Happy New Year to any readers I may have left. Again, apologies for the long absence but now that the holidays are over, I plan to get back into it. Until work gets busy again. Or I attempt to summit Mt. Saint Laundry. Or until Parks and Rec season seven gets released on Netflix… (To be honest, they just released Parenthood season six, so this short post is taking me hours to type. I can tell this season will feature a LOT of crying by your intrepid blogger.)
But I’m pleased to introduce a new feature – product reviews! Now to be clear, these are not solicited, sponsored*, or otherwise even approved by the companies whose products I will be reviewing – not that they know I exist – so you can be assured these will be completely objective.
Introducing the Joseph Joseph Stainless Steel Rocking Garlic Crusher thingie (approx $14.99 at various retail establishments. No links until I sell out.) (Meaning sell out morally and ethically. I’m not actually selling these):
This was a Christmas gift from my picky-eater brother. I actually just sent him the link on Amazon because I use a LOT of garlic. Garlic presses are messy, hard to clean, and turn the cloves into paste. Mincing just sometimes takes too long, as it’s fiddly and annoying, and my knife skills aren’t the best. (Again – look up Jacques Pepin chopping garlic on YouTube. It’s amazing.) So I heard about this thingie and it looked like a way to chop/press more garlic faster.
Here’s how it works:
End and peel the garlic and position the thingie over the clove (or cloves).
Press down firmly, rocking from side to side. The garlic kind of squooshes up through the holes. Add another clove and continue. Run your knife over the back to loosen any bits that are stuck.
Ten seconds later, it’s done! Two cloves crushed and ready to saute – I’m delighted! I read some other reviews before I requested this thingie, and the major complaints seemed to be that the garlic pieces were too large, and it was hard to clean. I can’t say I agree. I find the size just about what I’d be able to do with a knife, and clean up took seconds. The people who complained about having to clean out the holes with a toothpick must be terrible dishwashers. Or maybe they put it in the dishwasher? It’s dishwasher safe, but I so rarely fire mine up that it’s usually not a concern. I ran it under the faucet, hit it with a soapy sponge, and rinsed. Maybe I spent four or five seconds poking a few sticky bits off, but that’s it. Plus the stainless steel helps take the garlic odor off your skin.
Yeah, i forgot to take the green stalk part out of my fairly old garlic. So I guess now I’ll create an arbitrary rating system – let’s use a dish – I spent about half a minute trying to draw a plate in MS Paint, then realized I was a terrible MS Painter and gave up. So here are some capital O’s that are supposed to be plates: O O O ! It’s the best I can do.
So here’s my verdict on the Joseph Joseph Stainless Steel Rocking Garlic Crusher:
O O O O O
(That’s five dishes out of five. Five is the best.) I really like this thingie. I think it’s going to save me a lot of time. The price is right, it isn’t hard to find in stores, and so far it works great and cleans up well. So if you’re interested in what Dishes thinks about this particular product, then there you have it.
* Note – if any companies DO want to sponsor me, pay me, send me free stuff, or otherwise solicit my good opinion, I will totally cave within seconds and try to sell the shit out of your product. My good opinion has a relatively low price. Kind of a bargain, even.
illdothedisheslater 