Because of Spoons

 I'm cleaning out kitchen cupboards today.  No, the photo project isn't finished. Shush.  This is what I do: add to the chaos.

I have more candles than any one human should have.  I culled a bunch of them about a year ago and even then I over-estimated how many I should keep.  Another batch is being culled because my gawd.

We have two sets of barbecue utensils for a barbecue that Kevin gave away two summers ago.  One set is going to goodwill and the other Kevin wants to keep "because I'll have a barbecue again someday."  I barely had time to squelch the eye-roll.  Back into the back, bottom shelf of the island they go.

I had a really nice wooden box of extra silverware; extra knives, spoons, and forks that I didn't like.  It was on the bottom shelf, behind some other stuff.  Every once in a while, I would spot it and think "I should do something with that." Today was the day, I guess.

But there was a grey plastic box on top of it now.  I have ZERO MEMORY of this box.  It looks like a tool kit. But a tool kit would be in a different cupboard and remembered.   I set it on the counter and opened it with great curiosity.  I mean, seriously, no memory of this box at all.

It was a complete knife set.  Cooking knives.  Is that what they're called? No, chef knives? I don't know. Also in the box, a set of steak knives and forks.  This is why it was in the bottom of the cupboard unremembered.  It's a really nice set, just not something I would use.

Then I figured out that it was a gift from the gift exchange at Kevin's work.  We have terrible gift exchange luck, always receiving stuff we'll never use.  Thus the knife set in the back, bottom of the cupboard.

My knife set is probably thirty years old.  I can't remember when I got it but I'm pretty sure it was in the old house.  It's probably time to think about replacing it, if that was something I cared about at all.  

Then I notice that this set has a butcher knife and mine doesn't.  It has a sharpener and mine doesn't.  Mine has a bread knife and this doesn't.  I do know that multiple paring knives (yes, I know what that is) is a good thing.  Next thing I know, I'm searching to buy an inexpensive knife block.  I'll just combine the two sets.  

But that's about the new stuff.  Let me tell you about the wooden box and our silverware.

When we moved into THIS house, we ran out of spoons. Twice.  Yeah, I just saw your puzzled look.  The old house was an OLD house and didn't have a dishwasher.  The new house, of course, does.  Well, there's a learning curve of when to run the dishwasher when there's only two of you and don't use many dishes.  So we ran out of spoons, twice.

Kevin's solution to this was to buy me a complete cutlery set.  Go big or go home, Kev.  And I remember not only was I a little WUT about it, it was EXPENSIVE.  I mean, who does that? Kevin does.  He's a problem-solver.  

I combined the set we had, which was given to us for a wedding present and stored the stuff we would never use in the original wooden box.  The wooden box was really nice but too wide to fit in any drawer.  I kept it, thinking that maybe someday I would figure out a way to use it.  

I've slowly depleted the spoons because they disappear for some reason.  I had already sent the forks next door for holiday dinners.  So leftover knives, serving spoons, condiment knife and spoon, and steak knives remained.

Now I have two sets of steak knives and we don't eat red meat.  My first thought was to send this stuff home with Nephew.  But he had already left so Kevin said he would ask the sister-in-law.  I kind of wanted to wait for Nephew but I wanted this "problem" solved more.  

Of course she would like extra everything because they host all the family events.  Kevin took the wooden box and leftover utensils and left the new knife set.  I ordered a new knife block then put the grey plastic box back into the cupboard to wait it's fate.  

He returns about a half-hour later and he's in disbelief.  "You will never guess what we found"  He's right, I would never guess.  The s-i-l and b-i-l were looking at the knives, etc. and discovered something.  The wooden box had a REMOVABLE TRAY.  

AND there was complete Knife Set underneath.  This whole time, tens of years, I've had a completely new knife set and didn't know it.  I was puzzled and intrigued about that box and it had treasures hidden.

Kevin was mildly worried that I would be upset but I just saw the humor in it.  OF COURSE there was a knife set.  THAT is why it was so expensive.  That is why I liked that box so much.  It has a mystery about it.  

It's in better hands, excuse the pun, next door because it will be used and appreciated instead of languishing in the back of a cupboard here.  One knife set is probably dangerous enough for me to have in my possession, let alone three.