The Dishes
It started with the cheeseboard. I upgraded us from a random platter and knife to an actual cheeseboard and cheese knives. It middled with Sur La Table and Whole Foods back to back. Anyone walking away from that experience is guaranteed to be confused as to what level of home chef they’re operating at. And it ended with Pottery Barn. Like I said, I was confused as to what caliber of person I am.
Back to the cheeseboard. It’s one of the easiest not really dinner dinners to pull together, and it’s a miracle dinner in that everyone in my house eats it with zero complaints. I was making it so often (we’re super health conscious over here) that buying an actual cheeseboard and cheese knives was a more solid investment than a 401k. What we were lacking, though, were snacking plates.
Fast forward to Sur La Table. The wine foil cutter was missing; we can only assume Jesse drunkenly tipsily threw it in the trash the last time he opened a bottle of wine. Ordinarily I’d be borderline enraged by this, but I, too, had had a fair amount of wine upon this discovery and more importantly, it meant I got to go to Sur La Table (by myself) to get a new one. And if I was going to journey to Sur La Table, I may as well see if they had anything in the way of snacking plates. Spoiler: they did.
But seeing those snacking plates made me realize I not only didn’t hate the idea of all white dishes, I kind of liked the idea of all white dishes. I left Sur La Table with my new foil cutter, grease splatter guard, and child size chef’s hat and journeyed over to Whole Foods to pick up some green beans and buttermilk while considering what it would mean to live a white dishes lifestyle. Was I really ready for that level of responsibility?
And then for my birthday, Jesse gifted me the credit card. There was only one clear choice what to spend that money on: new dishes. There wasn’t necessarily anything wrong with our current dishes, but you have to remember I had just been to Sur La Table and Whole Foods back to back; I was a new man with standards now. And I had free reign with the credit card. Thus I began my search. Corelle was too practical, Sur La Table was just a bit too boring, Williams Sonoma had a Le Creuset set I had my eye on, but Pottery Barn stole the show.
My whole life I’ve longed to own something from Pottery Barn (we have two throws but they don’t count because they were gifts) and finally here was my chance. Not only did I think about these dishes day and night after my initial discovery, but they were on sale and there was free shipping. These dishes belonged in my cabinet.
And now here we are, a household who eats our meals on Pottery Barn dishes. Meals that taste exactly the same as they did on Corelle dishes, but I assume that will change once the appetizer plates get here. There’s no way that cheeseboard won’t taste like France itself.
Soybeans, Too 