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.
Ronda says
Baking with my grand daughter, she loves to cook and bake with me. Well the phone rang we were making cookies and I was not watching her, she poured the left over sugar from the canister into the mixing bowl and switched it on. That sound made me look and it was half full and struggling to run.
Elaine says
I was trying a new recipe for “Apple Pie in a Paper Bag” for company that was coming over for dinner. Unfortunately I placed the rack on the bottom shelf of the oven and well into the cooking process the bag caught on fire. It took a minute or two before I noticed, the pie was completely ruined, the house smelled like it had caught on fire. Almost had to call the fire department.
Jenny says
I was making a cake to take to a party – followed the recipe to a tee but it didn’t bake up properly – sunk in the middle and was very dense. Then, in the middle of the night somewhere in my sleep, I must have been going thru the steps because when I woke up the next day, I remembered I had forgotten to add the eggs!!
sara says
I’m a fan on facebook as well
sara says
Leaving the butter out of a cake, and then deciding I could try to stir it in partway through baking when I realized the error! Nope, not so much. 🙂
Linda Nelsen says
My kids used salt instead of sugar to roll cookie dough in…. A big surprise to the taste buds when we bit into them 🙂
Debra says
Okay, so here’s a third post because I just realized you wanted us to mention our worst kitchen disaster! Well, I’d have to say the worst was when my 13 month old got into our pantry and pulled down my containers (they have since been moved up) of flower AND sugar….both were completely covering the floor in a matter of seconds. Boy, those babies can MOVE!!!
Mary says
Right now I’m having issues with hard boiled eggs. These are the worst eggs to peel ever, and each one looks like a loofah by the time you scrape the shell off. There is no way I can serve these as deviled eggs, and I’m forced to go purchase another dozen and start all over.
Debra says
Just read I could leave more than one comment soooooo, here is #2! YAY for pampered chef!
Debra says
I LOVE LOVE LOVE my stones. Can always use more of course! Pampered chef is the best. THe two things I use most are my chopper & garlic press….oh and I use my stone a LOT too!!!
Tali says
I have been cooking since I was 4, starting with fruit salads and fresh pizza while chaperoned by my older sister. Besides the cuts, burns, and messes I can’t say I’ve had a real disaster. When I was 8 though a friend and I were making mashed potatoes for lunch. As we were salting the potatoes we dumped in a little too much. Once they were cooked and ready we decided to fix this by adding sugar because an 8 year old’s logic states that sugar is the opposite of salt and therefore should cancel it out. Needless to say they were the most disgusting mashed potatoes-too sweet and too salty. Gross.
Weeda says
I have been trying to cook healthy for my family. One day I cooked vegetable quiche with soy milk. I didn’t know this but this was the last straw. When my family tested it, my husband threw down his fork and told every not to eat it . I felt so bad…
Katie says
You guys are awesome! I love reading all of these disasters. Some of them I’m cringing right along with you, while others have me literally laughing out loud. Thanks so much for sharing them!
EA Stewart says
Well, we have had a lot of messes in the kitchen thanks to my loving children :-), but the one I will share occur when I was a little girl and my aunt and uncle still talk about it today. I decided to make ice cream for my family. Sounds good, right? Only thing is that I put the salt mixture in the ice cream mix instead of around the outside to freeze it. Needless to say, the ice cream tasted pretty, mmm… Salty!
Stephanie says
And I am a fan on FB!
Stephanie says
I tweeted!