Excuse Me - Have you seen my knife?

No - I am not a serial killer!

No - I don't plan on going on a massive kniving spree!

I don't even have an obsession with knives of all shapes, sizes and sharpness!

I can't even properly use a knife to cut the many things they are intended to cut. (At least I have been told!) After all, dicing, chopping, slicing, julienning, mincing, and cubing can all be difficult tasks if you have never learned the proper technique to do so. Confusing to say the least.

However, I have recently learned that knives are an integral part of your kitchen supplies, and without them, you will find yourself left in the dark... or, not making the cut when it comes to preparing your food for tonight's dinner.

Last December, my family and I packed up our belongings and moved to California. It was time for a change of scenery. With the move, also came the realization that we had collected too much junk, and we had to sort through what was important and what could stay behind. This was because we had to fit all of our belongings into a truck to move across country, and once in California, most of it would be going into storage until we got settled and finally moved into our own place once again. This meant we were brutal when deciding what to keep.

We said goodbye to most of our furniture; we said goodbye to some of our personal belongings that we knew we no longer needed. I even weeded out my kitchen and got rid of some of the gadgets that I hardly ever used.

Recently we moved into our new home. Among the excitement of finally having our own place, was also the excitement (and sadness) of opening up all those boxes and unpacking our belongings that we have been separated from for about 10 months.

That is when I noticed that my knife blocks were missing!

I have a kitchen gadget obsession. If you see it on TV and it promises to do cool stuff, chances are good I think I need that gadget. Chances are also good that I might even eventually purchase said product or ask for it for my birthday or Christmas.

As we packed up our belongings last Decemember, the knife block came into question. My husband was annoyed with them because he said they were dull. To me, they still worked. As we started running out of space, we had to decide what to take with and what could easily be replaced.

After much discussion, we decided to part ways with our knife blocks. My husband said they were dull and I was afraid of sticking my hand in a box of knives as we unpacked. My mom said our knifes were much sharper than her knifes at home, o, we gifted them to my parents.

Until recently, I had forgotten such a gift.

Not only did we get rid of our knife block, but we didn't have any extra "sharp" knives in the silverware holder. Usually there are a few spares lying around, but this time, we only had one lonely paring knife, a random sharp knife, and plenty of butter knives.

The random sharp knife... well, to put it nicely... I have seen butter knives that were sharper. The butter knives... they serve a purpose, but not when you really need to cut something. As for the lonely paring knife... it is rather dull, but the only remaining sharp knife I have found in our boxes upon boxes of kitchen gear we unpacked.

Now, if you can imagine us doing all of our cutting needs with this rather dull, small, paring knife. It has happened, as my husband cubed beef steak for one of our dinners and I attempted to cut through a log of ground beef. Both of which were painstaking processes.

So, I guess that means we are back to the store. This time searching for a knife block.... unless that is you have seen them!