So I've been having health ups & downs. Thursday I had a fever and stayed home from work. I intended to go in by noon but I ended up sleeping til 5:30pm when hunger woke me up. Last week, however, I had a bit of a splurge when I was feeling good. I really haven't bought anything for myself for quite a long time (almost two years?)
I bought a cooking knife which stores inside a wood case. When you lay the case open, it doubles as a cutting board. I bought "the good brand" but was so disappointed. The wood was gouged & dented in shipping because it had no padding, not even cardboard. Furthermore, the wood was so dry, I had to buy cutting board oil to seal the wood. But before I figured that out, I bought another one (bigger size), a knockoff brand, half the price of the first. I am so happy with this one, it has a thin coat of sealant so I don't have to do anything to it but wash it.
Since Mom passed, I've been looking for a solution to cooking smaller quantities of rice. I do have small electric rice cooker which used to be the right size when Mom was living with me. Since then, even making the smallest quantity would sometimes be in my fridge so long it would go bad. So I bought the smallest clay pot I could find to make rice on the stove. I know, I could just do it in a small cooking pot but you have to watch it carefully. Works like a charm, but I've only used it once so far. You don't have to watch the clay pot as carefully, it's more forgiving.
So in my condition, camping would be very difficult for all the dialysis stuff I would need to bring for one or two days. So why would I buy not one, but two, little pocket stoves that use solid fuel. I got it for my emergency kit. Why two? I wanted the camping pots that came with one set, yet I wanted a rack that was only available with the other set. But dammit, neither came with the fuel pucks, so I had to buy that separately! I've always kept emergency supplies. When I lived in Texas, it was for tornado emergencies & frozen days. In California, earthquakes & sometimes we lose power when there are fires nearby.
Now the rabbit hole: I oiled the first knife case. I liked the result. I'm going to keep it in my office desk because the ones in the break room are so abused and sketchy. Sometimes the warehouse guys borrow the knives for shipping because it's sharper than anything they have. Jeez, box cutters & their replacement blades are so cheap (under $5) but they're not getting the tools they need.
So I looked at all the knives in my knife block and the knife block, itself. They have wood handles that have never ever been sealed, estimate 40 years? I got them when I got my first house in my 20's. I remember hunting down and ordering this specific Henkel's knife block and waiting a month before getting it because it came from Germany. It was the only one that matched perfectly with my new knife set (not Henkel's). Then I pulled out all my wooden kitchen utensils that I didn't inherit from Mom or my Auntie. They need oiling too. Mom's have cured themselves over time because she used them so much. I'm still half way through oiling everything (sigh.)
