I Am A Different Kind Of Girl

There is just over one month until my birthday which means it is time to start dropping hints about what I want for my birthday.  Most girls want a vacation, jewelry, shopping spree, spa day... Not me.  Nope, I am a different kind of girl.

I am the girl who embraces her nerdiness for food.  I am the girl who will go out of her way to try something new with food "just because".  I am the type of girl to buy vodka and fresh ingredients to make herself some homemade extracts (that post will make its appearance around the holidays, I promise).  So, of course that means that I am the type of girl who will ask for something a little different from her husband for her birthday.

What do I have on my shopping list this year:
1. A really big bag of expensive Expandex Tapioca Starch so that I can finally make some homemade gluten free bread.
2. The "Gluten Free on a Shoestring Bakes Bread" Cookbook (I have been waiting for this for months and just have not gotten around to buying it.
3. Candy Molds for both chocolates and hard candies.  (I have been making everything from butter creams, to toffees, to gummies, to marshmallows and nougatines, a candy made of sugar, egg whites, and some type of nuts,  for the the last 12 years.  I was even offered a job working with a Chocolatier simply on my butter creams. A job I turned down to be near family.)
4. Vanilla Beans, a lot of them.
5. Mason Jars, big and small.  Oh and cool spice jars so that I can blend my own spices.
6. Large bottles of GOOD vodka to make my extracts (and yes I mean the expensive stuff, no rot gut for these, but smooth vodka).
7. Good Chocolate for both making truffles and butter creams.
8. Chocolate Transfer Sheets, plastic sheets that have edible printing that, once the chocolate is placed over the top of the sheet and dries, will make gorgeous panels so that I can make Chocolate boxes to hold my homemade candies.
9. And last but certainly not least, a sausage stuffer and natural casings so I can play around with homemade link sausage and hot dogs.

Do you notice the distinct lack of the normal girl stuff on this list, no jewelry, no clothes, no spa days.  Just different things that will let me continue to play with my food.  And there is nothing wrong with that.  At least not today.