Every chef and serious home cook knows that good knife skills are important for the safe and proper preparation of food. Knife skills teach us how to properly julienne or paysanne vegetables or other ingredients without taking the fingers of the facing hand off.
They also teach you how to study the object being prepared and to cut in line with its natural shape or layering for an easier, cleaner and quicker cut. For everyone out there who has trained or taken a class on knife skills, watched a video, read a book, or in my case had skilled relatives give private demonstrations and critiques on knife choice and care and that wonderful rocking motion, this snapshot is for you!
Behold, the Kelley-family Halloween pumpkin for 2009!
I carve some sort of elaborate pumpkin each year, and this year it was Professor Snape’s turn to light our front porch. The photo is taken after I returned from trick-or treating with the kids and his left eye had gone a bit dodgy by that time, but it’s still a reasonable likeness of the character.
I love Halloween, because I find the choice of costumes and decorations reveal something about people’s inner lives that is generally kept hidden.
What did you blog visitors carve, wish you had carved or resolve to carve in your pumpkins for next year’s celebrations? (Words and photo of the Half-Blood Pumpkin by Laura Kelley)