Sunbeam's Little Oskar
TAKE FIVE BONUS: INDESPENSIBLE KITCHEN TOOLS!
Here's a bonus "Take Five" about another of my passions: cooking. I do all the cooking for my family, and over the years I've grown emotionally attached to several of my favorite, but obscure kitchen tools.
Here's five fabulous tools I couldn't start cooking without:
SUNBEAM'S LITTLE OSKAR
It's hard to find these anymore, except on eBay, but the Little Oskar chops and grinds vegetables, herbs, and meats with a twist of the wrist. Two sharp blades evicerate anything you can fit into the six inch wide chamber. Every kitchen in the Miller clan has one of these on the counter thanks to my Mom, Betty Miller, who gave them as Christmas presents.
MANDOLINE
This is like a long, narrow cutting board with two (very sharp) blades built into the middle. You "rub" the food back and forth, and perfectly even slices dump out. It's kind of like the big meat slicer in your local deli, except the blade doesn't spin. Great for cutting french fries, potato slices, tomatos, onions---anything that needs to be sliced evenly and in large quantities.
Viking Cheese & Fruit Knife
CHEEZE & FRUIT KNIFE
The Viking cheese knife become my favorite utility knife---I use it for all kinds of stuff other than cheeze. The open areas behind the blade prevent that smearing layer of cheeze left on traditional blades, but the serrated edge can cut bread easily, and it's great for trimming out fat from a leg of lamb or a roast. And it's great for cheeze and fruit, yeah...
MEAT THERMOMETER
This is the best of the meat thermometers I have bought, and I've bought many that just don't work--batteries, LED displays, wires and probes---agggh! Here's a simple, easy-to-read meat thermometer that comes with a sleeve cover you can clip in your shirt pocket while you're making dinner. Use it frequently, and memorize the correct temperatures you like. Example: I think pork tenderloin should come out of the oven at 125 degrees, and then you should allow it to "rest" for 10-15 minutes before carving, so it rises up to 135 degrees--reddish pink medium rare. Here's how you can track progress to make that happen. This little baby puts you in real control of the cooking process.
OXO 4C. MEASURING CUP
OXO Good Grips is a line of basic kitchen tools that are made very well--the concept is to add thick black rubber grips on ordinary tools, and make them work better. This is their jumbo four cup measuring cup. The cool idea is that they print the four-cup scale inside both sides of the cup, and along a diagonal ridge, to allow you to clearly see how much you've put in. I'm left-handed, so I'm always having to read numbers backwards through the glass when I measure. A big bonus is that this is twice the size of a normal 2c. measuring cup, so it's great for family-sized reciepes.
BONUS BONUS: One last piece of free kitchen advice is get your kitchen knives sharpened at least once every three months. You will be astounded at how much better they work. It's the single biggest improvement you can make in your kitchen for under $25.)
Sunbeam's Little Oskar
TAKE FIVE BONUS: INDESPENSIBLE KITCHEN TOOLS!
Here's a bonus "Take Five" about another of my passions: cooking. I do all the cooking for my family, and over the years I've grown emotionally attached to several of my favorite, but obscure kitchen tools.
Here's five fabulous tools I couldn't start cooking without:
SUNBEAM'S LITTLE OSKAR
It's hard to find these anymore, except on eBay, but the Little Oskar chops and grinds vegetables, herbs, and meats with a twist of the wrist. Two sharp blades evicerate anything you can fit into the six inch wide chamber. Every kitchen in the Miller clan has one of these on the counter thanks to my Mom, Betty Miller, who gave them as Christmas presents.
MANDOLINE
This is like a long, narrow cutting board with two (very sharp) blades built into the middle. You "rub" the food back and forth, and perfectly even slices dump out. It's kind of like the big meat slicer in your local deli, except the blade doesn't spin. Great for cutting french fries, potato slices, tomatos, onions---anything that needs to be sliced evenly and in large quantities.
Viking Cheese & Fruit Knife
CHEEZE & FRUIT KNIFE
The Viking cheese knife become my favorite utility knife---I use it for all kinds of stuff other than cheeze. The open areas behind the blade prevent that smearing layer of cheeze left on traditional blades, but the serrated edge can cut bread easily, and it's great for trimming out fat from a leg of lamb or a roast. And it's great for cheeze and fruit, yeah...
MEAT THERMOMETER
This is the best of the meat thermometers I have bought, and I've bought many that just don't work--batteries, LED displays, wires and probes---agggh! Here's a simple, easy-to-read meat thermometer that comes with a sleeve cover you can clip in your shirt pocket while you're making dinner. Use it frequently, and memorize the correct temperatures you like. Example: I think pork tenderloin should come out of the oven at 125 degrees, and then you should allow it to "rest" for 10-15 minutes before carving, so it rises up to 135 degrees--reddish pink medium rare. Here's how you can track progress to make that happen. This little baby puts you in real control of the cooking process.
OXO 4C. MEASURING CUP
OXO Good Grips is a line of basic kitchen tools that are made very well--the concept is to add thick black rubber grips on ordinary tools, and make them work better. This is their jumbo four cup measuring cup. The cool idea is that they print the four-cup scale inside both sides of the cup, and along a diagonal ridge, to allow you to clearly see how much you've put in. I'm left-handed, so I'm always having to read numbers backwards through the glass when I measure. A big bonus is that this is twice the size of a normal 2c. measuring cup, so it's great for family-sized reciepes.
BONUS BONUS: One last piece of free kitchen advice is get your kitchen knives sharpened at least once every three months. You will be astounded at how much better they work. It's the single biggest improvement you can make in your kitchen for under $25.)
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