I needed to find a small pumpkin cookie cutter for a dessert recipe I am teaching in my class tonight at Les Gourmettes Cooking School. I didn’t have to go to the store to buy the cutter.

No, that would have been too easy.

I had to find it amongst the hundreds of cookie cutters I already own. Honestly, getting in the car and going to Sur la Table to buy one, would have been quicker and less frustrating!

I store the cookie cutters in these four jars, which I had just washed after emptying them all in search of the one elusive cutter. It’s a job that needed to be done. I store the jars on top of the cupboards in the kitchen. And we all know how greasy and nasty the stuff on top of kitchen cupboards gets!

Do you want to get a taste of the huge cookie cutter collection that I’ve amassed after teaching children’s cooking classes for 18 years?

Sure you do!

We might as well start big. Not surprisingly, the largest collection is the Christmas cutters. Nearly 100 here, alone.

Animal cookie cutters are always fun. Elephant. Moose. Pig. Horse. Giraffe. It’s a regular zoo over here. When you live in the desert southwest, one saguaro cactus cutter will not do. You need at least six! Howling coyotes, boots, cowboy hats, buffalo, prickly pear, chili peppers, roadrunners, armadillo, longhorn … no cliche is to be missed.

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