Corduroy Orange

It used to be that I thought breakfast in bed to be a luxury. I would often be out of bed before Aurora on the weekends, and occasionally I would make a meal to take upstairs to her. On the mornings when she got up before me, I would whine about how she never made breakfast in bed for me; even if it was just cereal, couldn’t she at least deliver it to me so I didn’t have to get up?

Now, as my friends and other people who check out this page regularly may already know, I’m laid up in bed with a broken leg/ankle and can hardly get up at all. I spend mornings, noons, and nights in basically the same position: flat out on my back with my leg elevated on three pillows. The tables have turned in the meal preparation department, and then some. Aurora makes pretty much everything we eat without any help from me (though thankfully friends have been helping us out with an occasional meal; by which I mean, we’re thankful Aurora gets a break every now and again, as opposed to me being thankful I get to eat something not cooked by Aurora, which isn’t the case because she does pretty well in the kitchen), and then delivers it to me in our bed.

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Step-By-Step Guide to Using Your Knife Like a Pro
I was looking through all of the knife skills information I’ve posted on Corduroy Orange and realized that, though I have a fairly comprehensive set of instructions, the order in which I posted the various bits and pieces isn’t necessarily the most logical in terms of walking someone who wants to learn the secrets of making excellent knife cuts through the process of learning how from beginning to end. Even if you look at the “How to Use Your Knife Like a Pro” category page, everything is listed sequentially by when I posted. Today, I aim to rectify that situation by providing a table of contents based on the logical order in which a serious knife skills student would want to read the posts:

How to Use Your Knife Like A Pro

A Step-by-Step Guide by Jesse Sharrard
© 2006 Corduroy Orange

1. Introduction: Why it’s better to have good knife skills than a good food processor.
2. Buying Knives: What you should look for when buying cutlery, including choosing a knife to fit your hand, deciding how many different knives you need, and what styles they should be.
3. How to Hold Your Knife Properly: Let’s face it, used incorrectly, the knife can be a dangerous piece of equipment. Holding it in the proper manner is the first step toward using it as a valuable culinary tool.
4. Basic Technique 1: Learn the names of the different sizes of cuts and how to make them, then practice by cutting potatoes: lots and lots of potatoes.
5. A Great Way to Use the Potatoes: Here’s a great recipe for using up the piles of potatoes you’ll be cutting.
6. Peeling Garlic: It doesn’t have to be a time-consuming process. Following this simple technique will help you get it done more quickly than you thought possible.
7. Basic Technique 2: One of the few exceptions to the basic technique involves cutting onions. They’re round, concentrical, and require a couple of special tricks to be cut into even pieces. Better yet, using proper technique will help you get the job done without setting your eyes on fire.
8. Maintaining Your Blade: Over time, your blade will grow dull. Here’s what you need to know to make sure that it constantly stays sharp.
9. Pitting an Avocado: Many knife skills guides give bad advice on how to do this. Here’s a safer way.
10. Intermediate Knife Cuts: Carrots are a fairly hard vegetable, and it doesn’t help much that they’re round. Here’s a time-saving technique that will help you make quick work of your carrots.
11. Advanced Knife Skills: Once you’re feeling comfortable with your blade, you’re ready to tackle this technique of separating the meat of the pepper from its seed core in a single cut.
12. Defining Cooking Methods: You can cut anything you want, but if you don’t know how to cook it, it’s not going to do you much good. Surprisingly, there are only twelve different ways to cook something. Becoming familiar with the options available to you will make you more efficient in the kitchen.

I would love if you posted your cast iron seasoning and storage tips!

And I am glad to hear about the dutch oven and popcorn. Not only does the term “dutch oven” crack me up, but I have one and don’t have a popcorn maker and now I feel like the world is my popcorny oyster.

–Kari

Seasoning cast iron pans is about as painless a process as it gets, but taking the little bit of time to do it will ensure that your cast iron lasts not only for your lifetime, but your grandkids’ as well. Here’s how:
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Corduroy–

I’ve read your advice about knives/ what kind to buy, but really I’m more in the market for better cookware. My pots and pans are old and aluminum. I’m well aware that they aren’t an ideal set of pans, but I don’t know what I should be looking for when I go to replace them.

L.

Dear L.:

Acknowledging that you have a problem is the first step towards solving it. Simply by admitting that you have substandard pans, you’ve begun the path toward correcting the situation.

As you’ve suggested, aluminum is not a good food contact surface. Though it is light-weight and conducts heat well, it is a soft metal and corrodes quickly in the presence of acid. These two factors mean that when cooking in aluminum pans, you’re apt to wind up with trace amounts of aluminum in your meals. Some medical studies have suggested that aluminum intake may be a factor contributing toward the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. Additionally, the aluminum may discolor some foods (especially sauces) and contribute an off-flavor to your cooking. For all of these reasons, I do not cook with aluminum pans.

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Jesse–
We got to a lot of pot-lucks, and I have trouble coming up with a good entree dish to bring that needs to be made the day before.

Ideas?

Really, as far as day-before potluck prep goes, I think it works better with desserts than it does with entrees. Cookies, brownies, and fruit crisps are all easy-to-make desserts that travel easily and keep well overnight.

If you’re sold on the idea of making entrees though, I’d have to recommend quiche as a simple solution. There is an endless variety of what type of quiche you can make because every time you switch the fillings and/or the cheeses, you’ve got a new dish. Not only that, but quiches are ridiculously easy to make. So, with some help from my father-in-law, Rob Luscher, and my wife, Aurora, here’s how you can make a dish to impress for nearly any occason:
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