Cooking blunders - share your best

[Greta]

My mom is the same way.  I always wanted to skip the decades of practice and go straight to the "experienced cook" stage.  I now have the decades, but don't feel experienced!

 

 

 

 

 

I feel exactly the same way!!!

 

 

The above sounds like chocolate frosting for Texas sheet cake!  Mmmmmm... 

:drool5: 

 

 

Well, my Mom's an Oklahoman, so she doesn't call it that.  But it's probably the same thing!  :lol:

 

 

 

 

Just think how much you've learned from those experiences!  They've made you a GREAT cook, I'm sure!

 

I've eventually become an adequate cook.  Not great, by any means.  My daughter says that I have a real knack for potatoes, that no matter how I make them they always come out the best.  I think that's just because it's hard to mess up a potato.  :D

[kiana]

My mom is the same way.  I always wanted to skip the decades of practice and go straight to the "experienced cook" stage.  I now have the decades, but don't feel experienced!

 

Yeah, I always thought I was a terrible cook because I couldn't do it intuitively like my mother. Turns out it was the result of much practice and many failed dinners on her part before I was born. Who'da thunk?!

[Chelle in MO]

I feel exactly the same way!!!

 

 

:drool5: 

 

 

Well, my Mom's an Oklahoman, so she doesn't call it that.  But it's probably the same thing!   :lol:

 

 

I've eventually become an adequate cook.  Not great, by any means.  My daughter says that I have a real knack for potatoes, that no matter how I make them they always come out the best.  I think that's just because it's hard to mess up a potato.   :D

 

My mom's a Missourian, so we don't call it that, either!  We call it "Mom's Chocolate Sheet Cake."   haha   I just used that name so I could be reasonably sure you'd know what I was talking about!    :D

 

"Adequate" is the perfect word for how I feel about my cooking.  But I think part of that, for me, is a self-confidence thing.  I think I *might* be a little better cook than I give myself credit for.  At least as far as my limited repertoire goes! 

 

That's a sweet daughter you have!  She's going to be telling people that she wishes her food would turn out as good as yours!  

 

 

Yeah, I always thought I was a terrible cook because I couldn't do it intuitively like my mother. Turns out it was the result of much practice and many failed dinners on her part before I was born. Who'da thunk?!

 

I don't like that it works that way!   :tongue_smilie:

Edited January 28, 2017 by Chelle in MO

[littlebug42]

One of my daughter's hobbies is cake decorating.  We were asked to do cupcakes for my BIL's wedding.  I was making the cupcakes and after about 100 of them were made, realized that all of the paint was chipping off of the paddle on my Kitchenaid mixer.  Had no idea how long it had been going on.  So, had to run out to get a new paddle and redo all of those cupcakes. 

 

On a side note, do not make red velvet cupcakes on the morning of a wedding where you are the matron of honor.  Or if you do, wear gloves when handling the food coloring.   

 

I have also set the stove on fire and burned many dishcloths/potholders/pans because I have a problem with turning on the wrong burners. 

[Greta]

My mom's a Missourian, so we don't call it that, either!  We call it "Mom's Chocolate Sheet Cake."   haha   I just used that name so I could be reasonably sure you'd know what I was talking about!    :D

 

"Adequate" is the perfect word for how I feel about my cooking.  But I think part of that, for me, is a self-confidence thing.  I think I *might* be a little better cook than I give myself credit for.  At least as far as my limited repertoire goes! 

 

That's a sweet daughter you have!  She's going to be telling people that she wishes her food would turn out as good as yours!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Haha!  Re: calling it Texas sheet cake, yeah that worked!  I knew what you meant!

 

Yes, my daughter is very sweet-natured, and also my husband has set a good example for her:  he always thanks me for a meal.  Sometimes his gratitude is more enthusiastic than others, but even when he doesn't particularly care for it, he still thanks me!  It definitely helps you feel more motivated to cook when people are grateful for it.  I wish I was a better cook for their sakes.  Some people have a real talent.  I have a friend who is an amazing cook.  I don't know how she does it.  Every single thing that she makes, it's the best version of that food you've ever had!  It's like magic.  I'm so jealous.

[Chelle in MO]

Haha!  Re: calling it Texas sheet cake, yeah that worked!  I knew what you meant!

 

Yes, my daughter is very sweet-natured, and also my husband has set a good example for her:  he always thanks me for a meal.  Sometimes his gratitude is more enthusiastic than others, but even when he doesn't particularly care for it, he still thanks me!  It definitely helps you feel more motivated to cook when people are grateful for it.  I wish I was a better cook for their sakes.  Some people have a real talent.  I have a friend who is an amazing cook.  I don't know how she does it.  Every single thing that she makes, it's the best version of that food you've ever had!  It's like magic.  I'm so jealous.

 

Such a sweet compliment of your husband!! Mine is the same way--very appreciative of my meal efforts! And like you, that definitely motivates me to cook more!  

 

My dh would love it if I were a more adventurous cook, but it's not in my nature.   :laugh: What I do cook I cook pretty well, but I know he would like a wider variety.  Part of my problem is that I can't often justify making something that only *he* will eat. 

 

I have a friend like that, too! She owns a catering business. Anytime I go by there, I drool over what she's making. She makes it seem so easy.  

[Mandamom]

This wasn't my cooking but I was in the room.  

 

We were at my parent's house and my dad, the main cook in the family, decided to make some biscuits. He looked up a recipe and we got everything into the oven. When the timer went off we pulled the biscuits out and realized they looked funny. They were far from tasty. After dad thought a little bit, he looked at the baking powder box and realized that it had expired 11 years prior. 

 

In case it isn't' obvious, he rarely bakes. 

 

 

[ILiveInFlipFlops]

This thread is cracking me up  :lol:

 

I'm a major recipe follower because I just can't bear to risk a good meal and perfectly good ingredients on taking a chance on my terrible memory, so I don't have too many blunders. There is one, though, that I can't seem to stop making *sigh*

 

In my family, I'm famous for making Quiver's cinnamon buns. When we take an extended family vacation (a total of 12 people) to the beach every year, my family members, who start their mornings at various times, all plan around the cinnamon buns on cinnamon bun morning. It's a tradition. They come out perfect every single time. Because I make them for breakfast, I start them the night before, let them do the second rise in the fridge overnight, let them warm up and rise a little more on the counter the next morning, and bake them to glorious, light-brown perfection in the reliable, modern, expensive oven at our beach house. However...

 

Twice a year--New Year's Eve and in the summer when the other side of the family visits us--I make the same cinnamon buns for dessert. Because they're for dessert, I can't do the overnight fridge rise, so I have to do the second (trickier, most important!) rise in my terrible, barely insulated, 1950s, original-to-the-house, tiny wall oven. It is a gas oven, so there's a pilot, but because the oven is so poorly insulated, the pilot isn't enough to keep the oven warm. I boil a pot of water to put in there with it, but that only provides enough warmth to get the rise about halfway done. So, every. single. time. I make them at home, halfway through the second rise--which, of course, is always happening while the guests are here, so I'm already totally distracted--I think to myself, "I'm going to turn on the oven for juuuuust a minute, to warm it up, and then I'll turn it right back off." And every. single. time. I leave the oven on for some ridiculous amount of time. I'm not exaggerating when I say this has happened at least six times. Thank goodness I manage to somehow salvage the whole thing each time, but I'll tell you, those stupid cinnamon buns are NEVER as good as they are at the beach!!!!

 

Oh, and on top of that, my terrible oven's thermometer is way off, so between trying to get the temperature to the right level, the lack of insulation, and the fact that it's so small that putting two pans of anything in it makes the temp skyrocket but also cook everything unevenly...well, it's kind of hard to get all of that right when you're only baking something for 10 minutes! I made the buns again this New Year's Eve and while they looked perfect, some of the middle ones were under-done and gooey-er than they should have been. Fortunately, Quiver's cinnamon buns have many redeeming qualities. My reputation remains intact thus far :lol:

Edited January 29, 2017 by ILiveInFlipFlops

[LisaKinVA]

Honestly, I haven't had any huge ones as an adult (I don't count trying bad recipes as MY blunders ;)  )  My kids have had some funny ones.

 

The first thing I ever became really good at making was biscuits.  Keep in mind, I am not a southerner by birth.  I was born and raised in California, to two native Californians whose idea of biscuits came from a can.  I make a biscuit apparently worthy of being dreamed about (one review...haha).

 

But, I did not start that way.

 

One of my first attempts at biscuits from scratch (vs. the Bisquick box), I used Baking Soda instead of Baking Powder and Accent Salt vs. regular salt.  They tasted like soap.  They were completely inedible even to my dumpster-diving, mold-scraping-off, iron-stomach of a father.  

 

Today, the most difficult lessons I'm trying to teach my oldest daughter and son revolve around the properly made biscuit.  Thankfully, they know the difference between the ingredients.  But, they really like to over-mix and over-knead.  The flavor is fine -- but the flat lumps lack the soft, flaky, tenderness of their mother's.  I expect they will learn one day!

[alisoncooks]

I was planning a Benihana/Teppanyaki-type dinner for my family.  I found a recipe for the appetizer shrimp & it called for heating a pan, then adding oil, then tossing in the shrimp for a few minutes.  Well, I must've had the wrong sort of pan or oil because it got soooo hot.  When I added my oil, it all flashed up into a flame.  Tall flame.  Up past my over-oven microwave, smoke billowing.  My kiddos (and I) were horrified.

 

I'll admit that I panicked.  Should've dropped a lid on that sucker, but I picked it up by the handle and ran around the kitchen with a flaming pan.  Then I tossed it out the back door. :o  That pan was toast.  And we still have a giant, round scorch mark on the back porch. 

 

Luckily nothing caught fire but my (white) microwave and cabinets were black from the smoke.  

We didn't have Benihana-style shrimp for dinner that night...

[Night Elf]

A few days ago I made a jello pudding fluff, basically FF/SF pudding mix, FF cool whip and canned fruit, a tasty low calorie dessert. The consistency was off but I figured it would set up. It tastes good too but not quite like usual. I just realized, after we've eaten more than half of it, that I forgot the pudding mix! DH is laughing at me. Good grief.

[Moonhawk]

Newly married, my DH said he liked ham and lentil soup.  He even had the recipe he liked the most. I'd never had it before, I don't think I'd ever had a lentil before, actually. I thought I would surprise him by making it.  And I did! I followed the recipe to the T, not an i was left undotted cook-wise.  

 

My only problem was that I used split peas instead of lentils. 

 

(I continue to make Ham and lentil soup to this day, but I will never do anything involving split peas. )

[Storygirl]

These are funny!

 

I've had a few things that didn't turn out as planned. But my biggest cooking fail was a day when I made crucial errors. Twice.

 

That morning, I woke up to find that the sausages I had planned to fix for dinner had sat out on the counter top all night long. I had taken them out of the freezer but forgot to put them in the fridge. That put a damper on my spirits, but I rallied and found some chicken in the fridge.

 

I needed a crock pot meal that day, because we would be arriving at home after our extracurricular activity at 6:15. The recipe for the chicken was not hard but involved making a sauce, so I spent awhile preparing it that morning -- time I had not really allotted. So I was miffed but glad to have figured something out.

 

DH arrived home that evening a few minutes before us, so he ended up breaking the news to me. The chicken was still raw. When I turned the crock pot on, I inadvertently set the knob so that it was between low and high. Which the crock pot evidently interpreted to mean, "don't cook this."

 

So I had to put two main dishes in the trash that day. I was too upset to turn around and go out for dinner, so I boiled some spaghetti and poured sauce from a jar on top, banging pots and muttering, "Just leave me alone," when DH offered to help.

 

Needless to say, the kids loved their dinner. For some reason, I couldn't share their enthusiasm.

[LucyStoner]

All of our funny cooking stories seem to involve my husband getting a wee bit too creative with the flavor combinations.

 

I came to the marriage a pretty skilled, comfortable cook. Certainly I've made some goofs over the years like burning something but nothing that's too amusing. Once when I was 17 I started to toss water on a grease fire. This was pre-marriage but in my first apartment. 😳 Luckily there was nothing over my stove to get damaged. I'm now a bit neurotic about keeping baking soda and a fire extinguisher in the kitchen but I've never done that again and it's been almost 20 years. 🔥

Edited January 29, 2017 by LucyStoner