The Kitchen Can Be a Dangerous Place

Last week I had a bit of an accident in the kitchen - that landed me in the emergency room. Let me start by saying, I have two knives that I use most often out of my kitchen aide set. Unfortunately, they were both dirty when I was starting dinner. So instead of cleaning one of them, I reached for the nice big, heavy knife and went on my way. As I was cutting into the first red potato, I also cut into my thumb. I felt almost no pain and wasn't sure how bad the cut was. Upon further inspection, Mr. T had to meet me at the emergency room to take care of LT while I got my, count them, eight stitches in my thumb!

I was initially very embarrassed about my accident in the kitchen. I am, after all, a stay at home mom, I cook most nights of the week and oh yeah, host my own blog about cooking. It was a low moment. After my thumb began to "wake up" from the litocain and I laid awake at four in the morning, I thought about the first lesson I taught in Chemistry. Safety in the laboratory.

One of the key points of the first lesson is to be mindful in the lab. I always told my students, "The moment that you lose focus on what you are doing is when accidents happen." I think this was my downfall that day in the kitchen. I lost some respect for what I was doing and wasn't fully engaged in it. I also began to think about the similarities of a kitchen and a chemistry lab. There are measuring devices, gas burners, hot plates, glass ware, and sharp objects - I was wide awake for a while until the pain medication kicked in.

I am feeling much better now and getting more and more use of my thumb back every day. The stitches will come out soon and I should be back to my old self - Aggie and Green thumbing it again. So, to sum it up: remember to be mindful of what you are doing in the kitchen or you just might end up in the emergency room too. The kitchen can be a dangerous place after all.