A friend with several chestnut trees gave us 10 kilo of chestnuts.
Wonderful! I love chestnuts. Terrible! For many of the dishes we have to
peel the chestnuts first.

Last year I purchased a chestnut peeler in Shanghai. This may well be an
insidious device designed to destroy the Western world... person by
person. A very clever kitchen/torture tool, it looks similar to pliers,
with one side having a razor edge and the other having gripper teeth.
One only needs to snip around the chestnut to easily remove the shell.
And remove bits of finger at the same time. The teeth hold onto the
shell while the razor slice off bits of it. Unfortunately, it is so
simple to use, that it's easy to start going too quickly. That is when
the trouble begins. As the shells get snipped, often a long thread of
them (as when peeling a lemon) build up between the blades. Of course,
without thinking, I will just swipe them away, adding another cut to my
fingers because that really IS a razor blade there!

I now have a nice bowl full of shelled chestnuts ready for Sunday dinner
dishes, and sticking plasters on four of my fingers! I think it is time
to invest in Kevlar gloves.