The value of a good knife

Yesterday’s post about sweet potatoes reminded me how much I love my knife. When you’re going to be spending a lot of time chopping cauliflower and broccoli and potatoes and whatnot, a really good chef’s knife is a must have item.

For years I hacked at my vegetables with a long line of cheap knives acquired at Target for under $15. Not only did they make the job of food preparation so much harder than it had to be, they also forced me into using language wildly inappropriate for a lady such as myself. Ahem.

As a reward to myself (I think it was when I lost my first 20 pounds, or 10% - who can remember?), I invested in a Wusthof 7” Chef’s Knife, similar to this one:

I bought mine at Macy’s and paid just over $100 for it and it was worth every single dime. I can’t say it made me chop my vegetables with the precision of a Food Network chef, but when I used it I tended more toward humming and less toward cursing while preparing my dinner. And I was happy.

But now I kind of feel like an ass for spending so much. I recently came across this knife on Amazon and thought it might be worth mentioning. And buying. I have not personally tried it, but it is very highly rated and recommended by Cook’s Illustrated . And you can’t beat the $23 price. This appears to be the knife to get if you really need one but you’re not ready to make a big investment.

Whichever way you go, I promise you will never regret it.

Oh, and the potato peeler? Love love LOVE this one. Makes the truly distasteful job of potato peeling a breeze. Still not fun, but a breeze.