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Tuesday 15 September 2015

Consign My Meat Mallet to the Graveyard of Obsolete Utensils? NEVER, Sir!

Actually, it's a "m'a'm", suggesting such a thing.
FROM MY COLD DEAD HANDS.
I don't believe I've ever used it on beef, though I might give a cubed steak a little extra tenderizing if I ever again tried my hand at chicken-fried steak.
But it's just the best for boned chicken, or pork chops.

I have a sharpening steel, but have never used it - but my brother is a great one for sharpening knives, and Himself can rouse himself to the task, from time to time.
Cruets? i didn't know they were an antique notion. No wonder it is so hard to explain them to children when talking about altar furnishings.
I'd never curl butter, because I'm not much for improving the looks of food.

But since I am lazy, I do love me a good gadget, (i.e., one that saves energy or work.) I was thinking about getting something with which to make chocolate curls, for when I buy super cheap after-holiday candies, intending  to later incorporate into some food. (I obtained well more than a pound of chocolate for less than a dollar after Easter, and stuck it in the freezer. Only used some once so far, in brownies, but I tasted it as I was chopping, and it was quite good.)

And I'd give anything for a really tiny cookie scoop.

And there was some other utensil I was thinking I needed to acquire, now that I've become all earth-mothery, and making things from scratch.
(But having also become as old as dirt, fittingly enough for an earth-mother, i can't remember what it was.....)

And I would not give up my tuna drainer for anything - yes, it's just a little plastic strainer that's just the right size for pressing whatever out of canned tuna.
Now that I'm making my own mayonnaise, tuna has become palatable again. (When I found out all the commercial stuff readily available had an ingredient to which I was allergic, I just stopped using it, and i was shocked how much certain foods NEED it.)

This week I made a very well-received hummus, (my little Braun hand-mixer has a nifty processor attachment,) and tomorrow I'm having a go at ketchup, with balsamic vinegar.

And if someone would just offer some ugly cheap tomatoes in the stores around here, I very much want to make oven-made "sun-dried" tomatoes.

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