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.
Cheryl Burchett says
We once ran out of dish washing detergent. I realized the dish washer was running and asked my husband what he used for soap. He motioned to the liquid soap at the same time that the kitchen began to flood with bubbles.
Stacey says
Once my mother baked a fresh loaf of bread and set it on a wire rack to cool overnight. Ants infested out kitchen with a huge (few inch wide) trail across the kitchen and up the counter to the bread by morning.
Ashley J. Ward says
When I found the recipe online for Butternut Squash Bechamel lasagna I was instantly enamored. It’s such a healthy hearty winter recipe and all the ingredients are easily found. So seeing that the prep was kind of involved, I enlisted the help of my two favorite men. We easily zipped through until it was time to blend the béchamel. My roommate, David, had inherited a blender from his friend who moved out of the country for a job. I decided we should use that instead of my immersion blender. I gave David that task. I didn’t realize that he had no idea how to use a blender. The blending came out really well. The creamy texture was just perfect. So I asked him to bring the top over to the stove so we could assemble the layers. When he took the pitcher off the base, the bottom of the pitcher stayed on the base and the beautiful butternut sauce poured out all over my counter. I was horrified at the mess and the loss. But (because I am me and insane about cleaning) we salvaged what we could from the counter and tried to assemble. I was so upset at the huge mess and huge fail that I forgot to add an entire layer of noodles. This meal was fraught with fail. But we stuck it in the oven anyway and started the cleanup. Thank God we did. When it came out, it was the MOST amazing taste to come out of my kitchen in recent history.
Eve Love says
my worst kitchen disaster is definitely my entry there: http://eveetjohnnylove.blogspot.com/2010/11/iron-chef-challenge-patates-pilees.html
Mary says
I’ve a few little disasters, but the biggest one happened outside. It’s still related to cooking, so I hope it counts!
It was almost dinnertime so my younger brother and I were doing some prep work. He went out back and started heating up the grill for the steak while I helped my mom with the veggies. When it came time to cook the steak, I took it outside. I lifted the lid of the grill and didn’t see any flames. The gas was on, but there weren’t any flames going. No biggie, I clicked the grill to get the flames going. Of course, since the gas was on, there was a mini explosion. The grill jumped, I shrieked and drop the steak, and scooted away. The grill was fine, as was the steak. The hair on my right arm was burnt off and my eyelashes and eyebrows were singed. The next few times I showered I could smell burning hair. ;P
Queen Crabby-Panties says
I can’t remember any total disaster…I guess that is what happens when you are either a very good cook or you get old! I did break a stone jelly pan (Pampered Chef) by sitting it on a hot burner after taking it from the oven. The whole corner just fell off. Then I couldn’t find the receipt to get a replacement so I bought another. Love the jelly roll stone, Pampered Chef!
Cate says
I was grilling chicken for dinner. I put the chicken on and shut the lid. Later when I went out back to check on it and flip it I noticed it wasn’t cooked at all. Turns out the gas tank had just enough gas to light, but quickly went out and was empty. We had to have something else for dinner that night.
Sue says
Once when my kids were little I put some chocolate chip cookies in the oven for dessert. I forgot they were there and we went out to dinner. We came home and they were black and burnt to a crisp! Thank goodness that was all that happened.
rick says
Once I forgot to put sugar in the pancakes for breakast. They didn’t taste very good!
Rachel - A Southern Fairytale says
Look at you go, Katie! <3
I love it — I walked in one day and my now 4 yo had dumped all the spaghetti noodles — parmesan — and poppy seeds all over the floor. He was making his dinner 😉
<3 it! Good luck, darlin'!
paola says
I was cooking a steak one night for my boyfriend in my college dorm. I managed to set off the dorm’s smoke alarm which resulted in the evacuation of an entire tower of our dorm. As the couple hundred of us stood outside in the cold in our jammies, people could smell the unmistakeable steaky-smoky smell on me as I tried to stand there nonchalantly. Words cannot describe the (couple hundred of pairs) of stinkeye I got!
Lindsay says
My worst moment in the kitchen is when I had a delicious pizza baking in the oven that I made from scratch and was so looking forward to, and when I took it out of the oven I didn’t have a pizza paddle or anything so I tried to use a spatula and the pizza went SPLAT! right onto my front side. Luckily I didn’t end up burned or anything, just extremely messy and pizza-less. Now I always make my boyfriend take the pizzas out of the oven because I’m too clumsy to do it myself!
Kristina says
I can relate with your daughter. As a two year old I dumped an entire gallon of olive oil (extra virgin) onto the dinning room carpet and jumped in it! Or there was the time we tried to make blackened catfish only to have our neighbor call the fire department as smoke poured out the front window. That was sort of exciting, but also a little disconcerting to show a ruined dinner to a fireman in full gear.
michelle stiennon says
Im making homemade bread and the receipe suggests tossing an icecube into an empty bread pan to create enough steam – unfortunately I used an empty Pyrex loaf pan. BOOM! It IMPLODED! An 400 degree chunk of Pyrex whoosed out of the oven and burned the old linoleum floor.
I was unharmed. The worst? I DID IT AGAIN a year later. Never used that receipe again.
Polly says
I woke up one morning trying to extra ambitious and make biscuits from scratch. See I come from a long line of bakers/cooks/housewifes who know how to cook everything from biscuits to pickles.
So now that I’m married and have a kitchen stacked to the ceiling with cooking pans, pots, utensils, baking helpers….I need to use them right? Now, back to baking biscuits….I now know there is a difference between all-purpose flour and self-rising flour. Uh my biscuits were like hockey pucks. In fact my dogs wouldnt even eat them. They looked at me like I’d thrown them bricks. Well they were like bricks pretty much. Moral of the story….the line of cooks/bakers/housewifes stopped right here in these here boots in this here non-biscuit making kitchen. Sorry folks, if we dont have canned biscuits, we simply dont have breakfast. 🙂
Katie says
I am a fan on Facebook!