A Word About Safety

We all remember that wonderful movie where a particularly persistent French rodent became an inspiration to everyone by relentlessly following his portulent muse's advise that "anyone can cook," yes? While I do in theory generally ascribe to this notion, I believe that if you look closely, you'll see that there's a nearly-invisible asterisk on that statement, indicating that conditions apply. Mainly two conditions of "but not everything" and "but not all the time."

The recipes in this Blog are aimed at fully-cognizant, fully-capable adults. Much like driving, do not attempt any form of cooking if you are inebriated, medicated, drowsy, or have some other condition that impairs your functionality. If a portion of a recipe is child-friendly, such as icing cookies, it will be marked as such. But unless expressly stated otherwise, the safest practice is to keep all children and pets out of the kitchen.

Some of the recipes that are featured on this blog are not entry-level recipes. Fair warning. But don't be discouraged about that -- you'll get there eventually. There will be plenty of easier recipes that come about. With enough time, determination, and practice, you'll get it. 

That all having been said, the biggest factor in winding up with food (regardless of degree of edibility) instead of a fiery disaster, an insurance claim, and/or a number of incriminating photographs, is, without a doubt, kitchen safety. Accidents happen. But, the majority of them can be prevented by taking proper precautions. And the rest, well, if you're following along, you'll know how to handle them properly so that they won't be made worse by improper addressing. 

The biggest thing that I have to say here is, for the love of everything, make sure that the fire extinguisher you keep in the kitchen is rated for grease fires. Not all extinguishers are made equal, and grease fires take some special stuff to take down before they burn things down. 

Aside from that, if you're fully familiar with kitchen and food safety procedures, congrats! Now just remember to exercise that knowledge. For those of you not so well acquainted with kitchen safety, I've gone and dug up some resources for you! Turns out the University of Georgia's College of Family & Consumer Sciences division turned out this wonderful little pamphlet on general home kitchen safety, where as the National Fire Protection Association offers some wonderful advice about preventing and properly handling cooking fires. 

Now, that only addresses kitchen safety, not food safety. If you've continued reading this far, then I need to stress that there actually is a difference. Kitchen safety is making sure that I don't get a whole bunch of severed finger pictures posted in the comments. Food safety, on the other hand, is what ensures you won't accidentally give the gift of food poisoning. Trust me, it keeps on giving, and it's not pleasant. The best instruction set I've found on this front was actually offered through the ServSafe Food Handler program. Yes, there's a bit of a fee to take the certification lessons and corresponding test, but it's cheap and it's worth it. Note that the cost and the content will vary slightly from state to state, but for all intents and purposes, it's the same thing throughout, and the certificate awarded is actually, at least in my state, recognized as the certification you need to work a number of different food-service related positions. Never thought a food blog would enhance your resume, now did you?