Like Mother, Like daughter

The kitchen is a dangerous place. After all, it is the room where you use fire every day (if you have a gas stove like us at least). It also is the place where many sharp implements are found; including one fantastic tool called a V-slicer (also known as a mandolin by some manufacturers), which makes cooking dishes like scalloped or au gratin potatoes a hell of a lot easier.

The V-slicer also has a wonderful safety feature called the food holder that pierces and holds the potato (or whatever you're slicing). This works great, but not when you're starting to slice an oblong vegetable like a carrot or a large russet potato. So, what you do instead is slice the potato not quite halfway, very carefully of course and then put the holder on for the rest of the potato.

However if you're anything like my mother or I, you're doing this while:
1.) rushing to get the potatoes in the oven
2.) trying to hold a conversation with someone (usually a guest in your home)
3.) pretending that you don't have a klutzy bone in your body

And then you delay dinner further by cutting a large chunk of your thumb (Mom) or pinky finger (me) off and needing to wrap the damaged appendage in about 100 ft of gauze and surgical tape. Yep, we're both missing chunks of our fingers from the same accident a few months apart from one another. Thankfully, no stitches were required for either of us despite losing a sizeable chunk of skin.









It was really only a matter of time until I lost part of a finger though - Gramma Ho! Ho! is also missing part of her finger due to a cactus-induced infection when she was younger. So, Amy, you better watch your fingers - this seems to be genetic!!!