A new kitchen toy ...

Paula Deen ... I already loved you. But now I love you more!!!

Thank you for making this nice board available at a very good price (under $30)! In my small kitchen I did not have a large enough flat surface to work with... and this is the perfect remedy to that problem.

This is an 18" x 20" x 3/4" board made of acacia. On one side is a visual guide for rolling out pie crusts... as well as a helpful guide for dry and wet measurements.


Take a gander... click on the picture below to enlarge it.

And the opposite side is even more beautiful! I can see myself using this as a cheese/fruit board when entertaining... this will help to make a very nice presentation!



Love it! And when I pulled it out from behind the tree and unwrapped it my hero-of-a-hubby asked who it was from. I simply said "Well, it's from Santa... of course!"

He knew better than to ask anymore questions...



enjoy your time in the kitchen...

My choice for cutting boards, plus a tip

Here's my pick for cutting boards... and please, if you do anything I recommend, please, please, please throw away any and all glass cutting boards. They ruin knives and speaking of using knives on glass cutting boards, that sound is somewhat reminiscent of fingernails on a chalkboard.

But back to the subject at hand: I mostly use my bamboo cutting board... but when I'm cutting proteins I use the rubber cutting board from KitchenAid.


And how did I decide which size(s) to buy? I hear this is the way to do it: Lay your largest knife on the cutting board from corner to corner, diagonal on the board. There should be at least 1/2 inch on both ends of the knife. Seems to work well for me...



I own and use two different sizes of each cutting board: 1) larger cutting boards for the bigger projects, and 2) smaller cutting boards for the quick little slice of cheese or small tomato.




But there's a little bit of care needed for each both board.

On the rubber cutting boards, once the grooves on the board become too deep they become harbors for bacteria. And believe me, you don't want to harbor bacteria. So, I always wash the rubber cutting board in the dishwasher (where the water gets hot enough to truly disinfect that board). And then it needs to be replaced eventually... you can't use this board forever.



And on the wooden/bamboo cutting boards, you have to keep them moist. If you do not, the wood starts to crack and the board eventually falls apart. Here's the process I take on my bamboo boards.

Keeping the wooden/bamboo cutting boards moist with a mineral oil is a quick process. How often you need to do this depends on how often you use and wash the board. In the picture above you see a well-oiled board (on top) and a very dry board (underneath).

These two boards are made of the same material, by the same manufacturer, etc... but one has been oiled recently while the other one is obviously dry.



So, simply using a papertowel... I move some mineral oil around the board and let it soak in. Super dry boards will use a lot of oil... and this board was hungry. So, I kept at it for a while...



More oil, more moving the oil around the board...





And then we have this ... a board that looks just about brand new. And do I recommend one mineral oil over another? Not really... just find a mineral oil and run with it. This is the brand I have in the cupboard at the moment (in fact, I don't remember where I bought it).



Any tips from anyone else?





enjoy your time in the kitchen...