My husband always has the tools he needs to work on cars and random house projects; if he doesn\u2019t he buys a new one. In fact, if he needs a tool, but can\u2019t find it in his messy shop, he buys another one. He insists he needed to upgrade anyway; I\u2019m not sure who he\u2019s trying to convince, I\u2019m not a hard sell.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t fuss over my husband buying tools because it gives me footing for my love of kitchen gadgets \u2013 the right tool for the right job, right? I love kitchen tools and I can always justify them because I cook most nights of the week, especially during the school year when everyone wants to come home to the home fires burning and dinner on the stove. But this column isn\u2019t about my cooking or my cooking skills, it\u2019s about the right tool for the right job.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Not only do I believe if my husband can have the right tools for \u201cguy projects,\u201d I can have the right tools for my kitchen, but I can also have the right tools for our RV. Let\u2019s face it, I still do the cooking when we are \u201cvacationing.\u201d And I have the right tools in the RV because if I\u2019m technically on vacation, why should I have to suffer trying to cook with tools I cast off from my kitchen when I replaced them with quality tools?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Unlike my husband, when I buy a new tool I have a rule it has to have a place to live before I can have it. So whether I have an idea in my head of an empty storage place or I\u2019m replacing something else with the new tool, I know it can be put away. Although some castoffs have made it to the RV, because they may suit the needs of camp ground cooking, I have often bought good tools for the RV.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I have a repertoire of recipes I cook over and over because my family likes them, but sometimes I get bored, like I was last week. I either tried new recipes or I resurrected some I had forgotten. I had some tri-tip beef strips and remembered a simple recipe a co-worker had given me (back in the day when I actually worked for a living). You just put the beef in the crockpot with a can or two of Italian stewed tomatoes. It\u2019s very yummy served over rice or pasta. But I had a couple issues. I had no Italian stewed tomatoes, but I had diced tomatoes and Italian seasoning, problem solved. The other problem I had was it was still frozen and I didn\u2019t have the time to thaw it in the microwave as I was running out the door to an appointment.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Normally, frozen meat is not an issue for me because I just throw it into the crockpot frozen, add all the other ingredients and it just adds an hour or two extra time to the cooking process. Beef strips cook rather quickly anyway, but the whole thing frozen was a large square and would not fit in my oblong crockpot.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
As I gazed at my really good knives (right tool), wondering which one would pry the pieces apart the best, I spied the one I used the last time I tried to pry frozen meat apart. Its tip had broken off in the process. I grabbed one of my newer knives thinking maybe they were stronger than the one that had broken and just got a really bad feeling about trying it again so I gave up on that idea.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I took a minute to consider what I was going to do. Then I did what every other red blooded American woman would do. I placed the square on a cutting board on the counter, went to my laundry hall and grabbed the hammer that was hanging next to my mop and broom. I went back into the kitchen and wacked the square of beef strips. Just like that I had two rectangles of frozen beef strips that would fit into my crockpot.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The right tool for the right job, indeed.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n