browsing through the Williams-Sonoma catalog

Ah, the Williams-Sonoma catalog. The pinnacle of cooking porn. Let's see what awesome stuff I'm desperate to have but totally can't afford.



Let's just start right from the top: the cover photo of a shiny All-Clad fondue pot, $149.95. Ah, the utter excess highlighted right at the front promises this to be a good issue. Man, do I love cheese, but it can't be necessary to spend that much money on a fondue pot. How often does anyone make fondue? I must give props for the photo composition, though, the reflection of the veggies in the side of the pot is quite lovely. I'm a sucker for those little carrots with the green tops still on them.

Page 4: Croissants in a stoneware basket. The basket is kinda lame but the croissants look amazing. Makes me want to skip directly to page 20, where the caption assures me I will be able to ogle them again.

Page 6: Shun Bamboo Board & Mezzaluna, $149.95. That's the lucky price, I guess. It's really quite beautiful and I love the way the mezzaluna blade slides down into the board for storage, that seems a lot safer than my Wusthof double-blade mezzaluna that slides only into the flesh of my finger. It makes me wish I didn't already have a board and mezzaluna. It also makes me wish I had money.

Page 11: Recipe for Crepes with Berries and Ricotta. Clipped!

Page 20: Oh those delicious croissants are back, and two pics on one page! Williams-Sonoma Catalog, you do tease me so. Especially because the next page taunts me with the possibility of ordering Three Months of Croissants for $89. 42 Croissants in 90 days, people, that is true luxury.

Pages 24 - 27: Blah blah blah you can't eat table settings. Oh, I also don't have a kitchen table...

Page 49: Shun Ken Onion 7" Hollow-ground Santoku Knife, $199.95. Oh lordy is that a beauty. Not that I want to be disloyal to my beloved Wustof Santoku knife which I literally use for everything, but I covet this knife desperately. Also, it's so great that the guy's name is Ken Onion, cause that knife would be awesome for slicing onions.

Page 55: Stainless-steel Rolling Mincer, $35.00. This 5-blade rolling mincer looks sooooo dangerous, I love it.

Pages 60-69: What's with the cleaning and household shit? You're wasting valuable catalog space!

Page 80: Wreaths?! WTF?!

Page 85: Bunny Cake Pan, $36.95. This three-dimensional bunny-shaped cake pan is quite cute, but the instructions telling me that I can bake both halves of the bunny and stick them together with frosting is seriously overestimating my baking skills. My bunny would so not be standing upright. And there's nothing more depressing on Easter than a gimpy bunny.

And that's all for this edition of Browsing Through the Williams-Sonoma Catalog. Don't miss the next installment upon the arrival of the next new catalog, which is, let's face it, likely to be tomorrow.