I learned the hard way to ALWAYS use the hand guard with my mandolin.  I was using it to julienne some carrots for a salad, and one got stuck halfway through the blades.  There wasn't enough carrot left for the hand guard to grip it, so I decided to just push it through partway.  I don't know what I thought would happen, but I ended up with about 12 stitches in my finger, and a severed tendon.  I had to have surgery to reattach the tendon, and I lost the use of my right index finger for about 7 weeks.  Luckily the blades on the thing were extremely sharp, so much that there wasn't any pain to speak of until the doctors started poking it.

OUCH!!! I'm almost sorry I asked. Nick, how awful!!

While making some curry late night this week - I was hungry after watching Letterman - I was blinded by flashes of light emanating from a kitchen in a house across the street.  Luckily they stopped, but they startled me.  I found it unnecessary and bizarre.  Do you think I like eating 'fatty foods' at all?  Especially late at night?

Two of my friends burnt down their kitchen while cooking.  One had her kitchen remodelled and never has to cook again (they now have domestic help to do that).  The other had her entire house rebuilt into their "dream house".  How sweet is that? =)

I was making dinner for my husband, about 6 months after we started going out.  Everything was all done; pork roast rested, veggies steamed, risotto done, and just finishing up with the salad.  

I was slicing the last topping to go on the salad ... the avacado ... and I took the knife, and hit the pit ... only it wasn't the pit that I hit.  

Quickly I dashed to the sink and ran the cold water over my index finger, now bleeding badly.  I said to my husband,'we have to go to the hospital.  But we've got to clean the kitchen first so the dogs don't eat our dinner'.  

As we drove to the hospital, I turned to him about 1 block from the clinic and said,'I'm gonna pass out' he reassured me that I was going to be fine, at which point my head hit the dashboard.  

We raced into the clinic and the attending nurse asked how long I had been sick for.  Hubby laughed, and said, 'sick, she sliced her finger cutting an avacado'.  Apparentely I was as green as the skin of the fruit I attempted to prepare.  

Needless to say ... 4 years later ... and he did marry me last month ... I am no longer allowed to cut avacados as I once did.  He still loves my cooking too!

My worst accident was the day I sliced off the end of my right thumb using my kitchen mandolin.  

I was in a hurry and didn't use the holder while slicing an onion, it slipped and in my thumb went.  After the shock and scare subsided, I found the end of my thumb on the cutting board and placed it in a jar of ice water and headed for the hospital with my hand wrapped in a bath towel.  The doctor took a look at the piece in the jar and decided it was worth trying to sew back on.  She did, and after many weeks of dressings and appointments, I now have a normal looking thumb again, although it is a little numb on the end still.

This same doctor, while covered in my blood and attempting to stitch my thumb back on, remarked to me that she had a cousin that she wanted to introduce me to for a date.. (we live in a small town).  I commented that we should worry about my thumb first and talk later.  Now two years later I am married to that doctors cousin.

Moral of the story - NEVER use a mondolin without the proper holder (and take your time using it),and pay attention when your being asked out for a date.

Dear me. I haven't had any such spectacular accidents, although I did manage to grate quite a lot of the side of my thumb along with the carrots once.

My most spectacular accident happened during the year we were renovating a house and had, really, no kitchen - just a fridge and stove in a room stripped down to the studs. Dishes went down to the laundry sink to be washed. (And once we were done with the kitchen, we found we were so short of dishes we needed a new set... hmm.)

Not too surprisingly, we tended to use the back of the stove to stack things. One day I had a big pot of chicken stock on the front of the stove. I was standing there, waiting for it to heat up, when the glass casserole dish on the back burner exploded, sending shrapnel all over the kitchen. Yes I had turned on the wrong burner. Fortunately, the lid was ON the soup, and it was between me and the casserole. I did jump about 5 feet into the air, but not so much as a bruise. Cleaning up, not so fun.

Who knew mandolines were so dangerous! I was using a hand held blender to puree some black bean soup in the pot. The beans were so thick that it actually stopped the blender. I very wisely decided to get the beans out with my hands with the blender turned on. Let's just say my index finger suffered the brunt of the blade!

I like to put leftover cheese in the freezer.  One day, I did not have time for the cheese to thaw.  While trying to slice the stubbornly frozen cheese, I scooped a chunk off the side of my index finger with my knife.  I quickly rinsed my finger under water & slapped the piece of flesh back on my finger then bandaged it tightly.  My transplant was successful but I can still see the edge of the round piece of flesh.  At least I lined up the wrinkles.

Mandolines are scary!!

I was slicing an apple in half one day when the paring knife went right through the apple and into the webbing between the finger and thumb on my left hand.  I was only 9 at the time and was fascinated by the fact that I could see the different layers of skin when I looked at the wound.  Only two stitches though.

My boyfriend sliced through the tendons in his pinky a couple of years ago and nearly took all of the skin off of the top.  He had to have it reattached and it took over a year before he got all of his movement back (but still doesn't have all the feeling).  I call it "Frankenfinger" because of the train track style scars he has from the surgery.

I also poured bacon grease into a plastic yogurt container when I was 16.  It went right through the container and down my wrist for a pretty painful burn.

i have been quite fortunate to have been accident free for most of my culinary adventures thus far, but i've seen a few accidents...

i had one incident at home where i tried to take an avocado pit with my brand new santoku knife and ended up with a slight cut near my left thumb. there was another time i had sharpened my knife while cutting butternut squash during my advanced cooking course and accidently knicked my middle finger on my right hand and finally, during my first year of culinary school, while searing lamb for a lamb curry the heat was WAY too high and the oil splashed up onto my left arm, leaving me a nasty burn (of which i still have the scar).

but heck...culinary school is all about learning.

It didn't occur in my kitchen but I had a job in high school where I prepared the Produce for the displays. Things like making coleslaw, cutting up veg, cleaning up lettuce and what not. I was called in early on a really busy holiday weekend and immediately went to the task of chopping up about 200lbs of cabbage to make coleslaw (we use a shredder but I had to cut the cabbage into pieces small enough to fit in the hole). Knowing it was busy and that I had a huge amount of other things to get done I rather vigorously started chopping away with a knife that was about 12 - 14" long that we used to do things like cut watermelon in half. It was either the first or second head when I brought the knife and realized that one didn't feel right. I hesitantly looked down and saw that the blades was crossing the knuckle on my left hand right where the finger joins the hands. Needless to say I went to the hospital, my boss was peeved because now he had to call in another person to replace me while I was being tended to. When the doctor looked at it he said that someone was watching over me that day because the knife bounced of the bone and missed severing the entire finger by about 2-3 mm. In the end I ended up with only 3 stitches and a new respect for the watermelon knife.

I remember reading about a guy who was found lying on the restaurant kitchen floor with a chef's knife stuck in the corner of his eye. I can't remember the details, but the amazing thing was that he was fine. Does this ring a bell for anyone?

I had adjusted the position of my hand on the sharpening wand while finishing putting an edge back on my knife.  My final draw was a bit low and the blade followed the edge of my thumb nail down and stoped just short of hitting the bone.  Thankfully the blade was sharp and much like Nick I wasn't in pain until the went to put the stiches in.  Three internal and 4 outside.  Genuine bliss that was....

My mother was boiling a ham one day.  There had been a water main break in our town and we were told to boil our water before using it.  So Ms. Smarty Pants decided to boil the water then put the ham into the boiling water instead of the way she usually does it which is to put the ham into the cold water then start cooking it.   Needless to say, she forgot the laws of physics and attempted to place the giant ham into a FULL pot of boiling water.  She's still got scars all over her front from the second and third degree steam and water burns that she received....

I have always wanted a mandolin.  I think you have all successfully changed my mind.  How sharp ARE those things?  Yikes!

You are all making my knees weak!

Many years ago, I was mixing a cake with an old hand mixer.  The cord detached from the mixer and fell in the cake batter.  Not wanting to waste a chance for a taste, I put the end of the cord in my mouth.  Unfortunately, the other end was still plugged into the wall.  I remember the little shock and the disbelief about what I had just done!!

While getting food ready for my father in laws 8th birthday party, I sliced the side off my index finger while cutting tomatoes for a salad, right along the side of my fingernail almost up to the first knuckle. I put a dab of antiseptic cream on it, and bandaged it tightly. It healed perfectly, leaving just a thin line as a reminder. I never slice tomatoes without remembering the feeling that day. Then just last year I cut right along the 2nd knuckle of the same index finger while slicing a ham, the knife slipped and cleanly cut the tendon in my finger, leaving it numb. I am now the most careful person in the world with knives, twice lucky, finally have learned my lesson!!

That was his 80th birthday party, not his 8th!!

Cuttng vegetables one day for a large catering function I was in such a hurry I put the knife down to grab something and out of the corner of my eye i saw the knife falling of the counter instant reaction ---reach out and catch it-not a good idea the knife sliced three fingers and i ended up with about 22 stitches total.