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.
Melanie says
Last year my husband and I (newlyweds) somehow ended up hosting Easter dinner. Relatives came from out of town and stayed the whole weekend.
I planned a fairly simple menu, but when we woke up on Easter morning I realized that there was just no way we were going to be able to execute it in a timely fashion.
My non-cooking husband actually saved the day. At Easter breakfast he put on his “teacher voice” and told each guest which dish they would be in charge of preparing. “Dinner will be at 1pm,” he said. “Just ask Melanie where to find the ingredients.”
The result was that we had a delicious dinner that everyone had a hand in making and he saved us from being teased for years to come!
Sarah says
The barrel of my parent’s ice cream maker once inexplicably exploded mid-cycle and sprayed the entire kitchen with strawberry cream (yet to be iced!). Meanwhile, we were sat in the garden, soaking up the sunshine and blissfully unaware of the chaos in the kitchen. When we eventually discovered it, we were shocked by the coverage – walls, floors, cabinets – all coated!
PS: I’m not in the US so don’t qualify for your competition but felt like sharing anyway. Hope that’s okay :¬)
Jill says
Definitely the “Angel Food Cake Incident.” 4 of us were sharing a tiny, poorly equipped college apartment. One roommate was having a birthday, and the rest of us decided to surprise her with her favorite cake- angel food cake served with fresh berries. We did not have the tall bundt pan called for in the recipe, but hey, other cake recipes always gave options (a 13×9 inch pan or 2 round pans or 24 cupcakes…), so we just looked around and used the biggest rectangular baking dish we had. It was only about 2 inches deep. That angel food cake rose, and rose, and rose… with the edges continually crumbling off and falling to the bottom of the oven where they oozed and bubbled like lava and charred onto the electric heating elements, and filled the apartment with smoke. Once everything was cooled, it took us hours to chisel the petrified cake-lava out of the oven. The white baking pan was permanently smoke-stained. Amazingly, the cake that remained in the pan was still good to eat!
Joyce says
One of my nephews dropped a can of soda and it exploded. We thought we cleaned up the entire mess, until we discovered a few months later splatter spots on the ceiling, up the walls, and on all the kitchen furniture. It was a can of 7-up and we couldn’t see all the places it originally went. Until the brown spots showed up, who knew that sticky spots attract grease.
Rachel says
The worst kitchen disaster was not mine, but my Aunt’s. My uncle had just picked up a watermelon from a roadside stand and left it on the kitchen counter. A while later, my cousin ran up to my Aunt saying the watermelon was making a funny noise. Just as my Aunt made it to the kitchen, the whole watermelon EXPLODED. Watermelon in every crack and crevice in the kitchen. It smelled for weeks.
Jasmine says
My fiance and I have had many kitchen disasters. They most often occur when we have no recipe. A recent messup happened when we tried to create ice cream without an actual recipe. The entire batch froze into the ice cream container. We ended up chipping it away like ice!
conversegirl_4life@hotmail.com
TheGourmetCoffeeGuy says
A family member visited us last week. Accidentally, this person placed a pyrex dish that had some oil on it on top of a stove burner that was turned on….Not a good idea for pyrex.
The result was an explosion that sounded like a bomb, 1000’s of pyrex glass everywhere. Thankfully, two people present in the kitchen at the time, through a miracle, were not hurt despite the flying glass everywhere. The cleanup was troublesome but it was a lesson in “what not to do” that made an impression on everyone to last a lifetime!
Kris says
I accidentally baked a cake on broil. Here’s the full story: http://munchinwithmunchkin.wordpress.com/2011/02/15/valentines-day-stained-glass-jello/
Sharon says
I am a current fan of goodlife eats on facebook. (rust hawk)
Sharon says
While cutting up a whole chicken for dinner with my very first boyfriend, I ran a knife through my hand. Yep, emergency room and stitches.
Lisa B says
When I was a kid we had a monkey for a pet. Awww..some say, but think again. He had an inside cage where he stayed when the Central Florida weather was too cold. One day we came home from school and work to find out that “George” had escaped from his cage and hung-out in the kitchen for a while. Every cabinet door was open and everything empty-able was, pretty much, emptied on the counters and floor! A bag of flour, canister of sugar, boxes of jello, boxes of cereal, boxes of crackers, you get the picture. It looked like a bad joke gone worse! Needless to say, George, spent the night outside and the clean-up crew (all 5 of us) spent the next hours putting the kitchen back together.
Crafty Jennifer says
Every holiday, I made my grandma’s pie crust recipe with my dad. I remember making it every Thanksgiving while the Macy’s parade was on. My first year of grad school, I was determined to make Grandma’s recipe to share with my boyfriend’s (now husband’s) family. My dad/mom emailed me the recipe and all of it sounded familiar. I bought all the kitchen tools and supplies I needed and set out to make Grandma’s recipe. Only I couldn’t get it to come together right. I was pretty new to baking on my own (and cooking in general) and the stress of trying to make it on my own, combined with my first term of grad school, caused a meltdown similar to that of a 2-year old. My boyfriend dilligently fought the pre-Thanksgiving crowds to get frozen pie crusts for me while I attempted it again. For the next 5-6 years, every time I attempted the recipe, it never came out like it did with my dad. I even attempted to make it in front of my mother-in-law but without any success. Finally, as I was making pies with my dad, I recited the recipe to him. He responded “No, it’s 5 tablespoons of cold water, not 5 teaspoons” and pulled out the recipe to show me. I pulled up my email and found the now 6-7 year old email to show him that MY recipe said 5tsp not 5tbsp. My parents then proceeded to blame each for the mix-up that caused so much angst for me over all these years. The email came from my mom’s email but they both use that email as the “home” email so it could have been either of them. One little typo caused so much trouble!
(But I do have to admit, even with the correct recipe, the crusts still come out best when made with my dad.)
Star says
i just ‘liked’ you on facebook so this is my second entry.
one of my most recent kitchen disasters happened when i needed a quick shower.. so i put the tv on and left my 2 and 4 year old for a few minutes. when i came out, my 2 year old had pushed a stool up to the kitchen counter and dumped a canister of carnation instant breakfast onto the counter and was eating it by spoonfuls! cute!
Aunt Rachael says
My worst kitchen disaster is one that my husband is still sworn to secrecy on and if he breaks it…well we won’t go there.
When we were first married and subleasing an apartment full of other people’s stuff plus their storage unit he invited some people from church to have (specifically) homemade pizza and ice cream. It was a Sunday and the one day I will not go out and get groceries unless it is that or starve. Well we didn’t have 1/2 the stuff for pizza but faked it, but the ice cream, nothing. I mashed together a recipe and because I didn’t have cream I did my usual substitution-butter melted into milk. My overally stressed mind didn’t put two and two together but neither did my ice cream maker when it came out (after running out of ice cubes and resorting to using a bag of frozen peas and some lobster shaped ice cube things) it had butter chunks in it. It looked like normal ice cream until you started eating it and licked a glob and felt a funny texture. Sadly enough it was already served so everyone got a good laugh in at me. I felt dumb and well my husband has now learned not tell them what we are having until they are actually there and it is in the oven.
suz says
Boiling eggs and forgot about them. They exploded all over the kitchen and my pot was ruined too!
Star says
i made my mom a huge mother’s day salad once and left it in the fridge for when she got home from work late. she ate almost the entire thing before she noticed a big slug. i didn’t know that i needed to wash the lettuce first! now i double wash!