Ill kick off the “What Are You Chopping” series with a few pictures from my own kitchen.

About Me:  My name is Madeline, I work at Proteak Renewable Forestry in Wimberley, Texas. As a recent transplant from Chicago, my new position at Proteak has opened my eyes to the world of sustainability and the importance of sound forestry practices.  In my spare time I co-run a natural perfume and soap business called Old Factory Soap Company and am learning to garden.  Though I wouldn’t consider myself a very competent chef (I still need measuring cups), I do enjoy cooking and taking pictures.  Working for Proteak, I can do both together!

This is what I’m Chopping:

In my arsenal of kitchen tools, I have two Proteak cutting boards that I use for all of my chopping. The first: This End Grain Serving Cheeseboard that measures 18 x 7 x 2 from the Elevated collection.  The second:  This Edge Grain Rectangle Caring Board with Hand Grip that measures 20 x 15 x 1.5.  They are both pictured below.

I keep them sitting on top of each other to create a two layered cutting board so that I can put veggies on the top layer while chopping on the bottom.  When Im not cooking I use the upper level as a display for these small Mary Drabik bud vases.

Stormy Saturday afternoons create the perfect environment for lengthy cooking. I decided to cook up a Savoie family classic, PaPaw’s Dirty Rice. This particular recipe calls for a lot of chopping, as you can see, so I was thankful for my large edge grain cutting board.  The height on the larger board makes it very easy to transfer the chopped veggies into a bowl or pot.  I imagine this board, the Rectangle End Grain with bowl cut out, our 601, would be very helpful as well.

Only needing two cups of each, I dried the extra parsley for later spicing.  I love how the Proteak cutting boards make all of my chopping look professional.

Sauteing up the veggies to mix with the rice.

I love cooking anything with red pepper to spice up the color.

My least favorite part, mixing the rice with the meat.

After this you mix everything together, stir in some spice, throw it in a covered casserole dish and stick it in the oven for two hours on 325.

Here it is!  The final product.  Although it would be nice for some of the brilliant pepper colors to come through, the taste is unbeatable.

And for dessert………

The large edge grain board is the perfect size for rolling out pie crust, cookies, or other doughy projects.

Coming soon to What are you Chopping?

Michelle of Michelle Starbuck Designs

and

Joe Tighe of Joe Tighe Photography.

and you?? Send your photos and stories to mnovak@proteak.com