A sharp knife slices easily and cleanly; a dull
knife requires more pressure and can slip
and cut you. Photo of Shun chef’s knife (the brand we use at THE NIBBLE) courtesy Sur La Table.

A dull knife blade makes cutting more time consuming and the edges of the sliced food less clean. And then there’s the the danger aspect: A dull blade needs you to expend more pressure, which can cause the blade to slip off the food and into your finger.

That’s why Sur La Table is encouraging you to take the time to sharpen your knives. From now until Thanksgiving, the gourmet retailer is offering:

FREE KNIFE SHARPENING

With all the holiday cooking at hand, your knives should be at their best. So the gourmet retailer is offering free sharpening on the first knife for any knives sharpened at the stores (find the nearest Sur La Table store.)

This freebie applies to any shape, style or size of knife, except ceramic knives (which require special equipment), damaged knives and scissors.

All other knives can be sharpened for $5 apiece.

KNIFE SKILLS CLASS

If you want to learn how to better use your knives better, Sur La Table offers a basic knife skills class. You’ll practice the fundamental cuts for vegetables—mince, dice, brunoise, batonnet and julienne—plus some advanced techniques.

You’ll also learn how to select a knife that best fits your needs, and share tips for keeping all your cutlery sharp and well maintained at home.

SHARPENING KNIVES AT HOME

Use a sharpening stone. Most experts agree that a sharpening stone is the best method for home use: It provides the sharpest edge and removes the least amount of steel from the blade. You need some basic instruction, so if you have a friend who uses a sharpening stone, ask for a lesson.

Get a knife sharpener. Choose a manual knife sharpener as an easy home alternative. An electric knife sharpener may take less effort, but it also takes years off the life of your knife by removing a larger amount of steel from the blade. It also does not provide a great edge—it’s an OK edge.

Use a sharpening steel or honing steel. This steel rod, which is used religiously by professional chefs, is typically included with a set of good knives. With use, tiny metal fibers on the blade bend down, dulling the surface. The sharpening steel straightens those fibers to maintaining a sharp edge for daily use (and you can use it daily). You’ll still need those professional sharpenings, but not as frequently.
  
In this video, chef Jeffrey A. Wright shows how to use both the sharpening steel and the manual knife sharpener.

Finally, you can:

Seek out a professional. If you’re not near a Sur La Table, ask at your local hardware store or search online or in the Yellow Pages.

Both pancetta (pan-CHEH-tuh) and prosciutto (pro-SHOO-toh) are Italian pork products.

 
Prosciutto is often served as part of an antipasto platter and as an appetizer with asparagus, fresh figs or melon, either on the side or wrapped in a bundle.

Check out the different types of bacon in our Bacon Glossary.

Check out the different types of ham in our Ham Glossary.

While fresh apricots are a summer food, you can use dried apricots to make this a fall appetizer.
 
 
RECIPE: APRICOTS & PROSCIUTTO

Ingredients For 8 Two-Piece Servings

 
Supplies

[2] Fresh apricots, a summer fruit (photo © Washington State Fruit Commission).

1. DICE the cheese into rectangles. If using a round log, slice circles in half.

2. SLICE fresh apricots open to the center and fill them with a piece of goat cheese. If using dried apricots, sandwich a piece of cheese between two halves.

3. WRAP a slice of prosciutto around each apricot and spear it with a toothpick.

4. HEAT the grill pan and fry the apricots for 5 minutes until crispy.

5. SERVE with a white Italian wine, such as Verdicchio. You can serve these on a tray with cocktails, or plate them with a baby arugula salad with vinaigrette as a first course.

Distinctive red wines made from the
Sagrantino grape are unique to Umbria.
Photo courtesy i-Italy.com.

It’s Umbria Month in New York City, proclaimed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and celebrated at wine stores, restaurants, Italian food markets and Eataly, which is a combination of all three.

There are restaurant menus with Umbria’s signature fare, cooking classes led by Eataly’s chefs and tastings of Umbrian foods and wines at shops including Di Palo’s Fine Foods and Enoteca (wine store) in Little Italy.

Can you pick out Umbria on a map? The region of Umbria is in central Italy, less than two hours from Rome and Florence. The capital is Perugia.

Neighboring Tuscany gets much of the food and wine coverage in America, but the region of Umbria, east of Tuscany, is equally deserving of your attention.

And there’s much atmosphere as you eat and drink. Known as “il cuor verde d’Italia”, the green heart of Italy, Umbria home to stupendous mountains, valleys and medieval villages and of course.

We sampled some of the local specialties at Eataly—fine wines, black truffles, olive oil and a perfect porchetta, roast pig with the crispest skin we’ve ever had. Good news: It’s available every Thursday in the Rosticceria, one of the 12 eating areas at Eataly.

Along with the full-bodied, spicy Sagrantino-based red wines (the grape is unique to Umbria), it was a delicious lunch. Fully refreshed, we left “Umbria” and returned to the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

See all the Umbria Month In NYC activities at UmbriaMonthNYC.com.

At this moment, somewhere, the kettle calls. Somewhere the cup waits. Somewhere a person smiles, watching the leaves unfurl.

We grew up in a “tea family”; coffee was brewed for special occasion meals. A “cuppa” was our go-to respite. So we love this sentiment from the Republic Of Tea.

Over years of tea-drinking, we honed our preferences—Assam, Dragon Well, Earl Grey, Jasmine—to the point where we don’t spend enough time with other great teas.

And there are many of them. While all tea comes from one plant, Camellia sinensis, the terroir (pronounced tur-WAH), growing season and finishing technique yield hundreds of varieties. Think of wine grapes: the same Cabernet Sauvignon or Chardonnay grape produces very different wine in different locations and in the hands of different vintners.

Terroir comprises altitude, soil composition, aspect, hours of sunlight, rainfall and humidity, among other factors. The same rootstock will produce different tea flavors, aromas and quality when grown in different places.

As with coffee, elevation is key: whether the plants are low-, medium-, or high-grown. Although good teas are grown in lower elevations, the highest elevations produce the greatest teas. The higher the altitude, the thinner and cleaner the air is and the closer to the sun the tea plants are.

TRY A GOOD OOLONG

In our quest to expand our tea choices, we purchased some quality oolong, a tea developed in China more than seven centuries ago.

Called wulong in some dialects and meaning “black dragon tea,” oolong is a traditional Chinese tea. Depending on terroir and processing, it can be sweet and fruity with honey aromas, woody with roasted aromas, green and fresh with floral aromas or somewhere in-between.

Some oolongs famously have the aroma of orchids. Subvarieties produced in the Wuyi Mountains of northern Fujian Province are among the most famous and sought-after Chinese teas (look for Da Hong Pao).

Oolong teas occupy a unique place in the tea spectrum: They are neither black nor green, but are oxidized to a point between the two, in a unique roasting process that can last from 12 to 36 hours, starting with withering the leaves under the strong sun and oxidizing them before curling and twisting. The degree of oxidation can range from 8% to 85%, depending on the roduction style.

The leaves are formed into one of two distinct styles. Some are rolled into long curly leaves (the traditional style), while others are wrap-curled into small beads.
HOW TO BREW OOLONG

1. Heat fresh water to a rolling boil. Use filtered water if your local supply isn’t clean tasting.

2. Use one teaspoon of leaves per six ounces of water. Steep tea for 5 to 7 minutes.

3. The leaves may be infused multiple times—keep infusing until the flavor wanes. It brings down the cost per cup!

Learn more about tea in our Gourmet Tea Section. You may enjoy browsing through the Tea Glossary.

Cake Out claims it has reinvented the cupcake, but it actually has reinvented the layer cake. With extra layers of filling not found in cupcakes, we’re charmed by this cake-in-a-box.

Cake Out thought out of the box by thinking inside the box. We’re not even going to guess how the cake is perfectly fitted inside (see the photo below).

What the company calls “modern cupcakes” are six layers of cake, filling and frosting that occupy a small Chinese take-out box wall-to-wall. The only instructions are to “Dig deep!” You get a luscious balance of flavors and textures in every bite.

The sophisticated-yet-fun packaging makes the excellent cake even more memorable.

You eat it with a fork or spoon without dropping crumbs anywhere. Mess-free and delicious!

Fun for weddings and other parties and corporate events, Cake Outs can be customized with personalized messages, logos and photos. We love them as wedding favors.

FUN FLAVORS

We liked every flavor we tried. You can buy them individually or in assortments:

The box is fully filled with cake. Photo courtesy Cake Out.

Order yours from CakeOut.net.

Find more of our favorite cakes and cake recipes.