Peeling carrots

This past weekend Brittany hosted a BBQ to celebrate her graduation with her Master's. When I came into the kitchen she was carefully trying to peel a carrot using a serrated knife to slice off the exterior, while the carrot is lying horizontally on a cutting board.

I mentioned that we had a vegetable peeler that would make the job easier, and pulled one out of a drawer. Brittany gives a blank stare, of course, and says, "I thought that could only be used for potatoes." Then she continues to use it similarly to the knife. It was so painful to watch, I asked to demonstrate how to use it, and I held the carrot in my hand over the bowl for the peelings, and finished the peeling in seconds.

Brittany looked amazed and said it had taken her hours to peel carrots for the tomato sauce she made a few weeks ago.

I never got around to teaching her the trick of using a serrated knife to scrape at the peel of a carrot instead of trying to cut off strips.

When I told this story to my hairdresser, she said she had to tell her friend to use a vegetable peeler on a kiwi. Another friend warns that her boyfriend broke their peeler when he was using it to slice cheese, though.