are your hands sore yet?

[grasswire]

I figure I haven't cooked enough in a holiday season if my hands aren't suffering a bit from constantly washing baking utensils, cutting and peeling things, hands in and out of flour (very drying) and doing such insane things as hand-picking crabs galore.

My hands are suffering, and I'm only halfway through the month.

And I use lotion repeatedly through out the process! Last night I also had to smear some antibiotic ointment on a couple of small cracks and wear bandaids to bed to heal a bit for today's work.

Got four different kinds of dough chilling in the fridge, another triple batch of chex mix in the oven, nuts toasting, cookbooks stacked high and fringed with postits, filo dough thawing for baklava, fruit macerating.

If only I didn't have to interrupt this chaos to make supper! Ha!

[hippywife]

1. It would be nice

if supper weren't always a consideration on a heavy baking day, wouldn't it? Sometimes it's best to just plan for something quick and easy on days like that.

Hope your hands make it through the holiday without causing your too much stress. :hug:

[grasswire]

2. if it were just me I'd have a tuna sandwich...

...but others expect dinner.

[hippywife]

3. This is the week

you have the crowd in town, isn't it? Wish I were nearby to give you a hand...or two. :hug:

[Tesha]

4. No - it's my back...

The kneading of the Stollen for 15 minutes just topped it off yesterday... oh, but the loaves are stunning!

but about your hands?

my grandmother told me her soft hands secret eons ago, when ever she had to deal with a grease or oil - she's rub a little into her hands before rinsing and drying them.

Grease a cookie sheet? rub your hands together for a few seconds afterward.
Oil the bread rising bowl? rub it in your hands too...


she said it was a balance - some things took oil away from your hands, some returned it.

[katkat]

8. Johnson & Johnson First Aid Cream

I tend to get chapped hands in the winter and the only thing that really works then is putting Johnson & Johnson First Aid Cream on them at night. I have to ask my pharmacy to order it, it is not usually in stock. Non-greasy.

[pengillian101]

5. I don't cook and bake like I used to do.

Boy, it sounds like you do way much more than I ever did in a week's time.

I wonder if those thin, thin surgical gloves like doctors and nurses use wouldn't be helpful for you.

Another thought - my Mom had trouble and her doc had her put Vaseline on her hands at night and then sleep with cotton gloves. Might be worth a try ;-)

Happy baking/cooking with no chapped hands.

[Warpy]

6. There is a wonderful new invention out there

called Nu Skin. It forms a temporary bandage over things like knuckles where bandaids don't work very well and contains its own antibiotic. I used it on the job in the hospital when I'd get a paper cut and it lasted for a few intense handwashings there.

It doesn't smell very good when you first put it on, but who cares? It's a lot less cumbersome than either rubber gloves or bandaids.

However, don't skip the lotion.

[grasswire]

7. I have a musician friend...

...who plays the banjo and guitar and routinely uses superglue to temporarily "fix" a ding. I guess it's fairly common.

[Warpy]

11. Superglue will work but the stuff is pretty toxic

Nu Skin is like diluted Superglue but with antibiotic properties. Tell your friend to make the switch. His liver will thank him.

[Mira]

9. Ignore this if you don't need to heal a painful crack in you finger....

Taken a thin surgical latex glove and cut off a finger. Roll it so you can squeeze some antibiotic ointment into the tip and then put it on your hurt finger. It heals it over one or two nights.

[Arkansas Granny]

10. Luckily, my hands are not as sore as I thought they would be this morning.

My daughter and I did 6 pans of Elf Cookies, 6 pans of fudge, rum balls and half of the sugar cookies yesterday. There are still 3 kinds of cookie dough chilling in the fridge to be baked, so today we will finish the sugar cookies, bake the snickerdoodles, date pinwheels and chocolate chunk cookies. We'll also do a couple of quick batches of cherry almond bark and toffee bark.

When we finished last night my hands felt like sandpaper due to being in and out of water all day and required some serious lotion. I took some aspirin before I went to bed last night and that seems to have helped with the aches and pains that I expected to feel.

My DIL came over yesterday with the youngest grandsons (18 months and 3 years). The 3 yo got to decorate his very own sugar cookie which kept him busy for the better part of 1/2 hour putting all the sprinkles and icing gels on it. He sure was proud of it. They will be back today to help finish up.