Something Old, Something New

I really went out on a limb the other day and bought NEW EVERYDAY SILVERWARE! I know, it was pretty extravagant, but after 40 years of silverware from the gas station giveaway, I figured it was time to upgrade.

I was inspired by my children, who are recently married, and all have pristine silverware drawers with five or six separate compartments and all the flatware neatly lined up and ready to go. Ours on the other hand is a jumble with castoffs, relics and stuff people left from various potluck suppers. Which is probably where the rest of my stuff is...scattered at other people's houses.

Now of course my kids have everyday forks from places like Crate and Barrel. For me, it's HomeGoods, but it's the same company that manufactured my sterling so there's some symmetry there. And the notion that I have eight of everything is almost enough to make you giddy with excitement.

Now the five piece "Hostess" set that accompanies this is a bit difficult to figure out. There is a serving spoon but that's just about the only thing I'm not short on, except when I'm having a dinner party and can't find any serving spoons. There is also a "cold meat fork." I don't tend to serve cold meat. And if I do, you just pick it up in your hands, like chicken. I'm not much of a cold cut person. Probably because every Thanksgiving, in a burst of holiday cheer, my father-in-law would mumble "this is too much trouble. Why don't we just have cold cuts?"

Then there's the sugar spoon. This conjures up images of a real sugar bowl with a spoon sitting in it. But if your "sugar" is various random packets of Splenda that you've pinched from the coffee place, I'm not sure what that spoon is going to end up doing either. It's too big to give to my infant granddaughters to teeth on.

But whether or not I utilize all the accoutrements, I think I'll make it a nightly ritual to count my silverware and make sure there are at least eight of all the basics. Of course, my husband has already used a couple of pieces and I was a bit annoyed because I liked just LOOKING at the stuff. If someone uses it and puts it inthe dishwasher, it destroys the balance. But I guess that's how librarians feel when you take the books off the shelf and they just finished getting them all in alphabetical order....