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.
Aimee @ Simple Bites says
I’m a huge fan on FB!!
Lara says
My most recent worst moment – I was making my hubby homemade green tea ice cream for his birthday. After carefully steeping, tempering, and preparing the ice cream base, I proceeded to pour half of it down my legs and into my shoes as I tried to pour it into the ice cream maker.
Shaina says
I’m a fan!
Shaina says
I tweeted!
Amber | Bluebonnets & Brownies says
I’m a fan of GoodLife Eats on facebook!
Amber | Bluebonnets & Brownies says
I tweeted the contest!
Christopher Sorel says
like goodLife {eats} on facebook
Christopher Sorel says
tweeted http://twitter.com/#!/cjsorel/status/57855498527059969
Christopher Sorel says
was making a cake for my son and the buttercream frosting was whipping away, My daught went to try but it just started and was hot egg white with sugar. burned her finger and tongue..knocked over the cake…hit the mixer to the floor…everything all over the place…mixer broken. Never leave the room now
Elizabeth says
Hey Katie! That’s a pretty funny story. I’ve had plenty of kitchen disasters involving my children. One of my most memorable was when Austin was 2 years old. He climbed on the counter, got the cinnamon, and sprinkled it throughout the house – all over the kitchen counters and floors and then into the living room and all over the carpet. It cleaned up pretty easily, though. Thank goodness.
Wendy Bussell says
I was about 23, just moved in to a home with a friend and wanted to celebrate my growing up. So I decided that a cake was in order. Not just any cake, but a bundt cake with pudding in the middle. (This was about 20 years ago now.) The cake came out of the oven, and not reading the directions correctly, I turned it over on to a plate to release from the pan. It was a very good thing that I was near the sink! As I lifted the pan off of the cake, the whole cake collapased into a steaming hot, blobby mess! I instantly wiped it all into the sink and turned on the disposer! It was horrible. I never even let on that I had tried to do this and no one was the wiser!
Heather Bandura says
My worst kitchen disaster was the morning of a 40-person sit-down holiday dinner party. We have this beautiful stone backsplash and I was always paranoid that spaghetti sauce or something else would splash up while cooking. And because it was stone, it would soak in. My brilliant husband thought it would be great to keep a large piece of plexiglass behind the range when doing heavy cooking like I was for this dinner party. It actually did the trick and didn’t look bad at all…but we never thought about safety!
So I was up very early that monring and first task at hand was boiling my potatoes for smoked gouda mashed potatos. As I’m sure many of you can relate I was the ultimate multi-tasker that morning – boiling the potatoes, setting up the rented tables, decorating for the party, making my coffee etc. I stepped out of the room to handle the many other items on my to-do list. When I came back, the potato water had overboiled and the flame had caught the plexiglass, causing it to go up in flames as well. I screamed for my hubby who was still sleeping (as were the kids). He quickly got the fire out but the bigger mess was the melted plexiglass combined with potato starch all over our stainless steel Kitchen Aid range. Although we never did get it all off, and I never have replaced the range trim and grates where most of the damage was, the “scars” actually don’t bother me as much anymore as it reminds me that I am a real home cook who actually uses her appliances. It’s not just a showcase kitchen (which is what i always remind myself when I go in the gorgeous kitchens of my non-cooking friends).
mary says
disaster #2
my exhusband did not cook , he grilled
grilled like there was no tomorrow and was good at it.
i liked to par boil chicken wings and legs before grilling so i put a bunch on the stove to do just that and i had to leave for work…reminding him to take them off the stove in ten minutes then they were ready to grill.
he forgot.
he told me when he went down into the boat for something all he saw was a pan with little water and bones sticking up all over.
fast forward to when i get home….
there is a beautiful chicken and rice casserole waiting for me…it looked GOOD!
so he told me the tale of forgetting about the chicken and decided to make the casserole instead.
i was starving and took a bite….first bite was boiled skin and fat…NOT chicken meat.
gross.
i said to him ..what the heck did you do?
he told me “i just removed the bones and put everything else in there”
i made him eat the whole thing.
mary says
i used to live on a 42 foot sailboat, and i had a small but very busy 3 burner stove and 3/4 size oven. my exhusband was very impulsive when it came to taking the boat out for a sail.
keep in mind living aboard means putting lots of things away and securing them before you go out sailing about.
i decided that day (BEFORE he planned on a sail) that i was going to make stuffed shells…so yummy right?
well out we go, the stove is gimballed so no biggie it will move as the boat does so no spills or any mishaps, or so you would think.
at the sixth beer in him he started stearing the rather large sailboat as if it were a nascar race, and did a massive turn JUST as i was locking the gimbal and opening the oven to take the shells (the HOT shells) out of the oven~of course without warning.
the entire 13×9 lucious bubbling goodness slide from the pan onto the brand new rug right in front of my feet!
after a few explatives(very loudly i might add) i calmly picked up the new rug with it’s dinner ontop of it, rolled up like a taco…tossed it overboard and told him to get me to the dock RIGHT NOW.
yep we didn’t have that particular meal for a long long time.
i have another one about the time he attempted to cook…haha
Tickled Red says
Oh we could go waaaaay back to the very first meal of Lemon Chicken that I made for my surfer that nearly turned his face inside out it was so sour or we could drum up my recent fail with my strawberry cheesecake goo. Yep it was supposed to be a cheesecake but it ended up being parfait instead 🙂
Katie says
I had to dump brownies recently. It was a new recipe and they never set. I hate wasting ingredients!
Kelly G says
I burn everything. I don’t know why I insist on cooking everything on super high heat….but unfortunately I do. The other night I was making a marinade (for Houston’s Hawaiian Rib Eyes). I boiled over the marinade FIVE times and my boyfriend and I cleaned the entire stove between each time. He eventually got so pissed that he got a HUGE spaghetti pot for me to finish boiling the small amount of marinade in so I wouldn’t boil it over again. Oops!