I cook a lot. At least 2 meals a day every day of the year. That's a lot. And I consider myself fairly competent in the kitchen. But alas, I am not perfect. (Despite the lingering nickname from my 3rd grade teacher of Little Miss Perfect.) So, every once in a while, even I mess up. Just a bit. This evening as I was making THE Broccoli Beef with leftover roast beef, as I had on that infamous evening and I couldn't help but think of one of my worst and most memorable mess-ups. It was all because I was talking on the phone. Surprise, surprise. I'm afraid I will miss out on some big opportunity in life because I will be talking to someone. I remember it well, and for those of you who don't know me well, I don't remember anything well. It was a Tuesday night, I had book club that evening and was making the aforementioned broccoli beef. Everything was done. Almost. The rice was keeping warm in the rice cooker, the broccoli beef was on the stove simmering nicely. I reached down into my cupboard to put in the LAST ingredient. The cornstarch. Which really isn't even essential. I have Clabber Girl Baking Powder and Clabber Girl Cornstarch in the same size container, same labels, everything (although the Baking Powder is 5 lbs and cornstarch is 3.5, who would've known it takes up more space and weighs less?) you can figure out where I'm going with this. I get my 2 Tablespoons, put them in the pan and instead of it thickening, it starts bubbling. Baking Powder. Ugh. It tasted awful. I had to throw the whole pan in the garbage. That hurt. I hate wasting food. Jason was happy though. He got to run to Del Taco for Tuesday Taco night, and he loves it. (I don't get it, crappy Mexican food, huh?)
So that was the memorable event. Just to think about it bugs me because I wasted all that food.
So, what are some of your more memorable cooking blunders?
PS And Seth, you better post!
10 comments:
Oh man, I am a walking blunder. I manage to mess up what I'm cooking on a fairly regular basis. I think my most recent was cookies. But unfortunately you and I seem to have similar memory issues. Ask Jim, he'd know. :)
One of my worst mistakes was using dried beans to make chili the first time we had friends over for dinner as newlyweds. I cooked them forever but they were still rock hard when our friends came over. Instead of ordering pizza like a sensible person I picked out all the dried beans (which took Forever) and replaced them with canned. At least the cornbread turned out.
Rachel-You had better post about the maui smoothie.
Megan is right- one of my most infamous cooking disasters occurred when my mother was on bedrest pregnant with my sister. I was 10 and had just taken some cooking lessons from neighbors. Wanting to help out at home I decided to test out a recipe from our classes called a Maui Smoothie. I put everything in the blender and of course did not fasten the lid on enough. With excitement I turned the blender on and BAM there was maui smoothie in every crevice and crack of our kitchen. It was a disaster and I am sure I felt quite devastated about my lovely surprise being ruined. I believe my dad was out of town and my mother couldn't clean it up. Luckily, our neighbor Janet came over and cleaned everything for us. The Maui Smoothie incident (as it came to be known) was the first of my many kitchen disasters!
I commit a cooking blunder at least once a week... yeah, still figuring out this whole domesticated thing:) Just last night I tried improvising (always a dangerous choice for me) and tried to make a cheesy mushroom sauce to go with the angel hair pasta. Lets just say it tasted better than it looked... resembling something like a gray mass that may have come out of someone's nose...
Colleen--you got to give me more details!
Megan--I can't believe you went through so much effort to make it right!
Rachel--That's awesome. I can totally picture it.
Sara--At least it tasted good, right. Could you get your kids to eat it? That's the question.
unfortunately, i cannot relate. i hate to brag, but must be honest. i ALWAYS make EVERYTHING perfectly. there you have it. the truth is out. i cannot deny it.
since all of my cooking endeavors (fudge) have been an utter success (fudge) to date, i can't think of anything (fudge) to comment about (fudge). sorry.
unless of course you count the time that ... no, never mind, i guess that doesn't fit
I'm going to have to think on this so I can get the very best one. but honestly there are lots because I don't cook. I actually despise cooking! but i'll come up with one, I know I forgot baking soda in cookies once and put way too mcuh pumpkin in pumpkin cookies once.
I was making curry once and took the lid off the blender before it was done blending. That was a huge mess. I also have my infamous boiled egg disaster where I left a pot of eggs on the stove to boil and went over to a friend's house. When I got home my house was filled with egg smoke and exploded eggs. Have you ever had to wash everything in your house? Think about it because it's a lot.
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