Danger: Mandolines!

This blog post is going to take awhile for me to type and after you read it, you'll understand why.  I'm not a chef and don't even like to cook so I thought mandolins (not to be confused with mandolines) were only musical instruments.  I found out on Christmas Day that it is this cool cooking gadget that slices, dices, and juliennes food.  But I also found out that it slices and dices other things as well.

I was helping with Christmas dinner by slicing a cucumber using the mandoline when I accidentally sliced a quarter inch chunk of my pinkie as well (not the tip, but in the middle). My mother-in-law cut the end of her thumb on it right after I cut myself.  So if you plan on ever trying one of these, I suggest using extreme caution as they are very dangerous.  My pinkie bled most of Christmas Day and I can barely look at it, it's so gross and freaky looking. I can't even get stitches.  Nobody took any grotesque pictures of it while it was gushing blood, but here is a bandaged picture.

I liked the phrase I read on another blog that said, "I mandolined my finger."  So true!