Recently I was unable to slice some beef nicely, and my son commented that my ‘favourite’ knife didn’t have a shiny edge to it anymore. I used a different knife, one that I don’t use often, and it was very sharp and did the job nicely. My then partner used to regularly sharpen all my knives, and he did a great job though I doubt he’d be willing to come back from Oz to sharpen my knives LMAO. My son volunteered for the task however with his track record (see Awards blog) I decided to do the job myself. Armed with my vast array of knives (7) and the steel, I set to, and after some effort was rewarded with shiny, sharp knives again. I also sharpened the kitchen scissors (2), and the curved peeler. I don’t use the cleaver often so left that for now, the herb curved blade is wickedly sharp still (a vicious piece of equipment, as my finger will testify, but of great use), not sure how, or if, one should sharpen serrated knives (3), and I left the meat saw which I haven’t used in quite some time.

One day I’ll sharpen my penknives (3), and my lock knife too. The latter is only used in the house and garden as I don’t think they’re legal to carry though it’s a great tool in the garden.

Like my father, I like knives and have some very expensive knives that I bought in the 80’s, along with some cheaper, more recent purchases. I say cheaper, but I don’t mean cheap. A date once commeneted that my love of knives wasn't scary at all; I suspect he was being ironic...

My son has a couple of my less-favourite knives, packed away now for when he strikes out again, and I confess, I bought him a small ‘Kitchen Devil’ – brand name - that he very nearly didn’t get to keep. It’s a lovely little knife that I got in a half-price sale for him. It was hard letting him have that one, and I wish I’d bought two though I really do have enough knives. I think… lol

Today (Friday) my son and I are making pizza. It’s a joint effort with me weighing the ingredients, he does the kneading (the hardest part IMO) and I later shape the dough and we both work on the toppings. Today we’ll make 2 pizzas and a calzone. We always make enough for 2 days as it’s a lot of effort, and besides, we love pizza leftovers. Sunday I’m going to make Pan Haggerty. Basically, you cook chopped bacon (I use smoked bacon from the town butcher which is fantastic), then layer sliced raw potato, carrots, and onions, and the cooked bacon. Top with a layer of sliced potato, add chicken stock, and cook in the oven until the potatoes etc are tender. Once cooked, I add some grated cheese, and put it back in the oven to brown. Delicious, served with some green vegetables or just a hunk of crusty bread. The recipe I use is from a cookbook by some well-know chefs, so I won’t be posting it, though there are various versions on the internet.

Finally, it’s gone very cold here. Earlier in the week we had some lovely sunshine though that’s changed and over the past few days we’ve had some terrific rain, a hard frost one morning, hail showers, and even some sleet showers. We’ve barely made 5C on average and the heating has been on almost all day as we’re both feeling the cold. It’s set to get warmer over the next few days and reach dizzying heights of 13C; man, I hope so.

Enjoy the rest of the week and have a great weekend.