I have some important milestones coming up over the next couple of weeks. I will have owned my house for a month. I will be trying to ignore another birthday. And I will have been blogging for an entire year (didn't think I could do it, did you?).
To celebrate, I've been buying gifts for myself and the house. Most of them have been little things like a tumbler to replace the one someone dropped and broke and a spoon rest to keep the cooking surface of my smooth-top range clean. A few have been bigger - a second-hand lateral file for my business records and a dishwasher (this house didn't have one) that was on final clearance because it was a discontinued model. A few days ago, though, I bought myself an expensive present at full price, something I almost never do; it's a beautiful set of Wusthof kitchen knives with a sharpener and a wood block.
I've never owned really good knives before and I can already see that I need to be retrained. "Razor sharp" appears to be an understatement; if I continue to chop, slice, and dice with my usual vigor, I could easily amputate part (or all) of an important finger. Yes, I keep my fingers bent under when I'm holding food with them, but the chef's knife in this set could probably take off an entire knuckle without half trying. Time to sign up for the Basic Knife Skills class at the local Sur la Table.
On the other hand: Barry was always trying to convince me that I needed a large shotgun for personal defense when he wasn't around, but with these knives in my kitchen, I have all the deadly weapons that I'll ever need.
"At the root of many a woman's failure to become a great cook lies her failure to develop a workmanlike regard for knives. " ~Robert Farrar Capon
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