November 13, 2007 – Christmas Catalogs arriving by the basketful!

        The Christmas shopping catalogs are arriving daily and I can hardly keep up with them.

        In the upper right hand corner of one woman’s clothing catalog it announced:

“Live the good life, love what you wear.”

        I paused.  Yes, when you love what you are wearing, life seems to be much better, doesn’t it.  They have some excellent people on their staff to lead with a line like that.  Yes, I flipped through the entire catalog and then tossed it. The clothes were obviously not for my life, but it is a great quote.

        The next catalog, a baker supply catalog, I saved for the next morning with my coffee so that I could peruse it undisturbed.  They always have a few recipes tucked in between the merchandise and I check for those first.  Then I look at the pictures of the scrumptious food next, then my third flip through – yes, third flip through – I scrutinize what I don’t own and consider if I have a need for it.

[I lusted after a snowflake shortbread pan for almost 20 years before I finally decided to buy it. I had to rationalize the high price at the time with the theory that I should have bought it the first year instead of agonizing over the high price on the 20^th year. I grimaced and bought it and it now costs considerably more!]

        Just the other day a friend said when she moved that she had tossed out some of her kitchen housewares because she was moving and downsizing. Now, she laments what she did and is having to invest all over again in things she needs for her up-coming, large family Thanksgiving dinner.  The same thing happened to me.  I haven’t had the need of my demitasse coffee set for years and I put it in a church rummage sale and now I intend on serving Tiramisu for dessert at Thanksgiving and I had to quickly jump on line and order a new demitasse set.  Thankfully, I didn’t throw out my silver demitasse spoons!

        So, with pen in hand . . . [I love to read catalogs with a pen in hand so that I can circle things – must be the frustrated wanting to be a teacher in me, but I went another direction.  I love to take the red pen to my own essays and I love to circle things in magazines and catalogs – not sure what psychosomatic tendency that alludes to – but I have it – big time.] . . . where was I, yeah, pen in hand, I got a fresh cup of coffee and settled down to half listening to the morning news – hardly anything changes from day to day - I flipped to the first page.

        Bench Knife  -  $24.95.  I gasped.  It is the same exact bench knife that I have had for at least 30 years – possibly more.  Mine is still in good condition and I reach for it often.  It has its very own special place so I know where to grab for it when I need it. But, $24.95, I pity the new bride learning to cook, she might by-pass one of the most useful tools in cooking because of the price tag. 

So, I idly started through the catalog circling things I own.  In a matter of six pages, my mental tally was over $250 and that was for about 7 items and would never cover the replacement cost of what it takes to make Christmas cookies.  When you take into account the mixing bowls, cookie cutters, cookie sheets, cooling racks, rolling mat, rolling pin, cookie batter scoop, shortbread pan, measuring spoons, and measuring cups . . . GOSH it made me sit back and reflect.

I tossed the catalog into the recycle bin after I cut out one recipe.

So, when someone tells you, “Your cookies taste like a million dollars,” smile and nod and smugly think about the underlying cost it took to produce them which includes your expertise, time, equipment, and ingredients; then compare that to the taste you’ve received and mentally calculate the value given to the church for their fund raiser.