and useless items.
I was asked in cooking school what is a chef’s greatest tool? Hands. Brain, of course. We were told to come to school with two chef jackets, an apron, a good chef’s knife 10-12″ and a paring knife 3-4″. That’s it.
The knife collection alone now fills a magnetic rack and others are in a chef’s case but when someone tells me they need an olive pitter, I say smash it with your chef’s and take out the pit. Strawberry huller? Duh, take out the parer.
All these commercials try to get you to buy stuff you don’t need. Unless you eat rice eight times a day you don’t need an electric rice cooker. Look at your counter space and think of what is really important to you. If it’s coffee, go for it. I lived at 6.500 feet above sea level where water boiled at about 180 degrees so it was difficult to make water for tea or to cook eggs so I’ve a hot water boiler on my counter because that’s important to me.
Please check my Essential Pantry series to prove my theories. It will soon extends to pets. I’m up in the middle of the night and saw an ad for a “wee wee pad” with pheromones and a target so the dog will go in the middle and save the owner cleanup time.
My idea is to save your money and actually take your dog for a walk. We got Zoe at six weeks of age and she’ll be ten years old this month. I took her for 8 walks a day as a pup, now she gets four, and I’m sure as she ages that number will climb near eight again. She hasn’t had a wee wee pad since her first week home and I didn’t need a target and pheromones to get her to go in the middle. Actually, I don’t think she ever used one.
There are things you need and one-purpose things people try to get you to buy, so don’t do it. I shop the outside of the grocery and only go inside for pasta, rice, tea, chicken broth (for the dog). Do I spend a lot on groceries? Yes. We live well but I’m trying to go more veggie, shhhh don’t tell my husband. We had a tiny bit of leftover chicken tonight with cold sesame noodles and broccoli.
I’ll sneak in veg when I can. He’s a steak and potatoes guy so it’ll take some of Dee’s sneakiness to get in green beans, Romaine, grilled radicchio and kale. Luckily he loves carrots, apples, pummelos and grapefruit.
Do you know that if I buy these items from the grocery I can cook them without any special appliance? I walk my dog separately or drive her because dogs have been stolen around here and she’d go “home” with anyone who has a treat. Ten years. We’re thinking about that ten-year trial period and we may just keep her. Dee
Cooking with Dee 