You may have noticed my attempt at culinary humor with my Reluctant Gourmet™ Cooking Cartoons. I thought it would be fun to look at various situations I’ve experienced or imagined I might experience in my kitchen and offer you a glimpse in the form of a cartoon. It’s great fun but not as easy as you might think to come up with funny captions.

Try Your Hand at Some Cooking Humor

I thought you might enjoy adding some of your own humor to one of my cartoons so I’m asking you to help me caption the cartoon below. All you have to do is go to the bottom of the page and “Leave a reply”.  You can add as many captions as you like. All I ask is that you keep them clean and be respectful of your fellow readers. Any caption that I feel is not appropriate will be deleted.

Not a Contest But…

This is not a contest but I will choose what I think is the funniest caption and make the cartoon available on a tee shirt at Café Press. I may even be able to send the author of the caption a free tee shirt with their caption printed on it. That means all entries become the property of The Reluctant Gourmet™. Please read Small Print below.

To see my two favorite captions for this cartoon, click here

Small Print

By transmitting or posting any communication or material to this site, you agree that The Reluctant Gourmet™ may use your communication as material for any purpose, including reproduction, transmission, publication, broadcast and posting.
In addition, you agree not to post or transmit any unlawful, threatening, libelous, defamatory, obscene, pornographic or profane material or any material that could constitute or encourage conduct that would be considered a criminal offence or violate any law. The use of any content on this site, except as provided in these terms and conditions, is strictly prohibited. Please read my full Terms of Use & Statement of Liability

Here’s my latest Reluctant Gourmet Cooking Cartoon featuring RG and his mischievous lobster friend lost in their own thoughts. I hope you enjoy it.

And speaking of lobster, I recently wrote an article called, How to Buy Live Maine Lobster and Not Get Ripped Off. It’s a great read if you are thinking about buying and preparing lobster for dad this Father’s Day. And from what I hear from my lobster selling friends, now is a great time to be buying lobster with prices down from the winter.

I’ll be posting some more information about cooking lobsters this week including a recipe or two and some lobster facts and tips. If you have any questions, send them along and I will do my best to get them answered.

“Hmmm. Maybe a little too sharp!”

If you get a chance, take a look at my latest cooking cartoon featuring the Reluctant Gourmet. You can see it on my home page at www.reluctantgourmet.com.

The idea came to me after sharpening some knives and thinking I need to do this more often.  Some chef friends of mine have told me they sharpen their knives everyday or at least every other day. Yes, they use their knives more in a day than we may in a week, but still, when was the last time you sharpened your knives or even used a steel on them?

I find I can go weeks without sharpening them and then realize how much extra work I’m doing dicing a carrot or chopping an onion and I get to work on sharpening that blade. I’m not talking about just running it over a steel to clean it up a little. I mean get out your stone or Chef’s Choice and hone that blade.

You may think it is easier to cut yourself with a sharp knife (well actually it can be if you don’t know the knives were just sharpened. Just ask my wife) but in reality, it is easier to cut yourself with a dull knive.

Why? Because you have to work so much harder and use more force to cut through something and there is more of a chance to slip and cut yourself. Chef Ricco told me many times that with a sharp knife you let the knife do all the work. You don’t have to press hard on it so even if you do slip and cut yourself, it will be a shallow cut. On the other hand, if you are pushing down hard on a dull knife and you slip, the cut will be bad.

Be Careful

Like most kitchen utensils, knives can be dangerous. So when handling them, be careful and pay attention to what you are doing. If you are using really sharp knives, be extra careful to watch what you’re doing and let the knife do the work.