Oh, OXO.  You make such a lovely can opener.  ‘Tis a thing of beauty.  Because, as advertised, it opens a can.  No muss, no fuss, just food and fingers intact.

Why the big deal about the can opener?  Well, we had a lousy can opener for the last few years.  It was the 99-cent special from the grocery store, and it was the most frustrating thing to use in our entire kitchen. No doubt about it.  We also had a few major hand wounds thanks to that particular tool.

You might read that paragraph and think I’m just complaining about a slightly less than stellar can opener, but it was worse than that.  It sometimes took four or five really solid attempts to open a can.  Even then, you’d often have to pry the lid open.  Hence the injuries.

A month or so, we broke down and replaced the lousy can opener with the lovely can opener above.  It changed opening cans into something I actually kind of enjoy.  Weird, I know.  But it did teach me that if you have something that horrible in your kitchen (and it can be replaced with something awesome for less than $10), you should replace it.  Soon.

Tonight’s dinner of Kale, Sausage, and Bean Stew a la Dinner: a love story was made possible in party by our good can opener.  For a wonderful 30-minute recipe and a good can opener, I’m grateful.

(Oh, and you can get to the recipe by clicking on the picture above.  Standard ol’ links aren’t working today.  Sigh.)