Christmas Gift Dilemma
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Azdak
Posts: 8,281 Member
I do a LOT of chopping when I make meals. As a joke, I often say that my cooking consists primarily of figuring out how many different combinations that mushrooms, onions, garlic, broccoli, and peppers can be prepared.
A mainstay of my diet is what was referred to on Seinfeld as "The Big Salad". For me, texture and color are just as important as taste, so I make sure my salads have lots of everything. The "base" is usually romaine, red onion, cucumbers, carrots, green and red peppers (sometimes orange and yellow too if I get the big "mixed pepper" bag at Costco), black olives, and plum tomatoes. Variations include chick peas, tuna fish, hard-boiled eggs, grilled salmon, feta cheese, pea pods, cauliflower, broccoli--depending on whether the salad is a side dish or the whole meal.
So, cutting boards and knives are indispensable tools in my kitchen--they are essential parts of the whole zen of food preparation. I use Cutco knives--given to us as a wedding present 9 yrs ago--and mostly bamboo cutting boards (I have one plastic one that I use for cutting meats, but I prefer the wood for everything else).
I have a couple of old plank bamboo boards that I picked up cheap and have used for probably 5 or 6 years, if not longer. They have gotten pretty chewed up and discolored. I have been lusting after a new board for months, but could not afford the $$ for what I wanted. From what I have read, the end-grain style is more durable, better for your knives and looks more attractive. They are also more expensive. After trying ebay and various outlet stores with no success, I finally decided to include it on my "christmas list" and kill two birds with one stone. I also found a new model that was a little smaller (and cheaper) than what I wanted before, but still acceptable.
So the wife did her duty and it arrived by Christmas morning. I don't know how (or even if) one can embed a photo in a forum post, so I uploaded to my photo gallery. Today, I oiled it and got it ready for use.
OK, to make this long story even more pointless--here is my dilemma: It looks so good that know I don't want to use it.
Needless to say, I didn't get much sympathy from my wife--she said something about either using the d*&^ thing or I might wake up some morning and find the pieces in my bed.........
A mainstay of my diet is what was referred to on Seinfeld as "The Big Salad". For me, texture and color are just as important as taste, so I make sure my salads have lots of everything. The "base" is usually romaine, red onion, cucumbers, carrots, green and red peppers (sometimes orange and yellow too if I get the big "mixed pepper" bag at Costco), black olives, and plum tomatoes. Variations include chick peas, tuna fish, hard-boiled eggs, grilled salmon, feta cheese, pea pods, cauliflower, broccoli--depending on whether the salad is a side dish or the whole meal.
So, cutting boards and knives are indispensable tools in my kitchen--they are essential parts of the whole zen of food preparation. I use Cutco knives--given to us as a wedding present 9 yrs ago--and mostly bamboo cutting boards (I have one plastic one that I use for cutting meats, but I prefer the wood for everything else).
I have a couple of old plank bamboo boards that I picked up cheap and have used for probably 5 or 6 years, if not longer. They have gotten pretty chewed up and discolored. I have been lusting after a new board for months, but could not afford the $$ for what I wanted. From what I have read, the end-grain style is more durable, better for your knives and looks more attractive. They are also more expensive. After trying ebay and various outlet stores with no success, I finally decided to include it on my "christmas list" and kill two birds with one stone. I also found a new model that was a little smaller (and cheaper) than what I wanted before, but still acceptable.
So the wife did her duty and it arrived by Christmas morning. I don't know how (or even if) one can embed a photo in a forum post, so I uploaded to my photo gallery. Today, I oiled it and got it ready for use.
OK, to make this long story even more pointless--here is my dilemma: It looks so good that know I don't want to use it.
Needless to say, I didn't get much sympathy from my wife--she said something about either using the d*&^ thing or I might wake up some morning and find the pieces in my bed.........
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Replies
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You can't take it with you, so you may as well use it, and enjoy it.
Happy chopping! 0 -
lol It IS pretty. Looks like a giant chocolate & shortbread cookie!
There's a good analogy, right? :laugh: 0 -
Hey Az that is a nice one, you better start usin it!!! It is like the the running shoe story, their wore out with holes but still the fave even when the new are sittin there!!! Chop Away!!!0
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It is beautiful and I can understand the heitation in using it. But life is short and just as they say you should use the good china and crystal more often, you should use it. You can't take it with you so enjoy it while you are here.
If you mess it up, it can always be on your Christmas list again in a couple of years time!0 -
This made me laugh
.
I have that problem when I end up getting a really nice gift I've been wanting for a while.
USE IT.
Make that first choppy-chop and get the ball rolling.
Like Brenda said, can't take it with you!
BTW, we could TOTALLY eat some salads together-- YUM!
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what kind of oil do you use? I got a beautiful bamboo cutting board for my 5th wedding anniversary, I use it everyday, but I recently heard it POP and noticed a huge crack through it. :sad:
I also love the epicurean cutting boards... good value and super durable - they can actually go in the dishwasher, so I use it for meats.0 -
Dakkie, let me 'splain somesing to you. I'm a craftsman, a machinist and fabricator and designer-builder of beautiful things. I've been making stuff since I was about 11 years old. It's what I do, and it's all I do, and I'm pretty good at it.
The people who made your new toy made it to be used. They did not carefully select the woods so they would look good hanging on a wall. They did not artfully fit the pieces together so it would be beautiful. They did what they did to give you the tool you need to do your job.
Museums are graveyards - depositories of dead and disused items. A machine that does not run is not a machine, it's a corpse. A cutting board where nobody cuts anything is not a cutting board, it's a - - - a what? A trivet? A picture?
Not using the device is disrespectful to the device and to the people who built it. Please, sharpen the knives and let the board do what it was made to do.0 -
what kind of oil do you use? I got a beautiful bamboo cutting board for my 5th wedding anniversary, I use it everyday, but I recently heard it POP and noticed a huge crack through it. :sad:
I also love the epicurean cutting boards... good value and super durable - they can actually go in the dishwasher, so I use it for meats.
I found a "bamboo cutting board oil" at Target when we were returning gifts last weekend, so that's what I used. I am sure it is just mineral oil with a fancy label, but it wasn't that expensive and it was convenient to get it in one trip.
The board came, straightforwardly enough, from The Cutting Board Company. They specialize in manufacturing plastic-type boards and also carry some wood/bamboo ones as well. I have read a number of reports of end grain boards splitting, which is why I didn't want to pay $75 or $100 for one.
Most of the end-grain style I saw--both on various online stores and on ebay--came from a company called Totally Bamboo. When I started looking for a new bamboo board, I was surprised at how few choices there were--given the current emphasis on renewable resources I expected to find a wide array of sources, but that was not the case.
Hopefully, anyone reading this recognized it for the self-indulgent, self-deprecating humor piece that it was. Sometimes I enjoy laughing at my reflexive emotional responses to situations and I thought others might as well. Needless to say, I made a big salad last night and did not hesitate to use the new board. It was great.0 -
Hopefully, anyone reading this recognized it for the self-indulgent, self-deprecating humor piece that it was. Sometimes I enjoy laughing at my reflexive emotional responses to situations and I thought others might as well. Needless to say, I made a big salad last night and did not hesitate to use the new board. It was great.
Duly noted. 0 -
I'm glad you used it. It's beautiful, for sure.
When my mother in law passed away, we found the most amazingly beautiful things deep in her closets that hadn't seen the light of day for many many years.
So we're thoroughly enjoying them now. At least our kids will know where they came from & what they're for! 0 -
I lusted after a hand-made board for awhile and I talked to the craftsman each time I went to the farmer's market. I told him they were too beautiful to use, and he told me to use one side for cutting and keep one side untouched so it can be displayed. I took his advice and it still looks the way it did when I bought it!
I also use a linseed oil rub on it...keeps it in perfect condition.0
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