So the first card in the great cooking adventure has been played. Well, technically I guess the cookbooks were the first cards. Regardless, today was the big one. I decided, what better place to go that was close to me than the Mall of America. You can live, die, see animals at an aquarium and have Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. all under one roof. Perfect!
After snooping around a bit I settled on a Calphalon 10-piece set from Macy’s. Most people recommended I pick and choose individual pieces, but that was too much to think about at this infancy of my cooking ability. So I went simple and got a hard-anodized set that had most all of the main pieces I would need. Bonus, they threw in a set of spoons and spatulas both wooden and metal. Cha-ching, next!
Next up were the knives. After battling several herds of Midwesterners, I found a le gourmet chef store. They pretty much had everything I would need at reasonable prices.
For the knives, I chose some sweet looking Oneida, forged-in-the-fires-of-Mount-Doom, shiny bastards. The woman asked if I wanted to open the box and “try them out,” and I wondered if there was some meat or a carcass in the back or something that people were stabbing to test knives. Though that would be fun, I told her I’d pass and just take her word for it.
The rest was just a bit of a Supermarket Sweep of the store. I grabbed most of the main stuff the cookbooks said I would need, plus some extra items. There’s probably something I missed that I won’t realize I need until I am knee-deep in chopped vegetables and simmering sauces. Oh well, that’s all part of figuring this stuff out.
As an aside, I was looking for a perfect salad bowl since I knew I would be making salads often. After looking over the sea of various bowls, one made my spidey sense tingle. To the untrained eye it looked like a simple, wooden bowl, like the Holy Grail in the third Indiana Jones movie. However, when I flipped it over, bam! Made in Thailand. Oh yeah, this was definitely the bowl perfect bowl.
Another swipe and I was on my way. I lugged all that stuff out quick before I saw something else I “needed” from there. One side trip to Target on the way home to get some new plates and cleaning products and I was done.
Today’s damage:
- Calphalon 10-piece cookware set – $213.79
- Oneida knife set + various cooking gadgets – $250.06
- Plates, glasses and new dish-cleaning stuff – $41.45
- TOTAL: $505.30
- Knowing that I am going to make some delicious and hearty eats: Priceless
It’s a lot I know, but I feel it is a worthy investment.
Oh wait, there is one other thing I did buy. Because all good cooks need something to sip while they chop, slice and sizzle, I got myself a little something. The store in the Mall of America is one of the few to ever have this stuff, so I bought their last two bottles. It’s pretty much the greatest sipping vodka ever created by human hands. Don’t worry mom and dad, I’m only sipping. Huzzah!
