Read the directions that come with your sharpener! In a nutshell, I recommend that once a year you give your knives a pass or three through the first, rough slot. After that, and again every quarter, run them through the second slot 3 or 4 times (on each side). Next, and every month, give them 3 or 4 passes through the last slot.

At least once a week, and ideally every time you use the knives, straighten the edge with your steel. This doesn’t remove any material like sharpening does, but it aligns the edge and makes them slip through every cut with ease.

I recommend going with the biggest board that you can easily fit into your kitchen. You may want to get a thin, second board as a backup for when other people come over and cook with you. Once you have it, keep it clean and take care of it; once a month wash it down well, let it dry, and rub some food-safe oil into the board until it pools up, then let it dry. This tightens up the grain and keeps it in tip-top condition.

If you eat meat (I don’t), then go ahead and get another board in a very different style for cutting raw meats on. A cheap plastic board will work fine, and can easily be bleached and/or put into the dishwasher. Never cut raw meat on your other board, or cut anything else on this board. It sounds complicated, but its easier to deal with than food poisoning would be.

As with the chef’s knife, I use the . High quality, reasonable price, and if you take even moderate care it should last you a lifetime.

I prefer the for all of those reasons, and also because the simple handle is very easy to clean. Sure, its not through-rivited, but its still a quality knife that will last for decades. You can even wash it in the dishwasher, although I don’t really recommend it.

Every now and then I get the urge to buy the 10″ knife in this set. However, the only real reason for it is that it looks wicked cool when wielded by the TV chef of your choice. In reality there’s very little that it can do that the 8″ cannot, and the 8″ is lighter, more nimble, and much more useful as an everyday choice. By the same token, the 6″ blade, which I do own, sits around gathering dust - there’s really nothing that it does better than the 8″.

If you only own a single decent knife, this is the one to get.

Shopping list

Pantry items

Process
I grabbed a 1-1/2 quart saucepan for the rice. According to the directions, I added a tablespoon of ketchup and a tablespoon of butter to the pan, measured in 1-2/3 cups of almost boiling water, brought it to a good boil on the stovetop and added the rice. Once it was boiling again, I covered it and set a timer for 20 minutes. That set the schedule for the rest of the meal.

Next came the beans. Another small saucepan, open the can, dump it in, stir it up, and set it to heat on low. Easy. These don’t need 20 minutes to warm up, but it gets them out of the way.

Finally, the main course. I started by heating a pan and chopping two 1/4 inch slices of onion into 1″ strips, adding a little vegetable oil, the onion, and a teaspoon of chopped garlic. Once these were cooking nicely, I cut the mushroom into 6 slices on the bias, then cut them all in half, and added them into the mix. Next, I seeded the bell pepper and cut about 1/2 the skin into 1/4″ slices, cut 10 slivers from the jalapeno (seeds included), and finally added about 1/2 a cup of corn.

Five minutes later, the timer for the rice goes off. It still looks a little watery, so I give it another 5 minutes and continue cooking down the fajitas. In the mean time, I slap 4 tortillas onto a cast iron skillet and warm them through on low heat.

Just before serving, I chopped up the roma tomato, whole, and added it to the fajita mix; then squirted some lime juice onto the top and called it done.

Plating
Very simple. A spoonful or two of rice, a spoonful of beans, two tortillas with some of the fajita mix, some sour cream, and a sprinkle of cheese inside them. Add a little cheese to the top of the beans, clean the plate, and you’re good to go! For a beverage, I poured the lime flavored water over ice, added a slice of lime, and that really dressed up a 50 cent beverage with almost no work.

Lessons learned
I really wanted to add some avocado but they were pretty expensive by this time of year - almost $2 each - and I think that skipping it actually improved the meal. By adding the jalapeno (early) and the tomato (late) to the mix, but not using a traditional salsa, the flavors came through well without dominating the meal as is often the case. Also, it was refreshing to get the crispness of the bell peppers combined with the well-caramelized onions for a lot of different textures.

I had a ton of sides left, so adding an extra tomato and mushroom ($2 total) would have easily fed two people, and the sides could probably have stretched to 3-4 without anyone noticing. The one thing I didn’t like was the prospect of cleanup; the fajita skillet had a solid crust on the bottom that I’m not looking forward to cleaning up.

Core Ingredients
Canned baked beans
Canned whole kernel corn
Grated cheese
Ranch dressing
Flour tortillas

Open a tortilla, add a couple of spoonfuls of beans and corn, a sprinkle of cheese (cheddar/jack in this case) and a line of ranch.  Fold and enjoy.  Personally I like a little more variety and my neighborhood market had some nice organic lettuce on hand, and were selling small avacados for 69 cents, so mine had lettuce and avacado as well.

I’ll be the first to admit that this is neither challenging nor particularly fancy, but it is quick, easy, tasty, and reasonably healthy if you take it easy on the dressing and cheese.