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We are carnivores and pretty much have beef, chicken, or pork in most meals. Usually we will split a single serving though. So when we pick up some chicken breasts from the store I will sucky bag the ones we do not use right away. Chicken is so expensive in those smaller servings. We figured it was time to hit up sams and stock up. We got 14 good sized chicken breasts for $17 and some thick pork chops for a good price as well. Ended up finishing off a roll of the new sucky bags and we have had no problems with them at all.

I use a lot of cheese cloth. Clarifying butter, draining yogurt, filtering out stocks before separating out the fat, and other things. The $3 little packs from the grocery store are so lame because you get so little of it. I usually have 2 packs on hand. I figured I could find a big roll online and checked amazon. $18 plus shipping for 10 yards. Checked ebay and found the same person selling it for $3 more with no shipping. I have a ton of it now.

I wonder if joanne fabrics sells it?

The aerogarden has 4 types of basil going right now. Figure we should be able to pick some fresh next week. Theresa is loving our new 6 quart kitchenaid mixer.

I wanted a stick mixer and Theresa picked up a kitchenaid one. Made some hummus, and plan on using it for soups.

Some new bowls and plates

And an electric kettle to ease the making of French press coffee

Been using the heck out of this thing.

I really like my kitchen knives and have been geeking out on them for a while. Headed to amazon to check out some of the really fancy knives and saw many references to the Victorinox 8-Inch Chef’s Knife in reviews of very expensive knives. Victorinox, who makes those swiss army knives sells a decent priced knife with a plastic handle. They usually run $30, but Amazon has them on sale for $13 and has for a few weeks. If you have been thinking of getting a nice chefs knife this is a perfect one for so cheap.

The blade is a high carbon stainless and is polished to a mirror finish. the spine is rounded and the handle is molded for a perfect pinch grip that will not cause discomfort during lots of cutting. When I compare it to my Kitchenaid knife, the Victorinox seems stronger and is a bit wider. I picked up two of them and they got a bunch of use over the weekend.

I have been looking for a sauté pan after watching chef Todd and found this sucka at BB&B for $39. My saucepan is a Cuisinart and I love it, so I knew the 10 inch pan would be great. Made some fish and shrimp with it for its christening.

So on the suggestion of Chef Todd and his knife sharpening video I picked up a $13 eight inch dual sided sharpening stone from the hardware store. I headed home and checked out some other youtube vids on how to use a sharpening stone.

I used water to lube it up and it sucked up a bunch of water into the stone. Started with the dull steak knives in my Kitchenaid set which is pretty decent. I got those very sharp and kept working on my technique up to my precious chefs knife. I even used the brown side of my reversible belt to strop the sharpened and honed knives. The difference is amazing. I cut up some chicken today and it was spooky how sharp my knife was. I will keep working on getting the angle and technique down and can skip the places I have taken my knives to get sharpened which have had mixed results. Still pretty bummed that my santoku knife was hacked to loose its curve and render it pretty much useless. I doubt my stone can shape it enough since they are high carbon stainless.

Very pleased with my first attempts results.