Burnt Tongue

Whenever I cook pasta and I want to find out if it's done cooking, I take a strand of pasta and fling it against the fridge. If it sticks, it's done (learned that from watching The Golden Girls). Matthew, however, likes to scoop up a strand of pasta and chew on it to see if it's cooked to his satisfaction. "Why waste pasta?" he often tells me.

Well, I was making alfredo linguine for dinner and I decided to try out Matthew's way of seeing if the noodles were done. I scooped out a strand of linguine, blew on it, and tried chewing on the strand. Unfortunately, in my eagerness to try it, I did not notice that there was still boiling water dripping off of the noodle and accidentally burnt my tongue when tasting it. I thought to myself, It's just a little burn. It'll heal up quickly. And if it doesn't, then I'll just chew on one side of my mouth to avoid the burn. Well, let me tell you, it is nigh near impossible to chew on one side of your tongue. When I had finished making the linguine and put it all together with homemade alfredo sauce, I found that I had a hard time keeping food to just one side of my tongue. I then realized that I could eat on one side of my mouth if I had a toothache or a mouth ulcer, but it was way too hard to do that if my tongue was in pain. Needless to say, I spent the rest of dinner in silent misery, crying "Ouch" every time the noodles or sauce hit the burnt side of my tongue. Take a lesson from this, readers, there are better ways to find out if your pasta's done cooking than putting it in your mouth. At least cool it off with some cold water or something before tasting it. Or maybe my boyfriend is not as sensitive to heat and pain the same way I am. In either case, I learned my lesson.