It has been sometime since I have indulged my clutzy side but alas it was time again. Last weekend was a big one for our family as my daughter was being baptized into our church. As with all milestones in life, a big family meal was necessary and I was only too happy to oblige. I made chicken and pork tamales that I will never be able to duplicate of course and we barbecued corn on the grill. Watermelon and chips and home made salsa and guacamole rounded out our meal. The buffet was glorious to behold! Of course we had small people there who wanted their corn taken off the cob. I have a nifty little gadget designed just for such a job and thrilled at the opportunity to show off my fancy toy. It is very sharp. Yes, incredibly sharp and cumbersome to use sometimes. I started planing the corn off the yummy, charred to perfection cobs and was really getting into a rhythm. Unfortunately, I was working a bit too quickly along with talking too much and forgot to move my finger. Did you know you can grate the skin right off your finger in addition to getting the corn off the cob? It hurt, bled and made me mad because I still had to finish the corn and couldn't use my newly lame hand. I was going to have to go back to a boring knife to get the corn off and put my cool gadget away. The truth is the knife was just as effective and easier to use. It has taken a week for the wound to even close up and I am a little corn gadget shy now. Don't worry I'll get back on the horse.
Today, I decided it was finally time to shred all of the zucchini I still have lying around. I pack it up in ziplock bags and freeze it for future muffins and breads. My food processor works great to shred all but a little, tiny piece which can't make it to the grater from the feed tube. So I end up with all of these small pieces I couldn't possibly throw away because it would be wasteful! So I got out my hand grater and started trying to grate the small pieces. If you grate vigorously enough, you can't even tell you have grated your finger until the blood starts pouring out everywhere. It is amazing how clean of a cut a graters makes. This time I got my thumb. I suppose I will live and all will be fine. However, I am running out of fingertip bandaids and if I simply stopped hurting myself, I wouldn't have to tape all of them up all the time. Life would get too boring if I suddenly became cured of my lack of grace.
