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.
Felice - All That's Left Are The Crumbs says
Not necessarily cooking, but we were making shave ice. The gallon size bottle of flavoring fell off the counter, bounced once, and then split open spilling the contents all over the floor. I don’t know how many times we mopped the floor before we could no longer feel our feet sticking to the tiles.
Katie says
That is how I felt with the sprinkles. I kept finding them no matter how many times i swept or vacuumed. It took a while to get rid of all of them.
Jeanne in Toledo says
I was 14. I was giving a speech in the County 4-H competition, and was going over my words while I prepped dinner. My sister got out of the shower and, since it was my turn, I ran upstairs. Midway thru said shower, shampoo in my hair and all, the shower curtain was ripped open by a total stranger who screamed “Get outta here – your house is on fire!” I grabbed a towel and joined my family on the front lawn, mortified, as it became apparent that I didn’t turn off the burner under the pot of oil for french fries after all!
I did $8000 in damage to the kitchen.
My dad’s comment? It’s the only thing you didn’t do half-assed this month!
My mom’s comment? I hated those countertops for 15 years – thanks!
The ultimate embarrassment? The topic of my speech was “Safety in the Home”. (I took 2nd)
Jamie says
Hi Katie….in college I was baking some oven fries….I couldn’t find a pot holder so I grabbed a dish rag with some fringes on the end. The rag caught fire and the flames burnt my hand and sent the dorm’s fire alarm off. So there was a fire evacuation because of me and that stupid fringy rag.
Katie says
I have done that before! Not fire-alarm kind of fire, but where the towel got a little charred.
Katie says
One of my favorite and most memorable Valentine’s Day dinners was the first year my husband and I were married. I was working from home in our very first apartment together and had spent the day working on what I thought would be a really exciting and yummy dessert: s’more brownies. I’m a die-hard s’more fan, so I thought this sounded like the perfect dessert. Everything was going great. My graham cracker crust was golden, the brownies were looking gooey and delicious. All I needed to do was pop them back in the oven to roast the marshmallows. Easy peasy! I should have remembered how flammable marshmallows were from my camping experience but didn’t think much of it. A couple of minutes later with flames shooting out of the oven, that little detail came roaring back. Thankfully I was able to quickly extinguish the flames, but the brownies were ruined. We still laugh about it to this day and, even though we didn’t have dessert, my husband turned it into a positive by complimenting me for how calm I was in a crisis. It made me love him more.
Maria Malaveci says
My worst kitchen disaster happened many, many years ago. I had just finished up with dishes and turned on the garbage disposal. It didn’t sound right. Turned it off and on a couple times and looked inside, but didn’t see anything. I was young, I looked in it of course, and right when the glass exploded (a small one that had fallen inside) I turned my head! Glass everywhere. Boy oh boy was I sure lucky!
Maria
Katie says
Yes you were! I hate putting my hand down the garbage disposal to check for things. It makes me shudder.
Erin at $5 Dinners says
I charred a pot of beans as I was boiling them. Got a little distracted with a conversation on Skype and completely forgot they were on the stove.
The house reeked for days!
Erin
One Dish Dinners says
I recently burned my oven mitt by putting it on the stovetop…that was off, but still burning hot.
Thankfully we haven’t had too many “kid aided” disasters!
Good luck!
Katie says
So scary! Thank goodness you were home and caught it!
Nila reese says
My worst kitchen disaster was probably when the turkey brine bag broke and liquid and turkey went all over the floor. Not a fun cleanup.
Katie says
Ewwww! Big mess!
Sylvie @ Gourmande in the Kitchen says
Kitchen disasters happen for me all the time, mainly when I’m tired and trying to move too quickly in the kitchen. I end up dropping everything and forgetting what I’m supposed to be doing. Those are the days I just want to say “I give up” and go back to bed!
Ani says
Hmmm… My biggest kitchen disaster.. There really are so many to choose from.
I will probably go with my Valentine Cake. I enjoy cooking, but I love to bake, so much that some of my husband’s friends refer to me as “master baker.” Well, around Valentine’s day, I decided to try a white chocolate peppermint cake. I dyed the cake batter pink with my food coloring and baked it in my heart-shaped pans. It was a new recipe, and I thought it baked a little weird, because it was cooked on the sides but the middle was still quite uncooked. I left it in until it was solid in the middle.
I frosted it with delicious white chocolate peppermint frosting, and spent a lot of time making it look pretty for our company the next day. I was even behaved enough not to sneak a piece before they arrived. However, when we cut into the cake the color looked gray around the edges. I tried the cake and it was bitter and horrible. Yuck! I think I messed up with the baking soda/baking powder or something, it was completely inedible. So much for being a “master baker.” 😀
Allison C says
I wasn’t thinking this fall and I placed an apple tart I was making on a cookie sheet (with no edges). About 5 minutes in to baking the kitchen starts getting super smokey. Then ALL of the smoke detectors go off in my apartment. At this point I was freaking out because there is SOOO much smoke and I didn’t know how to stop it. I had all of the windows open and the fans going, but it was not helping. I finally give up and called my mom for help before the hallway alarm went off and the fire department was alerted. Of course, my mom came to the rescue and told me to poor salt over the burning sugar on the bottom of the oven. My tart was ruined and the next day I spent the entire morning scrapping and cleaning our oven, but at least I did not have to evacuate the entire building. Now every time I set the smoke detector off or one is going off on the TV my poor dog panics and hides in the bathroom because I freaked him out so much that night. Oops! Lesson learned!
Katie says
I spent a couple hours baking a beautiful banana bread. I like to try variations, so I tried different ingredients and I was so excited for my family to try it. I was letting it finish cooling on the counter, and ran downstairs for a minute. I heard the dog tag rattling, but I thought he was just chewing on a bone. When I walked upstairs and looked at the counter, I saw a horrible sight, my dog at the entire top half off of my bread…so sad, I never got to try it!
Katie says
Yikes! We don’t have any pets, but I have a certain 3 year old who might do that same thing on occasion.
Sheilah Miller says
When I was first married I was making a stew in the crock pot and it just wasn’t cooking, so to hurry things up I put in on the stove. Yep, crack went the bottom and stew flowed on the stove, floor and sink.
Katie says
Uh oh!
colleen says
When I was 17 I took on the feat of cooking a turkey. I was used to roasting chickens so I figured it couldn’t be any different. I was not aware that a turkey has 2 compartments for the organ meats to hide in (they seem to fit all of that stuff inside 1 cavity in the chicken). After about an hour into the cooking I smelled plastic I checked the stove but didn’t see anything. Well needless to say I took the perfectly browned bird out and discovered the oozing mess. grrrrrrr
Katie says
Oh no! Congratulations on tackling a turkey at 17. That’s a big job!
Ruth says
My daughter was actually the culprit, at about age 12. She decided to make “silly putty” while I was at work, and didn’t realize there was a difference between mineral OIL and mineral SPIRITS. Fortunately, no fire, but the smell was awful!
Amanda says
I was once making Mexican wedding cookies. I was on my fourth and final batch from the oven. All of the finished cookies were all rolled in powdered sugar and cooling nearby on the countertop. Upon rolling my very last cookie, I went to move the glass bowl filled with the powdered sugar and in the process, slammed it against my countertop. The glass bowl shattered and sent powdered sugar and glass everywhere – all over the counters, all over the floor, and most likely all over my beautiful cookies! It all went into the trash. I actually cried from the absolutely anticlimactic disappointment of it all.