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.
Jennica says
My worst kitchen disaster was when I tried making french fries. The grease became very very hot and when I dropped the fries in a huge boom happened and a fire puff (if that is such a thing) went all the way to the ceiling and put a black ring up there.
Jo says
Worst kitchen disaster – kitchen the size of a matchbox, you could not open the refrigerator without touching the stove. Deep frying on the stove, the pan caught fire! My husband the real fireman poured water on the pan, which exploded all over. We were using towels trying to put the fire out. Alarms are buzzing, screaming and running were involved. Finally, we remember use SALT for a GREASE fire!!! Then the disaster was contained. (By the way, my husband still has his job as a fireman – go figure)
Amy says
We keep most of our ingredients in glass jars to deter meal moths. Our flour is in a giant 1 gallon sun-tea jar. A few days ago, my 20 month old pushed a chair over to the counter, and pulled the entire jar (it was completely FULL) off, and sent it crashing to the floor. Flour and glass everywhere.
Stephanie Phelps says
My worst kitchen disaster would have to be when we were making smoothies in the blender and my son for got to put the lid on before he started it up and slung strawberries and all the juice all over my cabinets,walls and floors.
Tanya says
I tweeted @mommytanya
Tanya says
I once knocked over a glass bottle of fish sauce, it went behind the stove and refrigerator. It was practically full. The whole apartment stunk for weeks!
Monica says
Growing up, it was always “fend for yourself” and “figure it out.” My mom had these great ceramic-like pots that I could use in the oven or–my favorite–on the stovetop, making no-bake cookies. Fast forward to a few years back, I had moved in with my boyfriend (now husband) and wanted to make soup–but our big pot was dirty! Looking through the cupboards full of leftovers from when the house belonged to his Nana, I found pots that looked JUST like the ones I used to use to make no-bake cookies. Perfect! I filled the largest one with ingredients–cheesy soup, milk, extra cheese b/c I hate my arteries–and turned on the stove. A few minutes later, I learned the difference between what I have and what my mom has–with a big BANG!, the dish cracked, spreading cheesy soup everywhere and dousing the flames. This was also the day I learned that the stovetop is removable, as underneath it was full of soup!
Brandy says
I believe my worst to date was making a dish for my husband (then very new in dating) and it was pasta…. I added cinnamon instead of cayenne. Let’s just say it was disgusting.
Jo says
My worst disaster happened two weeks ago after I spent hours preparing homemade pizza (dough and all) and as I was putting it into the oven my boyfriend bumped into me and the pizza landed upside down on the floor.
amy says
Wanted to make homemade Dr. Pepper bbq sauce. Put the chunky HOT tomato mixture that I had been cooking on the stove into the blender. Put the top on and set to mix. Everything was so hot and steamy, it blew the top off and hot homemade bbq sauce sprayed all over me and everything within a 4 foot radius of the blender.
Alyssa says
I’m just starting to cook (I’m only 16), but one day I planned to make dinner for my family and put a roast in the crock pot, but never turned it on. We came home to a ruined roast and no dinner so we ordered pizza.
Carly says
My worst kitchen disaster is when I decided to put eggs on the stove to boil them for egg salad and forgot about them. All the water evaporated and the eggs were stinky and burnt. Really disgusting!
MsBrownBird says
My favorite disaster so far was when I was six and helping my mother bake. She left me to tend the mixer, telling me to turn it off when everything had combined. Only I didn’t know how to turn it off, hadn’t paid attention to her directions, and didn’t want to ask again. So I just raised the mixer, spraying batter all over the kitchen.
As I recall, some of it was on the ceiling for a week, but I was too afraid to point it out….
Rachel says
I had made some marshmallows as christmas gifts, and left the extras on the stove in a sealed pyrex pan so that the cat would leave them alone while we were out of town for several days. My husband had to work, so he drove in a separate car and came home a few days earlier than me.
My husband turned the stove on to heat a meal up, without checking to see which heating element he turned on. The glass pan exploded, shooting bits of glass and burning marshmallow all over the kitchen.
Lee Hemming says
My worst kitchen disaster was in an attempt to recreate my mother-in-law’s donuts. She was one of those cooks who never measures anything, so she gave me guesstimates of ingredients. She was also a 1-bowl cook and made everything look easy and taste good. For me? Not so much. I mixed the ingredients, rolled the dough, and cut the donuts. The cutter kept coming apart in the dough. Dig out the hole. Reassemble the cutter, try again. Same result. Flour all over the kitchen. Okay, frying. I didn’t fry back then and I don’t now either. You heat the oil, drop in the donut. It sinks to the bottom, pops to the top, you pull it out when it’s golden brown. Mine sank to the bottom and stayed there. Needless to say, they were odd looking hockey pucks. Even the dog wouldn’t eat them. When my husband asked when I was going to try making donuts again, I told him to visit his mother! She was one in a million. I miss her every day.
Lee
ellen says
Kitchen disasters – I’ve had many but taking flaming pork chops out of the broiler and getting soot all over the ceiling stands out.