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.
Saleta says
The worst was just this past fall, when I hosted my first party ever. I had made a huge Mexican inspired meal for about 20 people. While everyone is carving pumpkins and playing games, I started to prepare the rice. I had to stir it a few times, so after I did (and had run out of space everywhere else) I just set the rubber spatula on the back of the oven/stove. BAD IDEA. A few minutes later I smelled a weird smell and jumped up to see what it was. The rubber spatula had fallen onto the stove, onto the hot burner, and had melted all over the pot and the burner. I still don’t know how, but I was able to submerge what was left of the spatula in water and take care of the mess without anyone being the wiser. Sad thing is that earlier that evening a guest commented on how pretty that particular spatula was and how she wanted one. Sigh. I want one now too. hahaha
Susie D. says
The turkey that leaked through its packaging as it thawed in the fridge, seeping into every crevice it could find, pooling in my veggie bins. UGH!
Jane says
I cant imagine the green food coloring everywhere, what a mess! The disaster that comes to mind first actually happened while I was in the shower. My twins were two at the time (and I dared to take a shower after a 3 mile run, I know – I should have just stayed sweaty) and they decided to heat up a snack in the microwave. They managed to start the microwave on fire, destroyed it and covered the whole house with stinky, black smoke. My house smelled like we are chain smokers for a long time. The same day they decided to break a carton of eggs . . . on the carpet.
Katie says
Oh no! I can’t imagine having 2 of Madeline. She is always into something. One time she got into Vaseline…not fun to clean up.
Addie says
I was cooking for myself, my husband and a friend and decided to experiment with making up my own recipe. i thought of this chicken i like at chili’s and thought i would try to do something similar & call it margarita chicken. i added spices, lime juice and TEQUILA to the chicken in the cooking dish and popped it in the oven. about 25 minutes later i went to check on dinner. when i leaned down and opened the oven door a burst of flame shot out of the oven and hit me in the face. can you say backdraft? i proceeded to scream bloody murder and run into the living room, where my hubby & our friend were watching TV, hitting my head and screeching “is my hair on fire?! is my hair on fire?!?!??!” i had, in fact, singed quite a bit of hair right in front and it hasn’t grown quite the same since. i consider myself lucky that’s all that happened! needless to say we ate out that night and i have never used liquor to experiment in the kitchen again!
Rhiannon says
I hate sprinkles for that very reason. And that I don’t like crunchy things.
I can’t imagine how bad that was to clean up, and reminds me of the few times that I’ve spilled sugar on the floor and wanted to just scream.
Katie says
I put shoes on for the rest of the day so I wouldn’t have to feel the crunchy sugar on my feet. I can’t stand the feeling of a dirty floor which is what made this especially annoying for me.
Maureen says
Let’s begin by saying that I am a WANNA BE. In just about everything, but especially cooking and baking. I will always be on the outside looking in, wishing that was me, creating those beautiful edibles. It’s never going to be me, I know this, and my worst kitchen disaster involved one of those times that I had a lapse in judgement, and saw someone else do something nifty and I said “Hey, I CAN DO THAT.”
I wanted to make my own chocolate Easter baskets. Really simple- buy balloons, buy super expensive chocolate, blow up the balloons, melt the chocolate and get artsy! I was supposed to be able to make these pretty, delicate chocolate baskets by gently rolling the balloon into the chocolate, or drizziling the chocolate to make a nest like pattern, but instead, the balloons burst and chocolate went EVERYWHERE. Melted dark chocolate was on the walls, on the celiing, on the light fixtures, on the top of the fridge, on the curtains, on the ceiling fan and on the cat. I don’t give up easy, I tried again, with chocolate I felt was less hot, but the same thing happened. The balloon burst, the chocolate sprayed as far as it could and I spent 3 hours cleaning it up. There is still a chocolate stain in a corner of the ceiling that I think only I notice and its there to remind me that I am not allowed to experiment on my own. Or in my own kitchen.
Nicole Anderson says
It was my husband’s birthday and he was at work so I took the opportunity to make a cake for him. It was perfect, rich chocolate mousse in between layers of chocolate cake and iced with beautiful chocolate frosting. My husband won’t eat cake unless it’s all chocolate so I spent hours on this cake, I even decorated it! He called to say he was on his way home from work so I ran into the bedroom to change real quick and grab my camera to take a photo of the cake. My mistake…I left the cake on the counter. Guess what I found out? Cats like cake. I walked out to find my cat, face and paws covered in chocolate, enjoying my husband’s cake. Needless to say, the husband got a good laugh and I will never get back those 5 hours of my life hahaha!
Kelly says
In my most expensive cooking disaster, I had heated something in a ceramic bowl in the microwave. The bowl was extremely hot, but I didn’t realize this as I grabbed it with both hands and pulled it out of the microwave. In the two seconds that it took for my hands to just clear the microwave door, the pain set in and I dropped the bowl–onto my ceramic cooktop stove. The bowl shattered, and so did the ceramic cooktop. It would have cost as much to replace the cooktop as to get a whole new range, so I had to throw away a perfectly good oven and buy a new range.
LisaS says
Probably my worst kitchen disaster came on an afternoon when I was rushing to put away groceries. I had the refrigerator open, putting away the milk, and suddenly the cardboard carton of the 12 pack of cokes I was hold tore. The first 3 or 4 burst on impact, spraying diet soda all the way up to the 10′-0″ ceiling, into the fridge, soaking everything on every shelf, filling the cat food bowls, and splattering the cans, bags, and boxes on our adjacent open pantry shelves. I was so surprised I dropped the gallon of milk, which also broke open, flooding the entire eastern half of our kitchen with white-and-brown mixed liquids. I’m not even going to say how long it took to remove everything from every shelf and clean it … and I had to wait for my husband to come home and move the refrigerator so I could clean up the soaked dust bunnies. ugh.
elfchique says
Sadly, my biggest kitchen disaster was with a pampered chef recipe. Pampered chef has a recipe for Spinach and Salmon bundled in phyllo. It’s one of our favorites. But after my experience it’s not one to take shortcuts on. Kitchen messes are a regularity at our house as I have a two year old cooking companion. He had been helping wilt the spinach so there was spinach on the counter. And the floor. And probably behind the oven. But let’s not think about what’s behind the oven, shall we? But there was still some spinach wilting in the pan. I didn’t have the proper herb butter to slather on the salmon so I was already improvising (aka making a bigger mess) trying to make a garlic herb butter. It wasn’t going well either. I was trying to mix cream cheese and butter and the herbs, but the butter was rock hard and putting it in the microwave would have melted it beyond all recognition and it’s already 5:15pm and panic is setting in. The salmon is the only ingredient not causing me to hyperventilate at this point. Of course, all I’ve done is cut it to the proper size and it’s sitting undisturbed on the counter. Now you may not think this is a miracle. But you’d be wrong. When you’re cooking with a two year old, anything that sits undisturbed for any length of time is considered a blessing. It didn’t sit undisturbed for long. He started poking it. I started yelling. Poke. Yell. Poke. Yell. Cry. Comfort. Poke. Yell. Kick out of kitchen. Cry. Comfort. Try and get back in kitchen. I finally make the herb butter work. But not without breaking out in a sweat. It’s now close to 5:45 and I want to cry. The kid is hungry. The kitchen is a disaster. I’m hungry. And the husband is going to be home any minute. Dinner is not ready. I pull the phyllo out of the fridge. It’s still frozen. I consult the side of the box for thawing time. It says thawing time is 2 hours on the counter. I am near tears. I make attempts to thaw quickly. All fail. I know this because as I am attempting to work with the phyllo, it shreds. Rendering it totally unusable. The outside of the phyllo roll was thawed but somewhat dried out and the inside was still frozen and dried out and any attempts to pull it apart left me in tears. Now, the most embarrassing part of this cooking disaster was my reaction. I threw it. Across the kitchen onto a counter at which the phyllo did sort of a phyllo explosion. Or maybe it shattered. Either way. It wasn’t pretty. The husband came home and I promptly came unglued. First the yelling. Not at anyone in particular. But yelling, nonetheless. Then tears. Then I sent myself to my room. And he got pizza for him and the kid. He cleaned the kitchen. So, my kitchen disaster is either a lesson in not taking shortcuts or a story of the world’s nicest most patient non judgmental husband ever. You pick.
Katie says
Phyllo and I are not friends. Not even good acquaintances.
The Happy Housewife says
My worst disaster happened the first year I was married. I cooked a Thanksgiving turkey for 14 hours! When we cut into it and started eating we realized it was still raw.
My oven only heated to 150 degrees and I had no idea until that day!
Toni
Jamie Cuerrier says
The first time I tried to make homemade bread without a breadmaker was a complete disaster. I figured the recipe seemed simple enough, some water, some yeast, flour and honey. Alright, mix water with yeast, add honey, add flour…right? Not so much. Apparently I either killed my yeast from too hot water, or the water wasn’t warm enough and they never activated. I set out the dough to rise for a couple hours, and when I came back I was surprised the dough was the same size as when I left. So I baked it anyway and… instead of two beautiful loaves of bread I got two dark brown nasty bricks! I have definitely learned my lesson!`
Katie's Dad says
Yep….it’s true.
And you know, parents can’t share all of their disasters with their kids. We have to keep some semblence of an image of the near perfect people we beleive ourselves to be.
Tracy says
When I was first learning to cook in college, I had a kitchen disaster with spaghetti. Having always watched my mom throw it into the pot whole, I did the same, not realizing at the time that her pot was a lot bigger than mine. A bunch of spaghetti spilled out into the burner and caught on fire! Fortunately, my roommate was there, and she helped me put it out. Still, it was really embarrassing. And our kitchen smelled like burnt pasta for a week. 😛
Katie's Dad says
OK….let’s travel back to my sophomore year in high school.
It wasn’t uncommon for our refrigerator to have a pot of used oil in it, which was periodically used to make French fries. The cold temperature of the refrigerator would cause the oil to solidify, so it would need to be warmed before its next use.
So, here was my plan for the day….put the oil on the stove to bring it back to the liquid stage, head to the bathroom for a quick morning shower, and then return and cook whatever it is I was going to cook..can’t remember any longer what wonderful delight I was planning to make that “fateful” morning.
For those of you that have teenagers, is there ever such a thing as a “quick” shower? Yea, I didn’t think so.
Much to my utter shock and dismay, when I got out of the shower that morning I found the kitchen on fire. The nice knotty pine cabinets were now charred black cabinets.
Fortunately, my older brother had come home before I finished my shower, and had the sense to put a lid on the pot of burning oil, and squelch the blazing fire before it could spread to the entire house. While it was a serious accident, it could have been much worse.
Insurance covered the damages, I lost some privileges for a while, and has become one of those stories that you laugh about at family get together….and now has become “my worst cooking experience”.
Katie says
Is this true??? How come you never told me this story?!?
Jamie | My Baking Addiction says
Dear Katie’s Dad-
I told Katie this afternoon that you should have your very own blog. You have a way with words that makes me take in and digest every single syllable! Which is quite an accomplishment because I have zero attention span! Great story!
-Katie’s Friend, Jamie
Katie's Dad says
Hmmm…..if I only had some extra time.
I do some writing for a technical magazine, and I’m always asking for permission to send in my articles after the deadline has passed.
Oh, and I’m certain that I will complete my taxes and get them submitted before Friday….hopefully.
But a blog will have to wait.
Judy (bakerwannabe) says
With two toddlers underfoot, I decided to make vegetable soup from scratch. Feeling very pleased with myself for chopping endless veggies and ending up with a huge, heavy pot of really good soup to surprise my husband and ill mother-in-law (who was a fabulous cook). Then picking it up to move from stove to counter, I proceeded to drop the entire pot and contents all over the kitchen, walls, ceiling, toddlers and everything! I sat down in the middle of the mess and cried!!!!