Mad knife skillz. Like a samurai, almost.

Two Christmases ago, I asked for a gift certificate to Sur La Table, the gourmet cooking store that also offers cooking classes. Bryan obliged, but stuck a note to my gift card saying that he wanted me to go there and learn knife safety. The man freaks out anytime I have anything sharper than a butterknife in my hand. So what did I do? I promptly spent all of my gift card on a series of classes which had nothing to do with knives.

To make up for not following the rules (and really just because I wanted to take another class), I finally signed up for the Knife Skills class they offer. Last night was the class.

The results? Well, I think my tomato peel rose speaks for itself!!

Yep, using a paring knife, I peeled a tomato, ending up with just ONE strip of tomato peel, then I contorted that sucker into a rose! I was impressed with myself. My teacher was so impressed he carried that masterpiece around the class and showed it off! I have missed my calling, people. I need to go into food peel art.

Even though this was the most exciting thing to come from the class, it was really just a small part. Mostly we learned how to hold a knife properly; how to slice, dice, and julienne properly; how to not chop your fingers off (it’s called "the claw"). Because of my arthritis, I haven’t been able to bend my right wrist since I was about 8, so the teacher was great about helping me figure out what worked best for me. I found that for some things (herbs, celery, tomatoes), a regular chef’s knife is great for me, but for others (onions, carrots, potatoes), I’m better with a serrated knife. So I bought one of those. :)

All in all, I think I accomplished what Bryan hoped I would, and I feel pretty confident I won’t be chopping any digits off anytime soon. And I am totally itching to figure out someplace to use that tomato rose skill now.