TOOL TIPS: Taking the Ax to Axioms!

As Dana always says (my sweetie calls her Sneaky Spice – huh?), “it depends on what ‘it’ is”, the point being, things aren’t always what they seem. A Cook (from now on we’ll capitalize that word – I think it’s warranted, don’t you?) HAS to think outside of the box and simply can’t allow convention to limit creativity. To help you start to think like a Cook, let’s look at three old axioms, and turn them on their heads!

1. “A watched pot never boils”. While not technically true, it does take a pot a long time to boil, especially if you have an electric range, but NOT because you’re watching it. A pot has too much surface area and so the heat evaporates right out of the water. TOOL TIP: boil water in a kettle with a lid to keep the heat in and cut your TTB (time to boil) in half.

2. “Catch as catch can”. If you buy from a fishmonger and get suckered into buying “what’s fresh today”, you’re beholden to the seafood market, seasonality, and “what’s available”. If the boats have a bad day, you can’t get what you want without paying BOO-COO bucks. TOOL TIP: beat the law of supply and demand by buying FARMED fish (they’ve even trained salmon to eat corn these days, arguably making a better, near-organic grain-fed fish – who hasn’t grilled salmon and corn on the cob on a summer day?

3. “A chicken in every pot” will cost YOU time and money. Use Better than Bouillon, and don’t think twice.