You wanna get...cut?

Alrighty then, this particular blog is for my older brother Drew, whose obsession with all things taco is downright pathological. So I'm going to break it down in a few different blogs because the simple taco offers you many opportunities to learn. And, if you thought tacos were just meat in a shell- well you know what? It isn't. But your mom is, so there's that...

First off you need a sharp knife. At this juncture I'm not going to go convince you to buy some crazy fancy knife yet....YET. Any old kitchen knife will do. For this particular task a shorter knife is a good idea. Having a sharp knife is actually safer than a dull knife. Now pay attention because I do not want blood on my hands, or yours!

• A sharp knife will not slip on your cutting board past your tomato and straight into your hand.
• If your knife falls to the floor, LET IT FOR THE LOVE OF GOD! Nobody I would want to know wants a knife through their palm. You can always wash it and resharpen if you have to.
• When you're washing your knife, pay attention. This is when most people (like my best friend Erica) tend to slice their pretty little fingers.
• DO NOT leave your knife in the sink, again, so you don't cut yourself or any of the little kitchen gnomes in your house on a forgotten-in-the-sink knife.
• Keep your fingers that are not holding the knife bent toward your palm. Pretty much every chef I know has a horror story of how they lopped off a fingertip, me included. Slicing lettuce even! Dumb!
• Believe it or not, a cut from a sharp knife hurts significantly less because the cut is clean and not jagged. Please don't test this out just because you have a new box of girlie cartoon princess bandages.

Please promise me you'll be careful, and for the love of the Kitchen Gods make sure your tetanus shot is up to date. 

  Tomorrow I'll tell you how to use it. Shut up. My first day at culinary school was spent discussing knife safety, and since I had to be patient, so will you. See you dudes tomorrow.