topic Re: Cooking disasters in Community Chat

Cooking disasters

scotttie — Mon, 19 May 2014 23:05:17 GMT

I recall a couple as a young wife. Anybody want to share? This could be fun. My worst was trying to make baked beans from scratch. The recipe said 2 cups of dry beans....I used 2 pounds. You can imagine....

Re: Cooking disasters

PurpleBunny — Mon, 19 May 2014 23:06:58 GMT

I remember a Thanksgiving turkey when I was little that my Mom forgot to remove the bag of giblets from!!

Re: Cooking disasters

croemer — Mon, 19 May 2014 23:07:57 GMT

Alright I will embarrass myself once again and tell this story. I had never baked before as a young bride. I was making cookies and it called for Crisco...so gee I had a bottle of Crisco...lets say I was the real founder of pizza cookies. Large and crispy.

Re: Cooking disasters

croemer — Mon, 19 May 2014 23:11:12 GMT

On 5/19/2014 PurpleBunny said: I remember a Thanksgiving turkey when I was little that my Mom forgot to remove the bag of giblets from!!

My mother did that every year...no matter how many times she did it...she forgot and did it again.

My mother made a funny mistake one time. She had an oven above the stove. She was cooking chili on the stove and went to take the Apple Pie out of the oven...dropped the pie into the chili...scooped as much as she could out and never mentioned it. Well I have a discerning tongue noticed the sweetness instantly and mentioned it. She then fessed up. Must say it wasn't all that bad.There were no apples left just a bit of sugar and cinnamon.

Re: Cooking disasters

PurpleBunny — Mon, 19 May 2014 23:12:56 GMT

Cinnamon is the secret ingredient in many chili recipes!!!

Re: Cooking disasters

croemer — Mon, 19 May 2014 23:13:56 GMT

On 5/19/2014 PurpleBunny said: Cinnamon is the secret ingredient in many chili recipes!!!

Well...it tasted pretty good PB.

Re: Cooking disasters

sylviahomeatlast — Mon, 19 May 2014 23:14:24 GMT

I cooked a precook end ham with the wrapper on ---and as a novice cook, I , more than once cooked a turkey with the bag of giblets inside

Re: Cooking disasters

JustJules — Mon, 19 May 2014 23:31:58 GMT

On 5/19/2014 croemer said:
On 5/19/2014 PurpleBunny said: I remember a Thanksgiving turkey when I was little that my Mom forgot to remove the bag of giblets from!!

My mother did that every year...no matter how many times she did it...she forgot and did it again.

My mother made a funny mistake one time. She had an oven above the stove. She was cooking chili on the stove and went to take the Apple Pie out of the oven...dropped the pie into the chili...scooped as much as she could out and never mentioned it. Well I have a discerning tongue noticed the sweetness instantly and mentioned it. She then fessed up. Must say it wasn't all that bad.There were no apples left just a bit of sugar and cinnamon.

Okay, that is hilarious!!!! Hope you add some apple pie to your chili now. LOL!

Scottie, 2 POUNDS of beans? Seriously? I won't even start with the gas jokes, but wow!

My mom was an excellent cook and her specialty was baking, her pastry was divine. I wish I had paid more attention to her cooking through the years, and I do okay, but it all seemed to come so natural to her, she rarely used a recipe. I know she learned from her mom and sisters, and my dad told me a story of when they were newlyweds. My mom was the baby girl in a family with 1 brother and 3 older sisters, and she left England to come to Kansas all by herself to marry my dad after WWII. She was a brave chick! She knew nobody, and she was doing her best to be the perfect wife. She decided to make a roasted chicken for my dad, and they didn't have much money, so it was a splurge and special meal. She put it in the oven with all the veggies, carrots and onions, and it got nice and golden brown, but she didn't cook it long enough at the right temperature. My daddy said that chicken was so rubbery you could play basketball with it. It wasn't cooked through, although it looked gorgeous on the outside, and my mom was devastated. My sweet parents were married nearly 62 years before my mom died, and they recalled that story so many times and laughed. My mom managed to figure out how to bake a delicious chicken, but that was one of their moments they always found funny. Every time I bake a chicken I think of her and that story.

My baking disasters would be when I was young. Like I said, my mom made the best pastry, and she would always let me help. She always reminded me not to overwork it or it would get tough, but I would roll it out and try to male some tarts or turnovers. Sometimes I would drop it on the floor, and she would help me pick it up and clean it off. She would help me cut out the tarts, put them in a baking pan and fill them with jam. All the time she would tell me how much daddy would love these (yeah, right, lol) So when it was time for dessert, and dad would have an awesome pie waiting for him, and my tarts that had been on the floor, of course he would take some of both. I can remember my mom just smiling and saying what a great job I did, and dad eating the overworked pastry and telling me how delicious they were. I can only imagine the conversations they had at night and the giggles they shared. My poor dad had to eat lots of my creations, including the cakes from my Easy-Bake Oven. Cakes baked by light bulb.... oh my.

Re: Cooking disasters

Hoovermom — Mon, 19 May 2014 23:48:24 GMT

I guess mine would be that I could not cook the sausage links because they kept falling apart in the skillet. Yes, I did take all of the thin membrane off before cooking.

Re: Cooking disasters

PurpleBunny — Tue, 20 May 2014 00:31:59 GMT

I started cooking young, so I've always been pretty good at it. The only disaster I can think of was a few years back ... I was nearly done with my Thanksgiving cooking when I noticed one of my long, red nails missing. I nearly had a stroke at the thought of someone finding it in the meal. THANKFULLY, I eventually found it in the sink amongst the vegetable peels!!

Re: Cooking disasters

MaggieToo — Tue, 20 May 2014 00:41:50 GMT

Early into the marriage and in a new house that had an electric range. I was making pancakes and was whipping the batter in a plastic bowl. I got distracted and set the bowl down on a dark burner, which was still hot. I wasn't thinking. The bowl melted and batter seeped through everywhere on the stove. It was a real mess trying to clean it up.

Re: Cooking disasters

shoptilyadropagain — Tue, 20 May 2014 00:45:44 GMT

Growing up, I took Foods in 4-H and was going to make cookies. I was making a practice batch and tasted one from the first batch I had baked. They were sooooo SALTY. My mom and I came to the conclusion that I had used salt instead of sugar. To this day, I HATE baking and never bake anything (well, other than a casserole). I don't even own cookie sheets.

Re: Cooking disasters

scotttie — Tue, 20 May 2014 00:59:24 GMT

These are all so funny and heartwarming (jules). Keep them coming. The rest of the story with my beans was that it was for some family occasion. I forget what...Thanksgiving maybe. My sil was young like me and she brought a cake that looked like the mice had been at it. It must have stuck to the pan. It had holes all over. Those were the days....mom and dad, we were young, had our babies...

Re: Cooking disasters

kittymomNC — Tue, 20 May 2014 01:12:46 GMT

I have a couple I've never forgotten:

I was a cheerleader in high school, and one Saturday morning we had to meet at school for a special practice. My mom had put on a pot of pinto beans to cook before she left for work and told me to make sure I turned them off before I left. Off I went to my practice and returned 3 hours later to a house filled with smoke! I ran through the house, upstairs, back downstairs, and was headed for the basement stairs, which were right next to the stove. OMG, there sat the pot of beans. Thankfully it had not melted and a real fire had not started--but when I finally managed to pry off the lid, there were little bits of charcoal in the bottom. I worked on that pot (Revere Ware) for 2 weeks until I got it back in shape for my mom to use it again!

I had cooked off and on as I was growing up (apparently didn't do too well with beans!), but was certainly no expert at anything. As a newly married young woman, I decided to make chicken & dumplings. Dummy me, I didn't go by a recipe of any kind-I thought I knew what to do. So I cooked the chicken, took it out of the pot to cool, and proceeded to add cornstarch to the broth to thicken it. (Not sure now what I was planning to use for the dumplings!) It got thicker, and thicker, and thicker, and..........I wound up with a 5-qt Dutch oven full of chicken flavored starch! Needless to say, I had to throw the whole batch out. I guess we ate the chicken, but it was a while before I learned to make the chicken and dumplings.

My husband and my father-in-law were hunters, and they came home one day with a pheasant. My FIL put it in a pot, cooked it, dumped some milk into the broth, quickly made the dough and pinched off pieces and dropped it in the broth--the flour thickened the broth and --- pheasant and dumplings! Delicious! I've tweaked it a bit, but still use the same basic method and I make great chicken and dumplings!

Re: Cooking disasters

brewhaha — Tue, 20 May 2014 01:28:26 GMT

I wanted to make shrimp canton so I googled some recipes. Instead of typing canton I typed tampon. I couldn't understand why I couldn't find any recipes. After a while, I finally realized my mistake.

Re: Cooking disasters

scotttie — Tue, 20 May 2014 01:51:24 GMT

On 5/19/2014 brewhaha said:
I wanted to make shrimp canton so I googled some recipes. Instead of typing canton I typed tampon. I couldn't understand why I couldn't find any recipes. After a while, I finally realized my mistake.

Re: Cooking disasters

scotttie — Tue, 20 May 2014 01:51:40 GMT

THese are great stories girls. I'm enjoying very much.

Re: Cooking disasters

JustJules — Tue, 20 May 2014 02:11:14 GMT

On 5/19/2014 brewhaha said:
I wanted to make shrimp canton so I googled some recipes. Instead of typing canton I typed tampon. I couldn't understand why I couldn't find any recipes. After a while, I finally realized my mistake.

Shrimp tampons sound gross... you always make me laugh Brew. Hope you got your shrimp canton sorted.

Re: Cooking disasters

JustJules — Tue, 20 May 2014 02:14:57 GMT

On 5/19/2014 kittymomNC said:
I have a couple I've never forgotten:

I was a cheerleader in high school, and one Saturday morning we had to meet at school for a special practice. My mom had put on a pot of pinto beans to cook before she left for work and told me to make sure I turned them off before I left. Off I went to my practice and returned 3 hours later to a house filled with smoke! I ran through the house, upstairs, back downstairs, and was headed for the basement stairs, which were right next to the stove. OMG, there sat the pot of beans. Thankfully it had not melted and a real fire had not started--but when I finally managed to pry off the lid, there were little bits of charcoal in the bottom. I worked on that pot (Revere Ware) for 2 weeks until I got it back in shape for my mom to use it again!

I had cooked off and on as I was growing up (apparently didn't do too well with beans!), but was certainly no expert at anything. As a newly married young woman, I decided to make chicken & dumplings. Dummy me, I didn't go by a recipe of any kind-I thought I knew what to do. So I cooked the chicken, took it out of the pot to cool, and proceeded to add cornstarch to the broth to thicken it. (Not sure now what I was planning to use for the dumplings!) It got thicker, and thicker, and thicker, and..........I wound up with a 5-qt Dutch oven full of chicken flavored starch! Needless to say, I had to throw the whole batch out. I guess we ate the chicken, but it was a while before I learned to make the chicken and dumplings.

My husband and my father-in-law were hunters, and they came home one day with a pheasant. My FIL put it in a pot, cooked it, dumped some milk into the broth, quickly made the dough and pinched off pieces and dropped it in the broth--the flour thickened the broth and --- pheasant and dumplings! Delicious! I've tweaked it a bit, but still use the same basic method and I make great chicken and dumplings!

Kittymom, that is the best story!!!!! What a great way to learn to make dumplings. I love chicken & dumplings, but never made them because for some reason my daddy didn't like them. I have not perfected them, but I like them lots.

Re: Cooking disasters

SydneyH — Tue, 20 May 2014 02:19:04 GMT

I must have been really paying attention to my mother, who is master at baking, cooking and entertaining. I can't recall any mishaps right now.