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.
Lew says
Our worst disaster was when butter from a dish overflowed in the oven and got all over the bottom. It caught on fire – pretty crazy! The whole house was a smoky mess, but we were safe.
Kathy says
Love your story! My worst was when my daughter smeared Nutella all over the kitchen floor.
Gwen~healthymamma says
Oh man, which one to choose from???
Plenty of disasters like you described in my home with 4 wild kids.
How about the time I dropped a Glass, Costco size bottle of green olives and tried to catch it with my bare foot…… fast forward 7 hours, $250 E.R. co-pay and plenty of stiches later=no more Costco size glass jars in my fridge.
OR, The time I thought Almond butter ment mixing Almond Extract into Real Butter. I ended up with the most disgusting, fatty cookies you’ve ever tasted in you life. The worst part is, a friend had tried them while stopping by my house before I’d tried them but didn’t mention anything. My husband later gently informed me they were horrible. Oops.
Corvus says
My boyfriend and I decided we were going to grill shish-ka-bobs. We decided we were going to invite his parents over. We decided we were going to combine two recipes -one which contained fresh pineapple juice, and marinated for thirty minutes, and one which contained no pineapple, and marinated for 24 hours. We decided we were going to double the pineapple juice, because we liked pineapple.
We decided we were going to go with the 24 hour marinade time.
Know what happens to meat when you marinate it in fresh pineapple juice (which, apparently, is FULL of meat tenderizing/digesting enzymes) for 24 hours? It still looks like meat- maintains the same shape and all. But when you bite into it? It smears. Like a spread, and not a good spread. A grainy, clingy, choking meat spread.
His parents, to their credit, kept very straight faces until I finally gave up and said “This is utterly disgusting.”
Michelle Thomas says
I am a fan of Good Life Eats on Facebook. (:
Michelle Thomas says
I retweeted the message.
Michelle Thomas says
My worst kitchen disaster happened in my first apartment. I invited my vegetarian boyfriend over because I’d found a recipe for vegetarian shepherd’s pie: his favorite dish before he stopped eating meat. It really only used ground beef substitute instead, but I was excited. I cooked up a ton of carrots, mushrooms, and corn for the filling, and piled everything into a 9×13 pan, then filled it to the brim with beautiful fluffy mashed potatoes and cheese. I went to move the pan into the oven, but little did I know that there was water on the floor from earlier when I spilled. I slipped and dropped the dish on the floor, sending glass shards, fake meat, vegetables, and potatoes everywhere. It took FOREVER to clean up and I lost my only 9×13 pan. After we finally got it all cleaned up (at least an hour later because of the glass), we went and got take out. I haven’t tried that recipe again because of the terrible memories.
Jeneen says
I generally stick to baking as all of my cooking results in disasters 🙂 The best kitchen disaster of recent memory was a Pampered Chef party I attended. The rep cooking up some chicken in olive oil when we arrived and demonstrated making the chicken pastry pockets. While we were eating she went to do the dishes and discovered that the pretty oil bottle she’d used to get oil to cook the chicken, was actually where the host kept her dish soap. That’s right, she sautéed the chicken in dish soap. I don’t think I have ever laughed so hard in my life.
D. Roberts says
In a college apartment..horiffically sick with the flu. Decide to make myself my 1st ever pot of homemade chicken soup. It can’t be that hard..I don’t need a recipe- I’ve watched my mom make it a 1000 times. I drag my fevered self out to store to buy all the fixings to make chicken soup. Takes all my effort to peel & chop veggies….finally I get the meat and veggies simmering….I suffer through the delicious smell, desperately waiting for the broth to cook down. Finally, 2 hours later, I place the colander in the sink and pour in the veggies and meat to drain off the broth. And realize I just poured th broth down the sink. My brain screams, “THIS IS BROTH I AM DRAINING, NOT PASTA WATER.” . I just stood looking at the steaming heap of bones, speechless. I was too sick to cry. Duh.
Laura Y. says
When I was about 12, I was a fairly competent baker and cook, but I rarely made candy. One day I decided to make a chocolate something-or-other that I’d run across the recipe for in one of our cookbooks. The recipe called for corn syrup, but I’d never used corn syrup before and didn’t know if we had any, or what it would look like, or where it would be if we did. My mom worked fulltime, so I called her office to ask. She happened to be in a meeting, but her secretary passed my question to her, and she replied (via the secretary) that it was the regular old Canola that we always used.
I proceeded to make two batches of the stuff — I even called back between the first and second batches to confirm that I was using the right ingredient and was assured (via secretary — my mom was still in the meeting) that I was. I knew that this oil soaked loaf pan of chocolate couldn’t possible be right…there must’ve been about 1/2″ of oil just sitting on top of the chocolate stuff.
When my mom got home she looked at the disaster, then looked ingredient list and got a funny look on her face. She went to the pantry and brought out the corn syrup and showed me what it was. To this day we don’t know if she was just so distracted that she mistook the question, or if the secretary asked the wrong thing.
kelley wood says
http://twitter.com/mysweetcarolina/status/58623909217574912
kelley wood says
My worst disaster was when I first got married. I accidentally put a Pyrex bowl on top of the stove. I thought someone SLAMMED a baseball through the window or had shot me! There were potatoes, cheese and broken glass everywhere!!!
Kim says
When I was in middle school my grandmother asked me to keep an eye on the sausage she was cooking while she went to the yard sale down the street. I promptly forgot that she had even mentioned sausage on the stove until I got up to go to the bathroom and the house was filled with smoke. I saw the smoke seconds before the smoke alarm went off. The smoke alarm was connected to the security system and called the fire department. So my grandmother came home to a fire truck outside.
S.Lynn says
I was cooking spaghetti sauce. There was a raised bar in front of the stove. Hubby was letting our hampster run around on the raised bar. Before I knew it he (the hampster) had jumped into the bubbling sauce. When I retrieved him with a spoon his little toes had disintegrated. He lived a couple more days but eventually succumbed to his burns. And, yes, I tossed the sauce after that.
Steph says
I tweeted your contest
http://twitter.com/#!/kksliderclub/status/58597846412312576
Steph says
Once, my mother and I had baked an ‘easy day cake,’ which was easy as expected. We went out to the store for something, though I don’t remember what. We left the cake on top of the stove to cool, and with nobody in the house, it should have been safe. Yes, I said should have. We had a dog and a cat at this time. The cat was never able to jump onto the counter, and we were reasonably sure the smell of cake wouldn’t attract him, and we had set the cake far enough back to be out of reach of the dog. Both statements turned out to be right. The dog, however, was evidently more determined than the cat. She jumped up onto the stove hard enough to turn the knob for the burner on. The very burner that we had rested the cake on in its ceramic pan. When my family returned home, our cat was in the window. He wasn’t a loud cat back then, and rarely talked to us. There he was in the window, meowing up a storm. Like any crazy cat owners, we stood outside the window meowing back at him for fun for about two minutes. When we finally went into the house, we realized why he was so vocal– the house was full of smoke. My mother ran to the source of the smoke, turning off the burner and putting out the cake fire. Thankfully, nothing else caught. Even the un-burnt parts of the cake tasted like smoke, though, and once the house was aired out we had to make another ‘easy day cake.’