Monday, June 17, 2013

How to conquer your fear of knife sharpening.

Amy Adams as Julie Powell in Julie & Julia.
On the heels of last week's link-stravaganza, I skipped the usual weekend post, though I certainly hope you all had a lovely weekend nonetheless, and that your week is off to a good start.  To make your weeknight dinners a bit easier this week, here's a little kitchen tip:  

I've owned a set of knives for about four-and-a-half-years, but have been terrified of sharpening them with the steel (that thing Amy Adams appears to be threatening stabbage with, above).  The upshot of this irrational fear is that my knives are tremendously dull, which means that every time I go to chop something, there's a lot of swearing and near-misses in the fingertip-hacking-off department. 

Last week, in an attempt to chop some tomatoes for this, I realized that even the one knife that I've tried not to use much (so as to keep it sharp -- tell me someone else does this) couldn't puncture tomato flesh without a ridiculous amount of smushing.  In other words: it was time to actually deal with the situation.  I watched this video, and then gave it a shot.
 
Verdict: it's not that hard, it totally works, and it's weirdly satisfying.  (One caveat: I'm no Jamie, but I found that holding the steel in my right hand worked better.)  You'll be looking like this in no time.

(Top photo from Julie & Julia via NPR.)

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