I've learned the first lesson of 2012: it isn't always worth it. I'm always trying to make the most out of the food I have rather than let things go to waste...just this weekend with my boyfriend for example, we cooked a steak bone into beef stock, saved bacon drippings for frying eggs, turned leftover roasted vegetables into a morning hash, and tried to reclaim stale bread as breadcrumbs. But sometimes it isn't always worth it. For example, you should always tear bread into cubes and then let it go stale because once the bread is already too hard to safely cut, it isn't worth saving.
On Monday, I was slicing stale bread into cubes, which I've done before, and cut my finger, which I've done before (there's a reason I used to call my blog Wounded Chef), but never have I cut my finger with a serrated knife with the pressure involved in sawing off hard bread. The result was an afternoon spent in the ER and an awkward bandage to wear for at least a week. No piano playing or bike riding or complicated cooking or dishes for at least a week. It's not as bad as it looks and it should heal okay, but it is disturbing to know that I sliced off a small tip of my finger. Despite this, I still have high hopes for 2012. It can only get better from here!
Other lessons: a knife skills class would probably be useful, as would a full first aid kit. And what feels like constant setbacks (bed bugs, various minor illnesses, hurricanes) are just life happening while you're busy making other plans.
