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How To Slice A Whole Bunch Of Olives All At The Same Time

Nancy leson
What Nancy calls mise en place for her Chicken Adobo. I just call it getting organized.

Hanging out at Capitol Hill's La Bete Bistro enabled Nancy Leson to learn the closely-guarded secret of slicing multiple olives in one fell swipe using just two yogurt lids and a sharp knife. Continue on, dear reader, if you would like to know...

"He had them (the olives) between two yogurt lids," said Nancy. "He pressed down on the top lid and sliced through horizontally with his knife" — and voila!  I'd thought she was going to say it was for crushing a bunch of olives at once to de-pit them.

"Nope," she said. "They were already pitted olives." I mentioned that it is my practice to check even the so-called pitted ones just to make sure. Nancy thinks I have too much time on my hands. I say one rogue pit can ruin your whole day, to say nothing of your teeth.

In addition to several other clever techniques, Nance also re-stated the importance — and I couldn't agree more — of having your ingredients all set to go before you start. I love doing that, and sometimes take a moment or two to admire my little goodie-filled bowls and cups all laid out and ready to go.

But I must admit that I sure do like that trick with the olives. That alone should be worth a little pledge to KPLU's Spring Fund Drive, don't you think?

"I drink too much. The last time I gave a urine sample, it had an olive in it."

– Rodney Dangerfield

Dick Stein joined KNKX in January 1992. He retired in 2020 after three decades on air. During his storied radio career, he hosted the morning jazz show, co-hosted and produced "Food for Thought" with Nancy Leson and wrote and directed the Jimmy Jazzoid live radio musical comedies and 100 episodes of Jazz Kitchen.