Category: Grub Garage
Well? I went ahead and did it. This topic is for those of us who have ever burned, overcooked, undercooked, watered down, dropped, spilled and otherwise made culinary blunders.
Allow me to break the ice with the tale of my own.
Hi5 and the madeleines that never were.
By J.N. Will
This happened to me shortly after I'd moved out. I was about 23 or so and it was pass the time for the princess to spread her wings and bake for her damn self. One of my favorite sweet treats are madeleines. Buttery moist soft little cakes in the shape of a shell. An aunt brought a couple for my siblings and me a few years ago and I was hooked. Anyway I looked up an easy recipe. It called for cake mix, lemon zest, vanilla and a special pan in which the shell shape would form. Figuring that it wouldn't make a difference what shape they were in I bought a cupcake pan. Shopping done, I went home. As I preheated the oven to the correct temp (I asked a sighted one just to make doubly sure),) I combined all the ingredience and sloppily filled the cupcake pan with batter. slipped them babies in and waited.
"In fifteen minutes I'll be chowing down on some mouth watering, buttery tastes of heaven in my mouth!"
I imagined. That sweet fantacy came to a smoke alarm shreaking end after only four minutes. What the fuck burns in four minutes! Coughing I took it out, opened a window and after they cooled down tried one. Rubbery nasty as hell and the bottoms stuck to the pan. There was no dog at that time so I fed it to my garbage bag along with the pan and ever since then, I've stayed far, far away from desserts.
The end
Any experiences you would like to share? Did it happen then? Is it happening now? Let's laugh learn and help each other as we reflect. So! What's your kitchen disaster?
Oh, yeah, baby! I didn’t have very many, but the few that I did have were pretty noteworthy. Like this one. I can’t believe it, but it’s been about twenty years and I still remember it. At the time I was living in Manhattan, and I had a friend staying with me for a time so he could get back on his feet. I lived right around the corner from my job. My apartment was a small studio, and the kitchen had one of those ceramic floors where if you dropped anything made of glass, it just broke. Unless the glass had something like titanium mmixed in with it, of course.
Well, that morning I had mmade coffee and put it in the fridge because I like cold coffee. A lot of the time I’d take my lunch hour at home since I lived so close. On that same shelf with the coffee was a huge glass jar of Fox’s chocolate syrup we would use to make chocolate milk. I came home that day at lunch, reached in and grabbed my coffeepot. I noticed it seemed to be a little heavier than normal, and wondered why. At the time my roommate was at work. I was just bringing it over to the counter to pour myself some coffee when I heard a loud crash. That jar of chocolate syrup had somehow glued itself to the coffeepot, but it didn’t have the sense to stay glued until I had a chance to figure things out so there’d be no disasters. And worse, the jar was nearly full to the brim. So, the next thing I knew, I was dealing with a mess from hell. Not just chocolate syrup everywhere, but glass. I’ve never screamed so damned much and strung curse words like that in all mmy life. I’m pretty sure the immediate neighbors heard me going shit fuck motherfucker goddamned cocksucking sonuvabitching motherfucking whore, everything I could think I was screaming. I dunno how I managed it, but I got the mess cleaned up, and the kitchen mmust’ve looked okay because there were no complaints. I dunno how we didn’t manage to get bugs or whatever, either. Sitting here now remembering it, I can’t suppress the grin.
lol your chocolate story made me laugh!
Ah, yes.
My worst when I was a teen. I loved popcorn, and I liked it the old fashion way.
Skillet, grease, seeds, and top.
Shake it as it pops.
Okay, my mobility/cooking teacher suggested to learn when grease or butter was hot enough, or maybe I read or hard it some place, you drop a few drops of water in so you could hear it sizzle.
Yeah!
I let that grease get smoking hot, because that is how you cook popcoarn, but decided to add my new trick with a little water.
I'd not been doing this before, but news, new, right?
Talk about a fire! hahaha.
That water sizzled, and whent boom and the flames were jumping out of my skillet.
Had to snatch it and drop it all in the sink.
Never again. Lol
Couple years ago, knocking an oven mitt into the oven by accident and not finding out until the next day when I turned it on. A few minutes later, my eyes and nostrils were burning from this horrible fucking smoke. And it was below zero out there, so opening the sliding glass door to get the stench out really sucked.
Oh yeah I had a lot of kitchen disasters. One time I was baking cookies,
and I made a huge mess. When I pour things into measuring cups such as
sugar, flour, oil, etc. I get it all over. So I spilled brown sugar and vanilla
all over the floor and it was a big mess. The cookies too were very salty
and I didn't know why. Another time I was making hot dogs and I put a
paper plate right next to the stove, and the plate caught on fire. It wasn't
bad because I caught it right away before it did get worse. Another time I
was going to make mozzarella sticks in the toaster oven, and with ovens
and toasters, when there are crumbs at the bottom, it smells like
something is burning. Our toaster has a removable crumb pan at the
bottom that you take out to clean the crumbs out of it. So I turned on
the toaster oven and smelled something burning. I checked the crumb pan
and it was clean, so that wasn't it. I didn't think anything of it since that
happens with toasters a lot. My mom smelled it and said I should stop it. I
did, and I microwaved the mozzarella sticks. My brother used the toaster
oven and I told him it smells like something is burning when ever I use it.
He said it's because there is a shit load of crumbs on the bottom. But
when he used it the same day, it was okay. A few days later, I told my
mom we have to keep an eye on the toaster since that happens a lot. She
then told me what it was. There was a piece of toast stuck in the back
that was burning. She forgot to take it out, so the next person who used
it (which was me) didn't know it, so I shoved it to the back of the oven. I
know what you all are thinking, I should have checked the toaster before
using it, and now I do.
About 5 years ago I had baked chicken and left the glass pan out on the stove. My German shepherd dog waited until I was in the shower so I wouldn't hear him stealing chicken. I herd this huge CRASH and came out of the shower to find the kitchen floor covered in broken glass, chicken and grease. The dog seemed to know he was in trouble because he ran away from me. I never made the mistake of leaving food out again.
You poor things! I had no idea shepherds were so sneaky. My bf's golden lab doggie hung around the cook in the kitchen, constantly under foot. The second her back was turned, he snatched a whole turkey breast off the counter and ran away with it. Lol beautiful little bastard!
Spilling chocolate? I'd be ranting too! I have a disgusting and painful one to share.
I like corn beef in a can (yes in a can, judge me not!) All the brands I've seen are in those old squareish cans with a key. Basically you have to place the key, which has a small whole at the base onto the wire holding the two parts of the can closed. Its tricky turning the key all the way around and I've often had to resort to digging out the contents with a fork (Things we do for food!)
My rice was cooking and here I was trying to open me up some protein when the damn wire breaks right off and its too twisted up to atach the key again. I was almost there though, I could've forked it out like I always did. Yes and I should've done just that. But my ego got the best of me and I was gonna get the muh the fuckin' bitch open! With my bare hands, I grabbed both parts and ripped them apart.
Youch!
The very sharp edge of one side, made even sharper by the beef fat sliced into my finger and I was bleeding like crazy. I'm holding it over my pot of rice until it slows down. Then I washed it off and wrapped it up and ate my red rice and corned beef later. Twas pretty damn good too. Eat your heart out, bella cunt swan!
Please tell me that sweet, sneaky german shepherd didn't step on any glass splinters!
One of my labs, while home alone, somehow got hold of and licked clean the grease tray of the George Forman grill, one time. She never got sick, which was a small miracle! We just found the tray,looking a little mangled and chewed on one end. Hahaha
Great funny stories! What a good idea for discussion. I can't tell mine as colorfully, and it's been 20 years, but with very little kitchen experience, and in my first apartment, I was attempting to make fudge. I have never tried it since, and I have no idea what I did wrong, but the stuff set like sugary cement in the pot, and couldn't be soaked, carved or hacked out, so I had to just throw away an almost new pot that was a gift from my grandmother. I think that was more upsetting than the burn on my finger that left a scar I can still feel, to this day.
Mmm, Madeleines! I think you should try again. Maybe i will, with better results, I hope.
hmm, cool stories! Oh, I have a story.
so, mom and I decided to put some bread in the toaster oven. Mom went to
clean and told me to take out the bread. I did and burned my hand in the
process. Mom was like, "what happened to your hand?" so, then, it healed
and I feel fine but I never touched that toaster oven again.
The only kitchen disasters I've had were thankfully minor. Knocking a bowl off the counter with the microwave door, trying to bake an oven mit, burning fries.
I had set a pan of bread dough down on the oven door to rise in the heat and put the mitt under it because the door was hot and the bowl was plastic. I did my thing, let it rise again in a metal pan, but I forgot to get one of the mitts off the door. I closed her up, ready to let my delicious made from scratch jalapeno cheese bread bake. Five minutes later, I smelled this weird burning smell. I wandered into the kitchen, realized what it was, and immediately started swearing fit to take the paint off the walls. I was yelling at my boyfriend to open a fucking window, fuck shit fuck. as I grabbed another mitt and started fishing around in the oven to find the other one. I did find the mitt and the bread was saved and still amazing. The mitt was dead, though. Melted together inside.
The fries incident was in my college apartment. By God, I was going to get crispy fucking French fries from frozen for a change. I cranked the oven to 450, and left the fries in too long, I guess. Apparently you should take things like that out of the oven *before* the smoke alarm starts going off.
Aww violet I died a little reading your story. I hate having to toss cookware, especially good pots. Kiss your booboo for me lol.
For real I have a sizzling hot oil story that will make even you hiss in pain lol. I guess you just got a popcorn maker after that?
I'm sooo glad to know I'm not the only one whose destroyed oven mitts. Maybe you guys can help me figure out what happened to mine. I'd just taken something out of the oven to cool. A little while afterwards while I was in my room I smelled something burning. Now I'm pretty sure I turned off everything but went and checked again. Oven off, and no longer hot so I checked to see if something dropped inside. Nothing. My womans' intuitian, or was it my nose, lead me to open the drawer where I'd put my oven mitt. I held a hand above it and I felt heat. Without hesitation I threw water on it. It didn't have a hole in or, or burned on one side. No my dears the whole damn thing was burned to a crumbling waste. That drawer smelled like a fireplace till the day I move out.
What happened? Anyone?
Keep'em coming! You know you've had'em. I know you've had'em. Even Julia Child weaped through many onions before she was the fastest onion slicer in her class.
Ah I've had a few but the worst was when I burnt my oven mit and filled my house with smoke.
Several years ago now, I had accidently turned the hot plate on instead of the oven to heat up (the switches are side by side) and put my mit on the hot plate thinking I'd just leave it there til I need to use it.
Well, I smelt it before I knew what was going on. I quickly picked it up, put it under the running tap then took it outside and put it in the bin since it was wrecked. But little did I know, it was still sorta burning a bit and i started a few embers in my bin. we hosed it out but not before I had to get out of the house because the smoke was making it hard to breathe. The smoke detector did not go off for some reason; I'll never know why.
Anyway note to self: Never leave oven mits on the hot plates just in case. :)
wow, I hadn't read the comments before I wrote the prev comment; didn't know I wasn't the only one out there who tried to bake an oven mit. Lol
And wow, nothing worse than food mixed with gladd splatting everywhere!
Once my brother was cooking pizza in the toaster oven. He went outside
and he wasn't paying attention to the pizza, so the pizza burned and
caught on fire. Another time, my brother was making hard boiled eggs for
egg salad. He forgot about them and the eggs were boiling for a few
hours. I came home from school and they were on the stove. He was up
in his room. I was just about to sit down to start my math homework when
the pot lid came off and a fire started. I didn't tell him; I just went outside
and my mom came home and asked what I was doing. I told her a pot was
on fire, and she ran inside and shut off the flame and yelled at my brother.
He said he was very sorry. At that point all of the water had evaporated.
Another time my brother heard from somewhere that you could heat gloves
in the microwave to dry them fast. He did that, and it burned, and the
house smelled terrible. He put the glove outside.
Applepeaches, you didn't ask, but FYI, to hardboil eggs, add a touch of salt and/or vinegar to your pot of water. Bring water to boil for two minutes, and then turn off the burner. Don't lift the lid, and let the pot sit on the burner for 15 minutes, then run cold water over your eggs. They should be done to perfection.
You don't have to boil them for 15-20 mins. Apparently, they look more appealing when done this way, too. The salt/vinegar makes the shell come off more easily.
I've got a couple of stupid ones. ApplePeaches, for future reference, next time you or your brother starts a fire, tell someone right away. Don't just go outside. That's irresponsible as hell.
In no particular order:
Ramen, Just add water...right?
Wrong. I decided to cook it in the microwave. Put it in a bowl after crushing it a bit, shook the little packet of seasoning onto it, then fired it up. Took hours to get the smell of smoke out. In my defense, I was half-asleep at the time.
I used to have an egg-timer
It usually rested on the back of my stove, on a little ledge. Well, I must've knocked it off or something, and it was sitting on one of my stove's burners. For some reason, every time I use the oven, one or two of the actual stove-burners gets really, really hot. Well, it got hot enough that the little egg-timer partially melted itself to my stove-burner. I had to use a butterknife to pry it loose.
Not for the Squeamish
I got my most significant injury to date in the kitchen. It's a little like Hi5's story about the corned beef. Mine was a simple can of cat food, which I was opening while I had eggs on the stove for boiling. I got the lid half off, then decided that it would be a really excellent idea, since my can opener was being a pain in the ass, to just dig my fingers in there and yank it off. It felt wiggly enough. Well, it came all right. And bit into the back of my left thumb, severing the extensor tendon. I bled everywhere. At first, the people in the urgent-care clinic I went to told me that it would feel fine in a couple of days, that the weakness I was feeling was because of the depth and size of the cut. When I came back a couple of days later, they opened it up a little, did a small test on my thumb strength, and realized I'd cut the tendon, which is what I'd been telling them I was afraid of all along. The extensor tendon is the one which helps you straighten your thumb, by the way; if it's cut and your thumb is pushed down by someone, you won't be able to muster much strength to straighten it. Long story short: I spent four weeks in an arm cast because they have to keep both the wrist and thumb immobile while the tendon heals. That thumb still gets tired a little faster than the other one, and it hurts like hell if I press the back of it...but I've gained a very very healthy respect for cans now.
I could probably dredge up more if I thought hard enough. Heaven knows I've screwed up a few things in my time. But nothing's coming to me just at the moment.
Ouch! To the can stories. Well mine aren't anything significant, but when I attempted to cook eggs, somehow a plastic plate was wedged in the skillet, and as I was heating the skillet up, all I heard was a pop noise, and I knew it wasn't right because I hadn't put butter in yet. Anyways, nothing like the smell of it though. Urg.
I wasn't around to witness this, but someone at the blind school decided they were gonna fry up some bacon late one night, and put a whole stick of butter in the pan. You figure out the rest.
So I'm guessing that the butter evaporated?
Oh I heard that you have to boil eggs for 20 minutes; I should try those
tricks. And for the record, with the fire my mom talked to me about that.
The incident with the glove, it was late at night and my mom wasn't home.
So when I was in Colorado, my roommate Tamilah wanted to heat up some
leftover hot wings we got from a takeout place. Instead of microwaving
them or putting them on a cookie sheet and putting them in the oven, she
decided to put a glass plate on the stove. I heard a loud ping sound and
at first thought a fork fell or something. She broke the plate. She let me
feel it, and the plate was broken into thirds. My counselor wasn't there
when this happened, but she saw the broken plate in the garbage and
asked us about it.
Another time I was making instant mashed potatoes and I didn't measure
the salt in my hand or with a measuring spoon. I just poured it in. I poured
in too much salt and it was soooo salty that we couldn't eat it.
Another time I was making pork chops. I put too much seasoning on them,
so they were really spicy.
When I was in Colorado, I went to put the dishwasher on. Now it was my
first time in 15 years that I put a dishwasher on by myself, so I didn't know
there is different soap strictly for the dishwasher. So I had the dishwasher
on, and there was bubbles all over the floor. My counselor felt it and was
like oh boy! I had to turn off the dishwasher, clean up the mess, and put
in the right stuff. So I put in the dish soap for washing dishes by hand
instead of the dishwasher detergent. So I put the right stuff in and turned
it back on. This story still cracks me up to this day!
Another one was when I made a whole tray of ANZAC biscuits and I was so proud as I was new at baking at the time. Went to put them in the oven but I tilted the tray so they all fell into the bottom of the oven. I cursed and cried because I ruined a good thing.
Had to wait for oven to cool before I thought i got all the half burnt cookies out of the oven.
However, the next time I heated the oven, I could smell burning so put up with it til it was cool again and dug around for more burnt cookies. Again, thought I got them all up but ..
Well, let's just say next time oven had to be heated, not only did it smell worse, but upon opening the oven, this time I thought I saw (I have light perception), I was sure i saw a flame in the bottom of the oven and was sure I heard crackling at the same time. So, I didn't know what to do. I tipped water over it and left it. It died down and I cleaned the burnt crumbs out. End of story.
Oh that reminds me of another time about thirteen years ago upon feeling very proud after I baked a cake for the first time. I took it out, put it on the cake cooler but then, through my excitement, I knocked cake clear off the cooler on to the floor. It disintergrated into little crumbs which was a guide dogs heaven. :)
No, ApplePeaches. If you put that much butter in a skillet with bacon - and bacon is greasy, let's remember, so you definitely don't need to cook bacon with butter - it probably started a grease fire.
If you've ever cooked anything with butter or margarine or a fair bit of fat in it oon a stovetop, you'll hear it sizzle and snap and generally sound very angry. Yeah...well multiply that by a dozen times or so. Little bits of molten butter probably would've splattered everywhere. Ugh, I can't even imagine the stench.
This happened to me a couple of years back. Ruined about half a pot of pasta, too.
I set a pot of macaroni to boiling, then set about washing a few dishes. Sink had plenty of water in it.
Anyway, when it came time to finish with the pasta, and put it through a colander to drain it, I pulled the plug, heard the gurgle of water and turned aside to get my pot. The plan was to bring the pot over, set it down, wait for the water to drain out of the sink, give the sink a quick rinse to make sure it was free of bubbles, put my collander in the sink on its little feet, then dump the pot's contents into the colander to drain. Easy, right?
Nope. I was tired (seeing a pattern here?). And for god knows what reason, I just plunked the colander into the sink without checking if the sink was empty yet, then immediately picked up my pot and dumped it into the colander. Needless to say, I was having a drain issue; the sink hadn't emptied yet. My colander had soap-suds in it, and was sorta bobbing about in the water as it tried to go down the drain. Colander tipped sideways, pot's contents mostly spilled into a sinkful of dishwater.
I must've had at least a little sense because I snapped my wrist up. I saved about half the pot.
And someone told me later I probably could've let the sink drain, then collected the pasta from the sink into a bowl or something, rinsed it really really well and still eaten it. But I didn't really want to find out if my pasta would taste like Sunlight.
Note to self: don't cook when you're tired. You make silly mistakes.
The stench, the shrilling fire alarm, and all the semi-naked kids running outside in the middle of the night.
All greases are not created equal too. Bacon grease and butter both have a lot of soluble content which is particularly unpleasant when burnt.
Olive oil, the extra-virgin, will be the most pure for heating and can heat unmolested up to over 500 degrees. But bacon grease and either butter or margarine or any of these new fancy pants health spreads will absolutely smoke the place up and yeah, nasty stench. That's the impurities suspended in the oils not the oils themselves.
Yeah I make grilled cheese and sometimes I put some butter in the pan,
but I don't put in the whole stick; I put a tablespoon in so that's ok and I
make the sandwich before turning on the burner. So all I have to do is put
the butter in, move it around until it's melted, and then put in the
sandwich. So I know this is lame, but one time my mom made oatmeal
cookies, she put them in a tin, I took the lid off to take one, I forgot the lid
was off, so I knocked the tin over and there were cookies all over the
floor. So I had to pick them up, and our dog probably had some too.
Another time I was helping my mom make oatmeal cookies. I was a kid,
and I told her I wanted to hold the box of baking soda. I tipped it over,
not knowing it was open, and baking soda was all over the floor and the
counter. Another time I was making oatmeal cookies and I wasn't
separating them so my mom said that if we don't separate them, we'll just
have one cookie.
You could probably get away with even less butter than a tablespoon for grilled cheese, honestly. My own experience talking here. Even a teaspoon would probably be enough, unless you're making a lot at once or have a really huge pan.
Just put butter on either side of the sandwich instead of in the pan so you don't use too much.
I recall a time when I was making some kind of stir fry or something in Minnesota on the gas stove, and I had to use peanut oil for it. (You can guess where this is going, right?)
Well, anyway, I had put the correct amount of peanut oil in the wok and I was waiting for it to heat up. Can't remember what was being done in the meantime, but at some point, I knocked over the bottle of peanut oil, and the thing wasn't closed ...
My teacher walked over and asked, "Do I want to know what happened here?" she had to move quickly to clean up the spill so the oil wouldn't run in the crack between the counter and stove. As I understand it, that's a bitch to clean up thoroughly. BTW, need suggestions on the best way to clean up an oil spill like that if it happens again. Thanks. Generally, after that incident, I am much, much more attentive regarding putting caps back on bottles and tubs and putting the things away when I'm done with them to minimize clutter, but hey, accidents happen.
I burned a bag of popcorn in the microwave once, too. Damn is that stench hard to get rid of!
Love reading these things, keep them coming. smiles.
News paper, or paper towels.
News paper is cheaper, and larger sheets.
Keep one around someplace.
You just soak up oil or grease and toss it in the trash.
Use it sheet by sheet, or a couple sheets at a time as needed.
Not near hot burners, or course. Smile.
Awesome idea Wayne.
Ugh, spilling oil is a pain! So is breaking a glass lid to a pot.. Talk about shattered glass everywhere on a tile floor! I just stood there and stared for a moment with a look like, "oh, crap..what...to...do? OMGOSH!!!!!!!!" Yep! Huuuge freaken mess!!!
If you slightly dampen paper towels it helps to get the little glass pieces up. No bare feet!
Just had another kitchen mishap while baking Christmas cookies.
So I've been craving peanutbutter cookies! My friend sent me a recipie that she said was her aunt's and is really good. I followed it to the letter...and they came out like peanutbutter sand! There was no egg in the batter! I thought that was odd..but my friend said her aunt didn't mention putting an egg in..so all the hard work..was for naught! We still ate the sand cookies as they were called..but only the close family..no poor unsuspecting stranger got the sand cookies. Lol! We had such a laugh!!
To top it off, my friend texted me later and said that her aunt forgot to tell her to ad an egg..haha!!
A great emergency tool for a blind person is a wet dry vacuum. You can suck up glass, water, flour, anything at all with it.
Not oil though.
If I had oil and glass mixed, I'd carefully soak it up with the paper being careful not to cut myself.
With the wet dry vacuum if you tear the paper in to pieces you can drop them in the spill, then suck the whole mess up until the glass is gone.
Finish the job with more paper, then wash.
How do I know this? Don't ask!Lol
Yeah, I just use a tablespoon of butter and I put the sandwich in right
away so the butter doesn't burn. I have another kitchen accident I had
last month. I was making Kraft mac and cheese from a box. When I boil
noodles, I usually put a little bit of vegetable oil in the pot so the noodles
don't stick to the bottom of the pot. I usually measure it out so I don't
end up putting in half the bottle. On this particular day, I didn't do that; I
figured I'd just pour some in being careful to only put in a little bit. Well, I
put the noodles in after pouring in the oil, and the next thing I heard was
sizzling and I was starting to smell burned oil. So as I was pouring oil into
the pot, I spilled some on the stove and it got under the burner. I shut off
the burner and put the pot of noodles on a different burner before I started
a grease fire. I know to always measure it out and make sure it's all going
in the pot.
You put oil in a thing to boil noodles? I would use butter? Just a spoon full me thinks.
Yeah I've heard to put oil. I'm not sure if butter would work.
Let’s see, I’ve got a couple, one of my own, and one of an ex of mine.
So here’s mine. A group of friends was over at my house, and I was grilling burgers on the Foreman for everyone. One friend asked me to season his with onion flakes that he’d brought with him. It was a brand-new, full, big-ass plastic container of onion flakes. I seasoned the burger, and foolishly left the container of flakes sitting open on the counter while attending to something else. I turned back toward the plate where I’d seasoned the burger, and bumped the open container of flakes with my arm. Needless to say, it flew off the counter, and spilled every last flake all over my kitchen floor, including under the refrigerator, under the stove, and all kinds of other seemingly unreachable places. My kitchen smelled like onion for days as I worked to get it all cleaned up, and kept finding places I hadn’t realized flakes had gone. Bleh!
In a similar vein, a friend of mine did almost the same exact thing, only hers was with a brand-new huge plastic can of Foldgers coffee grounds. At least coffee would have been a better smell to have in the kitchen than onion, even if it was just as big a mess for her to clean up.
Now the disaster of my ex. I sometimes made him Ramen noodles, only I’d make them in a thing called a Micro-cooker, made by Pampered Chef. It was easy because it was a big plastic bowl you could put in the microwave, take it out, drain the noodles through the holes in the top without ever removing the lid, and eat them in the same container you’d cooked them in. One night this guy decides he’s going to make Ramen for himself after I’d gone to bed. Somehow he thought I cooked them on the stove. So he fills the plastic container with water, sits it on the burner, and turns the thing on. I awoke to the smoke alarms going crazy and the house filled with smoke that made it hard to breathe. He told me he’d been cooking Ramen. I couldn’t figure out how the hell he’d caused all that smoke with Ramen until he shoed me the micro-cooker, totally mangled and melted. I couldn’t decide if I was pissed because my Pampered Chef cooker had been ruined and those aren’t cheap, or to laugh at the stupidity of putting plastic on the stove.
Oh wow. I would hate that. I put a paper plate next to the stove and it
started to catch fire. I took it away and threw it in the garbage. I caught
it in time so it wasn't burning in the garbage. So one time my brother had
friends over and he was making a milkshake for him and his friends. He
made it, and he was taking the blender base off to pour it into a glass, and
the bottom piece fell off, and there was a huge mess. Something similar
happened to me. My mother had to drop my brother off somewhere and so
she made him a banana milkshake to take with him. They were in a hurry,
so he forgot to take it. I woke up a few hours after they left (they left
early), and I came downstairs and knocked it over. I tried to clean it up,
and I kept missing spots. My brother had to use the swiffer to clean it up.
My mother came home and she put her purse down on the table, in a
puddle of milkshake that I missed. It was a big mess.
Apple isn't wrong to use olive oil for noodles. Butter / margarine / whatever that
new fatless smart butter is, those are very full of impurities so burn at far lower
temperatures.
When I was in Spain they had olive oil in noodles and pretty much everything
else.
Yeah and when I went to a training center, that's what I was taught to do.
It is optional though.
Hmm, I've always put salt in boiling pasta. Maybe I'll try the oil trick.
I used to keep a plastic tray, like a cafeteria tray, in the kitchen to measure stuff over. That way, if I spilled, I only had to wash the tray and it kept the mess off the counter and the floor. One morning, my x-husband decided to be a sweety and cook me breakfast. He used my plastic tray as a cookie sheet and put it in the oven to cook the biscuits. He had no sense of smell so he didn't smell the plastic burning and melting all over the oven. I still only have one oven rack. Grrr.
Regarding broken dishes, ca I just say that Corning ware is the absolute worst when it comes to shattering? Good Lord! You drop one of those on the tyle and it goes off like a bomb! JS.
You all are dangerous. I'll put a bib on you and put you in a high chair. }laughing{
Ah ok, interesting. I learned something here because I was only taught butter.
lol Alicia. Your stories had to be the best so far.
DG, thanks for the idea of a plastic tray to pour over, as well as the amusing story of your ex putting it in the oven. Sucks for your oven rack though! What's with destructive exes? Jeez.
Yeah I do that too sometimes a friend of mine suggested that.
I have a story similar to this. So when we were living with my stepdad, we
had cleaning ladies. They moved stuff when they cleaned, but they put
stuff in weird places, dog treats in a desk drawer, stuff like that. So one
night after they left, my mom and I were making dinner. We planned to
have meatloaf. So I preheated the oven and let the oven preheat while
we assembled the meatloaf. All along when the oven was preheating, we
smelled something, and my stepsister was in the basement in her room and
she smelled it. So you all know how when you preheat an oven, you smell
it, like there is a smell from just the oven being on? Well we all thought
that was what it was. So we were ready to put the meatloaf in. My mom
opened the oven and said hold on something melted in here. So what
wound up happening was that my mom had a plastic cutting board that she
got from Ikea. The cleaning ladies put that in the oven while they were
cleaning. You don't put plastic in an oven. So we didn't think to check
the oven because who puts plastic in the oven? Lol. So my mom's cutting
board melted. So my stepfather had to scrape the melted plastic off of
the rack, so for months we had just one rack. Baking took forever. My
stepfather procrastinates, so it took him like 5 months to get it off. So
that night we just ordered pizza, and with the meatloaf we just made
burgers. My mom just formed the mixture into patties and fried them.
My oven doesn't smell when I preheat it at all.
I keep it clean.
Yes, I know, I'm fussy, but old cooking scents aren't my bag.
I even wipe the ovenafter it cools of spills, or make sure I use pans and such that don't drip.
My mom and older sister taught me this.
So, no, I guess everyone doesn't smell the oven when it preheats. Lol
Yeah, mine doesn't smell either. I love those silicon oven liners. JS.
What smells good is baking cookies. I'd bake cookies just for the scent if it wasn't wasteful. Lol
The use that scent to sell homes and such.
Wonderful. Makes you feel all cozy.
My oven doesn't smell when it pre-heats, either. That, and I have no idea how you can confuse the smell of a pre-heating oven even if there is one, with the horrible stench of plastic melting.
I love baking cookies, and when the aroma fills the entire house!
I have a toaster oven that has all different settings...pizza, cookies, frozen
snack, baket potato, bake, broil, toast, and bagel. So I was making cookies
and I thought I had them on the cookies setting. I was waiting for them to
finish, wondering why the hell they were taking so long. After about a half an
hour, the toaster went off, and the cookies were burnt to a crisp. I put them
on the pizza setting instead of the cookies setting.
My oven doesn't smell either, but depending on what I cooked in it you may
smell the smell of that food next time I preheat. There's a fan inside it that
blows out around the stove. So I've done a ham or a pork loin in there and later
on just heated up someone's dinner and they were mouthwatering for the smell
of the pork loin. Never had this happen before having this new fancy pants
digital oven with a fan. Never smells burnt, just some kind of food smells when
you go to cook in it. I never mind it but it's an interesting phenomenon.
Yeah definitely.
kitchen disaster I've had... so, I'm crazy for this! my sister and I were both
hungry and decided to get some cerial. My dad had bought some sunny D
which felt like a milk carton. I poured some of that into my cerial instead of
milk and, let's just say my twin just laughed at me for that! so, I smell the
carton before I even pour it in the cerial now! :p I'm not drinking juice cerial
anymore.
Oh gross! I did that once with coffee. OJ flavored coffee sucks, just in case anyone was wondering. lol
Ha! Actually, I had a orange flavored gourmet blend of coffee years ago and it was quite delicious, but that's a bit different than OJ as a creamer!
I've had my own mistaken container incident. a few years ago, I was making brownies. I keep my vegetable oil in the fridge to keep it cold so that it is easier to feel when measuring (ever notice room temp oil feels almost like nothing and therefore it is easy to overmeasure A.K.A. spill?) Well, I also had a bottle of cranberry juice in the fridge so I could have a healthy vehicle for vodka. Just so happens the plastic containers for the type of veg oil and the cranberry juice were very similar in shape. I was pouring the liquid into the dry ingredients bowl when it struck me that the oil shouldn't smell like cranberries. I shrugged, mixed the batter and baked. They had a mild cranberry flavor but otherwise turned out okay. I'm glad I didn't ditch the batter but I wouldn't try to reproduce that experiment.
cranberry brownies? hmm, that's a great accidental envention. :p
Cranberry brownies kind of sound good.
I keep oil in the refrigerator, too, for that reason, and vanilla. There's no way to feel that, at room temp.
That's actually a really good idea.
Great ideas! I will be putting my oil and vanilla in the fridge from now on.
Mmm, cranberry brownies!
LOL if anyone is tempted to try the cranberry brownies, you do need some oil. The cranbrownies lacked the chewy goodness of a normal brownie.
hmm, a little bit of oil, and little cranberry juice? sounds great! :d And, that
makes a great idea and easier for me to feel. At room temp, it's hard to be
honest.
I never thought of that. That's a great idea though. Yeah, some things were
invented by accident, and cranberry brownies is now one of them.
Once my brother put milk in his cereal and the milk was sour.
iww, my sister did that too... not fun. she was like, "it smells bad" I was like,
"it's probably bad, don't drink it!" too late. she had poured it in her ceral and
made me taste it! just the most disgusting thing ever! :p
another kitchen disaster was when I was trying to make kollaid. I had the
pitcher full and was trying to pour some in a cup for my nephew. spilled that
stuff all over the floor! mom yelled at me but I ended up cleaning it. :d
Cranberry brownies? Yum!
Aww spillages are the worst, and don't let anyone tell you that there's no use crying over spilled kool aid lol!
Now I am going to share the absolute worst kitchen disaster of my life. Buckle up and get ready.
This happened last year, and that's bad enough to admit. Anyway, I was making this dominican breakfast called mangu I've always loved. It's boiled plantains which are then buttered and mashed like potatoes. You can have it with eggs salami and a certain kind of fried cheese. Very tasty dish. So I'm heating up some coconut oil to fry up the cheese. My boyfriend says he doesn't like the smell of the oil but I ignore him since he has a tendency to be a negative nancy. TMI alert. I have to tell you that I was cooking in my birthday suit; its very important to the story. I walk upto that scorching hot pan of oil with the cheese and stupidly, stupidly drop it in!!! ow! ow! ow! ow! ah! Accept I only let out one loud ass scream and jumped into the tub and cranked up the ice cold water. In a second my boyfriend was there turning off the stove and getting the pan off the burner. By then the smoke detecter was shreaking louder than I was. The whole place smelled like burned fucking plastic. He opened the window and took my dog to his apartment down the hall. Coughing and crying my way through the stench into my bedroom, I put something on and had the brilliant idea to destink my apartment by giving my neighbors a whif. I opened my door wide, and set off the alarm in the hallway! I quickly shut the damn door. In minutes the head maintenance guy shows up. Mind you, he doesn't live here, and he's not even stationary here during work hours. Somebody must've called the emergency number and said, "Get over here before that crazy blind bitch burns down the whole building!" I was blistered up for days. I put shae butter on it and they just stayed there, hurting...leaking, not getting any better. Then my boyfriend, who doesn't believe in home remedies asked me about some black seed oil I'd bought a long time ago. I'd originally planned to drink it as a tea mixed with cinimon and honey because it's said to be good for practically everything. Ladies and gentlemen? The thing cleared those wounds right up. Every single one of them! Lol admittedly I probably should've taken my ass to a dermatologist, but I'm good now. I sware to you guys, that as long as I can help it, this kitchen disaster will never, ever, never, ever happen to me again!
Ouch! Oh! I'm hurting and I'm just reading the story.
Laughing.
Ouch!
Going through all of these kitchen disasters is scary! I will be 67 next week and have been cooking since I was around ten years old! I had those kind of parents--thank God--who believed that I should do everything all of my sighted sibs did, and that's how I learned. About the most thing I ever did was to burn a potholder or two and set off the smoke alarm a couple of times. The alarm usually happens when I am using gas--I hate the stuff! Give me an electric stove every time and I'll be happy, especially if it is a flat top!
I suggested using newspaper to clean up oil spills.
I should have added it works better if it is slightly wet.
If you dip it in water or soapy water, it cleans up the oil better.
Once you use the sheet, drop it in a plastic bag, then once you are finished all you need do it toss the bag and all it good again.
Paper towels work good too, but these cost. Newspaper is thrown away anyway, so maybe keep the Sunday addition handy.
I also put coffee grinds in a few sheets and toss in the trash too.
Thought I’d add that.
It will work dry, but slightly wet is the best.
I was making hot dogs yesterday and I was using tongs to take them out of
the pot (I boil them) instead of draining the water. So I took one out and it
fell on the stove and I couldn't find it. So I had to ask my brother to get it
because he was able to see where it was.
I like to use a two prong fork, or a regular long handled fork for this.
I can feel better, and once I’ve stuck it, can handle it easy.
The reason for the two prong fork, is they’ll have a long handle, so you won’t put your hand in the boiling water.
Another trick, but a bit more trouble, is to lift the pot and pour it in to a calendrer in the sink.
I have a big stainless steel one, can’t miss.
Now the water goes down the drain, and you can manage your hot dogs, or this sort of thing really easy.
You can also get tongs with grips, but it you don’t squeeze well, you’ll still drop your food as you probably did.
Of course, what else are brothers for anyway.
Smile.
Yeah I use tongs so I can just grab the hot dogs. I've used a fork, but
sometimes you might only get the food on one prong and drop it. Or
sometimes it can be hard to stab it if it's floating in the boiling water. I have
used a collander to drain the hot dogs and then when they are cool enough
to handle, I eat them.
If you don't want to use a colander, say, you just don't want to wash that many dishes or happen not to have one:
It's very useful to learn how to drain food using the pot and its lid.
Draining off the water for hot dogs is actually a good way to learn this. And this isn't a blindness or "blindism" or what have you situation. I'm a parent who raised a sighted daughter and had my share of nieces scampering about. Everyone has to learn this if they 're going to.
Easiest to learn with a saucepan. I'd say do it first with cold vegetables. This is a good way to teach kids about relative density of materials -- ooh that "yucky science stuff" again ...
With something like carrots in a pan full of water, you want to take its lid and first place it on the pan. Carry it from the stove to the sink, then, you want to tip the pan's lid up and towards you so the opening will appear away from you, towards the sink. Then gently pour out the liquid little by little. Pour, then rock the pan back to an upright position, pour some more, and keep doing this until you are no longer pouring water. Of course, the more you pour out, the more steep your angle is going to have to become in order to pour out water. When you raise the pan back to an upright position, you're letting the heavier material sink to the bottom and the displaced water will be on top. Also, if you shake the pan just a bit when it starts to become empty, when it sitting upright, you'll spread the material inside. Again, displacing water, again, allowing it to pour out more easily.
Here's why as a cook I actually like using the pot lid method: Using a colander, you're immediately cooling whatever it is you're cooking because it's poured into a new cooler container, and air flow can circulate all the way around it. If that is what you want to achieve, that's great. But if you're draining pasta and want to add butter, olive oil, cheese or some other suspension, you want the pasta to remain as hot as you can get it. Same with adding butter and milk to potatos before mashing them.
I understand a lot of people, sighted or blind, find the pot lid method to be more difficult. I actually don't: I get to maintain the high temperature of the food items this way. I use a colander for some things, sure. But that's because I deliberately want to both drain and cool the food items down.
I haven't really had any kitchen disasters either. I've had them when working
with other people, like when my roommate decided to put the oil into a hot pan
instead of oiling the pan before heating it, and started a fire. Other than that
though, nothing more than a few burned things and stuff like that.
As for the pasta thing, you should use both salt and oil, but not to keep the
pasta from sticking together. Oil won't do that. What it iwll do is prevent the
little bits of starch washed off the noodles fro forming a film on top of the water,
and boiling over. It doesn't really matter what kind of oil you use for this, butter,
olive, coconut, peanut, anything. Your water isn't going to get above 212
degrees, so you don't have to worry about burning it.
Slight correction also, Leo, the smoke point, that is the point at which oil
begins to burn, is in the mid 300s for olive oil, its why you should avoid olive oil
for frying. It simply can't get hot enough before it smokes. Try peanut, or
conola, or saflower oil. Pretty much anything with the word seed in it will do, or
at least most of them. You can look up the smoke points for different oils online,
and I highly suggest doing this. I've actually stopped using olive oil for cooking
purposes entirely. I use it for a snack, but not for anything involving heat.
I agree about olive oil, but peanut tends to pop when hot too, so kind of messy.
I use it because I like the taste but it can get messyand burn you if you're not careful when it pops.
Veggie oil seems to be the easiest.
I like the lid method too, but as you pointed out, things stay hot.
With hot dogs or whatever, I figured she didn't need it hot.
Plus if she opens that lid to much, she'll burn herself, or por her dogs down the drain.
Last, most likely, she'd not be using a lid to make hot dogs.
You can also get a locking lid pot. So then you wouldn't have to do the pot
lid method. It's pretty much the same thing though. The lid locks onto the
pot, and there are holes in the lid. So all you do is put the lid on, make sure
it's locked, and tip the pot upside down.
Oh I have another one. So I like to make toast with cheese on it and put it
in the toaster oven. It's basically a half of grilled cheese sandwich. So one
time I did that for a snack, and I had a hard time getting it out of the toaster
oven as it was very hot. I tried to grab it, and I got a third degree burn on
my hand.
Most dish sets or pot and pan sets don't have locking tops.
No these are special you can order them off of Mexiaids
I have seen them, but I don't require them.
Give me a fire, a couple sticks, and a sharp nife, and I'm good.
Laughing.
Lol
Is Mexiaids in the US and Canada as well as Mexico?
It's MaxiAids catching up on outsourcing like every other company in America.
And lol to the pocket knife, sticks and a fire. I've several blades myself, from machete to penknife, and they all remain sharp for a reason. Redblooded American and all that jazz.
Bahahaha!
this is my first time posting on one of these message boards. and I may have a few kitchen disasters. I don't use a stove but for some of the foods that I make I use the microwave or a rice maker. I opened a box of mack and cheese and put it to boil in the rice maker. I forgot about it and when I checked back in about 2 hours , all the macaroni was stuck to the pot. I had a hard time getting it out. I had to leave the pan to soack in the sink and then scrub until it was clean. and the next time I made it it turned out perfect. I made burnt popcorn lots of times in the microwave.
Keep posting. Smile.
I've found the trick with microwave popcorn is to stay by it and wait until it's finished popping. Then be quick about getting it out because anytime after the popping stops is when you run the risk of burning it. Ugh burned popcorn ... yuck. I just got an air popper for making popcorn, so as soon as I can get some kernels, we'll see how that thing works. Never used one before, so this could be interesting.
They are pretty slick.
The corns a bit dry, so I add butter, but it is a easy way to do it.
I was making a milk shake once, and went to get the milk to add to the icecream. well, the buttermilk and the milk jugs felt the same, and I had a cold so my nose was stopped up. well... let's just say, a buttermilk milk shakes are not good! My uncle got the buttermilk mixed up with milk once and put it in his coffee. and he could see! lol!
I ended up putting juice in my nesquick drink. Meaning I took out what I thought was a jug of cold water and poured some in a cup when i scooped some quick in and tasted it it went right out the window. lol. I figured it was lemon juice.
to reyami, please let us know how the air popper works when ever you make popcorn. And my favourite popcorn is kettle corn
mine too! lol, burned popcorn? not the first time I did that. :p I once put a
chicken pop pie on the microwave. I left it for 3 minutes and when I took it
out, it wasn't done! I thought it was so I ate some and well, had to warm it
up for 2 minutes more. oops. :p someone should've read the box sign. :d
I pay attention to my microwave pop-corn now. so when its coming down to the end I take it out. and a similar thing happened to me when I was heating up some hash browns I put it for 3 minutes and it was still kind of cold and then I put it for 3 more minutes and it was real crunchy like kind of over cooked but I put ketchup and pepper and it tasted really good
Sort of like microwave popcorn, try Bacon Curls from Amazon. They're pork rinds in a microwave bag like microwave popcorn, they come out really good.
bacon curls? well, may have to try that! :)
about the bacon curls, do you eat it just like that or with bread or something?
Holy crap on a cracker!
Last night I dang near sliced off my finger tip. I was using a mandolin to slice veggies and wasn't paying close enough attention to what I was doing. I new the second it happened, it was going to be a hospital trip. Sure enough, I've now got 3 stitches in the end of my right ring finger. It even cut through the nale.
My kitchen looked like I slaughtered someone. lol
oh my god. I hope you feel better soon domestic goddess. Its not nice to get cuts like that. I get paper cuts sometimes even when I use a knife.
Sorry about that DG.
As to bacon curls, I ate 'em like popcorn.
Shite, ouch. Hope your finger heals quickly. that must make typing quite the chore. hugs.
Someone mentioned something about using butter on the air-popped popcorn. I'll have to try that. still need to get the kernels.
Not sure if the same kernals work for the air popper. I think they come in a bottle
Ouch!
The blades bite, but you know this now.
Not a huge fan of the air poppers. We got one for Christmas a couple years ago. The kernals do come in a plastic jar thing. My problem is that it spits out so many unpopped kernals, and that pisses me off. So here I am, transferring the popped ones to a new bowl and tossing the unpopped ones back into the popper for another try. Also, it spits popcorn everywhere. My dog thinks it's a great toy. Back when I used to use the thing, I'd carefully drape a towl over the top and over the bowl. That could be a potential disaster of its own I guess, but I'm careful to make sure the towel isn't sitting on anything hot, and I'm right there to monitor any strange burning smells. Microwave popcorn is so much easier. I also just grab it out when it stops popping. I give it two mississippis and then get it out.
Ah, but all hot air poppers aren't created equal.
Lol
for the unpopped corn you could put it in a bag and I don't recommend stapling the bag but some people do and finish it off in the microwave. And here's another disaster that happened to me once. I put too much of oats in a bowl with water and put it in the microwave and the end result was that the microwave and bowl was a mess. lol
The oats swearl. The more you wish to make, the larger bowl you should use.
I noticed that. lol
I've never seen the reason for spending money, sometimes quite a bit of
money, on a popcorn popper. They're big, clunky, and the only thing they can do
is pop popcorn. You can pop popcorn on everything from a cast iron skillet in
your fireplace, to your microwave, to your oven. Heck when I was a kid we'd roll
corn on the cob in tin foil and stick it next to the campfire while we were fishing.
They'd just pop from the heat and we'd have a tasty treat when we took a
break. Why would I want to spend money on a machine that can only do what I
can do with a sheet of tin foil and some heat?
Me, I still likes that skillet corn.
It taste the best, but it takes a bit of doing.
Light oil, add butter after, nice big stainless steel bowl, and some salt, and your movie is better.
I cook with a rice cooker as well. Here is a kitchen disaster. I use an electric tea kettle for making tea and coffee, I make both using a french press.
Well anyways, I was boiling the water when I went to turn it off. I must have mis calculated where the stupid switch was, and burned my hand. That was not fun. My Dad had to run to the store to get me a bottle of Aloe Vera. Tip that helps me is putting the .Aloe Vera in the fridge.
So, I always keep the steam vent of the tea kettle facing away from me, and the handle facing towards me.
Also, I don't use oil or butter to make my pasta, I hate the taste. What I do is as soon as the pasta is in, I give it a good stir, and I also stir it on occasion to keep it from sticking.
I was thinking about getting an air popper too. Let us know.
I have over boild eggs before and they smell aweful.
My first and scariest cooking mishap was making noodles.
I put to pot on the stove and then added the noodles. A few moments later I smelt smoke and the fire alarm went off. Usually in my families house this ment dinner was ready but not this time.
Turning off the stove, I called my aunt at work and gathered up our dogs.
We were going camping that weekend so I tossed our dogs in the camper that sat in frunt of the house.
We Lived in a trailer and that thing could have been gone.
Two of my aunts showed up and figured out I had forgotten the water.
Boy that was scarry.
I was about 10.
I also dumped a huge pot of boiling water on my rist when trying to make a pot of sweet tea, still have the scar.
Over used salt once.
I was doing the dishes and was about to wash a bowl used for cake batter and squeeze soap in it. Swiped my fingers rightthrew it, thought for a second that there was a bit more batter than I remembered and stuck my fingers in my mouth.
Woops!
I made a person a cake for their birthday and the dumb thing would not pop out of the cake pan and fell to pieces. I ran it down the garbidge disposal and prayed they did not know I tried to make them a cake when they got home. I ran out to the store and picked up some cup cakes. lol
I had a small kitchen and would have to use my oven to store stuff. I learned that taking the nob off the oven would keep me from burning everything.
I had a roommate who put bacon on the stove then fell asleep, smelts like over boild eggs.
Another roommate started a fire some how and tried to toss flower on it. You use baking soda not flower I believe. Well the flower made the flames grow.
Do not mix protein powder in your morning coffee, it turnsin to a scramble egg texture.
First time making frinch toast, I use way to much cimamon. Yep less is totally more better.
I have a fear of beans now. It does nto help I am a vegetarian and eat them pretty often.
I made pinto beans, like beans and corn bread beans...
Well, I made them in my slow cooker and did them wrong. If you do not cook them on a high enough temp and long enough, they will make you sick.
I threw up every 15 minutes for 11 hours.
It was so bad
Cooked one of those frozen meals, meet loaf I think, it had a pop up themonitor in it.
It came out half melted. Not sure why, and never got sick. I was hungry, had no money and no food. Took my chances.
I do not use my microwave often but please tell me why half the time I use it, my soup, oats and other liquid like things explodes all over in there. Lid with air wholes or not, it is a mess. what to do?
I have had so many kitchen disasters in the summer program. One time, I was measuring mashed potatoes from this box mix and salt. Well... I was like half tired so was hardly paying attention. Suddenly, all I tasted was oversalted mashed potatoes! hahaha, luckily, we made a second batch and mixed the stuff. It came out good but I felt a little bad about the oversalted potatoes. :p
Everyone was like, wow they came out good! :p
Catgirl, to make hard-boiled eggs more easily, let them boil for two minutes, then turn off the burner. Don't lift the lid, just let the saucepan sit on the burner for 15 mins, which willl continue to cook your eggs, and then run cold water over them. There you go, perfect boiled eggs!
I had to learn that about hard-boiled eggs, myself. The first time I tried to make them, I got the water boiling, waited about three minutes, took the eggs off the water, drained them, and cooled them off. Needless to say, they, uh, weren't hard-boiled eggs yet. They were cooked, but just barely. Not very pleasant. Won't be making that mistake again when trying to make hard-boiled eggs.
I wouldn't exactly call this a disaster, but it's still a bit of a screw-up.
About eight months ago, I tried to make pasta. I had the pot of water on the stove, sitting on a burner, and it was heating really, really slowly. Well, eventually it was fairly hot and I dumped in the pasta. I figured to myself, "Okay, at this rate it's going to take for freaking ever to boil, but eventually it will". So I went off to read a book or something. I was near enough that I could hear the water start to boil, but frankly I wasn't paying near as much attention as I should have. I got up like twenty minutes or half an hour later, only to find that the water still hadn't actually boiled (I think I had turned my oven knob the wrong way or something, I'm still not sure what the issue was), and the pasta was soggy and useless. A complete waste.
I'm normally competent enough when it comes to the kitchen...not a professional or anything, not even close, but when I set out to cook something, it usually gets done well enough, anyway. But every so often I do something (or in this case, fail to do something) so simple that I bet people really do doubt my capabilities while cooking.
Oh oh, one other one now that I think about it.
A couple of years ago, my girlfriend and I were going to make a version of Chex mix that my dad makes. We learned that you can make it in a crockpot, so that's what I tried to do. It failed. Spectacularly. It came out tasting way too salty, for one thing, and it smelled burnt even though it wasn't totally so. I want to try it again, but I'm wary of exactly what I did wrong. There's an alternate way to make the stuff (just use one of those oval roasting pans in an oven) and if I had a roasting pan, I think I'd just do it that way. it's how my dad does it, and it works every time for him.
When you put things in the micro, crack the tops on them, but leave the tops on.
Do that, and your stuff heats, but doesn't splatter.
You can also put them in larger bowls, but still put a top on with some air.
Speaking of boiled eggs. I had a friend who, in his center days, totally messed those up. He got the water boiling first, then got the eggs out of the fridge, and just plopped them in the boiling water. Needless to say, they pretty much exploded on contact.
Lol, that's hilarious!
Oh yeah, just remembered one. I was trying to make scrambled eggs for breakfast for the family. I was cutting the bacon since we're meaty people. I had the knife but wasn't really paying attention to which way it was facing. I forgot I had it facing towards me. As I reached for one of the yummy bacon, I accidently cut my hand. It wasn't a bad cut... more like a very tiny cut. I was like, Oh shit! :p Next time, pay attention to how and Tis why I hate using knives. :p and the stove. :p where the knife is facing. :p
As for the microwave , I do that. I crack the tops and leave the covers on and it still exploads. I have to pause it every half minute or so for it not to...
Makes multi tasking hard.
For bacon, don't use a knife at all. Use kitchen sheers, much faster, much
easier, and much more exact. Also much less clean up.
have to do these one at a time, first one when I was in Michigan I started cooking eggs,
and could not figure out why they were smelling smoky. I took the pot out and dumped it
in the bushes, but there was still a bad smell, and a neighbor came in when I called the
fire department and set a towel head caught on fire. Bad me for not checking the counter
next to the stove. It also caught the side of the microwave on fire. My ex still left me
about that to this day.
The other one I wanted to make some garlic bread for some friends that were over, and I
had just moved into my new apartment. Was excited to have a gas stove again. Had been
used to every oven I owned having a storage drawer at the bottom where the boiler is. So
I had brand-new pounds and they're still wrapped in cardboard with plastic lids. Little did I
know that the burner for the oven was Apple top of my broiler drawer you can imagine
what happens next.
Interesting on the exploding stuff. The container needs to have some room, or you just lay the top on and heat it bit by bit, but that takes care of that issue for me.
for the woman who cut her finger with a mandolin, you are exhibit a for why I won't ever use one of those. however, I also did a really dumb thing about a year and a half ago. july 29 2015 was a hot summer night. I mean really miserable. the next day we had to go to a picnic. so since I wasn't sleeping I decided to make my banana bread that I was taking. the recipe calls for two loaves. I took one to the activity and we were going to cut in to the other for some tasty hot breakfast. the knife I wanted would not come out of the draw because it was stuck on something. patience is not my forte. so I yanked on it really hard. another sharp implement cut my ring finger on the left hand right above the nail. blood everywhere. of course as he does in every emergency I've ever faced my husband said :why did you do that?" being a former girl scout leader I did all the stuff you're supposed to do. you know apply pressure, elevate the hand, and curse a lot. well the final one wasn't in the scout manual. being a big tough gal I decided not to go to the hospital. after all it was 3:00 a.m. and I wasn't going to pay for an e.r. visit because I'm super woman. when I finally got the spouting geizer down to a trickle my husband started bandaging. no adhesive tape was insight. so I had this finger wrapped in a huge gauze pad covered with penguin duct tape. what a sight I was to see.
to make a long story short, three days hence I had to go to the doc in a box because I had a raging infection. the upshot of that hoedown was a bunch of butterfly bandages because they couldn't stitch, and an expensive antibiotic. oh and the icing on the cake is I have an ugly scar on that finger. well at least when folks comment on it, I have good cocktail arty conversation.
Once when I was a child, must have been almost 17 years ago I wanted to bake and made a huge mess with flour and other things, my mother came back from shopping and asked why I haven't told her, she whould have helped me.
The other thing was I wanted to eat eggs so I made them but have forgotten about it later, so I wasn't able to open the pot anymore.
Another time I wanted to eat apple sauce, took the glass in my hands, but only the part where its closed. Somehow it fell out of my hand and fell into pieces, my sister had to clean it all up. I never helt something that way again
K, so post training now, and I kind of did some interesting things...
First of all, was trying to make gravy, well, I was trying to mix the oil and flower with a plastic spoon...
Secondly, was attempting to make stir fry. Well, the stand was still inside the wok, and I set the fire alarm off.
I am not as active on here anymore as I used to be so I got all caught up to the posts now.
As far as the popcorn, you can put kernels in a brown paper bag, fold the bag over, and then put the bag in the microwave. I would not recommend stapling the bag because the staple is metal. I agree as far as the burnt popcorn; it is hard to get rid of that smell. I learned that when the pops start to slow down, that's when to stop it. Even though microwaves have a popcorn button, you should still stop it when the popping slows down. Once my brother and I were making popcorn. I was the one making it, and I burned it. I handed him the bag which was a ball of black. The smell was so bad that we were choking. And we just went outside just to get away from the smoke. Even when your hands smell like burnt popcorn, you cannot get rid of that smell.
As far as things splattering in the microwave, I have that same issue. They make these microwave domes you can get. You just place it over whatever it is you are microwaving, and it has holes in the side of it. I am 99% sure Amazon has them.
I remember one time I was icing a cake for my birthday, the cake was coming apart and the icing went in the cake. I only waited about an hour after the cake came out of the oven, so I just decided to go ahead and put the icing on it. So I was using a spreader, and as I was spreading it, the cake was coming apart, so I just stopped before making a bigger mess, or ruining the cake, and my mom fixed it.
One time my mom's friend made a cake. She used the box cake mix. She didn't beat the eggs so there were scrambled eggs in the cake.
So this one is weird. You all know how we shed hair? Well sometimes it falls in places you don't want it to like food. So I was baking cookies, and I ate one and there was a piece of hair in it.
Ever drop silverware into the disposal without realizing it and then turned it on? Not cool.
I have dropped silverware in the garbage. I know that's not quite the same thing. We don't have a garbage disposal.