Am I the only one who had no idea how to use a pastry blender when she first started baking? The number of ways I tried and failed and ended up with flour all over my counter and myself… I rocked it back-and-forth like a little see-saw (in my defense, it is shaped that way!), I used it like a saw sliding it horizontally, I swirled it in a circle, I did some fancy dig movements (ok, now I’m just embarrassing myself).

Turns out the trick is straight down, quarter turn, repeat. 

And to make your life infinitely easier, cut the butter into chunks before you add it to the bowl. Trying to blend a giant chunk, especially cold as it’s required for most pastry, is kind of a nightmare.

To spare you the aggravation of sitting through a 2-minute You Tube video
laden with ads like I did back in the day, I made a tiny Vine for you. My
very first. It almost killed me (there are no redos?!?), but with the help of my 12-year-old camera girl, I’m feeling a wee bit more tech-savvy. (Just don’t turn on the sound. We didn’t know there was sound…)