A wonderful young lady, that happens to be a customer, asked me if I would make here a mini cleaver. I initially told her, no, because not only had I never made a cleaver of any size, I haven't even used one. Well, needless to say, she finally convinced me to give it a try. After multiple failed attempts (due to bevels, shape, size, and one was just ugly!) I came up with this prototype. I asked Becky if she could wrap the handle with some paracord so I could test it and viola - time to test this little bugger out.
I have to say, the testing went WAY better than I had anticipated, I tested it for both Camping and kitchen use. I mean the only negative to this wicked little cleaver is when I used it to split a chunk of Red Oak firewood into kindling, this cleaver is just a tad to small to be comfortable batoning it through a chunk of wood. If this little cleaver is the only thing you had to make kindling, and you couldn't find anything that you could pick up, you can use it but, it ain't going to be very comfortable, My belt knife does a better job of making kindling.
Now the rest of the testing went way, WAY, better, Becky thought it was so cool that she now wants one for the Kitchen/Camper. The slicing and dicing was actually easier with this Mini-Cleaver than it is with a knife (and it was my first time using it). Below is a photo of the meal it prepared and the recipe (My darlin' wife thought I should post the recipe because it is one of her favorite meals) and below the recipe is a photo of the actual Mini-Cleaver that is ready for its new home.
And here is the recipe
2 pounds - Yellow Squash (cut in half and then cut into 1/4 inch slices)
2 pounds - Zucchini (cut in half and then cut into 1/4 inch slices)
5 medium - Roma Tomatoes (cut in half and then cut into 1/4 inch slices)
1 pound - Smoked Sausage or Kielbasa (cut in half and then cut into 1/4 inch slices)
1 Medium - Yellow Onion Diced fine (About 1/2 cup when diced)
3 or 4 - Garlic sections Crushed and Chopped (To taste)
1/4 pound - Butter (1/2 cup)
1/2 cup - Olive Oil
1/2 teaspoon - Ground Red Pepper (reduce for mild or increase for spicy)
1/2 teaspoon - Cyan Pepper (reduce for mild or increase for spicy)
1 pound - Angle hair Pasta
Heat the Olive Oil and butter over medium heat.
Sauté diced onion and crushed chopped garlic.
Place sliced yellow squash and zucchini in the pan with the oil, onion and garlic.
Add 1/2 teaspoon of Ground Red Pepper and 1/2 Teaspoon of Cyan Pepper.
Stir mixture frequently until the Squash and Zucchini start to become transparent (See photo above).
Add sliced sausage/kielbasa to the mixture and stir frequently until the sausage/.kielbasa is thoroughly heated.
Add sliced Roma Tomatoes to mixture approximately 15 minutes before serving (If you add them to soon they turn to tomato mush, if you add them to late they don't cook thoroughly).
Serve over Angle Hair Pasta
And here is the finished Mini-Cleaver that belongs to the young lady that started me down the path of creating this latest blade. There is at least one more of these in the works!
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