Zesty

If you read Adam's post on watermelon salsa, you might have noticed that the recipe calls for lime zest (the more the better).

This task always seems to fall to me- perhaps just as a means of getting me out of his hair in the kitchen, perhaps because this is a task that's pretty tough to mess up.

Not too tough for me though, because within seconds of him handing me the box grater I have inevitably skinned my knuckles and cursed loudly. I have skills.

Obviously I'm not the only one who has issues removing tiny slivers of peel from a slippery and knobbly citrus, because the geniuses over at Chef'n created this little thingamajiggy to do the trick.

Chef'n Palm Zester

This cute thing has apparently been around for a while now- it got some attention over at AT's sister site, The Kitchn. I'm going to second any nice thing that's ever been said about this gadget. It flexes to fit comfortably into the palm of your hand, whether your hands are tiny (like mine) or sized to match your ginormous 6'6"+ body (like Adam's). All of the zest gets caught in the built-in storage compartment instead of flying everywhere and adhering itself to every surface in your kitchen. Best of all, this thing makes zesting practically fool-proof, since your fingers will never get in the way.

It's too bad I found this after we did the watermelon salsa (ouch), but from now on, I can zest with zeal!

Did I mention that it comes in 3 citrusy colors? We picked the green one.

Anyway. We're not big advocates of having a machine or tool for every obscure cooking purpose, because most of it is just clutter that you don't need in a small kitchen. We're picky about our food- and even pickier about how we allocate our money and drawer space. However, Adam and I didn't hesitate to pluck one of these off the shelf. It's a rarity that combines a neat form with efficient function, and it takes the pain out of a rather loathesome task! Plus, I was rather tickled to learn that Chef'n is a Seattle-based company with a whole line of handy kitchen inventions. Cool!

That's all for now. We're hitting up the market tonight, and hopefully finding some inspiration for this week's recipe...