Call It What You Want...

Or something. See below for the end of the day... :)

This morning saw me cleaning the dishwasher, though after a few scrubs with some Soft Scrub and a gentle scrubber, I decided I didn't want to be crawling around the kitchen all day and filled a coffee cup with white vinegar, set the empty dishwasher to wash itself, and voila! a clean dishwasher.

While the boys and I played downstairs, Roomba swept the upstairs hall and the boys' rooms, leaving that carpet clean and neat. We put Adam to bed and brought Roomba down and I spent the next 20 minutes or half an hour cutting all the gunk off Roomba's brush and roller, getting it all cleaned out. People with long (or long-ish) hair should not be allowed to live in houses, is all I have to say on that.

Now there are two boys in bed, a pot roast in the crock pot (with veggies, too, of course) and I am marveling in what turns out to be the way knives are supposed to work.

After a rather unfortunate experience at Thanksgiving time in which my Dunce and his wife (Mrs. Dunce) revealed to me that, no, knives aren't really supposed to be that hard to operate, we decided perhaps the ones we were using weren't the best. So when Tim's mom asked what we wanted for Christmas, he had the thought to suggest a new chef's knife.

Our friends at Cook's Illustrated and the ever-beloved (by me) America's Test Kitchen tell me that in their tests the only one that is "Highly Recommended" is the "$30 upstart", Forschner Victorinox Fibrox Chef’s Knife
$25.33
FROM THEIR WEBSITE: "Comments: One tester summed it up: “Premium-quality knife at a bargain price.” Knives costing four times as much would be hard pressed to match its performance. The blade is curved and sharp; the handle comfortable. Overall, “sturdy” and “well balanced.”"

And so, we now have a nice little -- um, not little. Very big and scary -- chef's knife, and I tried it out today to chop vegetables for my roast. I don't do much, to be honest. Just boring little me. Onions and potatoes, and toss in some already chopped and peeled baby carrots.

I was able to actually chop the onions the way they do on America's Test Kitchen, which seems to be an easy way to get small pieces. Cut the onion in half, trimming the top and cutting through the bottom. Then slice horizontally (parallel to the cut side) a couple of times, then chop from top to bottom, then slice parallel to the bottom. Lo and behold, nice chopped onion, no cut fingers.

But the potatoes were really impressive. Remember if you will the struggle with the old chef's knife (destined for the garbage, or maybe Goodwill, for someone with more strength than finesse). Slicing and chopping the potatoes was so easy it felt like I was cutting through butter. Really. I am a happy gal.

I wanna go chop more stuff now, please...

While I crow, I even studied the Bible Study lesson and journaled for next week's study, and Mark ate as much of the beef -- AND VEGETABLES, GOBBLED THEM DOWN, I TELL YOU, including the carrots that he has in the past avoided like Black Death -- as I did.

And Adam cried from somewhere about 2 p.m. until 5 something, stopping crying to eat, and while Mark watched some PBS Kids show while I finished the gravy. 20 minutes tops. He is now trying to take that nap he was supposed to have gotten earlier. And just whimpering, not full-out screaming. Just in case I get too big-headed and super-mom-ish...