favorite thing friday

Do you remember how I wrote that we have learned that when we buy things, we generally get what we pay for?

So, when I spent $25.00 for a sleeping bag while I was in college and then couldn't sleep for the entire week of my geology field trip because I darn near froze my toes off, you better believe that I spared no expense on my next sleeping bag purchase.

Sure, my new bag is rated to 20 degrees below zero. Even though it never gets colder than 40 degrees in San Diego. But I'd rather have more fiber fill than I need. I'd prefer to be too warm than too cold. You can always cool off, but it can be very difficult to warm up.

Unless, you know.

You have a bottle of whiskey.

(And someone to sleep with that has a higher core body temperature than you.)

The point is, in the course of my life I have found a few things that are so worth the extra money, I just revel in owning such high quality goodness that I don't dwell on how much they cost.

Take knives for example.

Charlie and I have owned some really cheap knives in the course our 14-year marriage. We inherited a few. And because we were young newlyweds and then, shoestring budget graduate students, we would try to save money by purchasing a knife here or there. We had a hodge podge collection and they would quickly dull and never hold a good edge.

Now, in hindsight, if we'd just bought a high quality knife (or two) from the get go, we could have slowly added to our collection over time. Instead of adding more cheap knives to the mix. But we were young and didn't know any better. Eventually, we wised up. And currently, we are the proud owners of WÜSTHOF Classic knives.


This is the set that we own, but we bought ours before the most incredible santoku was added to the collection. Last year for Christmas, I bought Charlie the 5-inch santoku and I can easily say that it is by far my favorite knife in the entire collection. I could see owning two of these knives because whenever we are cooking together, we both grab for the santoku.

(Which can be quite dangerous.)

We don't own any of the WÜSTHOF steak knives, but instead own a set of Laguiole olive wood knives that we bought long before they cost as much as they do, now.

But my next favorite in the WÜSTHOF collection are the awesome pull-apart kitchen shears.

I LOVE THEM.


Except for today when my children used them to cut each other's hair less than 48-hours after everyone's hair had been professionally cut.

Even if you don't buy an entire set at once, the lovely thing about this collection (or any of the WÜSTHOF collections) is that you can add to it with time. And, in the eight years that we've owned our set, we have replaced two of the knives, free of charge, because the handles have cracked. Sure, you may be spending a little more for these knives, but with the high quality of construction and a lifetime guarantee, they very well may be the only knives you ever buy and in my opinion, that is money very well spent.

Much unlike the sum of money I spent on our children's hair cuts, a mere two days ago. But since they didn't wait to butcher each other's hair until after our Christmas photo, I'm sure whenever I lovingly gaze at our 2008 Holiday picture at any point in my life, I will instantly be reminded of just how crazy my life was living with three four-year-olds.

(Yes. I was reminded today of my then six-year-old brother, a pair of hair clippers, and the identical five-year-old French Canadian twins who had just moved in to our neighborhood and didn't speak English. As my mother so vividly recalls, those were the worst hair cuts you could ever possibly imagine. Thankfully, the fiasco at our house today wasn't quite that bad.)