Kitchen scars- Tell your war stories!!
So this being a community of people who cook/bake, I think it would be safe to say that most of us have had to use kitchen utensils before. And, as we all know, with the use of those utensils come the GREAT danger of unintentionally hurting ourselves. And no doubt (at least, I hope so, it'd be horrible to find out I'm the only klutz here), some of us have hurt ourselves before.
So, here's a place that our Daring Bakers, Cooks, and readers can share their war stories. No matter how big or small, deadly or pathetic, all scars, battle wounds, and tales of woe are welcome here. Think of it as an assurance to the rest of the world, that while our food looks FANTASTIC, we're human too.
So go ahead! Upload pictures, tell us your tale and share the battles you've fought!
And THAT'S the way the cookie crumbles.
This was a nice little burn on the forearm that I got while cooking over my Uncle's firepit. The bricks surrounding the fire nailed me when I picked up a heavy skillet and brushed against them. Notice the singed hair as well.
An Alaskan Cook's Exploration of Food and Technique
Nice one!
I ended up with a similar burn but from the iron. It was inside of my forearm though and hurt like hell. Still have the scar.
Oh where do I begin...
The first one I can remember getting was burning my arm on a hot cookie sheet while taking it out of the oven when I was about 12. Left a pretty nice scar for a few years, but it's faded out. Then there's the time I grated my finger (OUCH!!!) while grating lemon zest for a lemon meringue pie. Then there's the dozens of times I've burned myself on hot pan/pot handles, gotten splashed with boiling water/frying oil, failed to cool something properly before tasting it and singing my taste buds for a few days, or even the time I dropped half a dozen cans of canned milk on my toe, which resulted in an internal bruise that lasted for about 6 months. I could think of more if I wanted, but I've chosen to block out those painful memories and stick with the happy baking/cooking
"You are now following the Antics of a Mad Baker Woman.....">
I used to work at a bakery in Lawrence, KS and was taking a tray of sugar cookies out of an oven one day. Now this oven was fairly high up, I'm pretty short and the only oven mitts I could find were ridiculously huge on my hands. It did not turn out well. The pan slipped in my over-sized oven mitts and hit my arm, leaving a nice three inch wide burn right where my tshirt sleeve rubs against the skin. It was only after that happened that I discovered the bakery didn't have a first aid kit! Took a break to run to the grocery store for some bandages and burn cream. Didn't scar up as much as I thought it was going to and has since faded.
BTW - totally saved the cookies! Couldn't sell only a couple that were bent during the slide down to my arm.
http://thelittlebite.wordpress.com/
Hehe. I've done that "sliding pan of cookies" juggling trick, too.
MY biggest "scar" is actually the flat tip of my left thumb... I sliced the tip of the thumb off while cutting croutons from loaves of day-old bread. After four hours in the ER, trying to get the bleeding to stop, the doctor was about to cauterize it when the surgifoam finally stuck and stopped the blood. WHEW!
That was the last time I got lazy about curling my fingers under!
I have two idiocy injuries which stick out, but only one left scars.
The non-scarring one was that I was making a casserole, and used the oven mitts to pull out the casserole from the oven, and then my brain shut off and I took off an oven mit to grab the lid off of the casserole dish. Brilliance!
My second one actually left a scar, but was far less stupid in it's inception. I was cooking a stirfry and had the soy sauce resting on the non-turned on burner behind my wok. When i reached to grab it, i accidentally rested my wrist upon the edge of the wok, leaving a lovely burn which looked more like a cut right across my wrist, leading to a slew of "Oh my god! Have you been depressed? Do you need to talk about anything?" comments, as it looked as though I'd be suicidal!
Ouch -- where do I begin? I've got scars all over both arms and a pretty good one on my right calf where a rolling rack that I had just pulled out of the oven tipped over -- I had stuck out my leg to break its fall. Yeah, don't ask.
The two most interesting scars are identical, one on each inner forearm right below the elbow. One of the stores I'd worked in years ago had racks with disintegrating wheels. The rotary oven was one of the old ones where you had to precisely slide the wheels into grooves that were on the turntable. If the wheels didn't match up, the rack wouldn't turn. Anyway, I got a whole rack of crusty bread into the oven, it did its thing, the buzzer went off, so I went to pull it out. The rack wouldn't budge. I pulled on it, kicked it, jerked it...nothing. Finally I did one lat yank with all my might, and the rack came out...on top of me. I held out both arms to keep it from hitting my head. One of the pans landed square on my inner forearms.
Long story short: Went to the ER. Second-degree burns. Had to use that silver nitrate stuff that turns your skin gray. Bandaged up, had to walk around like a zombie the first couple of days because it hurt too much to bend. You think I would've learned my lesson...nope, I've caught a few other pans since then :eek:
Before I knew any better when I was growing up (about 14), I was baking pizza and thought I was supposed to pull out the entire oven rack. Well, needless to say, I pulled it out and dropped it right on my inner elbow. I still have the scar to this day and it was a very valuable lesson taught.
http://itsmydinner.wordpress.com
Oh my...where do I begin???? I am a major klutz but I think the most painful kitchen injury I've ever had was when I worked my first restaurant job. My chef coat was too big and so when I reached for a ladle in a pan of hot marinara, another ladle that was in hot fudge sauce hooked onto my sleeve and poured hot fudge down my arm on the inside of my sleeve. It hurt so bad but I couldn't scream or react because it was an open kitchen. I just had to rush over to the sink and try to clean it up without a fuss. I had huge blisters all down my arm. Another time, a co-worker backed into me with a very hot, fresh from the oven bread pan and left a burn on my hand in the shape of the corner edge of the pan. Ouch!
I have no idea where to begin. My boyfriend generally tells me, each time I walk towards the kitchen "don't burn your fingers again". Yup, happened often enough!
No major icky burns like the picture above, but generally the type of burn that leaves your skin really really smooth and then blisters 3 days later or so and starts hurting badly again.
My most recent 'war story' was last night, melting chocolate to drizzle over the ice cream I was making. I took the cup out of the microwave (1000 Watts for a couple of minutes) with my bare hand. When it started to hurt really bad I uttered 'but I only held it for a second'. Yeah, I'm stupid like that, thinking that only touching it for a second won't burn me.
(I just posted the pictures on my blog)
The ice cream turned out real good though
What happens most often though is touching hot parts of the oven with my arm while sliding stuff in or out.
Let's face it, I'm just clumsy! (but it generally results in good food, so I'm not complaining!)
Valerie
Valerie
Love through the stomach...
I cant count the number of times a knife dropped on my foot...
The worst I've ever done ... I was making a big pasta dinner to celebrate my son't birthday. The sauce was ready, the pasta was drained and tossed with some oil and cheese, the salad tossed and on the table, and I was rushing to decant a large bottle of Pinot Grigio, as I called folks to the table. I had the corkscrew deep in the cork and was holding the neck of the bottle and pulling/twisting upward to draw out the cork. The neck of the bottle snapped in my grip and the glass sliced deeply into the palm of my hand and through the tendon of my middle finger ... much blood, a bottle of wine on the floor, and the neck still in my grip. Running my hand under cold water washed the instantaneous gush of blood away long enough for me to see that this .was.serious. So much for birthday dinner. My husband and I spent the next three hours in ER having emergency surgery to repair the vein, reattach the tendon, and rig me up with a hand contraption to isolate movement. My cooking days were over for a few weeks while I heeled enough to have hand surgery in an orthopedic clinic.
Lesson: ALWAYS wrap the wine bottle when decanting! Check bottles when you purchase them for swirls in the glass that indicate imperfections. Better yet, get a good corkscrew that is a hands-free model!
Susan@The SpiceGarden