeled old church/now a home.



these are my neighbors to my right of my house. I loved this pic because in the summer this street is lined with tourist cars & tourist walking about...just seems like such a ghost town (which I love).



the street on which that other blue church sits, down the road a bit another church.
this one is a functioning church.



we have a lot of churches in this area.


I just loved this pic, sidewalk on main street in front of the church.



down the road from the above pic, our old Town Hall, still functioning in a way for meetings and the like, but the main town hall moved down the street to a move energy efficient building. aren't those columns cool though? hard to tell from this pic, but the building is really tall.



across from the Town Hall are these old fences over-looking the brook that feeds to the marsh.



Tiki checking out the falling snow.


then sitting in front of the heating vent in the hall


decides he prefers the heating vent by my desk.



this is why I'm always so cold! he covers the whole vent!