Don't own a grater? Not a problem!

My mom and dad were never interested in baking or cooking. Cooking was a necessity not a hobby. As a result, our kitchen lacks proper utensils such as graters, rolling pins, and zesters.

Starting September of 2008 when baking and cooking became my hobby, I had to improvise when recipes called for certain tools or ingredients. For example, I used a knife to "shave" the zest off of lemons for my Lemon Souffle Pudding. Another time, I needed to flatten some bread dough. I ended up using a high ball glass to roll out the dough.

Well, this time around, I needed to grate chocolate for a tiramisu. With no grater in sight, my handy dandy paring knife was my savior. This baby can zest citrus, peel fruits, and grate chocolate. Well...not "grate," but it can shave chocolate pretty well!

Mmmm...A pile of chocolate.

By holding the chocolate bar at an angle, you can shave slivers of chocolate with a knife, resulting in some fine chocolate that you can sprinkle on top of your goodies. I'm not going to lie, shaving your chocolate with a knife is a pain, but it works.

See...it works!