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Post by Ron Howard Voice on Sept 7, 2017 8:10:51 GMT -5
Time to play a lively game of Spend Other People's Money! A well-intentioned and wonderful friend of mine just gave me a $100 Williams-Sonoma gift card. I've never shopped at Williams-Sonoma because it seems like it's for rich people. But I am now very temporarily a rich person! So, any recommendations? Anything good? (aside from peppermint bark) Also, we can use this thread for general discussion of Williams-Sonoma...searching the forum, the three main results were the Deadspin "Hater's Guide" to their catalog, LazBro going to town on an entire bag of peppermint bark at his office, and Liz n Dick buying a terrible toaster.
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Post by Ron Howard Voice on Sept 7, 2017 8:12:25 GMT -5
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Post by Ben Grimm on Sept 7, 2017 8:38:37 GMT -5
I was there the other day - I bought my wife a pumpkin seed bark bar that was very tasty. If I had $100 gift card, I'd probably spend all it on food, though my wife might go for a kitchen gadget of some sort. They have some pretty tasty (if overpriced) sweets and sauces and the like.
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Post by gillianandersoncpr on Sept 7, 2017 9:18:44 GMT -5
If there's any sort of kitchen/cooking tool that you could use anyway, it might be nice to buy a really good pan or something that will be useful for the long-haul. I was given a really nice J.A. Henckels santoku-type knife years ago as a gift and I've used and enjoyed it a ton, even though I'm not the most cook-y person and nothing else that I own is nearly as high-end (or expensive although I don't know precisely how much it cost).
But if you don't really need anything equipment-wise, edibles might be nice, especially with winter on its way.
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Post by pairesta on Sept 7, 2017 9:35:47 GMT -5
I'm a total Williams Sonoma slut. Especially this time of year when they start promoting fall, Thanksgiving, and Christmas stuff and the store smells amazing. Unfortunately $100 will not get you far. Cooking implements would be a good idea. Sturdy measuring cups and spoons, too. They used to carry "off" measuring spoons, like, "half a tablespoon" or 3/4 teaspoon, etc, which I think would be handy. You can never have too many spatulas or whisks. Mixing bowls. A set of nice cocktail glasses.
Some time back, there was a short-lived "Williams Sonoma Home" store in the shops at Legacy and we went there once. The staff was apparently trained to treat you in an appropriately withering fashion if you were some rube off the street, which we clearly were. After picking up ONE dinner plate and seeing that it was $65, I laughed out loud, set it incredibly carefully down, and exited the store. It was gone within a year.
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Post by pairesta on Sept 7, 2017 9:38:08 GMT -5
I don't remember ours ever costing that much, but we had a couple of those and they suck. If you ever try to open anything other than a made-from-cork cork with it, it will break.
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Post by Ron Howard Voice on Sept 7, 2017 11:32:06 GMT -5
Hmm, weird measuring spoons, a set of cocktail glasses, santoku knife, and an extra wooden spoon sound like pretty good ideas. A $65 plate, not as much.
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Post by Pastafarian on Sept 7, 2017 14:15:07 GMT -5
I'm a total Williams Sonoma slut. Especially this time of year when they start promoting fall, Thanksgiving, and Christmas stuff and the store smells amazing. Unfortunately $100 will not get you far. Cooking implements would be a good idea. Sturdy measuring cups and spoons, too. They used to carry "off" measuring spoons, like, "half a tablespoon" or 3/4 teaspoon, etc, which I think would be handy. You can never have too many spatulas or whisks. Mixing bowls. A set of nice cocktail glasses. Some time back, there was a short-lived "Williams Sonoma Home" store in the shops at Legacy and we went there once. The staff was apparently trained to treat you in an appropriately withering fashion if you were some rube off the street, which we clearly were. After picking up ONE dinner plate and seeing that it was $65, I laughed out loud, set it incredibly carefully down, and exited the store. It was gone within a year. "Williams Sonoma Slut" was my favorite shopping mall themed adult film of last year. I apologize, with no AV Club comment section to make these tired jokes in anymore, I'm bringing them here.
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Post by Pastafarian on Sept 7, 2017 14:17:57 GMT -5
Time to play a lively game of Spend Other People's Money! A well-intentioned and wonderful friend of mine just gave me a $100 Williams-Sonoma gift card. I've never shopped at Williams-Sonoma because it seems like it's for rich people. But I am now very temporarily a rich person! So, any recommendations? Anything good? (aside from peppermint bark) Also, we can use this thread for general discussion of Williams-Sonoma...searching the forum, the three main results were the Deadspin "Hater's Guide" to their catalog, LazBro going to town on an entire bag of peppermint bark at his office, and Liz n Dick buying a terrible toaster. If you wait until closer to Xmas, they have a lovely Panettone (if you dig that kinda thing) with candied chestnuts in it. Too expensive, but lovely toasted and buttered with some strong coffee during the holidays. Also they seem to have really nice knives and cookware if you need any of that. And they do carry some good looking cookbooks if you want to add to your collection.
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moimoi
AV Clubber
Posts: 5,006
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Post by moimoi on Sept 8, 2017 8:20:07 GMT -5
If I recall correctly, they have some decadent cookies and cookie dough mixes.
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Post by pairesta on Sept 8, 2017 9:09:44 GMT -5
Put it towards the cost of a super-fancy electric kettle or coffeemaker. I like your distinction of "put it towards the cost", because that's sadly what $100 will cover for most things at WS.
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Post by Superb Owl ๐ฆ on Sept 8, 2017 9:09:49 GMT -5
Put it towards the cost of a super-fancy electric kettle or coffeemaker. Ok I'm intrigued. There are many appliances where I could see the benefit of getting a fancy-pants version, but what features exactly would be added to a super-expensive electric kettle?
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Post by Superb Owl ๐ฆ on Sept 8, 2017 9:34:02 GMT -5
Ok I'm intrigued. There are many appliances where I could see the benefit of getting a fancy-pants version, but what features exactly would be added to a super-expensive electric kettle? A lot of it is the same kind of idiot-proofing convenience tech you see on top-end Japanese rice cookers--stuff like variable temperature settings, delay timers, and hold-temperature functions. See, those types of features make sense for me in the context of a rice cooker, but I guess I've just never thought of electric kettles as anything more than "large amount of hot water very quickly"
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Post by pairesta on Sept 8, 2017 9:38:12 GMT -5
I only drink tea from a wifi enabled kettle, thank you.
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Post by Pastafarian on Sept 8, 2017 10:06:48 GMT -5
A lot of it is the same kind of idiot-proofing convenience tech you see on top-end Japanese rice cookers--stuff like variable temperature settings, delay timers, and hold-temperature functions. See, those types of features make sense for me in the context of a rice cooker, but I guess I've just never thought of electric kettles as anything more than "large amount of hot water very quickly" I'm sure for most people the difference in ten or twenty degrees in drinking Green Tea, Black Tea, or Oolong likely wouldn't be noticed, but there are apparently guideline for optimum temperatures at which to drink them. We happen to have one with several settings: Green, White, Oolong, Black, French Press, and I wanna say there's a "really boiling hot" option. I can see how if you put green tea in water at the hottest temperature you could end up with a pretty bitter cup pretty quickly though, so there's that.
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Post by Pastafarian on Sept 8, 2017 10:07:13 GMT -5
I only drink tea from a wifi enabled kettle, thank you. I've got a Juicero I'd like to sell you then.
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Post by Superb Owl ๐ฆ on Sept 8, 2017 10:14:24 GMT -5
See, those types of features make sense for me in the context of a rice cooker, but I guess I've just never thought of electric kettles as anything more than "large amount of hot water very quickly" I'm sure for most people the difference in ten or twenty degrees in drinking Green Tea, Black Tea, or Oolong likely wouldn't be noticed, but there are apparently guideline for optimum temperatures at which to drink them. We happen to have one with several settings: Green, White, Oolong, Black, French Press, and I wanna say there's a "really boiling hot" option. I can see how if you put green tea in water at the hottest temperature you could end up with a pretty bitter cup pretty quickly though, so there's that. Oh, that makes sense. I like tea but I don't know a damn thing about it.
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Post by Powerthirteen on Sept 8, 2017 10:28:09 GMT -5
See, those types of features make sense for me in the context of a rice cooker, but I guess I've just never thought of electric kettles as anything more than "large amount of hot water very quickly" I'm sure for most people the difference in ten or twenty degrees in drinking Green Tea, Black Tea, or Oolong likely wouldn't be noticed, but there are apparently guideline for optimum temperatures at which to drink them. We happen to have one with several settings: Green, White, Oolong, Black, French Press, and I wanna say there's a "really boiling hot" option. I can see how if you put green tea in water at the hottest temperature you could end up with a pretty bitter cup pretty quickly though, so there's that. Yeah, I would love a kettle that would enable me to get 200-degree water for coffee, for example. As it is I just bring a kettle to a boil, take it off the burner for a minute, and then pour it, which is probably good enough that it's not worth $150 or whatever to upgrade.
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Post by Pastafarian on Sept 8, 2017 19:41:19 GMT -5
I'm sure for most people the difference in ten or twenty degrees in drinking Green Tea, Black Tea, or Oolong likely wouldn't be noticed, but there are apparently guideline for optimum temperatures at which to drink them. We happen to have one with several settings: Green, White, Oolong, Black, French Press, and I wanna say there's a "really boiling hot" option. I can see how if you put green tea in water at the hottest temperature you could end up with a pretty bitter cup pretty quickly though, so there's that. Yeah, I would love a kettle that would enable me to get 200-degree water for coffee, for example. As it is I just bring a kettle to a boil, take it off the burner for a minute, and then pour it, which is probably good enough that it's not worth $150 or whatever to upgrade. If it makes any difference we didn't pay that, (I wanna say it was around 80) but on the other hand we didn't get ours at Williams-Sonoma.
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Post by Powerthirteen on Sept 8, 2017 20:12:52 GMT -5
Yeah, I would love a kettle that would enable me to get 200-degree water for coffee, for example. As it is I just bring a kettle to a boil, take it off the burner for a minute, and then pour it, which is probably good enough that it's not worth $150 or whatever to upgrade.ย If it makes any difference we didn't pay that, (I wanna say it was around 80) but on the other hand we didn't get ours at Williams-Sonoma.ย I would consider paying $8.
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Post by Incense on Sept 8, 2017 20:24:27 GMT -5
I have a perfectly nice tea kettle and a lovely vintage teapot. I also have a keurig that will create a cup of hot water to pop some tea in for me in a minute. And yet, I still want an electric kettle.
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Post by Pastafarian on Sept 8, 2017 20:38:49 GMT -5
If it makes any difference we didn't pay that, (I wanna say it was around 80) but on the other hand we didn't get ours at Williams-Sonoma. I would consider paying $8. USD? shit, let me order one up for you, that's like a mortgage payment up here.
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Post by Liz n Dick on Sept 9, 2017 12:29:42 GMT -5
Oh man, I haven't shopped W-S in ages, but I used to be a major Williams Sonoma slut, too. I guess they have a small problem in that they sell really good pots, pans, and knives, because once you outfit yourself with that stuff you kind of don't have any reason to keep shopping from them... (DO NOT GET THEIR SHITTY TOASTERS.) Since, as mentioned already, $100 won't go very far in the "useful tools/appliances" part of the catalog, I'd also recommend using that gift card on their fancy fun foodstuffs. Especially with Halloween/seasonal things coming in! If you can be patient for a month or two, that $100 would be VERY well-spent on any of their incredible (and so, so, so stupidly expensive) Christmas candies. Do they still make the Peppermint Cremes? Those are THE. BEST. I mean, the bark is good and all, but those cremes were to die for.
And hey! I remember the Williams-Sonoma Home store! That was hilarious. They also had (maybe still do have, I don't know) a garden catalog for a while. Oh how we loved to get that one in the junk mail, so we could spend an evening marveling at the $85 fruit tree saplings and $1000 chicken coops.
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heroboy
AV Clubber
I must succeed!
Posts: 1,185
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Post by heroboy on Sept 13, 2017 11:01:24 GMT -5
Time to play a lively game of Spend Other People's Money! A well-intentioned and wonderful friend of mine just gave me a $100 Williams-Sonoma gift card. I've never shopped at Williams-Sonoma because it seems like it's for rich people. But I am now very temporarily a rich person! So, any recommendations? Anything good? (aside from peppermint bark) Also, we can use this thread for general discussion of Williams-Sonoma...searching the forum, the three main results were the Deadspin "Hater's Guide" to their catalog, LazBro going to town on an entire bag of peppermint bark at his office, and Liz n Dick buying a terrible toaster. If you wait until closer to Xmas, they have a lovely Panettone (if you dig that kinda thing) with candied chestnuts in it. Too expensive, but lovely toasted and buttered with some strong coffee during the holidays. Also they seem to have really nice knives and cookware if you need any of that. And they do carry some good looking cookbooks if you want to add to your collection. Actually, wait until after Christmas so you can pick up the Panettone on sale (and whatever other Christmas edibles they still have on hand). It is surprisingly good for a pre-packaged cake that comes in a tin. The Bellegem waffle mix is also really good in a pinch if you don't feel like making pancake batter from scratch. All their other mixes are crap, though. We also make pretty good use of their rubs (primarily chili-lime) if you can get them on sale. For cookware, I really like their gold non-stick baking pans, and they're surprisingly not crazily expensive (just kindof expensive). (Disclosure: HeroGal used to work at Williams Sonoma part-time when we first met, just for the staff discount which also applied at Pottery Barn. She still gets people asking her to come back whenever we set foot in the store.)
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