Dad and I grew some of them, too. The squash and okra are homegrown. So are the tomatoes, but I forgot to put any of them on the board for the photo. I'll have to share some of those on a different post which reminds me that I DO need to tell you about tomatoes. Not today.
The beautiful red pepper is from Griffin's Produce in S'ville. The beets and brocco are from Food Lion, and everything else is part of a minor haul from Aldi last week when I had business in Cookeville.
Note: Aldi always has the deal on Brussels sprouts. They're always a dollar a pound cheaper than the ones and WalMart and a heck of a lot fresher.
The beautiful knife is from New West Knifeworks of Jackson Hole, Wyoming and a splurge I bought with Christmas money. It's all handmade, perfectly balanced, and what can only be described as surgically sharp. It's fancier than any kind of knife I ever thought I'd want, and I honestly don't know when in 2020 I started wanting it, but I did. The 25% off after-Christmas sale got my attention and my money for the last blue utility knife they had in stock.
It came in a box within a box with a strip of warning tape across the top which read "VERY SHARP - USE EXTREME CAUTION" and was serious enough that the first thing I encountered inside was a 4-pack of complimentary bandaids printed with the same warning. Knock on wood, I haven't had to use them, because I'm super careful about my fingertips and everything else while slicing and dicing with this sharp guy.
Truth be told, though, when it comes to cooking dinner every night, my go-to knife is a Tramotina all-metal 8" chef's knife which, along with a paring knife and a slicing knife, came as a freebie with our cookware. It sharpens easily with one of those things with the slits and has a nice wide blade. I can hack up a pile of veggies and not worry about a repeat of the mandolin incident.
The mandolin incident, in case you're wondering, is exactly what you think. Jack got a mandolin slicer for Christmas, and the first time I used it, I immediately whacked my thumb and was bleeding all over the kitchen by the time Jack yelled, "Be careful, it's sharp!" from the other room.
What you see here became a delicious, nutritious sheet pan dinner one night last week.
