Channeling Rachel Ray

Apparently, Rachel Ray is doing a segment on small kitchens, and covered knives and pots. Freaky, I was just conjuring a post on knives, too. How cool that is...

So, my big observation on knives is this: You don't need as many as the retailers want you to buy. Big surprise, huh?

My smaller observation is this: You should buy the best knives you can afford, especially for whatever you decide your standby is going to be. You use them all the time, and a good knife should last for at least your lifetime. One of mine is on its third generation of user. I prefer a chef's knife, but that's me. You might prefer a santoku or a cleaver of some sort.

I have a whopping five knives, plus a honing rod and a sharpener.

• Henckels Pro 'S' 6-inch chef's knife
• Henckels Pro 'S' 8-inch chef's knife
• Henckels Pro 'S' bread knife
• Henckels Four Star 4-inch paring/utility knife
• An unkown brand of carving knife, for the roast and the turkey (that's the hand-me-down).

As with pots and pans, I have more than I need, but getting rid of a Pro 'S' seems like a shame. I would be happy with just the larger chef's knife, but the other cook in my household has much smaller hands and likes the 6-incher.

I have made some compromises in my cooking life: I have no filet knife, no boning knife, no meat cleaver, no vegetable cleaver. Oh, and no "peeling" knife, no "sandwich" knife, etc.

I also have not yet run into a need for a knife I do not own, so I strongly suspect I have plenty. I do keep my knives in a butcher block tha thas two or three empty slots, though, so if I find the perfect (small, too, my slots are all lower-level) knife, I guess I could buy another without using more room.

I happen to have room for the butcher block, but if you can't find a spot for one, you could buy a magnetic bar and find a handy (i.e. near your prep area) place to hang your knives. Or you could get one of those fancy racks that sits in a drawer, but who has spare drawers? In a pinch, I guess you could buy a knife bag that rolls up, which would certainly save space and certainly be inconvenient.