Knives Out

I grew up in a household with zero love for knives. My mother did all the cooking and didn’t like sharp knives. If one of my sisters or I even left one of the dull ones in the kitchen sink, she would be compelled to wash it and put it away, fearful we’d lose a finger or someone would break into the house overnight, snatch it and do away with us all.

Despite this, and little instruction otherwise, I somehow managed to become a pretty decent cook. I’ve got several sharp knives at the ready in my tiny kitchen and even though I didn’t know how to use them properly, they’ve helped me crank out some stellar meals.

When cooking with friends though, it should really come as no surprise that I was painfully slow or a bit frightening when wielding a knife and chopping up just about anything. It was not uncommon to hear me groan when assigned the sous chef duty of chopping. “Tonia, can you chop some parsley?” Ugh. Blargh. (Who even likes parsley?)

Well that all changed earlier this week, when my friend Cheryl hooked me up with a knife skills class at the Good Egg. Within 15 minutes of the two-hour class, I was already grinning ear to ear. It opened up a whole new range in my cooking repertoire. Julienned peppers, exquisitely diced garlic and onions, perfect slivers upon slivers of chard and even finely chopped, bruise-free parsley… But as a lover of apples, the thing that made me happiest of all, was the moment I produced beautiful thin little apple slices. I gobbled those suckers up so fast there was very little evidence that I even produced them.

I forgot how amazing it feels to learn a new skill – to work towards mastering something. That sense of achievement seriously can’t be beat. It’s empowering. So much so, I think I’m going to tackle this bit of Smitten Kitchen apple deliciousness next week.

Knives out indeed.

I still hate parsley though.

Radiohead - Knives Out