T-Day food prep injury count

[E_M]

3 scratches from turkey bones as I cut off the backbone
+ 2 burns from hot sugar
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5

[TorontoJo]

I microplaned my wrist while grating a hunk of parmiagiano reggiano. It was gross and painful. :)

[sunshine842]

*cringes* *grimaces*

Hope it heals quickly

[TorontoJo]

Heehee, thanks. I had the same reaction! It was fortunately not deep or serious, but it really hit the gross factor in a big way. And it was only painful for a short time, since it was fairly superficial. Kind of like a bunch of horizontal paper cuts.

[Fraujoolie]

1 shattered Pyrex bowl. Lost all the turkey stock. Arms, abdomen and crotch blasted with hot glass shards and boiling liquid.

[sunshine842]

ow.

[jujuthomas]

Pyrex doesn't blow often, but when it does, it sure goes big, doesn't it! I hope you weren't too badly hurt, sounds very painful!

[Firegoat]

I've had one pyrex blow out... but luckily in the oven and not on me. Your story makes me hurt for you!

[alliegator]

Day after--my 10 month old dalmatian decided that my potato cakes (leftovers) smelled way too good, jumped a my face and caught my eyelid with her foot. The result is a black eye.
Domestic violence? Nope, adolescent dalmatian.

[GraydonCarter]

I don't know... would this really be classified as a ChowHound related injury, or just a Hound related injury?

[onceadaylily]

A chowhound hound related injury. :)

[mtngirlnv]

Nicked up finger from the foil on the wine bottle.

[onceadaylily]

Ha ha. I did that once, a fairly deep slice across the pad of my index finger. I was shocked at how easily the cut was made (now I have one of those doohickeys that removes the foil cap, but it was mysteriously MIA this year, and I proceeded with great caution).

This year, I wound up with a small cut on the outside of the knuckle on my right middle finger, and being right-handed, it was a bit of a puzzler, but I suspect the foil I tented the turkey in.

[sunshine842]

One small and painless burn on a knuckle, and a scrape from who-knows-what.

My most incident-free Thanksgiving, ever.

(Shhh....don't jinx it.)

[jujuthomas]

just 1 nicked finger, but it burned like a mother son of a gun because I was chopping shallots at the time. who knew shallot juice can burn like onion juice?!?!

[GraydonCarter]

Typing with one hand... I think turkey legs are the worst meat to try to debone.

[onceadaylily]

I just broke apart the frame last night. It went something like this: *snap* "Ow" *snap* "OW" *snap* "Ooh, ouch, ouch, ouch" *snap* "Ouch, DAMN IT".

[Firegoat]

There was nearly a death at my house when I came home from the dog park to find that the "helpful" roommate had taken all the rest of the turkey off the carcass and then proceeded to throw my lovely, destined for stock, carcass away.

[onceadaylily]

No one else in my family uses theirs, even the people who like to cook. If I hadn't promptly moved away from home at the earliest opportunity, I could have had *four* additional frames this year.

I once had a boyfriend who was helping with the T-day clean-up, and he threw away the aluminum roasting pan, with most of the drippings *still* in it. He said it was 'gunk'. He thought I had extracted all of the 'good stuff' with the baster when I made gravy.

[Firegoat]

This reminds me of my own biggest Thanksgiving screwup. My mom was hosting the big event for the extended family... I was cooking the taters.... and I drained the cooking water right down the drain. I can never remember my mother ever in my entire 40 some years raising her voice to me other than that day when she screamed across the kitchen "DON'T THROW OUT THE POTATO WATER!" It is now a long running Thanksgiving joke.

[linguafood]

Just out of curiosity - for what was your mother going to use the potato water? Soup?

[soupkitten]

i would assume the water is for making the mashed potatoes with. . . for those without inclination or resources to use plenty of buttermilk instead of starchy potato water. . . i hear that's how some people do it where buttermilk is not available (though you could use good cream), or in kosher households, or for lactose intolerant, etc.

[buttertart]

My mom always used it (or other boiled vegetable water) in the gravy.

[soupkitten]

interesting! did she use stock as well in the gravy, or just the veg water?

[buttertart]

Just the veg water, I didn't know about stock except as broth in soups until I got cooking myself. English Canadian old school cooking.

[Firegoat]

The starchy water was for the gravy! Well... until I dumped it.

[buttertart]

My mom would have brained me too.

[Firegoat]

It is a yearly comment at Thanksgiving now.

[buttertart]

I can imagine, we deal in family catchphrases a lot too.

[jujuthomas]

i make my mashies w/ the potato water, I'm allergic to dairy.
this year I then threw the leftover into the crock pot for the stock. since i used chicken broth to cook the potatos, it seemed a shame to dump it. :)

[mamachef]

One neatly slashed palm and two broken fingernails which no, did NOT end up in somebody's plate because I caught that action when it happened. Ooh, and a small forearm burn.
Oh, and injured feelings about the pumpkin crack.

[gaffk]

The injure feelings always take the longest to heal :( But I'm sure you'll nail it next year.

[Firegoat]

1 burn to top of index finger from roof of oven

[JerryMe]

Singed fingers thru my crappy oven mitts because I hadn't prepped a spot to put the hot pan and had to wait for someone to move something for me. Worst was the mess of turkey drippings that splashed to the floor and hot cranberry sauce splatters. PJ top is spattered in red now.

[Vetter]

One burnt forearm, but found a bottle of Stoli in the freezer...no, only applied externally.

[linguafood]

that's alcohol abuse '-)

[buttertart]

I think I get the prize for "most esoteric": I sliced my right index finger with the keel bone of a pheasant I was partially boning out. Sharp little...

[onrushpam]

No injuries so far this year...
Worst one I've ever had was about 15 years ago. We had just remodeled our kitchen and I kept complaining about my new gas cooktop, which just wasn't right! Turned on a burner and WHOOSH! it flared up and caught the sleeve of my t-shirt on fire! DH was right there and quickly smothered it, so I avoided a visit to the emergency room. The next week, we had the repair peeps out and learned they had installed it with the natural gas kit. We have propane. They swapped it out, no charge. I'm thinking they were grateful have avoided a lawsuit!

[linguafood]

It was actually BEFORE starting on the turkey day prep - made myself a BLT, and just sawed into my index finger. Now, why is it we keep on cutting, while watching the knife go into a finger instead of a tomato? Grrr.

Didn't help much that I then had to chop all kinds of things for the caponata.

1 cut tho - not so bad, compared with the rest of the vets here '-D

[MrsT]

2 burns on fingers--1 from cookie pan, 1 from hot sugar,
1 slightly sprained ankle from tripping over 14-year old dog in tiny kitchen
1 black and blue on knee from keeping glass bowl from dropping on floor because of 14-year old dog falling on me because it is hard for her to walk in tiny kitchen.

This was just from making cookies...I'm making my turkey tomorrow!

[mariacarmen]

i feel inadequate. All done and not a scratch!

[mamachef]

Well, my darling, you just go on ahead and bang yourself up next year, and then we'll discuss inadequacy! I bow at your throne, lady! Not one mark on her!
I've been cooking so long that my hands and forearms make me look like a cutter or something. Definitely not "nice lady" hands.

[mariacarmen]

see, that just makes me think i'm doing it wrong! my knife skills are so bad (i'm very slow) that i've NEVER cut myself. i wanna lose part of a thumb!!!

[sunshine842]

see, that's the issue, though -- we chowhounds work on our knife skills, and save up and buy good knives, and keep them murderously sharp....

which means we don't often cut ourselves, but hoo-boy...when we do? It's a doozy.

[mariacarmen]

i'm saying, shamefacedly, that i don't have good skills, don't have great knives (well, they're not bad, but they're not great) and i don't keep them anywhere near sharp enough. i just think my saving grace is i chop very slow. not at all like a CH.

[sunshine842]

My grandmother (the one who didn't cook a lot) was scared to death of sharp knives (and wouldn't ever use mine) - hers were so crazy dull that I almost always managed to cut myself at her house, because I was trying to compensate for the dull blades. I gave serious thought to bringing my own knives when we cooked at her house, but didn't want to start an issue that didn't need to be started.

She never did understand the connection between sharp knives and intact fingers.

[onceadaylily]

I'm in your dull and moderately priced boat, MC. I keep meaning to dedicate some time to video-watching and practice, but, frankly, I'd rather read a book. While I would love better, and sharper, knives, I don't mind the time spent over the cutting board. Except for the times I have to chop more than one onion, and then I just light a candle to cut back on the fumes.

[GraydonCarter]

> we chowhounds work on our knife skills

I never realized how I don't ever think about how close the knife is to my fingers until last night when I grabbed one of those wide-fleam / large-kerf serrated knives and one of the teeth caught my fingernail. I don't like those knives.

[CarmenR]

Sliced thumb open pretty good on the shell of a hardboiled egg (seriously- it actually bled for quite a long time and is now irritating since I'm in and out of soapy water all day

Burned top of hand on oven while removing candied bacon for eleventy-billionth basting

[cayjohan]

Don't jinx it! <grin> I was just remarking to the sympathetic and interested person inside my head that I had chopped and sliced my way through the crazy mountains of Thanksgiving-bound vegetables without one single (Not One Single) little nick, for the first time ever. There's a lot more to be done. I hate to tempt Fate. I think I'm going to intentionally spill salt and toss some over the shoulder.

It won't prevent the inevitable forearmon-oven-when-checking-turkey burn, though. That's a given. (Maybe more salt.)

[onceadaylily]

4- Burned three fingers and a thumb when a cookie sheet full of toasted bread wobbled on the stovetop after I removed it from the oven. I forgot I was only wearing the one oven mitt.

1- (+ food poisoning averted)- Discovered plastic bag turkey was in (to protect the fridge from the notoriously leaky wrapper) had a hole in it. Pink fluid all over the bottom of fridge, seeping into right side crisper drawer. No time to get gloves, used a strong bleach and water mix to clear up toxic spill. My right hand is really dry, and a little puffy.

Both hands not in great shape. Is that two, or ten?

I haven't started on desserts yet.

[Barbara76137]

about a week ago also averted food poisoning since the "chicken" I was thawing out was actually pork (not that chicken or pork would be any less sickening) and there was a leak in the bag. It contaminated all of my veggies!!

[onceadaylily]

I was grateful that I'd stored most of my veggies and herbs on a higher shelf. I lost two bell peppers, two bunches of Swiss chard, and a bit of celery. My greens and three onion gratin is but the three onions. No one ever got truly sick from a lackluster creamed onion dish. Bored, maybe, but not sick.

[jenscats5]

I had a close one where my knife slipped off the carrots I was cutting, but fortunately no cut....and I'm done with prep! Whew!

[Becca Porter]

I am actually still at zero, but probably not for much longer now...

[mickeygee]

light burn on forehead, hand and hip from splattering boiling water. Otherwise, (knock on wood) no blood drawn this year. But it's still early.

[jeniyo]

1 - burn on the forearm from reaching into the oven without a GLOVE.
1 - nipped my knuckle from washing a blade for my meat grinder
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