Love it or Hate/Scared of it...It's Handy.

I (Justin) am quite the fan of cooking from home.  You name it, I cook it, or at least have the fortitude to try and cook it.

I also like the idea of cutting up my own veggies and meats.  There's something about a real sense of accomplishment that comes from cutting everything up and "making" it yourself, even though we all know all I did was open up the packaging or peel of the label and chop/slice it up.  My wife knows that I take pride in the way that I prep and cook things on a daily basis, so when she asked for something during the holiday season, I was partly shocked, and the other part insulted.

No, she didn't ask for a divorce.  She asked me (and everyone we know) for a mandoline slicer/grater for the holidays.  I felt as if this was blasphemy to our kitchen, so I gladly let her father purchase it for her, you know, just in case.  In the box it has set untouched in the packaging, until burger night earlier this week.  Wifey decided that she would go ahead and bust this thing out of the package, and all I could think was, "Well, at least one of us will still have all out fingers."

Looking back in retrospect, I can see how silly this sounds, and boy was it ever.  She sliced through an entire tomato in less that 20 seconds and an onion in about the same.  Normally, I encourage going at your own pace so you don't nick a digit and have to be rushed to the ER.  In this scenario, I'm all for it.  Also, all the terrible things that I've heard about people losing fingers to these beastly devices are nearly all but false nowadays, as many even have safety attachments for kids.  Kids.  Makes me ashamed to say I was scared to use it...c'est la vie.

Men, if you cook, you can do half the work in nearly no time, and save yourself from having to load up the dish washer with multiple unneeded items.  This thing will slice, dice, make julienne fries, and grate cheese, AND juice fruit as well.  It a ridiculous amount of things that can be done on just one device, and they actually run on the cheap.  I'm not saying to cut all the knives out of the kitchen, just give yourself another toy to play with in the kitchen.  And if you do slice off the tip of your finger while using this, we'll share a laugh, and then I'll corroborate the manly-story of you losing it in some table saw accident.

Be adventurous when stocking your kitchen, and as always, Eat On.

--Justin