I do the same thing and I figured it out on my own too! I remember my mom cutting apples into quarters and then carve out the seeds and core portion. Afterwards they looked like little canoes. I continued on like that for years as an adult and hated it - it took too long. Then the lightbulb went off and it’s been a life of ease ever since.
That’s so funny because I did it for decades based on how my mom did it! Only she would cut it in half and then run the knife in a circle around the core to make a divot. Then cut in half. Granted, MOST of our apple consumption in our youth was peanut-butter-apple which required two halves with the core cut out for maximum peanut butter portability. But we used this method whether or not we were slicing it.
We also tried the apple corer which still produces good apples for peanut butter, and the apple corer-slicer (very bulky to store) but it blows my mind how the right answer to apple slices was SO SIMPLE. And you’re right, it takes so much less time.
Not only that, the cutting of apples in the original “peanut butter method” is hella unsafe, especially for kids. But yet there we were with our dull-ass steak knives holding apple halves in our hands, scooping out the middle… 
Thanks for reaching out, you made me smile!
I moved into my office about a year ago. I’ve never used the white board hanging near my desk, since the last guy listed a hearing on it in permanent marker, and it totally destroyed the aesthetic of listing my own upcoming matters to have this random appointment at the bottom. I even got a map at one point to cover it.
I just tried your hack. His stupid, old hearing is finally gone. I now have a clean dry erase board to use to my heart’s content, for the first time.
Thank you!!
My work here is done.
I have never been able to find a decent pepper grinder, even once resorting to spending a fortune on a William Bounds one that was equally useless. So now, about once a week, a grab my trusty mortar and pestle, chuck a good handful of peppercorns in, and spend a half an hour or so grinding those buggers to a coarse ground. Means when I am cooking, I can just get a good spoonful or more and don’t have to spend 5 minutes with a grinder over the pot! Another hack for me is when using tomato paste in a jar, store it upside down in the fridge once it is opened. It prevents the inevitable mould developing if you don’t need to use the paste for a couple of weeks or so into the future. Same with applesauce and similar…with the contents creating an airseal around the lid, mould doesn’t stand a chance.
Now that’s a hack worth trying. I’m going to try it with lots of things.
Will try this one. Not sure I’ve ever seen jarred tomato paste in Canada, though.
Seriously, Moriarty, I am awfully glad it helped. But I’m a bit surprised it worked. I assumed (falsely, as it turns out) that you would have to do it soon afterward, before the ink of the wrong marker dried up or set, or bit into the surface or whatever. Glad to be proven wrong on that part.
If the can is the old school style with identical ends, just open both ends and use one end to push all the product out of the other end. This works particularly well with 6 oz. cans of tomato paste.
Jarred tomato paste is common in Aus, and is always cheaper than buying the individual sachets of course. The only problem was the mould that would develop if you didn’t use a 350ml jar quickly enough, and I lost LOTS of tomato paste that way. Nowadays, I opt for the jar and not the more expensive (and environmentally destructive) plastic containers. Glass works for me!
No jarred tomato paste in Canada! Say what?
Been using canned tomato paste for my whole life in Canada, I just bought a full flat of them. They’ve been in every grocery I’ve been in, like, everywhere in the country I’ve grocery shopped!
Colour me amazed to hear you say this!
I’m curious where are you in Canada, that you’ve not seen them here?
Haven’t read the entire thread, so this may have been mentioned earlier. But, this is also a great way to learn the intricacies of the hotel shower and not early in the AM when you’re groggy and tired. It’s easy enough for me to figure out a new American hotel chain shower, but some of the ones I’ve encountered in Europe have a few quirks that are easy enough once you figured them out!
I see a can as distinct from a jar, which to me has a removable lid one can fully close after removing some of the food. Tomato paste in Canada usually comes in cans, very occasionally in toothpaste tubes for premium brand. But now I see that some may use these words differently than I do.
But opening the top of a can and storing it upside down in the fridge will make a mess instead of an airtight seal. So I stand by my first thoughts. I suppose one could put excess paste in a jar, but that is not my sense of the hack.
Early in my career an older guy told me:…“Remember;…it is always easier to get forgiveness than permission” That served me well over 15 years
In America, i also see cans (tins) and large “toothpaste tubes”. We buy small cans for when we’ll use a lot of tomato paste, and keep a tube in the fridge for when we need a Tablespoon or two. The stuff in the tube keeps well, without molding.
I’ll take a 6 ounce can of tomato paste, open both ends, and extrude it from the can. While doing so, I slice it into four slices which I place on a plastic wrap covered plate. I freeze them and then store them in a zip lock baggie in the freezer. It’s a lot cheaper than buying the tube stuff!
This isn’t my own hack, I read about it somewhere.
Same here, and I read about it here.
I have to say, this is terribly wasteful. I know this is a hotel and not your house, but just think of all the water and energy that are literally going down the drain during those 20 minutes…
My own hack: for liquidy food items that are produced in large quantities and consumed in small quantities, I freeze them in an ice cube tray and take out a couple of cubes whenever needed. I do this for momo chili sauce, tamarind paste, chili for chili dogs, etc.
I don’t know if they still do this, but in computer operations, if there’s an open reel data tape that gets repeated read errors in one spot, rubbing that spot on your nose will often clear the error temporarily. (Afterwards the tape gets snipped past the point of the error and re-used.)
Cling wrap the keyboard loosely. Then you don’t have to clean the keyboard, and you replace the wrap when it gets dirty or it wears out over the most-used keys. Use name brand because it’s thicker and won’t wear out as fast. Yes, I know that’s like having plastic covers on the good furniture all the time, but it works.