Sunday, March 18, 2007

Still Skeptical

Yesterday Lowell attempted the "spoon thing" (as raved about in my previous post) while cutting onions. We tried 3 spoons before we got one that fit his palate nicely... but by then I think it was too late. The onions had already started working their evil. Lowell wasn't even halfway done cutting the onion when he looked at me with puppy dog eyes and said, "My eyes hurt. Can I take the spoon out of my mouth?" Yes dear, you can. His left eye was particularly red and watery because it didn't have a contact in it.

Aw, poor baby...

Ave mentioned that you can't talk while doing such tricks with onions. Perhaps this spoon thing is more strict than we thought necessary! Next time maybe we'll try the "bread thing"(?!). (Care to expand Dave? I have no clue what you mean!!)

Despite Lowell's teary and stingy eyes, he continued to be the helpful man around our house that he always is. He fixed our fruit drawers! It sure is handy for us girls to have a man around now and then.

12 comments :

Susan said...

Hmmm...I am not convinced this spoon trick works. Lowell's red eye has scared me from trying. :)

Unknown said...

I am not convinced of this method either. Unless I was doing something wrong (which isn't out of the question), I do not think this helped much at all. Sucking on the spoon actually hurt my mouth on top of having my eyes water. I find the best solution is to wear contacts. I have never had onions bother me while wearing contacts, so all you cooks out there, get some onion chopping contacts!

David said...

I saw Rachel Ray on the Food Network and she was cutting onions, and she let me in on a little secret.

You need to take a piece of bread and have it hang from your lips, over the onion. The onion fumes will rise and be absorbed into the bread. It works very well. And like I said, you can enjoy an onioney piece of bread after.

She suggests crusty French bread, but I used a standard piece of whole wheat.

Happy Onion Cutting,

Dave

Anonymous said...

I had someone tell me to stick your tongue out to help with the onions, but I haven't tried it. I think they just wanted to get a laugh at my expense :)

Avery said...

Thanks David - now that makes sense. You have saved me from watery eyes as i am making a special dinner tonight!!

David said...

Still no bread experiment? I have been waiting days for this. Julie, you have to catch up with the times.

No problem Avery, enjoy experimenting! And let us know if it worked!

Lowell & Julie said...

Sorry Dave, I haven't cut onions since then! I will be tonight though, so I'll try it and report back...
Thanx for the tip!

Unknown said...

I told a co-worker of mine about this whole debate of how to cut an onion without crying. She thought both ideas were hog wash. =)

She said that to stop the onions from making you cry, you need to freeze them before cutting them. She said she cuts 250 pounds of onions at a time for the homeless shelters and this is what they do. Freeze, cut, freeze. Anyone wanting to do a test? Maybe Julie and I will wait and do it as a "science fair" project with our kids. (this will be quite some time though, so don't expect any results within the next... 15 years. haha)

my $0.02
- Lowell

Lowell & Julie said...

Glory be it worked! Dave, you'll be happy to know that I cut an onion with a piece of bread hanging out of my mouth, and I didn't shed a tear! I almost wept for joy after the fact, but no tears were a direct result of the onions. Thank you Rachael Ray. :)

Lowell & Julie said...

Lowell, forget our kids, I say WE should do this little science experiment!

David said...

hahah glad to hear it worked.

Now get some photos of Lowell cutting the onion with this method, and display his pink-free eyes

:D

m+K said...

i just clicked on this randomly and started reading about lowell cutting onions and my eyes starting burning and tearing up.

very interesting.