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.