09:08 – It was 65.5F (18.5C) when I took Colin out at 0630, partly cloudy.
I’ve hated our kitchen knife arrangement for at least 20 years. It’s basically a little drawer organizer with a bunch of knives in it. Given her penchant for organization, I’m surprised that Barbara seems perfectly happy with it. But I wanted an organized collection.
So I started checking for kitchen knife sets on Costco, Amazon, Walmart, and so on. I found knife sets, all of which appeared superficially similar, ranging in price from $1,500+ down to an Amazon Basics set for $21. When they were up Friday, I got Frances aside and asked her what she thought. She has a background in professional cooking, and has a collection of high-end cooking equipment from that premium French cast-iron stuff on through all her other gear. So I was kind of surprised when she told me that she was perfectly happy with her set of Cuisinart knives that she’d gotten for $75 in a 50%-off sale at Bed, Bath, and Beyond.
If she’s happy with them, that tells me that a decent set of knives should be available for well under $100. That was borne out by several articles I read about good-quality knife sets that wouldn’t break the bank. I dithered around because there were so many choices, but I ended up buying this set for $60 on Amazon, which was actually noticeably less expensive than on Walmart.
It’s made by Chicago Cutlery, which is apparently a major name in knives. The company has been around since 1936 or something, and still manufactures their products in Chicago, China.
Barbara said she didn’t want yet another thing cluttering up the kitchen counter, and said it was okay to order this set only if I agreed to stop saving 2-liter bottles. To that, I replied, “Never mess with a man’s bottles,” and referred her to a recent episode of Heartland where Lisa threw out the bottle that Grandpa Jack had been using for decades to make up batches of his barbecue sauce. Never mess with a man’s bottles.