In the Kitchen – Pitting Olives

Do you love to cook with olives but worry that one of your guests or kids will break a tooth on a pit? Sure you can buy a can of pitted supermarket olives … but … you’ll miss the flavor and variety you can only get from the still-with-their-pits olives. Cerignola, Sicilian, Niçoise and more! I usually pit them before I throw them into a tagine or stew.

How to pit olives in a flash:

My favorite pitting tool is a heavy chef’s knife. I simply place the flat side of the knife on top of the olive and tap the knife with my fist to crack the olive. The pit pops right out of the cracked olive.

Not comfortable hitting a sharp knife? Take a can – whatever you find in your cupboard that easily fits in your hand and has a little weight behind it. Carefully clean the lid and then lightly tap or crush the olive with the can. The pit will slip right out of the cracked olive.

I find that I use my chef’s knife when I only have a handful of olives to pit for a tagine or stew and a can when I have a pound or two for a big batch of tapenade.

And a quick note, different olives need more or less pressure to crack. I find large, meaty green olives need quite a whack while oil cured black olives just need a little tap.

Enjoy cooking with olives and bon appétit!

More Tips, Tricks & Tools

What’s your favorite kitchen gadget? I’d love to hear from you! Let’s get a conversation going. To make a comment, just click on Comments below. I’d be delighted to add you to the growing list of blog subscribers. To subscribe: just scroll back up, fill in your email address and click on the Sign Me Up button. You’ll get an email asking you to confirm your subscription … confirm and you will automatically receive a new story and recipe every week.

Want more? Click here for lots more to read, see & cook! In addition, I hope that you will take a minute to learn about my philanthropic project Eat Well-Do Good. © Susan W. Nye, 2012

In the Kitchen with Silicon!

No, not the enhancements favored by fading starlets, not the spray your manly men use to stop the hinges from squeaking … Today I’m talking about silicon kitchen tools!

At least ten years ago I heard about something called a … Silpat. Made in France, these nonstick silicon baking mats promised to keep my cookies from sticking and sheet pans clean. Being a gadget girl, the next time I found myself in the mall (I lived near a mall in those days), I wandered into the nearest kitchen store to buy two or three. At $25 a pop, I figured I could wash the pans. It wasn’t as if I was baking cookies every week. Since I was still working a five-to-nine (no, that’s not a typo) day job, homemade cookies were a rarity in my house.

Since I was already there, I spent at least an hour meandering through the store, (drooling) and coveting more or less everything on the pricy shelves. A certified gadget girl, I am also a certifiable bargain hunter. Imagine my delight when I bumped into a pile of silicon spatulas and spoonulas. A spoonula is a spatula shaped like a spoon. Delight because the two cheap rubber spatulas in my kitchen drawer were definitely on their last legs and  barely usable. AND these sale corner specials were a buck a piece. Although I was tempted to belt out a big woot! woot! I managed to contain myself.

So I bought four each, spatulas and spoonulas. I didn’t think I really needed that many but at a buck, I figured they would make good stocking stuffers. But no, they never made it into anyone’s stocking. I use them every day for everything from scraping a bowl of batter to moving veggies around a sauté pan (they’re good to 500 degrees) and stirring soup. Nonstick they clean up in a flash and go in the dishwasher. I’ve had them for about ten years and they are starting to show the worse for wear so I’m on the lookout again.

Back to silicon baking bats, I’ve got more good news. About five years ago I wandering through HomeGoods and came across two no-name silicon mats. They come in very handy during the holidays when I do most of my cookie baking and candy making.

Happy cooking and bon appétit!

More Tips, Tricks & Tools

What’s your favorite kitchen gadget? I’d love to hear from you! Let’s get a conversation going. To make a comment, just click on Comments below. I’d be delighted to add you to the growing list of blog subscribers. To subscribe: just scroll back up, fill in your email address and click on the Sign Me Up button. You’ll get an email asking you to confirm your subscription … confirm and you will automatically receive a new story and recipe every week.

Want more? Click here for lots more to read, see & cook! In addition, I hope that you will take a minute to learn about my philanthropic project Eat Well-Do Good. ©Susan W. Nye, 2012