Your Worst Kitchen Disaster [Giveaway]
This giveaway is now closed.
UPDATE: Thank you guys so much for supporting me in this! I am so excited to announce that I won the Pampered Chef Blogger Blunder Kitchen Disaster contest – $3,5000 of Pampered Chef product and a gift card to Spa Finder. I couldn’t have done that without all of YOU.
Even though the giveaway is over now, feel free to leave a comment still if you’d like and don’t forget to read through some of the other disaster stories. There are some GREAT comments in here.
Congratulations to Jeneen for winning the Easy Brie-zy Pizza Set!
Disasters Happen Here Every Day
I say (jokingly, of course) that it’s a good thing that I was asked to share my worst “kitchen disasters” because we all know that I’m too good (I’m totally not) to have a “cooking disaster.”
Eric looks up and says “cooking disasters happen in here every day!” I am baffled, at a loss for words. WHAT? But he quickly recovers saying that by cooking disasters he means big messes.
And he is definitely right about that one, only I don’t view those as true “disasters,” just my genius creativity at work. But I will admit that I’ve never been a very tidy cook and have always felt that the only thing I hated about cooking is the cleaning up part.
My Worst Kitchen Disaster
I’m home from vacation with one day to unload the car, unpack, do laundry, settle the kids and pack myself up again before I leave for another trip, this time work related.
I come downstairs from laundry, quickly rushing to the kitchen. My mind is obviously somewhere else because I’m completely perplexed as to why the floor feels so…disgusting…and crunchy.
It takes a moment for the horrifying scene before my eyes registers with my brain. I realize that what I’m stepping on are tiny multi-colored sprinkles. And there aren’t just a few. There are a lot more than a few. A whole heckuva lot more.
Upon further inspection I find that not only has Madeline emptied several once full bottles of sprinkles onto the kitchen floor, but that she’s sitting on the counter rubbing her sweet little hands together like she’s putting on lotion…only she’s used an entire bottle of green food coloring for the job.
She must be pretty satisfied with herself because she stops rubbing those hands to flash a toothy, chubby cheek smile my way before continuing on her merry way.
The next task at hand — dumping curry powder into some concoction she’s got brewing nearby. Unfortunately, more curry makes it onto the counter than into her bowl. Which then ends up all over the seat of her pants.
At the time I’m feeling all sorts of things: annoyed, concerned, furious… that my 2 year old has figured out how to push a chair from the kitchen table over to the counter so she can get into the spice cabinet.
I’m so beside myself that I call Eric and tell him that I don’t care how tired he is, that there will be child locks on all the kitchen cabinets when I’m home from my trip.
I have too much to do still, and so I leave the mess as evidence but not before I take the chair and the bottle of curry powder away.
The only thing I can think to do is send Madeline out back in her diaper with the sprinklers on and popsicle in hand so she can wash off while I pout about my circumstances.
Payback Time
Only now months later do I realize that this is just payback for the occasion that I, as my 3 year old self, found it quite prudent to create my very first cake on the kitchen floor. Like mother, like daughter.
I think my parents must have known back then that the kitchen would be always be my most favorite room in the house, because after that disaster I certainly made many, many more.
I can only hope that Madeline will one day find the same joy in the kitchen that I do. And that maybe she’ll get a little payback of her own too.
P.S. We now have child locks on every single cabinet in the house, in or out of the reach of little hands.
P.P.S. Every word of this is the absolutely truth.
Now it’s your turn – SPILL IT – what is your worst kitchen disaster?
Were you the cause or someone else? Did it involve a recipe failure, a gigantic mess, or something else crazy? Was it a major holiday recipe disaster or more every day run of the mill disaster? DO TELL! I am so curious!
Even if you don’t have anything to share, I’d love your comment. Comments on this post count as votes on my entry in the contest.
Giveaway Prize (1 winner):
Easy Brie-zy Pizza Set (valued @ $115)
Giveaway Requirements:
- Leave a comment on this post telling me about your worst kitchen disaster.
- You may NOT enter using multiple email addresses. Automatic disqualification.
- Additional entries must leave a separate comment.
- Contest ends April 15, 2011 at 12:00 p.m. CT.
- Contest open to US States only.
- Winner will be chosen via random.org and will have 3 days to respond before disqualified and a new winner chosen.
Extra Entries:
Additional entries can be earned by doing any of the following, giving you a total of 3 entries. Leave a separate comment for each of your entries.
1. ReTweet the following message: Win a @pampered_chef Pizza Set (val. $115) and help @goodlifeeats win the Kitchen Disaster contest http://su.pr/1Kft6v #giveaway
2. Become a fan of GoodLife Eats on Facebook.
Contest Info
The Pampered Chef has asked me to share my very worst kitchen disaster with my readers in a little blogger contest. I own several Pampered Chef products and have always been happy with them so I agreed to participate. Plus, this is a good disaster story and something I’ve never shared here before.
I was not compensated for sharing my worst kitchen disaster in any way, but the winner — you need to comment on my post to help me win — winner gets $3,500 The Pampered Chef kitchen tool makeover and $125 towards SpaFinder.
To follow along with The Pampered Chef SPILL IT! Contest, “Like” their Facebook Page and share your worst story there, too (by Wednesday at noon CT) for a chance to enter this same contest.
Kathy Farnham says
Last Easter I was in the kitchen boiling eggs to dye for Easter. My then 2 year old came into the kitchen and promptly threw up from the smell of the eggs(she is sensative to smells). After taking care of that mess we started to color the eggs. My 3 year old was doing a great job using a wisk to hold the egg and dip it in the color. Once again disaster struck when Natalie (the 2 year old) got soo excited about the pretty eggs she jumped onto the (pedistal) table tipping it, the eggs, the dye and her all over on to the floor. Both girls just sat on the floor and cried, what a mess! I just hope this year goes better.
Emily S. says
I just clicked ‘like’ for Good Life Eats on Facebook
Ally (oatsandspice) says
I tweeted!
Ally (oatsandspice) says
I don’t know if this is considered a kitchen disaster, but one time (when I first started cooking around age 12) I put a cup of salt into a batch of cookies instead of a teaspoon – WHOOPS 🙂
Elyssia says
1. The first time I ever made sugar cookies, for my son’s 4th birthday party at school, I iced the cookies BEFORE I baked them. They wound up looking like pastel stained glass! They were edible, but I had to make a whole new batch for him to take to school the next day.
2. I was making matzo ball soup, using different matzo meal than I usually use, with a slightly different recipe. I altered the recipe on my own and they wound up like hard dough rocks! Horrible! I thought maybe if they sat for a while in the soup they’d get softer… No way, Jose. My 4 year old agreed: “They were awful, Mommy.”
Haley says
I had baked a Red Velvet Cake for friends. When I went upstairs to find candles to place on the Cake, my dog had jumped on the counter and devoured the whole thing! Everything she licked after that was pink from the Red Velvet dye!
Brooke says
I wanted a pie when I was about 13 and my mother wasn’t home but my dad was and he was busy.So I took it upon myself to make the pie (my mother doesn’t bake so it was frozen) I put it in the oven with no sheet pan or anything just the pie when I went to go pull it out of the oven the pie buckled and the hot blueberry filling went on my bare naked foot and I screamed in pain and my brother told me to get it off my feet I yelled and said I’m not going to burn my hands too.So he got a glass of water and poured it over my foot and got the filling off but of course it was to late 2nd degree burns had already left there mark.
Rachel says
I tried to make tres leches cake… didn’t work out too well at all… and I ended up throwing the whole thing away. Better luck next time haha 🙂
Cerys says
So many to choose from… the worst was probably when I put olive oil on a pizza stone…after washing it with soap and water… in an attempt to make it so the pizza would not stick to the stone.
I’m sure you can imagine.. the whole house filled with smoke, it was horrible. Every window had to be opened, and the pizza stone turned black. Since then I have learned the proper care for one, but that was a bad day for my kitchen.
Michelle says
I follow you on Facebook!
Michelle says
We live in a small split-level house and my family LOVES to eat hard boiled eggs. Apparently, one day I didn’t have any boiled eggs in the fridge so my husband decided to cook some. Usually, that’s a disaster in itself… He BURNS water!!
I was downstairs on the computer, (the stairs connect to the dining room which connects to the kitchen in a big straight line) happily typing away when I hear an incredibly loud KABOOM. When you hear a boom like that you hit the floor first and ask questions second.
So, after peeling myself off the floor, I cautiously peeked up the stairs to see what had happened. Different members of my family were crawling out of their respective hiding places as well. We finally converged where the stairs/dining room meet and look in the kitchen at my husband who had a sheepish look on his face.
He thought he’d save time by boiling the eggs in the microwave. Yes. BOIL EGGS IN THE MICROWAVE!! I’m not lying.
Those eggs BLEW the door of my microwave completely open and we found egg bits not only completely covering the kitchen/dining room area but all the way down the stairway.
I let HIM clean up the mess! I was too busy laughing!
Sarah says
I have two disasters.
1) In high school I decided to make Rice Krispy Treats and they turned out rock hard and completely inedible! WHO messes up Rice Krispy Treats??? ME
2) I wanted to make pecan bars after making them once successfully I figured I knew what I was doing. Anyway I mixed everything. Pat the crust into the bottom of my baking sheet and poured the gooey topping on top and put it in the oven. After doing the dishes I went to the oven to take a peak and discovered that I had used the wrong pan: a cookie sheet not a jelly roll pan and the entire oven was covered in pecans and carmel. It took forever for me to clean the oven. Sometimes I still smell carmel four years later.
Jill @ Dulce Dough says
I “like” Good Life Eats on Facebook.
Jill @ Dulce Dough says
I tweeted: http://twitter.com/#!/DulceDough/status/57915813906235392
Christine says
I don’t have a funny story to share but I liked your story the best! It gets my vote!
vikki m says
I was cooking dinner for my hubby and one of his friends. I was making mashed potatoes with the meal they were not there yet so I just let the potatoes sit in the water and I was going to whip them up when they got there.WELL you can’t do that they ended up being like glue I was so embaressed that I couldn’t even make mashed potatoes.