T.T.: A Pistachio Trick

Last month I bought a four-pound bag of pistachios in the shell. Yes, that is a lot of pistachios, but all of my children love them, so we've eaten them all already.

Pistachios are delicious, but as you're going along happily pulling shells apart and popping the nuts in your mouth, you inevitably come to the dreaded Barely Cracked Pistachio Shell.

Frustrating pistachio on the top, properly cracked pistachio on the bottom.

A pistachio shell that isn't already almost half pulled apart is a real pain to get open. Quite literally a pain, as the prying hurts fingers and can break fingernails.

Luckily, I have a sister who is smarter than a pistachio.

While she was here, she showed my children a trick for opening the frustrating pistachio shells using another half of a shell. I didn't know this trick myself, and I was delighted.

What you do is, you get half a shell from a pistachio you've already eaten and slide the narrow edge of that half-shell into the small gap on the pistachio you want to open.

Half-shell wedged in and ready for action.

Then--and I don't have a picture of this because it's impossible to do one-handed--you twist that wedged-in half shell about a quarter turn. This cracks open that small crack much further, so it can then be opened easily.

So! The next time you encounter a pistachio that is quite literally a tough nut to crack, you know what to do. And so do I, thanks to my clever sister.