Watching a professional chef wield a knife is impressive: in a whoosh, everything is chopped, neatly and evenly. Whole chickens are cut apart effortlessly and chives are cut into impossibly small pieces.
If you’re not a knife wizard, consider a pair of kitchen shears. They make our tasks go quickly and don’t remind us that our knife skills could be better.
Use them for:
Snipping herbs (we use shears daily for basil, chives and parsley), scallion leaves and leafy vegetables
.
Separating pizza slices (much better than a serrated wheel)
.
Cutting poultry, fish, crustaceans and other foods
.
In addition to cutting food, you can use the shears to trim flowers, parchment paper and twine; open boxes; and other cutting tasks.
A serrated section in the center for removing bottle caps and cracking nuts (we’ve also used this to strip herbs such as rosemary and oregano from their woody stems).
Handles that are equal for lefties as well as righties.
Two metal prongs at the ends of the handles lift jar lids.
A hinge that makes it easy to take the scissors apart for cleaning.
The metals are also dishwasher-safe (although hand washing keeps the edges sharper).
If you don’t want to buy something new, any clean, sharp scissors with a 3″ to 4″ blade can be repurposed as kitchen shears.
Enjoy these fun pizza facts from Grande Pizza Co. of Boca Raton, Florida. Our favorite discoveries? Toppings in Russia include sardines, tuna, mackerel, salmon and red onions, and a popular Chinese pizza is topped with eel with thousand island dressing.
Capri Chocolate goat cheese is a bettter- for-you chocolate cheesecake. Photo by River Soma | THE NIBBLE.
If you like chocolate cheesecake, here’s a better-for-you version:
Capri Chocolate chocolate goat cheese from Westfield Farms.
It’s better for you in at least three ways:
1. Less cholesterol/fat in general.
2. More easily digestible for people with lactose sensitivity.
3. Enjoying an inch-wide slice of the chocolate log, with or without a graham cracker or tea biscuit, is far more prudent than devouring a whole slice of cheesecake.
If you have trouble removing cakes from pans, no matter how much butter and flour you use to grease them, try the parchment paper technique.
Parchment paper, also called baking parchment or baking paper, is a grease-resistant, moisture-resistant, heavy duty kitchen paper. It is available in rolls, rounds and sheets.
You can find parchment paper in the supermarket alongside the foil, plastic and wax paper wraps, and also in specialty stores.
Parchment paper is different from wax paper. Wax paper is coated with wax, whereas parchment paper is impregnated with silicone. Parchment can withstand oven temperatures up to 500°F. Wax paper purportedly can be used up to 350°F, but we haven’t tried it. Parchment is our go-to-paper.
With parchment paper, cakes lift out easily. Photo courtesy Beyond Gourmet.
There is no need to grease a cookie sheet/baking sheet that is covered with parchment, and cookie sheets don’t need “handles.” Cut the paper to the size of the metal sheet. But if the sides of a cake pan are not fully covered in parchment, butter them.
Another benefit of parchment: it keeps the surface clean, so there’s much less to wash up.
For rectangular cake pans: Line the pan with parchment, leaving 2-3 inches hanging over the long sides. To remove the cake from the pan, just lift by the parchment “handles.”
For round cake pans: Cut enough parchment to create the handles and place in the pan. Top with a round circle of parchment.
Prince William’s favorite, Chocolate Biscuit Cake. Photo courtesy Lady Mendl’s Tea Salon | New York.
Just because you’re not invited to the luncheon following the royal wedding doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy it at home.
We’ve got the recipe for Prince William’s groom’s cake, the Chocolate Biscuit Cake of his childhood. It’s also said to be one of Queen Elizabeth’s favorite teatime treats.
It’s a very rich chocolate refrigerator cake, made from ganache and tea biscuits.
The recipe comes from royal chef Darren McGrady’s cookbook, Eating Royally. The book is an opportunity to see what the Royals eat and enjoy the exact same recipes served at Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, Balmoral Castle and Kensington Palace.
