The Amazing Salad Shooter!

I have decided to do a series of posts, which may be randomly placed between other posts, of my favorite kitchen tools.

Those of you that know me, know that when I got married I could cook Pasta Roni, (shells and white cheddar only please), teriyaki chicken and chicken parmesan (barely).

When Mark expressed his thoughts on 'when we are married' about cooking, I cried. He said he didn't cook, and I cried because "I don't cook either...(read with a crying voice)"

So it is a miracle that I enjoy cooking so much now, over 14 years later! Part of what makes me love cooking, is the fun kitchen tools I have discovered...

One of my earliest kitchen tools that I loved, and that I keep finding new uses for, is the Salad Shooter. Some of you may know this as an infomercial 'tool' that you bought that ended up in your garage sale. I say, thank you! I have bought two at garage sales, and I thank YOU for allowing ME to not have to pay full price!!

This is my newest use for the Salad Shooter:

You know how cutting butter in to a flour mixture can be kind of a pain? (I have never liked that job!) I found the answer!! Take a stick of frozen butter, put it in your Salad Shooter with the grater attachment, and grate away!

In this picture, my butter was just cold, not frozen. Big difference! This still worked, but frozen is better. When you grate frozen butter it makes smaller pieces that look a lot white potato bugs (don't let that scare you away, please!!) Then you just stir them into the flour mixture with a fork, and there you have it!

This is butter ready to mix in to a biscuit recipe.

I do it this way for scones, too, and it is perfect!!

Then you add the wet ingredients and it makes a beautifully mixed recipe with well dispersed butter! I like that!!

One of my most common uses for the Salad Shooter is grating cheese right over a dish. On nachos, as Kaisha is modeling here, or right over a lasagna or any other cheesy casserole! Very nice.

A close up shot of the cheese!!!

I also use it to slice olives fast and right over nachos or pizza.

I use the grater to put chopped nuts and grated chocolate right into the pan of the best almond roca you've ever tasted!!

So there it is. What some call a late night infomercial joke, happens to be one of the best, most versatile tool I found in my kitchen!!