12 Things That Delighted Us Last Week: From Utility Jeans to Tall Boat and Totes

Sure, most professional chefs are passionate about their expensive, custom-made knives, but chef and former Strategist senior editor Kiki Aranita will be the first to tell you that “they’re often equally devoted to seemingly humble gadgets that do the jobs knives can’t,” too. After chatting with chefs from across the country about their cheap cooking tools of choice, she compiled a list of her favorites, including this rectangular tamagoyaki pan that makes the perfect scrambled, rolled egg omelet. “It doubles as an ideal mini-pan for quickly cooking a meal for one,” Justine Ma of Bougie Farmer adds.

In the wise words of Adwoa Aboah, “If you can put it on your nipple, you can put it on your face.” As such, she counts this nipple cream — which she uses everywhere, from her eyelids to her lips to her cheeks — among the things that she can’t live without. “You don’t even need makeup if you have this,” she says.

As the remnants of last week’s snow storm morphed into muddy slush, our writer Katherine Gillespie added a new affordable option to our guide to women’s winter boots: Sorel’s Caribou. Along with warm, feltlike lining and faux-fur cuffs, the boots’ “deep lugs grip onto snow and ice with a satisfying crunch, helping me tread confidently on slushy streets,” Gillespie reports.

Strategist contributor Leah Finnegan loves jeans with lots of extra pockets and some loops but finds that workwear — especially carpenter jeans — traditionally isn’t tailored for petite women like her. Still, determined to find a relaxed-fit, high-ish-waist pair with “the hallmark pockets and loops for various thingamajigs,” Finnegan went on a hunt for leisurely carpenter jeans and found a winner in this pair from Loeffler Randall. With roomy pockets, contrast stitching, and a non-restrictive feel, they’re exactly what she was looking for. (In fact, she says, “I didn’t really know that I could like jeans so much until I tried these on.”)

With a second baby on the way, Strategist deals writer Martha Tuber is devoting her “Strategist Brain” power “to some master-level Tetris interior rejiggering” to fit both of her kids (comfortably) in her two-bedroom house. She’s still debating which dressers and shelving units to buy, but the décor is coming along thanks to this quilt she’s using as a wall hang. “It’s sizable (about 2.5 x 3.5 feet) and eye-catching, but the muted color scheme will keep it from overpowering the rest of the décor and appearing too precious (I’m not outfitting a true nursery, after all),” she writes.

After seeing everyone from beauty experts like Rio Viera-Newton to Substackers like Jess Graves of The Love Listpost about Cyklar, Strategist writer Brenley Goertzen thought it was time to test a bunch of products and decide if they’re actually worth the hype. Among those she’d classify as “worth it” is this in-shower body-oil balm that she uses when her skin is feeling extra depleted. She typically applies it after she turns off the water and says it “locks in hydration instantly (dare I say better than most body oils) and melts into my skin.”

As someone with an extensive but curated cooking-utensil collection, Strategist senior kitchen and dining writer Emma Wartzman says, “A new addition has to be extra special for me to make permanent room for it.” Such was the case with this lightweight, thin, and flat spatula she discovered last year. In addition to doubling as a bench scraper and serving set (if you buy two), it’s simply a good spatula: “I find it handy when I’m making a dish that requires several actions (say I’m browning mushrooms on both sides, then adding risotto and stirring it all up),” Wartzman says.

Until recently, if you were to ask Wartzman about roasting pans, she would have told you, “There’s nothing it can do that can’t be better accomplished by a different piece of cookware.” But after learning about Misen’s version, which combines all the best features of a roasting pan (high sides and stainless steel) and a sheet pan (lightweight and wide), she’s officially a convert and even cooked her Thanksgiving turkey in it.

Given the historically low temperatures in the city recently, a number of our team’s purchases this month were made with a specific goal in mind: staying warm. In our shopping cart this month, you’ll find some Uniqlo HeatTech, a set of HotHands hand warmers, and this miniature space heater that New York features editor Julia Edelstein bought for her chilly bathroom. It turns off automatically if it tips over or gets too hot and turns on with one button.

Just when you thought you couldn’t add another tote to your collection, L.L.Bean is here with more bag temptation: a new silhouette. Called “Tall Small,” “this one is small-size but taller and has long handles that easily drape over the shoulder — perfect for books, small water bottles, and everyday essentials,” says our writer Tembe Denton-Hurst in this week’s installment of “Don’t Dillydally.”

According to Gabrielle Hamilton, chefs always wear white because it demonstrates their cleanliness and hygiene. (After all, she says, “Coming out stain- and spatter-free after doing 240 brunch covers was a real mark of pride.”) Now that her restaurant, Prune, is “more like a dinner party in the home of a chef who used to run a restaurant,” she’s traded her traditional chef whites for these overalls. “I like to wear them over a tuxedo shirt, like how the employees at Russ & Daughters always have a shirt and tie on under their white jackets,” she adds.

With Lunar New Year on the horizon, Strategist writer Kitty Guo has already spotted plenty of brands “getting in on the equine action.” She rounded up a slew of her favorites, including this trio of “too-cute” bag charms. As she says, “Definitely don’t dillydally, as many of these releases are limited edition and likely to gallop away soon.”

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