I Had My First Cooking Accident

It happened, I had my first cooking accident this week. Mind you, I was also on a staycation from work this week trying to get stuff done around the house. This situation did not help.

The story is actually kind of comical. We moved just over two years ago, and a lot of our things are still packed away. Last weekend Aaron and I went through some of the boxes to see what we actually still needed and what we could get rid of. While going through a box of kitchen items I found a Pampered Chef mandoline slicer that I had purchased a few years ago and only used once or twice.

I was so excited to find that stupid slicer. I am not a huge fan of slicing veggies for dinner. I feel like it takes me a long time and they never look even. This was going to help, right? The problem is, I didn’t have all the parts. I couldn’t find the guard piece that stops this very accident from happening.

I brought the slicer into the house, washed it up, and just waited for my chance to slice veggies perfectly even and quickly. I had a few Home Chef meals to make for dinner this week, one of which was a turkey burger with roasted sweet potatoes.  For some reason, Aaron and I both had been putting off having this meal. We chose it when we ordered, and it looked delicious, we just weren’t in the mood I guess.

I finally decided to make it in the middle of the week. Aaron had to work late and had a long drive home, so this was my chance to make it without him talking me out of it. And I would get to use the slicer I was so excited about. Usually, the meals that we put off making are some of our favorites anyway, so what could go wrong?

Well, about three slices into the sweet potato the potato got stuck and I had to use a little force. Remember, I couldn’t find the guard for the slicer. So when I pulled the potato back out to slice it again my pinky finger got in the way.

I spare you the gross details of the actual cut, but the short version is a Band-Aid wasn’t going to cut it. I found a gauze pad and wadded it on my finger, taped it up, cleaned up my mess and went back to cooking dinner.

When Aaron got home I told him what happened and that I would need his help changing the bandage after dinner. It’s on my dominant hand so it was hard to bandage well on my own. After dinner, we went into the bathroom to change the bandage, and for the first time in my life I almost passed out. As I took the bandage off, I instantly got very cold and sweaty. I have never had this happen to me, ever. My dad and my brother both pass out when they see blood, so I knew it was a possibility, it had just never happened to me. Bless Aaron’s heart, he got down on the bathroom floor where I was laying and helped me clean it up and re-bandage it.

Now, fast forward a few days and I still have to put a Band-Aid and gauze on it every day. Twice a day to be exact. That cut is deep. I guess I’m glad it happened while I was on vacation so I could figure out how to do things like type, wring out my hair after a shower, wash my hair, and cook dinner with nine working fingers.