Thursday, January 9, 2014

The Importance of Good Knife Skills....

I have been loving sweet potatoes this winter.  Several nights a week Ive been dicing these bad boys up, roasting them with a little olive oil, salt, pepper and chili pepper flakes and devouring them...until, of course, this past Tuesday.  This past Tuesday was a long day at work.  It was freezing cold.  I was tired and cranky, and I was sloppy...this combination is never good.  

So there I was, trying to get my potatoes chopped up quickly so I could get them into the oven and start my dinner, and then it happened.  It will forever amaze me how bad things happen in slow motion.  For whatever reason my little pinkie finger found its way under the potato I was cutting and I watched myself slice right in.  A few swear words, a long run under ice cold water, and a fair amount of pressure applied to the wound and 45 minutes later I was back to dinner prepping- this time though, I was in pain, grumpier, and hungrier.  Of course, I could have avoided this whole thing easily.  A little attention to what I was doing, and making sure I was using proper knife skills and my pinkie finger would much happier.  

I thought Id take this moment to refresh my knife skills and I thought I'd throw a video out there for you guys to learn from as well.  Don't worry -its not of me - but my very favorite sarcastic chef- Anthony Bourdain.

 

3 comments:

Jen said...

OUCH! I agree - knife skills are important and it's easy to get sloppy...

In and Around Town said...

Hope your finger is doing better! YUCK! Nick always says he wants to do a knife skills class - I probably should tag along! Mine are terrible....

Rosebud said...

My daughter, Bridget, teaches how to mince, chop and slice various veggies in one segment on Cook's Country. I'm so sorry you had this accident. Sometimes it happens because we aren't paying enough attention or we're in too big of a hurry. Other times the knife isn't sharp enough. A dull knife is worse than a sharp one when cooking.

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