the UGC: All Souped Up

All Souped Up
February 09, 2009

I'm a little bit of a klutz, which I'm sure I've mentioned before. For some reason, when I'm cooking, I have a tendency to slice my thumb. Twice, I've done it bad enough that I went to Urgent Care thinking I might need stitches (both times I was sent home with a big band aid). It's been almost 8 years since my last thumb slicing incident, so I figured either my knife skills had improved or my reflexes were nimble enough to get my digits out of the way. Oh, how wrong I was.

On Saturday afternoon, I was in the middle of my first ever attempt at making homemade vegetable broth. I had already chopped a massive amount of onions, and made quick work of a pound of carrots. Which are round, so you wouldn't think the leeks would have given me any trouble. The thing was, I had decided to cut them in half length-wise for optimal dirt removal. This would be when my knife slipped and I badly nicked 3 fingers on my left hand. I managed to stop the bleeding pretty quickly, so I figured I probably didn't need stitches. However I did end up putting band-aids on the three injured digits. Which looked totally, you know, awesome. Especially since my work holiday party was later that evening. (For the record, nobody noticed. At least, if they did, they didn't say anything.)

If that wasn't enough, Sunday morning I had to trek to Wal-Mart. I kind of hate Wal-Mart, but I had a feeling that the specific tupperware containers I needed would be there (especially since all my other sources had failed me). The place was packed at 11am on a Sunday. A constant stream of people going in and out. The lights inside are too bright, and there's people everywhere inside. They're either wandering aimlessly or pushing around shopping carts in a very determined manner. Having never been inside this particular Wal-Mart, I had no idea where anything was and became one of the wandering aimlessly folk and I started to feel stressed out. The vibe in there was just not fun. Thankfully, it didn't take too long for me to find what I needed, and I was in and out without too much trouble. Though I think I now might have a little inkling as to what hell might be like (at least my own personal one).

At this point you may be wondering why I would put myself through making homemade stock and a trip to Wal-Mart. It was all for one reason - SOUP SWAP. Basically, seven of us all made big batches of a different soup, put it in containers (Zip Lock Twist 'N Lock 4 cup size!), and then met up to exchange soups. There's an official Soup Swap sitehere with some guidelines and "how to" tips. We didn't follow that exactly (we actually called ours "Soup Club"), but it still worked just fine and the important part was maintained: we all came home with lots of delicious soup. Which made the cooking injury and scary Wal-Mart trip totally worth it. Especially since I'm not picking up a chef's knife any time soon. At least not until my left hand is band-aid free.

$\"Fall$ \n\n\nI'm a little bit of a klutz, which I'm sure I've mentioned before. For some reason, when I'm cooking, I have a tendency to slice my thumb. Twice, I've done it bad enough that I went to Urgent Care thinking I might need stitches (both times I was sent home with a big band aid). It's been almost 8 years since my last thumb slicing incident, so I figured either my knife skills had improved or my reflexes were nimble enough to get my digits out of the way. Oh, how wrong I was.\n\nOn Saturday afternoon, I was in the middle of my first ever attempt at making homemade vegetable broth. I had already chopped a massive amount of onions, and made quick work of a pound of carrots. Which are round, so you wouldn't think the leeks would have given me any trouble. The thing was, I had decided to cut them in half length-wise for optimal dirt removal. This would be when my knife slipped and I badly nicked 3 fingers on my left hand. I managed to stop the bleeding pretty quickly, so I figured I probably didn't need stitches. However I did end up putting band-aids on the three injured digits. Which looked totally, you know, awesome. Especially since my work holiday party was later that evening. (For the record, nobody noticed. At least, if they did, they didn't say anything.)\n\nIf that wasn't enough, Sunday morning I had to trek to Wal-Mart. I kind of hate Wal-Mart, but I had a feeling that the specific tupperware containers I needed would be there (especially since all my other sources had failed me). The place was packed at 11am on a Sunday. A constant stream of people going in and out. The lights inside are too bright, and there's people everywhere inside. They're either wandering aimlessly or pushing around shopping carts in a very determined manner. Having never been inside this particular Wal-Mart, I had no idea where anything was and became one of the wandering aimlessly folk and I started to feel stressed out. The vibe in there was just not fun. Thankfully, it didn't take too long for me to find what I needed, and I was in and out without too much trouble. Though I think I now might have a little inkling as to what hell might be like (at least my own personal one). \n\nAt this point you may be wondering why I would put myself through making homemade stock and a trip to Wal-Mart. It was all for one reason - SOUP SWAP. Basically, seven of us all made big batches of a different soup, put it in containers (Zip Lock Twist 'N Lock 4 cup size!), and then met up to exchange soups. There's an official Soup Swap sitehere with some guidelines and \"how to\" tips. We didn't follow that exactly (we actually called ours \"Soup Club\"), but it still worked just fine and the important part was maintained: we all came home with lots of delicious soup. Which made the cooking injury and scary Wal-Mart trip totally worth it. Especially since I'm not picking up a chef's knife any time soon. At least not until my left hand is band-aid free.

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