Shaking Jamie

I love Jamie Oliver.

And it's not just because he's adorable and has a wonderful wife and babies he clearly adores and has a great collection of mostly easy-to-make European-style recipes...

I love the guy because he's lovingly reckless in cooking and would make Martha Stewart so freak out by forcing her to shelf her OCD and just go for it.

Just like the delightful TV series with Jacques Pepin and Julie Childs (Jacques and Julia Cooking At Home), Jamie Oliver cooks with his entire body.

He uses his senses, he lifts pans into the air and tears basil and lettuce, he tosses cheese on fresh pasta and digs into his food -- and it's not done in the annoyingly arrogant style of someone like the pissy Gordon Ramsay...he does it because cooking is a physical act.

He is freeing because he loves the act of cooking. He taught me you work with food and you cook with your senses, not only by what is always printed on a recipe card.

I was watching Jacques and Julia make omelette's the other day and they were shaking pans and rattling dishes and having a grand old time. When people tell me cooking is a bitch, I'm gonna pull them into the kitchen and make them make an omelet the old fashioned way.

It's a blast!

I love the physicality of cooking. And one thing I've always loved is the way Jamie Oliver shakes the shit of this odd looking thing in his hand to mix spices. I always thought, Damn, that looks like fun. If only I had one of those.

Well...now I do.

And you must as well.

Check it out: http://www.flavourshaker.co.uk/


Now this is cool looking.

I don't want to hear anymore about Rachael Ray's EVOO or see Martha hawking her stuff at Macy's or Emeril and his damn watered down and sodium filled spices...this is interactive cookware!

And did I mention it's cool looking?

What exactly is it? It's like a portable, rock and roll mortar and pestle. You know, this old thing:

I mean, look at this clunky thing. Christ - stone age anyone?

The new Jamie Oliver device is dishwasher safe and allows you to shake the shit out of anything and crush and grind and mix up all sorts of spices, garlic cloves and such. It's got a ping-pong sized ball that rolls around on the inside, causing the contents to break down inside.

I crushed lots of pepper and mustard seeds without much effort.

And man, can this make salad dressing.

It's a great, fun device for dressings and for grinding spices. I bought mine for $24.95 on sale and it's worth every penny. Doesn't take up much space and it's a kick to use.

A new, fun kitchen tool from a cook who is not afraid to wing it in the kitchen and HAVE FUN!