Stepping Out of the Boat

By using the membership card that we have at the Multicentro when we buy groceries, we were able to earn enough points to get some really nice quality glass cookware. The only thing we had to bake in before was a really nasty, rusty cookie sheet. So, yesterday, we got the new stuff, and naturally, I (Claire) wanted to use it to cook something.

I decided to go for baked chicken in the new chicken roasting pan we got. (Note: There were none of the normal chickens that we buy at the store, so I had to get a more scrawny-looking brand.)

Things were going fine until I had the chicken out of the oven, and I went to take the lid off of the roasting pan. We only have one oven mit, and it is so poor quality that you can't wear it, but you have to double it up before you touch the pan... so, I had the doubled up oven mit in one hand and a doubled up pot holder in the other as I very carefully lifted the lid off the pan....

OUCH!!! I screamed (apparently pretty loud since the girls heard it in their apartment) as the steam rushed out of the pan, burning all four of the fingers (not my thumb) on my left hand. I've never felt pain like that from a burn before, and I've burnt myself plenty of times while cooking. I was certainly traumatized. I ended up putting my hand in ice water for about an hour while John and I ate dinner. Here's the best part: the chicken was the toughest, worst tasting chicken I've ever had. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that McDonald's chicken nuggets (if that's considered chicken) would have been better. So I burned myself cooking something that didn't even taste good.

We read some burn care websites, and after a trip to the farmacia on John's part, we properly took care of my fingers. Three of them have minor second degree burns ( as evidenced by the grayish looking blisters), and my pointer finger felt better by this morning.


John is affectionately calling me "Claw" instead of Claire, and he prepared most of the food for our Superbowl party tonight. As for my fingers, they should be completely healed in a couple weeks, and until then, I have to take lots of ibuprofen and concentrate on keeping the burns very clean while I live in the dirtiest city I've ever been to. Needless to say, I will probably be referred to as "Claw" for a little while longer.