Happy Fingers and an OXO Hand-Held Mandoline Slicer Giveaway!

Note: OXO has graciously offered me one of their hand-held mandoline slicers to try and another for me to give away to one lucky reader!  Details on how to enter to win are at the bottom of this post.  Happy Slicing!

For those of you who haven’t heard the story, I had a little accident with a knife a few years ago.  I won’t go in to the gory details here, but the incident was traumatic enough to make me a bit sharp-phobic.  My recent caution while slicing hasn’t curbed the flavor of my cooking but it has certainly diminished some of its visual appeal and, as any cook knows, making food look good is half the battle.  Since then, I have been on the lookout for ways to slice my food well while retaining all of the fingers to which I’ve grown accustomed.

OXO mandoline

Enter OXO’s hand-held mandoline slicer.  I didn’t have a lot of faith in slicers because I bought a cheap one about 10 years ago and it languished in a kitchen drawer because it was never sharp or effective enough and the design didn’t give me any confidence that my fingers would stay safe.  Despite my skepticism, the OXO hand-held was a welcome surprise.  It was sharp enough to do the job well, it allowed for adjustable food thickness and had an attachable (read: harder to lose in the kitchen gadget drawer abyss) food holder to protect your fingers while slicing or looking for something in your kitchen gadget drawer!  

With a new found confidence, I couldn’t contain my excitement for caramelizing onions.  As you can see, I used a variety of members of the onion family, including leeks (shown) and shallots. 

After a few short minutes, I had a giant bowl of thin slices ready for my frying pan! 

For a job like caramelizing onions where you need enough slices to cook down significantly, the OXO hand-held made short work of a tall project.

As I enjoyed my many caramelized onion containing recipes in the following week, I gave the slicer two thumbs (OK, all 10 fingertips) up for an enjoyable kitchen gadget experience.

Here is some inspiration if you win one of your own:

• Raw Yam Chips from the Rawtarian
• Ratatouille from Smitten Kitchen
• Shaved Fennel and Arugula Salad from Inspired Taste
• Sweet and Spicy Asian Style Pickled Carrots from Foodie With Family
• Rosemary Salted Beet Chips from Vitality Guide for Women
• Shaker Meyer Lemon Pie from Baked In

I know what’s on your plate now could use some caramelized onions too.  Here’s how you can win an OXO Hand-Held Mandoline Slicer to make your life a little easier!

Here's how to enter (one chance for each of these activities for a total of four possible chances):

• Leave a comment here on the Boston Food Swap blog with what in your kitchen needs slicing.
• Sign up for our newsletter and leave a comment on this post letting us know you want to be entered in the giveaway.
• Like us on Facebook and leave a comment on this post letting us know you want to be entered in the giveaway.
• Tweet about the giveaway, including the hashtag #oxobfsgiveaway and this link: http://bit.ly/HUnwJ0. Example: Win a free hand-held mandoline slicer from @oxo and @BOSswappers http://bit.ly/HUnwJ0 #oxobfsgiveaway

And a few rules:

• Only those in the United States and Canada are eligible to win.
• When commenting, please include a way to contact you for your mailing address. For instance, link your comment a website that contains your email address or include your email in your comment.  If you include an e-mail, spell everything out and use spaces – we don’t want the spam bots harassing you!
• All tweets, likes, newsletter subscriptions, and comments must be received by Thursday April 26th at 11:59 EST. After that, we will use Random.org to choose the winner.
• If the winner does not respond to email requests for their address within one week, we reserve the right to choose another winner.

Boston Food Swap is a community organization funded entirely by donation. Support us through Paypal or BFS merchandise, and by following us on Twitter and liking us on Facebook. If you enjoyed this blog post, please share it!
Celebrate our 1st Birthday with us on June 21st.