I rue the day I first put my manual can opener in the dishwasher -- it was the beginning of a long process of rusting. Now, I keep a solid list of tools that should stay far away from the dishwasher.

I'm the clumsiest person ever -- a likely candidate for finger loss in the kitchen. To protect myself (and my cooking skills), I've tried to research some tips for disaster-proofing my workspace.

If you're in the market for some new knives, especially if you're new to the professional knife world, OnlyKnives has some great advice for you. Seriously, check it out. The article talks about how many knives you actually need, knives in different price ranges, what to really look for in knives, and even a little (tiny) bit of kitchen knife history.

My favorite piece of advice is that you don't actually need to go with the biggest knife set available. You can get along wonderfully with a smaller set, if you don't have any yet. Actually, you can get along wonderfully with only a few knives. I work in a professional kitchen, and I end up using the same few knives for everything (not counting specialty knives like the oyster knife and such).

If you want to get your collection started, this is a good place to start. If you want to replace a few knives, this may be a good reference source. Either way, it's some good advice and interesting reading.

Every carnivorous mom should have a few good knives, because there's nothing worse than getting a nice slice of meat and destroying it with a crappy, dull knife.

If mom has a ton of knives that she's gathered over the years, and no need for any new and shiny blades, the best thing to do is steal a few away and give them a good, professional sharpening. And if that's not possible, give her a gift certificate for her to get them sharpened. Bring the old, dull knives back to their former glory.

If she could use a good knife or two, go nuts! There's butcher knives, boning knives, breaking knives, and even skinning knives if your mom is hardcore. Have you ever seen Mom struggle with a particular cut or type of meat? Go to your local kitchen store and ask what's best for that type.

But for the purposes of indoor grilling, all you need is one good, sharp knife. And if you're tight on cash, it doesn't have to cost a lot -- you can get something affordable like this. I always use my super-cheap but awesome $9 santoku when I'm grilling.

Like many classic kitchen tools such as the cast-iron pan, old-fashioned pastry blender and our good friend the mortar and pestle, the mezzaluna has a simple design that gets the job done. Whether chopping chocolate, chervil or nuts, all you need to do is rock the crescent-shaped blade back and forth.

The mezzaluna is a tool that has no need to be reinvented with a whimsical design. The last time I checked, nobody looked at a knife and said, "Aw how cute." As far as I'm concerned the handle should be wood, stainless, black plastic or antler if you want to get fancy.

So why one earth would anyone want a mezzaluna that looks like a grinning frog? Beats me. I'm sure it works fine. It does have a rubberized antimicrobial handle and is made by Austrianalian knifeworks Füri. Lest I be called out for being a hater, I'll just say that the Froggy Mezzaluna is an RR product and leave it at that.

Add another product to the list of things that have going pink in support of breast cancer awareness. This special edition set of Mundial knives is a ten piece set and includes seven knives, a carving fork, kitchen shears and the wood block holder to keep everything organized. One of the included knives is a granton edge santoku knife, one of the most popular models available, and this is the first Mundial set to include it.

Even though the set was created in honor of the company's partnership with the National Breast Cancer Foundation, the charmingly feminine pink color of the set should make it appealing to many for purely aesthetic reasons. In other words, whether you intend to support the cause or not, a girly set of kitchen knives is a nice change from the basic black of most manufacturers.

As we wrap up Sandwich Day here at Slashfood (thanks for all the great pics!), I was wondering: how do you cut a sandwich?

I mean, I know how to do it (it involves a knife), but I mean do you cut it down the middle, so you're left with two rectangles, or do you cut it diagonally, so you're left with two triangles?

I think this has a lot to do with our age and the way we were raised. For example, when we're young, eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or tuna fish sandwiches and mom cut them for us, she probably cut it down the middle. I'm not sure why this is, but all moms seem to do it. Maybe they think our kid hands can't hold triangles? Or maybe rectangular food is just an easier concept for our kid minds to grasp?

I think that as we get older, something happens where we start to cut it diagonally. Does it happen at around 15, when we're starting to become independent, or does it happen when we're 21, and we actually are adults and we have to stop cutting sandwiches the "kiddie" way.

Of course, I don't have that problem anymore. Some time in my 30s I stopped cutting my sandwiches altogether. How about you?

When school season starts up, kids and parents will find themselves dealing with a lot more cake. Even in the face of various school restrictions, there will be cakes in class when birthdays come up and sheet cakes every few weekends at various parties. This cake knife animal is exactly what it sounds like - a plastic, serrated cutter that looks like an animal - and we suspect that it would be a big hit at kids' parties. After all, it is brightly colored and silly looking, and the idea of some sort of cartoon critter biting into a cake is probably enough to put a smile on any child's face. Because it is made of plastic, it is also safe enough to kids to handle on their own, although you'll probably want to supervise the cutting just to make sure the whole sheet cake doesn't end up in only 8 pieces.

I am of the opinion that the single most valuable tool in the kitchen is the knife.

While it's important to know how to use a knife, it's just as important to know how to maintain it, since we all know that some of the worst knife-related accidents come from knives that are dull. Foodblogger Chubby Hubby spent an afternoon with his wife in a knife-sharpening "class," and shares his lessons by breaking down the Art of Knife Sharpening into four points, along with some cute drawings (which I believe are his own). Good knife maintenance comes down to: Angle, Abrasiveness, Technique and Control. The details are on his post.

New York Magazine recently had chef Masayoshi "Masa" Takayama review 10 santoku knives. Takayama is the namesake of the much talked about, high-dollar sushi restaurant Masa in New York City. It follows that he'd be able to give some opinions on Japanese-style chef's knives. At the top of the list was the Shun Classic 6.5" knife (right), which NYM says retails for around $95. At the bottom was the Rachel Ray Füri Coppertail 7", for around $70. (It's worth mentioned that Shun has a line of knives endorsed by Alton Brown.) In between were offerings from J.A. Henkels, Global, OXO and Wüstoff, among others. Masa tested the knives without sharpening them, using them to chop onions, boneless chicken and parsley. He then tested them as he tests his own knives, by seeing how well they cut through a sheet of parchment paper.

[Via Saute Wednesday]

There's a site based out of the UK that I've been in love with for many months now. Fire and Knives is not quite a food blog, because the author, Tim, doesn't update as often as a blogger would. It's not a food porn site, because there ae no pictures. Tim is just a very good, very entertaining food writer.

His March 21 entry titled "Crabcakes with Lt. Ripley" actually made me want to go out and watch the movie Alien. I don't like movies, and I hate aliens, but just read a sample of what Tim wrote:

"There is a moment near the beginning of the movie Alien when we catch the first glimpse of the creature they call the ‘Face Hugger’. It is the genius of HR Giger that the creature’s design quotes the legs of spiders, tails of scorpions, skeletal fingers and all manner of invasive phallic imagery. It is intended to provoke, in all who see it, a sense of unease, visceral disgust and revulsion.

It made me think of drawn butter."

Tim hasn't updates since the end of October, but the archives are well worth a good gobbling up. I'm also hoping that Tim might be inspired to write another good post very soon.