Well not you, exactly. But for an online payment of $34.99, you can send them a shipping box from USA Sharp that includes four knife guards plus prepaid, insured priority shipping labels for quick and easy USPS turnaround.

Then, just slip the knives into the knife guards and drop the box in the mail. The company promises a 24-hour turnaround, which means that the USPS will return the sharpened knives within 3-5 business days.

And sharpen your own knives, while you’re at it.

USA Sharp is a family knife sharpening service that founded in the 1930s by an immigrant to Massachusetts who hand-wheeled a pushcart around town. His granddaughter has taken to the Internet to sharpen knives from kitchens and foodservice operations nationwide.

And that’s a good thing, since no matter how good (or average) your knives, if you don’t sharpen them regularly, it’s harder to cut. Worse, you run the risk of the blade slipping off the food and into your flesh. Using a sharpening steel or gadget at home is in intermediate step until you call in the big guns (professional sharpening).

IT COULDN’T BE EASIER

While you can get knives sharpened at local establishments and traveling trucks, there’s nothing easier than dropping your knives in the nearest mailbox.

Even if you regularly use a sharpening steel, your knives still need to be wheel-sharpened a few times a year (depending on how often you use them). Photo courtesy Inside Woodworking.

USA Sharp inspects each knife to determine which a sharpening method will create the finest hard edge.

Not only can USA Sharp sharpen the knives; they can fix most knives that have been improperly sharpened elsewhere and recondition most blades that are chipped, bent, or have broken tips.

The company also has a knife recycling program for food pantries and soup kitchens. “Retired” kitchen knives are turned reconditioned to provide the gift of sharp cutlery to the chefs who help to feed the hungry.

They’d certainly endorse these sprouted, lower sodium, lower saturated fat, high omega 3, high antioxidant tortilla chips that just happen to taste great.

Way Better Snacks has created the tortilla chip one better by sprouting the corn. Nutritionists have been touting the superior nutritional benefits of sprouted foods for years. There’s more about sprouting below.

The company also makes sprouted pita chips and crackers. They sent their line of tortilla chips for us to taste. The products are certified gluten free, kosher, Non-GMO Project Verified and vegan, with bags available in 5.5-ounce and individual 1.25 ounce sizes.

The chips are really tasty and also very good looking (the beautiful texture looks great set before guests). Flavors include:

For the holidays, Cranberry Punkin (not a typo). Photo by Elvira Kalviste | THE NIBBLE.

(“What is ‘punkin’?” asked our photographer, a fluent English speaker with the impeccable grammar of a well-educated foreigner who learned the language where it is taught best these days: in a school outside of America.)

 
*Masa, also called corn masa flour or masa harina, is used to make tamales, tortillas and other foods. Masa harina means “dough flour” in Spanish. In the process of making masa from corn kernels (which are whole grains), the corn are nixtimalized (soaked in an alkaline solution), which softens the tough pericarp (hull, bran), which floats to the surface and is skimmed off. However, the endosperm and the germ remain intact.

According to the company (and other sources), sprouting is the key to enhanced nutrition. We know that beans, grains, nuts and seeds play an important role in a healthy diet. What is less well known is that they are all difficult to digest and their nutrients can be poorly absorbed.

Every seed, grain and bean contains natural enzyme inhibitors and barriers like lectins, phytic acid and tannins, which interfere with digestion and absorption. The way to overcome these inhibitors is to sprout the seed.

Sprouting creates enzymes which start the seed on its way to becoming a plant. When this process begins, the natural enzyme inhibitors that protect them from being digested are no longer present and the nutrients are consolidated, without changing the taste. The plant proteins, essential fatty acids, starches and vitamins become bioavailable for human digestion, resulting in a multifold increase in nutrient absorption.

Here’s more information about sprouting.

Discover more about Way Better Snacks at GoWayBetter.com.

Jose Cuervo Cinge, also known as Jose Cuervo Especial Cinnamon (that’s sure to be confusing, but why ask why), is a new expression that’s not even on the Cuervo.com website yet.

It is, however, in the stores—and that’s a good thing.

The new flavored tequila is a cinnamon-infused, 70 proof version of Cuervo Especial Silver. There are other “natural flavors,” but if they told us they’d have to kill us.

Cinge means “sting” and the ads we’ve seen show a menacing scorpion (is there any other kind?) crawling across a bar toward a shot of tequila.

But the experience is more “Cosmopolitan” magazine than “American Cowboy.” There’s a soft but vibrant cinnamon nose and flavor. It’s not a burning cinnamon experience like Red Hots candy.

Yet the brand’s copy calls it “a spicy and fiery shot of cinnamon.” Hmmm; perhaps our bottle was from a different batch.

Our Cinge was seductive, and we love it. For $16.99 a bottle, OMG: Last-minute gift problems solved!

We received a bottle from Jose Cuervo along with some cocktail recipes, but it’s heaven just drinking Cinge straight.

Or add it to cider, coffee, tea or a toddy—there’s no need to drag out the cocktail shaker.
 
Find more of our favorite spirits and lots of cocktail recipes.

As we grew into a foodie, and premium coffee bean and tea shops opened up around the city, we started to brew loose tea. We found the variety of whole leaf teas so flavorful on their own, that we never used milk and sugar again with our stash of fine teas (and coffees, too).

But that may change. Lipton has launched a new Natural Energy Premium Black Tea, with increased caffeine “to keep you alert and energized throughout your day.”

They sent us a box to try. We’ve been drinking it all day and don’t notice that we’re any more energized; but we refer you to our theory of cold medicine: It may not seem like it’s helping, but how do you know how much more congested and miserable you’d be without it?

And, since we’ve been drinking 4 cups a day of it, we’ve had the will to attack piles and piles of papers that we’ve ignored since the beginning of the year. If this keeps up, we’ll be happy to buy our own crates of Lipton Natural Energy Tea from Amazon.com.

It’s also available in K-cups. The tea is certified kosher by OU and is Rainforest Alliance Certified.

We’ve written several hundred pages of information on tea, and we have not come across the concept of pressing “fresh, high-quality tea leaves to release their natural essence.” In the language of tea, “pressed tea leaves” are those that are first fired (panned or steamed to stop the natural fermentation) and then pressed into molds. (All black, green and oolong teas are all panned or steamed, whether or not they will be pressed into molds.)

Our guess is that Lipton takes fresh-off-the-bush tea leaves and presses them to extract that “natural essence.”

Theanine is an amino acid found in tea (amino acids are building blocks for proteins). The L- designation describes the structural form found in tea and supplements.

L-theanine is also found in guyausa, a natural energy tea along the lines of yerba maté and in the bay bolete mushroom (Boletus badius, completely edible despite being called “badius”).

It is used in pill form to treat anxiety and high blood pressure. It is used to help prevent Alzheimer’s disease, and to make cancer drugs more effective. It may help the body’s immune system fight infection. In studies that showed efficacy, participants consumed 600 ml, more than 20 ounces, a day.

If you like sesame noodles or satay with peanut sauce, here’s another delicious use for it: in a marinade.

Marinating beef, chicken, lamb, pork or tofu in a peanut sauce-based marinade adds dimensions of flavor.

Just create a marinade from chicken or other stock, peanut butter, soy sauce, oil, ginger, chili flakes and garlic (see the recipe below). You can also add sherry and honey.

And certainly, serve a side of peanut sauce for dipping. See the recipe below.

WHAT IS “SATAY SAUCE?”

Satay is actually the grilled meat with which the spicy peanut sauce is served. The sauce is based on ground roasted peanuts; peanut butter can be substituted.

Spicy peanut sauce is popular in the cuisines of some African countries, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. The term for the sauce in Indonesia is bumbu kacang; elsewhere it is called pecel or sambal kacang.

Grilled pork skewers, marinated in peanut
sauce marinade and served with a side
of peanut dipping sauce (not shown). Photo courtesy National Pork Board.

They soon were turned into a sauce in Indonesian cuisine and other countries followed. Indonesian peanut sauces are considered to be the most sophisticated (layered with ingredients).

RECIPE: PEANUT MARINADE

This recipe is courtesy Swanson, maker of both conventional and low-sodium broth and stock.

Ingredients

1. MAKE marinade. Stir 1 tablespoon brown sugar, 2 tablespoons peanut butter, the oil, 1/2 cup soy sauce, 1/3 cup lime juice, half the garlic and 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper or chili flakes in a shallow, nonmetallic dish or a gallon-size resealable plastic bag. Add the chicken and turn to coat. Cover the dish or seal the bag and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight. Remove the chicken from the marinade and discard the marinade.

2. LIGHTLY OIL the grill rack and heat the grill to medium. Grill the chicken for 15 minutes or until cooked through, turning the chicken over once halfway through the grilling time.

3. MAKE the sauce. Stir together the remaining brown sugar, peanut butter, soy sauce, lime juice, garlic, cayenne pepper, coconut milk and ginger root in a 3-quart saucepan. Cook and stir over medium heat for 15 minutes or until the mixture is thickened. Stir in the broth and heavy cream.

4. SPRINKLE the chicken with cilantro and serve the sauce with the chicken.

RECIPE: SPICY PEANUT SAUCE

Here’s an alternative recipe for spicy peanut sauce. The sauce can be made a day ahead of time, and will keep 3 to 4 days in the fridge.

Ingredients For 1-1/4 Cups

 
Preparation

1. ADD all ingredients to a blender or food processor and process until smooth.
 
*You can use low-sodium ingredients because the other ingredients add more than enough flavor. But if you have full-sodium products on hand, feel free to use them.

†Find red curry paste in the Asian products section of your market.