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.
AnnMarie J says
Good luck winning. I am so glad my 6 year old never did this! Yet…..
Katie says
Thank you!
Michelle says
When I was probably about 12 or so, I decided to cook some hamburger helper, so dinner would be ready when my parents got home (I was with my two older sisters). I didn’t know what “browning” the hamburger meant, so I just left it raw, and went on with the recipe. Needless to say, the hamburger didn’t cook, and it was a hot mess. My mom tried to save it by finishing it in the oven when she got home, but it was definitely a lost cause.
Mark Scarbrough says
Absolutely . . . horrifying! Wow. I don’t know what I’d say. But I do know we had a terrible disaster once when a bottle of cranberry juice shattered in a 5 x 5 pantry that held a fridge and a wine cellar. Seems we were cleaning sticky stuff off the flour under things for weeks. But that somehow pales in comparison to this.
Jennifer says
My worst disaster was the first and only time I have made a pecan pie. It was right after we had gotten married and we had moved away to California. I used my mom in laws recipe and was so proud since it was my hubby’s favorite pie. Unfortunately, it exploded in the oven. Literally exploded. There were pieces all over that oven. To this day, 17 years later, I still don’t know why it did that and I have yet to attempt pecan pie again. I have made tons of other dishes, many of them more difficult and I am a pretty good cook, but I am intimidated by pecan pie. 🙂
Laurie says
I’ve always enjoyed having big gatherings at Thanksgiving. I consider it “MY” holiday and friends & family know that it will be at my house.
One year we were down to the final steps and I was making the turkey gravy. I had one of the kids get my large container of cornstarch out of the pantry. I kept adding more and more and it wasn’t thickening up as it should have. I was getting lots of comments to hurry up so we could get dinner on the table and more than a few folks dipping fingers to taste test. The comment in general was it was really sweet. Come to find out, they had brought out the container of powdered sugar which was the same as the cornstarch. We enjoyed our thin sweetened gravy that year and I learned to mark my containers since I always buy in bulk.
Beth Richards says
So many meals, so many disasters:
I forgot to add sugar to a blueberry pie, special birthday dinner for my dad.
I left the bread rise too long and had to bake it off the sides of the oven.
Steaks on Indoor grill caused smoke alarm to go off, waking up sleeping baby while toddler was stinking up kitchen with his own proud moment: showing guests his poo-poo in his potty chair.
Toddler added his own ingredients to large simmering pot of homemade applesauce: garlic powder.
Nicole says
My mother is a typical italian being an amazing cook. So the first time we decided to make homemade tiramisu for a very sick family friend I completely trusted her expertise. We used a handwritten recipe from her mother, my grandmother, and attempted to follow it to the letter. We even went as far as going to the very expensive gormet market down the road to buy the best ingredients possible, this was going to be the best, albet the most expensive tiramisu ever. At one point it said 1cup ground coffee. I followed my mothers lead and we continued to make the recipe. At the point when it was to go into the oven, my mother took a cooks taste of what was left in the bowl and made a funny face. I asked ‘whats wrong we followed the recipe to the letter’. She said ‘I am guessing when your grandmother said 1cup ground coffee she ment brewed not grounds.’ Needless to say we both learned the lesson tiramisu is not supposed to be ‘crunchy’.
Jen at The Three Little Piglets says
My husband got me some of those cute collapsible measuring cups for Mother’s Day (which I asked for). A few weeks later I was making biscotti, popped it into the oven and went to sit down and relax while it baked. This horrible smell starts wafting out of the kitchen, and upon entering the kitchen realize the biscotti how dripped down over the edge of the pan and was on fire at the bottom of the oven. Turns out I hadn’t popped the measuring cups all the way open and I only added about half of the flour the recipe called for! Don’t think I’ll be making that mistake anytime again soon! The oven was an absolute nightmare to clean.
Breann says
I burn the French/garlic/sourdough/rye bread, not to mention the white/wheat/cinnamon rolls… every single time. Sometimes to the point of flames. It is not an uncommon sight for my kids to see me rushing out the back door with a flaming broiler pan. So common in fact my Husband no longer rushes to my aid, he just calmly asks from the barka-lounger “again?”
Kaella Wilson says
What a great story! According to my mom, we all get payback for what we did to our parents with we have children of our own. No children for me yet, but I know I’m in for it 🙂
bridget {bake at 350} says
Hmm….probably a pie that bubbled over on the over floor and FILLED the house with smoke…and set off the alarms….all right before hubby got home from work!
Marlis says
I guess the worst disasters happened at the same Thanksgiving party. The evening before I placed a gargantuan, free-range, organic turkey in a large plastic bag. Then I poured wonderfully seasoned buttermilk brine in there and closed the zipper closure, just like the instructions said. As I was placing the 24 lb bird in the bottom of my fridge the zipper oppened spilling easily a half gallon of buttermilk and seasonings all over my kitchen floor. Fortunately I reacted quicly and was able to save much of the brine which hadn’t spilled. I learned… don’t follow manufacturer instructions but use abundant amounts of sturdy rubber bands and rope to close a bag holding a large bird along with copious amounts of liquid. I had to move appliances etc to clean the buttermilk away and it took forever. The next day, while whipping cream with my immersion blender and chatting with our company, I lifted the blender out of the cream forgetting that it was still running. We haven’t laughed this hard since. Whipped cream was everywhere! My clothes, hair, face, every cabinet door, wall, counter and even the ceiling. I continued to find cream splatters in unexpected places for weeks.
Jill @ Dulce Dough says
Oh what a mess Katie!
I have had lots of kitchen disasters, but the one I remember most was one my mom made. She was making chocolate sheet cake while talking on the phone. She really messed up the ingredients and the cake came out of the oven looking like brownies. They tasted awful! Grosser than gross! I remember my dad coming home from work and being very excited to see my mom had made brownies. I think he took about three bites before he realized that something was very wrong with my mom’s “brownies”. I will never forget the look on his face!
Jennifer says
The kitchen disaster I hate remembering is when I struggled for fifteen minutes to open the sewn top of my 10 lb. bag of jasmine rice, then turned my back to put the rice on the stove, only to turn back around and find the entire bag of rice spilled out all over the floor!
Marlis says
Ohh that is funny. I bet you found rice for months.
Dianne says
I loved this post. Not only did I love to laugh at the mess your little made, I loved your sharing your feelings of sharing with her your love of cooking.
Jamie Cuerrier says
When does this contest end?