Wednesday Trick #7

Whee, time to engage again in the 1A-bag of tricks. And do you guys already know Thomas Joseph? When I´d like Martha Stewart, the queen of the country life with style (and anything important concerning housekeeping, cooking, baking, decorating and celebrating), to be my great-aunt, with whom I could philosophize about the intricacies of kitchen trim, while arranging the flowers in the vases new – then Thomas Joseph would be the one whose number I´d dial at 1 o´clock at night, because the croissant dough after 10 hours and the twelfth time to fold and rotate somehow falls apart (and thats probably what Martha would, too). (When this now sounds cryptic, then you should read a recipe for croissants.) Anyway, Thomas Joseph is my new star in the kitchen trick sky and I highly recommend his videos, especially during a full moon or other circumstances that cause insomnia. Or even on a Sunday morning in bed with a coffee in hand.

Incidentally, I recommend this video here as a starter and dare to say that if everyone knew about this secret, the world would be a little better. But beware, it´s highly addictive. I for one can watch the videos of Monsieur Joseph again and again.

But back to the tricks that tend not so much to help at 1 at night, but early in the morning and especially when the Internet and possibly even a cutting board are far far away, because, let’s say, you are camping. Not that summer is already over, and you can also quite wonderfully cut an apple for your breakfast Muesli in your domestic kitchen (and also there could be cutting boards gone missing anyway or they could be stacked up somewhere, not really accessible). For those moments, I recommend the Apple Cutting Trick as shown above, which has been passed on from my dear Mother whom has (so I think to remember) learned this one with the Girl Scouts. _ Take 1 ripe apple _ A knife that is sharp and lies well in the hand, for example this one.

_ Now cut the fruit all around from top to bottom carefully to the core (like you would peel an orange). Choose the sections as far as the edge length of the apple pieces you want. _ Now cut the apple 90 degrees rotated and horizontally around to just the core, about 4-5 cuts. _ Now comes the best part: cut flat discs from the pre almost-cut apple, so that small pieces fall down. What remains is the carefully ‘cut down’ apple core. _ Voilà! 1A apple pieces, without any chopping board. Of course, this quite excellently applies also to pears.