If You Can’t Take the Heat

Remember Gerald? I wrote about him in an earlier entry. Gerald is my friend who, after being on the planet even longer than myself, is just starting to get acquainted with his kitchen. Really? He’s been an inspiration. For the first time in his life, Gerald is cooking. One e-mail from him had me laughing when he wrote, “I just walked in from a foreign place. The supermarket.” Unfortunately, on a more recent occasion, Gerald wrote that he forgot to use his mitts.

Kitchen burns are no fun and today’s picture is an illustration of some of the things you can use to prevent a nasty burn. With the introduction of silicon into the kitchen, there always seems to be something new to help with the hot stuff. Don’t be a Gerald and regard kitchen shops as foreign places. Here are a few items found in my travels that I thought you might find interesting.

The solid red mitt is the traditional felt and fabric kind. When this gets dirty, you can pop it in the wash. The black and red mitt has a silicon grip. Both allow coverage for your wrists, which is particularly useful for oven stuff. The square red ‘pot holder’ also has a pocket so the back of your hand is protected. The blue holder is very flexible but does not have the advantage of a pocket. And the last thing is the red handle cover. This is something you might even want a few of (they come in different sizes), one for each of your favorite pans.

Finally, should you experience a minor mishap (aka burn), run it under cool water and put some anti-biotic ointment on your kitchen 'badge of honor’. A band-aid will keep a minor mishap clean and protected.