What an elegant name for something, "mezzaluna," evokes images of classical music, like a direction to play softer, or maybe the middle section of an opera house called the mezzanine, and if it had been any of those I'd probably have heard it before the other night on Jeopardy when I heard it for the first time: a mezzaluna knife is a curve-shaped blade used for cutting veggies, and not just cut, to "mince" (there's a difference! Mincing has a lot more minor cuts and making product into small uniform pieces). And it has 2 handles for both hands to use in making it as precise as possible for cutitng the green onions, chives, parsley, garlic, ginger, and other herbs and spices MJ likes to use for her cooking. Me? I use one of 2 knives in the kitchen: the "small knife" and the "big knife." Literally only two. You'd think that after having watched "Culinary Class Wars" (streaming on Netflix, and Season 2 expected for late 2025) that I'd be more into chef-like duties, and trying out different recipes, acquire fancy knife-wielding skills, figure out how to gut a fish and de-bone without getting any of the flesh mixed in, but no, I guess I'm just interested in the existence of activities rather than actually doing them. Maybe I'm just overwhelmed by the sheer amount of possibilities in life, like in the same "In the Kitchen" category there was "blanching" or "par-boiling" veggies which is just not something I've ever had patience for. Watching the Bear and Jeremy Allen White yelling at Ayo Edibiri is stressful enough, I am not ready for MJ and I to have that type of relationship in the kitchen (to be clear, she would taken on the Jeremy Allen White role of head chef yelling at sous-chef me).
Not that the kitchen itself is not imporant to me. I think of all the kitchens that I've ever lived in.....whether there's been an island, or any of the other types like parallel, straight, L-shape, u-shape, open, and galley. I really haven't thought about that at all before, but as MJ and I consider moving into a bigger space MJ wants everything bigger- closet space, number of bedrooms, living space, storage space meaning cabinets, (bigger jewelry) and most likely, more kitchen space to put those mezzaluna knives in (it's probably because I don't use many kitchen tools at all that MJ hasn't complained about getting more kitchen space, but as we get more stuff I'm sure it'll come around. All the places we've ever lived in have had rather cramped kitchens (the not-big-enough-to-have-a-type kitchen) because we've had pretty much cramped everything just given that we don't have pets nor kids, but maybe those are coming? Whenever I look at those fancy decorate pictures of available homes for sale (likely showroom pictures and home staged so it's not exactly what you're getting), at least you can see the structure of what the kitchen would look like, or the amount of space allocated for the kitchen. Some kitchens are just awesome. And some homes are just awesome. Sometimes I wonder when I'm doing work on a weekend, "why am I even doing this? I could be watching "House of Cards" on Netflix, great first season that is perfect for current times because it takes place in D.C. and the first 100 days of an administration) but then I'm reminded, more money = more ability to purchase a nicer house. And maybe even a mezzaluna knife.
No comments:
Post a Comment