Favorite New Home Purchases

Here are some new finds, my favorite purchases for our home, and updates on our cookware! 

Our New Cookware

A few weeks ago we went to The Happy Cook in Charlottesville to purchase a few essential cookware pieces. We wanted to support a local shop and speak to someone in person about how to best choose cookware for our new induction stove. 

Does Caraway Work On Induction? 

Sort of. As a refresher, we had to buy new cookware because the Caraway that I love works, but it doesn’t work well. While it is induction friendly, the size of the metallic plate on the bottom is not designed to conduct heat throughout the whole pan well. I keep saying well because you can technically cook in these pans, but you can see the heat is concentrated to the middle of the pan where the bubbles are. So while you could saute veggies or cook chicken in this pan, it’s kind of like a wok where the bottom is hot but the sides are luke warm. Not ideal for most kinds of cooking! 

But here is the great news: THE MINIS WORK!! Because the metal plate on the minis is as wide as the pans themselves (6″) it works on our smallest burner. This is great news for oatmeal and scrambled eggs! I was so very happy when I did the boil water test in all of our Caraway pans and realized these had bubbles across the entire bottom. 

New Demeyere Industry Cookware

The nice gentleman at The Happy Cook recommended Demeyere as the “best of the best” for induction. Once we got over the sticker shock, we agreed that it was gorgeous. We knew we wanted stainless (vs nonstick coating or something super heavy). We decided to invest to two super nice pieces for now and purchase others as we need them in the future (such as a stock pot). 

What we bought: 

• Demeyere Industry 5-Ply 12.5-inch Stainless Steel Fry Pan with Helper Handle
• Demeyere Industry 5-Ply 2-qt Stainless Steel Saucier
• Lodge Cast Iron 12″ Pan

So far they’ve been great for our needs! 

Non Breakable Glassware

Another purchase I’ve been loving are these non breakable glasses. I wanted something for our open shelves that looked pretty but also would not shatter if they fell off. These are classified as our “everyday drinking glasses” for the kids. And boy do they go through them! Milk, water, milk, lemonade, ice water. We are using them a ton! They’re also super lightweight so they’re easy to unload from the dishwasher and put right up on the shelf. 

Stone Drying Mat

I’ve been eyeing these stone drying mats for a while now, but they’ve always been so expensive. This one I found on Amazon is not!

This dish drying stone is made of Diatomaceous earth, which is a super water absorber. I do not believe in dish drainers on the counter and previously have used highly absorbent clothes that I wash. I saw this while browsing possible dish ideas and had to try. I LOVE that it matches our countertops so you don’t really notice it! It’s great for smaller items, but pots and pans could still use a cloth too. The best part is that it literally sucks the water out of things, so you can put a wine glass or water bottle upside down and the water doesn’t get trapped in there. It’s super fast! 

Knife Organizers

Thomas and I debated between magnetic knife strip (which we had before), a new knife block, or a knife drawer for a long time. Since we had the space, a drawer seemed to be the best choice. I bought two of these to hold all of our knives (although one holds a lot!) and we have room to grow. You can see that you can store big and small knives in one if you you can only fit one, but we have our small knives on the left and larger on the right. The silicone oven mitts fit perfectly in the middle! 

I also bought these baggie organizers for our food storage drawer. They are very nice!

Bar Keepers Friend 

We bought some Bar Keepers Friend to use on our new stainless pots. Little did I know it was the magic I needed our on countertops too. 

I swiped a soot crumb from our candles thinking it was a normal crumb and it left a horrible streak in the quartz. I tried countertop cleaner, Dawn dish soap, baking soda, and Windex, and all of them together – the stain wood not budge. So I emailed our countertop install company for any tips and she said to use Bar Keepers. What do you know the soot came right out! A miracle. 

Drawer Organizers

I think I’ve posted about these 5 times already, but I have to shout out the acrylic drawer organizers again because they are one of my favorite things in our new home! I now have them in the bathroom, the kitchen “junk” drawer and my office drawer. Everything is so tidy! 

Shark Robot Vacuum

I got this robot vacuum while we were in our rental house, so I was excited to set it up here. So far so good!! It’s working great here and the Gus hair is SOOOOOOOO much better than it was before, especially with our lighter colored floors! I have it vacuum just the kitchen, mudroom, and living room everyday at 10am. This is the one we have.

The proof is in the pudding trash can

New Vitamix 

Also new to this kitchen is our Vitamix Ascent! I wasn’t sure if we’d have it out on the countertops or underneath, but out is looking good. So glad we got the shorter one to fit under the cabinets. I saw these castors on Instagram and bought them to attach to the bottom so it’s really easy to roll out. Genius! 

Paper Towel Holder

We are also team “under cabinets” for paper towels. We bought this inexpensive holder to match our hardware. Love having them off the countertops. One less thing to wipe around. 

Serena and Lily Things

LOVE LOVE LOVE our new towels!! So much that I might get another set the next time there is a sale to use for the kids bath. Fun fact: the kids are showering in our shower (because it’s the best) and stealing our nice towels as their own. This is also a minor thing that I’m loving about them, but I often wipe my hands on my hand towel after using the Beautycounter Dew Skin foundation and the dark blue color hides it well. A white towel just wouldn’t work! 

I am team towel hook (vs. towel bar) and these are the hooks we have in our mudroom and bath. 

A few people have asked about our napkin holder – this is the one I got! We try to use cloth for dinner, but with the kids needing a napkin every 5 minutes we have to have some within arms reach. 

That’s all for today, but there will be more!