What a dietitian got for Christmas

I am back after a short brake. I am trying to figure out my best strategy on how to run my blog and I think that from now on I will post here just when I feel like I have something exciting to tell you all. My weekly menus might be back later. I will keep posting interesting recipes, news on nutrition and my personal thoughts. Any ideas on topics are greatly appreciated!

I know Christmas is long gone and past but I am still very excited about my food related gifts that my dear husband gave me.

First out is a huge cutting board with a moat, very important to catch the juice when you carve meat plus it also looks great. This one is a classic John Boos board in Maple. I pamper it with mineral oil to keep it in shape and I plan to keep it forever. I just have to remember not to cut onion on in since it makes everything else taste onion and who likes that. Also not to use it with fresh meat or fish since the risk of cross contamination. 

Next up must be the most romantic gift I have ever received. I like it a lot and have daily use of it! A Compost bin!!

My husband had clearly heard my complaints about all the organic waste that we put in the garbage and fills up the landfills. In the USA, organic waste is the second highest component of landfills, which are the largest source of methane emissions. We are now working on filling the compost and hopefully we will have a very rich soil to put in out yard in the near future. And we are feeling good about it at the same time a win win situation!! It is actually very easy and so far not smelly at all which I know might be of concern for some. I have a small 1 gallon bin on the counter with a lid and then I just empty it outside daily couldn´t be easier. Composting at home is a very easy and now I can´t understand why it took us so long to get started.

Last I got a really cool cook book "The food lab" by Kenji Lopez-Alt. A very detailed book about the chemistry behind cooking. Reading it gave me flash backs to basic chemistry class at Umeå University in 1994.... Cooking is really about chemistry and knowing the science behind makes is fun. I havn´t read the whole book yet, not really suitable for reading in bed since it is heavy as a brick. One thing I learned is that if you are going to peel hard boiled eggs you should put the eggs into boiling water and not into cold water. This process makes the protein harden immediately which makes it easier to peel.

What kitchen/food related things are you excited about?