"pastry blender" news and stories

Last Thursday, I came home from work with absolutely no plan as to what to make for dinner. Most nights I have at least a semblance of a plan, whether it be 1). Eat leftovers from weekend cooking, 2). Turkey burgers and salad or 3). Gather the boyfriend and go out. There weren't any leftovers, nothing was defrosted and Scott was working late, which ruled out option three.

Taking stock of the fridge, my eyes hit upon the teeny farmers market eggs I had picked up the previous weekend. Egg salad it would be, made with finely chopped green pepper (I was out of celery and needed something for crunch), grated onion and a tiny bit of fresh dill. After the eggs finished cooking and were cooling down, my eyes found the pastry blender resting in the dish drainer. Normally I'll just chop the heck out of the peeled eggs on my cutting board and then scrape them into the bowl, but this time inspiration (and a bit of laziness) led me to use the pastry blender instead. It worked perfectly, created less mess and gave a nice variable texture to the eggs.

I ate some of the salad open-face on a piece of toasted whole grain bread, sliced tomatoes standing in for the second piece bread. It was a quick dinner that was fresh tasting and left the kitchen cool and not too messed.

What is your go-to dinner sandwich?

In most conversations about kitchen tools, I'll be the first to step up and say, "Yeah, it's important to use good tools. They make everything easier." And yet, when it came to pastry blenders, for the last 8+ years I have not been following my own advice. I picked up that green-handled one that you see on the left sometime during college at a thrift store. It never worked well and yet I soldiered on, trying to cream butter and sugar together with wires that were constantly bending and spreading so wide that they allowed an entire stick of butter to pass through unmolested. Oh, and did I mention that the handle spins around?

Several weeks ago, I was down in Washington, DC visiting a friend. During the full day I was there, we spend nearly five hours going to three different thrift stores. During the course of that day, I picked up the pastry blender on the right for $.80 (I like good tools but I'm also cheap). I didn't really think much of it until I used the new one tonight. What a difference! The butter broke down easily, the wires didn't bend and the handle stayed right where it was supposed to. Good tools make such a difference!