Kitchen Safety

[digitS']

. . . or, how to avoid breaking a thumbnail peeling an orange? I don't know. . . how? Just about ready to stop the hand peeling and go to the knife. Wonderful oranges, tho'!

Mom used to tell me about a Christmas when all she got was an orange. "And, we felt lucky to have them!" I'm reminded of that little Canadian boy who wrote that 98 year old letter to Santa asking some crayons and a book bag for school. "and, if you have any fruit and nuts, you can make a 7 year old boy happy." My Canadian grandfather must have been happy to have those oranges too because he and Grandma and the kids all ended up in southern California during the '30's.

Anyway. We are gonna be busy in the kitchen again! Got any tips for safety? Don't want to leave any pots of water on overnight - So Lucky!

My tip is to always cut your potatoes, and anything with a round shape, in half. Then, lay those halves flat on the cutting board and do the chopping where there is no danger of those things rolling around!

Bonus tip: pull the oven shelf out part way before putting the pie in there. Don't try to reach across the oven door aaalllll the way into the oven to set that pan down! (You can also do part of your filling of that pumpkin pie while it is sitting there & before pushing it on into the oven .)

Steve

 

[Smart Red]

One tip: Why peel potatoes? I've tried for years to convince my family that the skins make the potatoes better -- in taste and nutrition. That gets DH peeling them for me or eating them yummy skin and all. I use the cut in half, flat side down technique as well.

I am tall enough that I've not pulled the oven shelf out, but now with a little baker in the house, I have to remember she doesn't have the arm reach. She burned herself reaching to put her blueberry pie in. Most of the time, watching over the oven is the one thing she does let me handle -- that, finding ingredients, and cleaning up.

Safety! I find myself starting things and leaving the kitchen to become distracted by something else. I now carry a timer that will remind me I need to check on something in the kitchen. I remember how my mom's cooking as she aged used to scare me. So often she would start cooking and fall asleep in another room. She totally wrecked the pots I gifted her for Christmas with one year. Then expected me to replace MY cookware for her. I was happy when her stove-top died and I showed her how to cook everything in the microwave, crock pot, or electric grill. For a while I was more relieved, but she went and bought a new stove.

And now I find that I am reaching the age my mother was. Safety is more on my mind , but I'm not over-cooking, burning food or ruining pans, so I'm still good to go. I remember my MIL at 90 asking me how to adapt her cooking for a son with heart problems. She was keeping house, cooking, and (of course) baking my pies within a few month of her death at 95.

 

[NwMtGardener]

Here's a tip for you...don't put your bread bags in the oven to dry!!! Haha, i know sounds crazy right...well Grandma, who lived through the depression, saved everything. Used to wash and hang her bread bags out on the clothes line to dry. Well one day she decided to pop them in the still warm oven. So...of course she forgets they're in there, and goes to preheat the oven and VOILA bread bag fire in her oven! Their kitchen had to be professionally cleaned. :/

 

[Smart Red]

Tip!

That reminds me. I have a (magnetic) note on my oven START button stating the oven must checked before turning it on. I do store several large pans in there and have forgotten to remove them in the distant past. Besides, the grands are cooking now and they DO need the reminder.

My lower oven (ya, a first world problem) is used almost only for storage. One day my eldest granddaughter thought she preheated the oven for a cake. Instead, she had turned on the bottom oven. Yup, I understand plastic bags, NwMtGardener, I had plastic cake covers and some large tupperware lids stored in there. Toast! And lots of clean up of melted gook on metal pans and cookie sheets. Now there is a note over that knob that says "DO NOT USE".

 

[Ridgerunner]

Red, I use that timer idea too.

Watch how you store your knives and sharp objects. Don’t just leave knives loose in a drawer. I have a block on the counter for most of them, but I also made a sheath out of cardboard from a cereal carton and duct tape for the one that is in a drawer. Of course I had to slice my finger before I thought of that.

Along the same vein, don’t just dump a knife in the wash water where you can cut yourself reaching down in there.

My wife got some “insulation strips” or whatever you call them to put on the outside edge of the oven racks. That cut down on the burns to wrists reaching in there.

Be a bit careful in where you set glass containers. I love my wife dearly but she has this habit of setting glass containers right on the edge of the pantry, refrigerator, or counter where they can easily be knocked off. I’m constantly moving glass containers further back and putting cardboard or plastic containers near the edge. We even have a pad on the tile in front of the pantry to soften the fall.

 

[bj taylor]

my mother used to wash the bread bags & stick 'em on the cabinet to dry. when they were dry, they would drop to the counter & she would put them away.
my tip is keep the knives sharp & use the best you can. sharpen them often. I think you're not supposed to put good knives in the dishwasher - I fail at that one. a few Christmases ago, I had a tiny bit too much eggnog. I was cutting up raw chicken & cut myself to the bone. we were leaving for a trip in a couple of hours. we hadn't gotten very far down the road until I had major problems & had to stop at a minor emerg - so don't drink eggnog & cut up raw chicken.

 

[Smart Red]

Be a bit careful in where you set glass containers. I love my wife dearly but she has this habit of setting glass containers right on the edge of the pantry, refrigerator, or counter where they can easily be knocked off. I’m constantly moving glass containers further back and putting cardboard or plastic containers near the edge.

Consider yourself blessed to have YOUR wife! My DH constantly is complaining that I stack things on the counter. (Seldom glass) but gravity does have a tendency to be stronger in the kitchen than elsewhere in the house. The dog, of course loves it, but I'm the one cleaning up the floor when she's through.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Red I certainly do consider myself blessed to have her. I mentioned that to her yesterday. But can you come up with a rational reason to stack two of those brown glass jars of yeast right on the edge of the top shelf of the kitchen pantry? Stacked one on top of each other right on the edge so if you rummage through the stuff on the other side you unbalance the one on top and, when you open the other door, that top one falls to the floor and shatters. I realize since I’m male that anything like this is my fault (I should have been ready to catch anything that falls) but just a tiny bit of cooperation could go a long way in something like this.

 

[Smart Red]

Ridgerunner
I would stack them on top of each other because they are the same thing and are easier to find that way. You can't imagine the large number of things that fell behind something and were lost until the day after expiration. I would put them close to the front because I use the yeast a lot and want it available quickly. I carefully consider that, as MY kitchen, I will remember where they are and have no problem retrieving them without having them fall. The most kitchen accidents of that type occur when aliens enter the forbidden zone behind the spice cupboard doors.

Realize that I have a male who is totally out of place in the kitchen -- other than at his captain's chair (for this I blame his sainted mother) -- and would seldom have any reason to test my seasoning stacks. Could it be a subconscious way to stop the rummaging that messes up 'her' system?

I should post a photo of my pantry with cans and jars of like foods stacked on top of each other. Boxes of things stacked for easy identification and the careful arrangement no one else can figure out -- although it never stops anyone from discovering any snacks.

Oh, yes! This is my 1,000th post!

Way to go, Smart Red! Now where's that trophy?

 

[Nyboy]

My grandfather lived durning the depression and also save bread bags, I don.t remember him ever using any ! Once while in his car he asked me to get a napkin out of the glovebox. I opened the door, glovebox was crammed with paper napkins, plastic straws, forks and spoons. All from fast food places.