Ouch

So, the Mega Update is still cooking (significant stuff just has a way of never finishing, doesn’t it?), but in the mean time, here’s a great tip for you prospective cooks out there.

When baking potatoes, always – and I mean always – poke a few holes through the skin into the flesh of the potato with a fork before putting it into the oven. The purpose of this exercise, as you may know, is to allow the steam generating by the water in the potato boiling as it cooks to escape.

The alternative, apparently, is to not do so, and turn the potato in question into a grenade. I forgot to do this last night when making dinner, and when I tested the fourth of four potatoes for doneness, it literally exploded in my hand. One second I’m standing there with a potato and a fork. BANG! And the next I, and my kitchen, am covered in potato. In my hand is an empty husk that sort of reminds me of John Hurt halfway through Alien.

I am thankful for two things: first, that our oven mitts are the kind that go up to your elbow, and that I was wearing one instead of using a hot pad. Second, that my eyesight is crappy, and I was wearing glasses. That’s not a story I wanted to have to tell in the ER.

You Have Been Warned.