Monday, June 18, 2012

These are a few of my favorite things....

My Favorite Things



My list is long, as I am sure yours is. My list of favorite things written on a roll of receipt paper, would likely stretch around my house several times. And oh! the categories!

Today I found myself in the midst of a belated spring cleaning. Long overdue. It is not unlike a treasure hunt where I can find and remember the things nearest and dearest to me.

I pulled out my stack of cleaning towels and set to work on the heart of any home. The kitchen.

Most people take one look at my pitiful little well worn butchers knife and scoff. If that knife could only tell stories! That and the cast iron skillet that I use for nearly every meal were my Great Grandma Mimi's. She used them way back when to peel potatoes, cut up a freshly killed pullet and whip up a meal for the entire Punkin' Holler community in central Tennessee. It was passed on to my Meema who used it for the same tasks and even sometimes coupled it with a large fork to cut the shortening into the flour for a batch of her delicious biscuits.

That knife and that skillet were used to prepare nearly every meal of my childhood. The skillet was home to crisp crusted cornbread, sautéed string beans from the garden, fried green tomatoes and REAL creamed corn. (Stay tuned for that recipe)

Of course, the old is made better with just a touch of the new. Enter my best and most used knife. 8inches of gorgeous German Steel. Bolster-less but still perfectly balanced. Ironically, it is the lack of a bolster that I love best. This knife can be sharpened ad infinitum with no loss of contact on the cutting board toward the back of the knife. This little jewel of my culinary tool set is a perfect complement to the 100+ year old cast iron and the hickory handled knife handed down from my Mimi. I wonder where it will be in 100 years? Only 87 more to go!

Go here to see The best knife in the land!

And here for a modern version of the classic all purpose cast iron skillet



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