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I thought I knew what to do if I got burned. I'm sure we covered it at some point when I was in school, and considering I occasionally firespin as a hobby, I really should have known. I was clear on putting burns under cold water, but I thought that was to manage the pain level. Since the burn was on my thigh and water was less convenient, I went for what I thought was a great option  -- the doctor-prescribed burn cream that a friend of mine had given me.

Apparently, that was the worst thing I could have done. Getting a burn under cold water isn't just for pain relief; it is, to put it somewhat morbidly, to prevent carryover cooking. When you burn yourself, the burn keeps burning until it cools off. Putting anything oil-based (this includes butter, which I remember being a treatment used when I was young) on a burn insulates the heat and pushes it deeper, causing more damage. My doctor informed me that it is okay to BURNFREE gel if water isn't available -- paramedics use this in the field -- but using any other cream immediately after burning yourself is a no-no.

If you've got a mild burn, using burn cream later for pain relief is fine. My mother also recommended making a paste of baking soda and coating the burn. She said that she's used this on a number of bad burns and never even developed a blister.

The Mayo Clinc has a good burn guide that gives an overview of the different types of burns and what to do about them. I had a hard time deciding whether or not to go to the hospital. I wasn't in pain, but the burn was big and nasty, and I was afraid the lack of pain meant nerve damage (it didn't, I was just lucky). Apparently, the rule is that if you have a 2nd degree burn (top layer of skin gone plus blistering) that is larger than 3 inches in diamater, you should get medical treatment. Even though my burn was large, I felt okay and decided to wait and call my doctor in the morning. If you've lost a large area of skin due to a burn, seeing a doctor is important. The risk of infection is high, and your doctor will most likely prescribe a round of antibiotics to help keep you safe while the burn heals.

When working in commercial kitchens, I felt like I was much more aware of the dangers of cooking. At home, I forget. I cook in bare feet and pajamas, and tend to get a little casual about safety. I burnt myself because I drained a big pot of pasta too quickly with the pot facing toward me rather than away, and the water sloshed out of the sink and onto my leg. You're supposed to drain hot water slowly and facing away from you, but I was in a hurry, and I wasn't thinking about it. So remember, the kitchen is a dangerous place and if you spend a lot of time there, you're probably going to hurt yourself at some point. Be more prepared than I was. Educate yourself on basic kitchen safety, and make sure that you have some idea of what to do if you should find yourself in an emergency situation.

Stay safe, and happy cooking!

The company that I work for is in Northbrook. It's not far away from the lakefront, and on nice days my coworkers and I often head down to the beach in Glencoe to have lunch. We usually stop off at Foodstuffs, a little gourmet food shop that's on the way, and I almost always get their prepackaged California Dreaming Salad. The salad is a mix of spinach with sugared walnuts, dried cranberries, edamame, tofu, blue cheese and balsamic vinaigrette. Tonight I decided to make my own version at home, and it turned out pretty well. I threw it together so no measurements, but here's what went into it:

California Dreaming Salad in Bleu

Mixed greens (I had a bag of baby lettuce mix)

Bleu Cheese (I had smoked bleu from Whole Foods, so good!)

Firm Tofu, diced

Edamame, shelled

Pecans, roasted

Red Onion, sliced

Plum Tomatoes, quartered

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Balsamic Vinaigrette

Shallot, minced

Balsamic Vinegar

Olive Oil

Agave Nectar (you can use honey)

Dijon Mustard

Salt & Pepper

I had picked up a bottle of La Ferme Julien Cotes du Venoux Rose 2007 from Trader Joe's earlier this week. I liked it previously -- it may have been the 2006 -- but found it to be a bit lackluster this time around. It went well enough with the salad, though, and for a $6 wine, I can't complain.

It finally feels like summer here in Chicago and I'm absolutely loving it! Although I've lived in the Illinois/Wisconsin area for almost 26 years, I still love the muggy warmth that reminds me of North Carolina, where I was born. I also love the abdundance of produce that's available, although I've been sorely remiss in visiting our local farmers markets. Work hours over the winter were long, and cooking energy has been in short supply. Things have recently improved, though, and as my energy level tends to rise with the temperature (and the economy encourages us to stay home), the kitchen has been calling.

Epicurious has a nifty interactive map that lists peak season produce by month and state. For June, the following is at peak season in Illinois:

asparagus, cabbage, cherries, eggplant, garlic, nectarines, okra, peas, rhubarb, and strawberries.

I've placed an order with Irv and Shelley's Fresh Picks for local strawberry and rhubarb. I've never made a pie with rhubard, and I've always wanted to. They also had garlic scapes available (it's the flower stem that shoots up from the garlic bulb before the bulb matures) and since I've never had them before, I'd thought I'd give them a try. Turning them into pesto seems to be popular, so that's the recipe I plan to use. Keep an eye on this space for a report on how it goes!

Tomorrow is the Autumnal Equinox, the first day of Fall, and also the pagan holiday of Mabon. I love this time of year, when the leaves are changing and the air is crisp, and I have the urge to spend a lot more time in the kitchen.

Mabon marks the end of the grain harvest, and much like Thanksgiving, is a time for celebrating the fruits of our labor, both literally and figuratively. As I mentioned in my last post (much too long ago, I know), this year was my first attempt at a vegetable garden, so for the first time I have my own little harvest to celebrate.

I ended up getting a lead test through A&L Great Lakes Laboratories, and the process was very easy. I took a few different soil samples from different parts of the garden area, put it into a plastic bag and mailed it to them along with a form downloaded from their website and a check for around $40 (I got the extended test to analyze the soil composition -- the lead test by itself was around $20). They sent me back a detailed analysis that told me that my soil was okay (barely) for growing plants where the fruit would be eaten, but not the leaves. So the tomatoes and peppers were okay, the herbs needed to go into containers. So that's what I did, and it all worked out very well. I've had an abundance of standard and cherry tomatoes, bell and jalapeno peppers, as well as all the cooking herbs I tend to use most often.

I've enjoyed the garden so much that I plan to kick it up a notch next year. I plan to put in a raised bed, buy some tomato cages (the stakes just weren't enough) and experiment with some additional vegetables and herbs. I wasn't able to get the composter and rain barrel this year, so I plan to do that next year as well (I found out that you can get them through the City of Chicago, so I may do that).

I also plan to try and hang and dry some of my herbs in our pantry, and I'm going to try to keep my herbs growing inside through the winter. My two cats are the biggest obstacle to this -- the only good place for herbs is the kitchen window, and keeping the cats from getting up there and eating them is going to be a challenge. But it's been so nice to have fresh herbs always on hand (and free!) that I don't want to give it up. I'll try and keep up with the reporting as I go along.