Be my mandoline

I finally bought myself a mandoline last week.

I am now wondering how I ever managed to live without it. Yes, you can watch a flash chef like Jamie Oliver slice and dice like a kitchen whizz, but he does it for a living day in day out and if I tried to do the same, I would be short a few fingertips.

I always avoided buying one because they tend to look like the kind of thing advertised on daytime television - especially the Shopping Channel. I can't bear the thought of owning something that is also owned by the type of people that sit around all day watching daytime TV. If I am shopping, and see a gadget with a tag on it saying, "As seen on TV", I quickly put it back on the shelf, find a bathroom and wash my hands. It has probably been lovingly fondled by daytime TV watchers, and you never know where they've been leaving their remote controls.

But I gave in whilst browsing through a kitchen gadget shop, forked out thirty dollars or so and took it home in two minds. It was either going to be great, or it would be in the rubbish bin before sunset.

I tested it by making a Jamie Oliver style coleslaw.

It was great. The coleslaw was marvelous. It is impossible to make coleslaw taste marvelous, but it did the impossible. It is now one of my more favourite gadgets.

I will have to give everyone one for Xmas.