Blessed by the Potato

There are a number of people I know who’ve gotten married recently, or who are planning on it in the near future. That, or they’re planning on moving out on their own. Either way, lots of people thinking about what to put in their new kitchens. One traditional thing (moreso for the people getting married than those moving out on their own) is to get some china with a pattern that they pick out together (read: that the bride and her mom pick out together). However, this isn’t a very useful tradition for most people: my own parents recently bought a new set of china because they realized that their wedding china was… hideous. Even with that, and with making a point of using their new china as often as they can — they still save it for special occassions, but use it for more of them, like thanksgiving, birthdays, tests, etc., instead of just christmas and easter — even with that, they still hardly ever use their china. Sometimes, they don’t realize until they’re halfway through a meal that they used the regular plates.

So why even bother? Aside from my parents, no one notices when we use the regular plates. It also saves a lot of attic space not having to store a bunch of barely-used plates alongside a dress that was only worn once. Perhaps most importantly, you just can’t beat the timeless solid white of Corelle plates. There are no patterns to form weird Rorsach patterns when food covers part of it, and no paint to slowly chip off with each use.

Yeah, I really like my Corelle plates. The best part about them is that I don’t need to constantly worry that I’m going to break them — I can actually use them. They are nearly indestructable, and that’s their big selling point. They’re not completely indestructable, as I have broken one since moving out here to the L-dot (and people are still amazed that I’ve managed to do that). Given how clumsy I am and how many other dishes I’ve broken over the years (particularly beakers in the lab… ugh), only having one broken bowl is a pretty big testament to their durability (and to give more credit to them, I dropped it from shoulder height with spin).

For those picking items for your wedding registry, it’s important to put some things on that people will want to buy for you, as well as what you want. Having a china pattern on record is nice, but most people I’ve talked to don’t want to be giving china, knowing that it will be used less than the 9th fondue set on the pile (a problem made worse if your pattern doesn’t have universal appeal so people wonder if a mistake was made). A good idea I saw recently was to put a bunch of board games on the registry (everyone needs a scrabble and monopoly, and not everyone has them yet). They’re reasonably priced for your poorer, younger friends, and fun to buy (rather than “hey, how’re you liking that toaster I got you?” … acutally, toasters can be sort of fun, but you get the idea.)

Full disclosure: this post was in no way supported by Corningware/Corelle or Parker Bros. games. However, it could be.