Hi! I'm Amy Osvold, Vision Rehabilitation
Specialist at North Dakota Vision Services/School
for the Blind. So the very first thing I wanna talk about is knife safety. So for myself,
because I do have some shaking in my hands,
I always choose to bring, um, whatever I'm
cutting, to a table and sit down. For some
people who don't have a lot of hand strength,
that may not be the best option because they
need to be able to put their body weight behind,
um, you know, their arms to be able to actually
cut through whatever they are trying to cut.
So some other things that I like doing is
I like taking a small cutting board and I
like putting it inside a cookie sheet with
edges or, um, I've always called these jelly-roll
pans. It's just got the 1-inch edge on it.
And the reason why I like doing that is because,
um, it gives it a little more stability so
if I were in my home, I would put this cutting
board inside the cookie sheet, and I would
put a wet paper towel in between the cutting
board and the cookie sheet, and the cookie
sheet and the counter. What that will do is
it will keep your tray and your cutting board
from moving around. It'll keep it nice and
steady. Um, the other reason why I like putting
the cutting board inside a jelly roll pan
is because when you are cutting stuff, so
let's say I'm, you know, chopping carrots.
If I'm using baby carrots, um, those tend
to kinda, like, pinball. Um, you know, if
you cut them really small, they'll flick away,
and so, having it in the, uh, jelly-roll pan,
with the edges on it, what that will do is
it'll keep it from, you know, rolling away
onto the floor, things like that. The second
reason why I like putting the cutting board
inside the jelly-roll pan is that as you are
cutting, chopping, peeling, whatever you are
doing, um, you don't have to stop and empty
off your cutting board. So what I would do
is I would cut whatever, um, vegetable or
fruit that I am cutting, and then I would
just scrape it into the jelly-roll pan and
it would stay there until I'm done and ready
to put, to move it into the bowl or to the
pot. And then rather than having to move,
you know, tiny pieces of vegetables that could,
you know, spill all over the place, I can
just take the entire cookie sheet and I can
just take it to the pot or the pan or, um,
the bowl and just dump it right in there,
so everything is nice and neat and contained.
Another safety technique is that when you
are done using your knife, you're going to
put your knife into the safe spot, okay. Your
safe spot is at 12 o'clock of your cutting
board, or if you have your cutting board inside a jelly-roll pan, it is 12 o'clock of your jelly-roll pan.
And the reason why you wanna do this, rather
than leaving your knife right on top of your
cutting board, or on top of your jelly-roll
pan, is if you happen to bump that cutting
board or the pan and you knock that knife,
you could potentially knock it onto your foot
and cut yourself. This way, when it is at
12 o'clock with the pan or the cutting board,
you will always have the cutting board and/or
the pan between you and the knife. Um, if
you are right-handed, you would want the handle
of the knife to be towards your right hand.
If you're left-handed, you would want it to
be towards your left. Then you're not going
to grab the knife by the blade. When you are
done with your knife, you can either wash
your knife immediately and put it out of the
way. Or, put it between the faucet and the
splash guard on your sink with the blade down.
Again, handle going towards the hand that
you are using the most. Or, the way I do it
in my home, is I have a colander, you know,
a strainer, it's a rectangle-shaped one. The
sides pull out and so it will go the entire
width of your sink, so that it sits kind of
above, and I put all of my silverware in there
so that my silverware doesn't fall into my
garbage disposal. That's all I have on safety.
If you have any questions, please feel free
to contact me.
