Happy humpday, yall!
For once it really IS humpday for me since I got the weekend off!! =) This morning I woke up absolutely and completely famished. Seriously, it was all I could do to throw on my whites and get to the kitchen to make breakfast. I was so hungry!
So, for breakfast I had the remains of the carton of stoneyfield plain nonfat (about 3/4ths cup?) and I topped it with a sliced banana and berries. On the side I had a toasted ezekiel muffin with a healthyyy spoonful of peanut butter and some jam.
As usual, breakfast did the trick and I felt a ton better. It kept me going until “snacktime” at 9:30. Haha 🙂 Today, my lunchbox included a plain ol’ hummus & provolone sammie on fiber bread:
With a huuuge crisp red apple, almonds, a yogurt and a pure protein bar thingy. I ate the apple with my sandwich (while I worked—no lunch break today!), had the yogurt mid-morning and saved the bar for after work while I ran errands to get ready for a workout. I didn’t end up eating the almonds. I always pack them though “just in case”!
After work, I snacked on that pure protein bar for a pre-workout snack. I really liked this chocolate chip kind. The entire time I was eating it I kept thinking to myself, “this does NOT taste anything like a protein bar!” I felt like I was eating a chocolate chip cookie bar of some sorts so two thumbs up from me!
I worked out in my “parent’s” weight room this evening instead of the gym, since it was prime meat-head hour. I did have a pretty good upper body workout though! Here’s what I did:
A couple minutes on the elliptical to warm up
2 sets of stability-ball pushups—15 reps each set
2 sets of standing bent over row—15 lbs, 15 reps
2 sets assisted pullups—15 reps
2 sets lat pulldowns—50 lbs, 15 reps
2 sets overhead triceps extensions—20 lbs, 15 reps
2 sets dumbbell curls-–12 lbs, 15 reps
2 sets fly machine—30 lbs, 15 reps
2 sets lat raises—8 lbs, 15 reps
total workout time = 30 minutes
And then, I decided to have breakfast for dinner! Breakfast is actually my favorite meal of the day but I’m so strange about it. I LOVE pancakes, waffles and eggs but I would rather save those for dinner and have oats or yogurt in the morning. Essentially, I like to eat two breakfasts a day!
When I went to University of Alabama, the house cook at our sorority would make breakfast for dinner every Wednesday night. Girls, we had the FIXINS’!!!! She would cook up pancakes, eggs, waffles, buttermilk biscuits, bacon, gravy, sausage, eggs………I looked forward to that night all week long!! We all would work out harder at the gym the next morning but it was totally worth it! 🙂
As for tonight, I had been eyeing Miss Caitlin’s “french waffles” for awhile now so I thought I would give them a shot! I took two Kashi Go Lean Blueberry Waffles and toasted them lightly and them drowned them in a concoction of one egg + one egg white (beaten) with a splash of silk light vanilla and tons of cinnamon. Once they were thoroughly soaked, I cooked them on a hot griddle for about 5 minutes per side and topped them with about 2 tbsp of pure maple syrup. I also cooked up a couple pieces of organic turkey bacon and had a pear on his last leg.
The verdict? I liked them a lot! I think I still prefer traditional french toast made with day old country bread the best, but this was a fun change and was healthy!
Unfortunately, I was hungry again not even an hour later. I made a mess of a 0% fage, 1/2 cup puffins and a teensy pb&j. Love it. My metabolism is really revved up these days…that’s for sure! Although I really do need to stop eating the chocolate chips at work. That is my new daily goal. I seriously have ZERO self control!
As for my work day. All I can say is phewwwwwwwwwwww. It was a long one. And super jam packed. I ate my sandwich while pulling bread out of the oven at rapid speed. Adam took the day off and left another crazy packed list (I didn’t finish about five things on it!) and everything just seemed a bit stressful. I think it became stressful the moment when the blender exploded on me while I was grinding cinnamon sticks since we were out of cinnamon for the pumpkin pie filling. That was at, oh, 7:30 this morning. Lovely. Once the cinnamon was ground up it apparently wasn’t fine enough because when the pie came out there were huge chunks of cinnamon sticks in it and I had to toss it. Wonderful. Other than that little catastrophe things were just peachy!
I baked a TON of cookies first thing. A dozen of each—-chocolate chunk, reverse chocolate, oatmeal raisin, white chocolate macadamia nut and pecan scotties:
And I had to make more soft white rolls (think Parker House Rolls mmmmm) for lunch service:
As well as………….olive focaccia!!!!!!!!
Oh man, was it ever amazing today. Totally worth the process of peeling, steaming and grating pounds of potatoes. I formed each free form loaf to be 1#6oz and I had about 4oz of dough left over. What to do?! I baked a mini one!
And I dug in for a bite as soon as it came out of the oven. We literally “poach” these babies in evoo in the oven and as a result, they are nothing short of heavenly.
After the breads were done, I baked off some cheddar wafers, made some pizza dough and froze it and also baked mini blueberry muffins for a breakfast meeting tomorrow morning:
And then I made some pate a choux cream puffs to be filled probably tomorrow for a function this weekend:
Once our purveyors came and brought us real cinnamon, I was able to make 6 lbs of candied pecans (we use them in our signature house salad–yum!):
And I think I spent the last 45 minutes in the walk-in cooler, organizing, labeling and putting away orders that were brought in today. Then it was a scrub down cleaning job and I was out!
Now for a fun ending!! My friends at Quaker told me I could give away a Quaker Goody Pack to one of my readers!!!!!!!!!!! Who shall it be??!!! I want to hear your craziest cooking/baking story (keep it one paragraph or shorter though please—we don’t have time to read an essay!) and tomorrow afternoon, Ryan will pick the one that he thinks is the craziest and most outrageous. But don’t make anything up! Yall have to promise! The winner will be sent a huge Quaker boxful of treats. How good does that sound? They are mighty generous over there in oatmeal land!
edited to add: Contest cut-off is at 3:00! I am literally dying laughing reading all yall’s stories!!!!!
Katie
October 22, 2008 at 11:29 pmThis is a faux baking story about double “booze” bread. I thawed some frozen whole wheat bread dough and then left it to rise during the day while I was gone at class. Well, I went out for drinks after class and ended up being home at about 9 at night. So the dough was left to rise for about 13 hours. I figured what the hell and popped it in the oven. When it came out my husband and I ate it warm out of the oven and at first it tasted great. After a couple of bites it starting tasting like whiskey bread. Guess I let it rise too long! Moral of the story is have your drinks separate from your bread:)
Julia
October 22, 2008 at 11:39 pmMy friend and I decided (6th grade) that we’d gather wild edibles and then try to turn them into more traditional foods. So, we gathered, oh, about 500bagillion acorns from my backyard, stomped on them, hammered them, just in general tried to pulverize them into “acorn flour,” and then we added a bit of water thus making acorn paste (I’m sure we didn’t even wash them). We put this paste consisting solely of acorns and H2O onto a scalding hot non-sprayed skillet. We thought we were making delicious acorn pancakes. We were disproved when a small kitchen fire soon broke out. Our house smelled terrible for days and the skillet was retired to the trash compactor. So much for us playing Hatchet!
polly
October 22, 2008 at 11:40 pmHi Jenna! I love your messes. Sammie over at Running with a Recipe started somethin’… I must try a mess!
Okay, cooking story… you might think I am crazy, but when I was in college I cooked a lot for my boyfriend (now hubby) and my roomie Aimee was a California girl from LA. She looooved Mexican food and I was a farm girl from the midwest and my experience with mexican was like ground beef and corn chips. Well, I got some packets of taco seasoning (and was freaking out because I was SURE they had bugs in them! (note: the bugs were just the seasoning flecks) but I kept throwing out my hamburger meat and starting over. I am not sure how many packets and how much meat I threw out before someone told me they were NOT bugs!
The Healthy Hostess
October 22, 2008 at 11:42 pmHi Jenna!
So my story involves baking, running and stress! My girlfriend, Jen and I have a cookie business. One day when we were making cookies for a shower we realized we had used the last of the butter in the cookies and needed a little more for icing. We decided instead of stop our process, we would throw the cookies in the oven and literally run to the store – about .6 miles away, so not too far. So we ran out the door with the cookies in the oven and the timer set for 16 min. We would have been fine except I tripped and started bleeding all down my leg and both hands. I stopped for a min. to catch my composure and decided blood was nothing (even though I was covered)…and cookies were about to burn, so we took off running. We actually made it before they burned.
🙂
VeggieGirl
October 22, 2008 at 11:46 pmFrench waffles + “mess” = YUM!! 🙂
FUN contest!!! My story probably isn’t too crazy, but here it is:
When I was younger (about 9 or 10 years old), I was baking a batch of peanut butter cookies for the first time. When the cookies came out of the oven, they were HUUUUUUUGE, and they tasted INEDIBLE!!! BLECH!!! Turns out I used 1/2 CUP of baking soda instead of 1/2 TABLESPOON. My mom called Poison Control after this one 😀
Amy
October 22, 2008 at 11:49 pmawesome day with fabulous food = yay!
breakfast is my fave meal of the day too–i wish i could be more relaxed with myself and just have it for dinner too like you! looks delicious though 😀
those candied pecans….yummm. they make the most boring of salads to-die-for i bet.
raybelle
October 22, 2008 at 11:50 pmI had the craziest cooking experience when i was in west africa (“gap year” between college and high school). after a few days of rain, the strangest thing happened! millions and millions of flying termites flooded the compound where my friend and i were staying. the termites were so pervasive that we had to lock ourselves inside of a room and keep the lights down for a night. well, the following morning i smelled something delicious roasting on the open stove. i wandered over to the little kitchen where bags, buckets and bowl-fulls of de-winged termites were being kept before they were fried up in a vat of palm oil! i barely had time to gasp at the sight of thousands of dead bugs eyeballing me (granted, i was getting used to eating out of my comfort zone) before one of the cooks offered me a handful of freshly fried termites. respectfully, i ate a few–and to my suprise! i like them–especially with extra salt.
i still laugh at the thought of chewing on fried termites, a delicacy among some west Africans, when i see the local exterminator van drive by.
Julz
October 23, 2008 at 12:04 amUmm totally not scandalous, and VERY INNOCENT I TELL YA! I was five years old and thought that it would be cool to bake a cake for my birthday. Well, the cake was already made and eaten… It was the next evening – The night after my birthday, but I wanted to bake another one! There was one piece left, a little one, so I took it out of the fridge and wrapped it up in TIN FOIL THINKING IT WOULD SOMEHOW MAKE IT PUFF UP LIKE A CAKE???? Yeah, only I knew I wasn’t allowed to use the oven and was obviously too small to reach it, so I just threw it in the OL’ MICROWAVE. I went upstairs to go to bed and fell asleep… Obviously my mom put me to sleep, and didn’t think I had been downstairs in the kitchen. The fire alarms started BLARING in the house and before my parents knew what was going on, the fire department had sent A FLEET of FIRE TRUCKS to our house— The sirens are blaring, dogs are going INSANE, everyone is running around like mad and I SLEPT THROUGH THE ENTIRE THING. It didn’t burn down the house, but it sure did a number in the KITCHEN! Even as my parents grabbed my brother and I and our pets, I still managed to stay OUT LIKE A LIGHT 🙂 In my Daddy’s arms… My mom always said that I could sleep on a median strip 😉 And now that I think of it… I never did end up savoring my last piece of birthday cake 😉
Julz
October 23, 2008 at 12:11 am-PS- Maybe your body is missing its daily chocolate… Didn’t you used to have your piece of chocolate every night? LOL Or maybe you should eat those Almonds afterall haha
Katie
October 23, 2008 at 12:13 amWhen I was in about sixth grade, my parents decided my friend Kaitlin and I could stay home alone. I’d just gotten a MicroBake (remember those?!) for Christmas, and after calling and asking permission to use the microwave, we got ready to bake. My neighbor, Franklin, offered to go to the grocery store and get the cake mix needed for the MicroBake. When everything was ready, we read the instructions CAREFULLY, twice, and plopped the MicroBake in. We left the kitchen to go watch the Goosebumps TV show (ha!) and came back a little later to check on it. The microwave was IN FLAMES! Franklin helped extinguish the fire, but it was a pretty traumatic first baking experience! When my parents called MicroBake customer service, they got the message “Thank you for calling the MicroBake re-call line…”
Shandi
October 23, 2008 at 12:19 amMy crazy cooking story was when I made acorn squash for the first time. I read online that you need to bake a halved acorn squash cute side down in a pan of water.Since they didn’t specify amount of water, I just kinda guessed. Anyway, halfway through I checked on it and the water had all dried up.. SO.. silly me thought it would be a great idea to pour more water in the pan. When the colder water hit the HOT HOT pan.. smoky steam shot up and filled the oven. It burnt my hand so bad that I dropped the glass measuring cup of water on the hardwood floor.. water going everywhere.. and in the process.. the cold water also hit the glass door of the stove and cracked all over like a sheet of ice! A burnt hand, a watery mess, and a broken stove door later… I had a bowl of oatmeal. haha.. (not really… just thought that would be funny if i opt for oats!)
Ashley
October 23, 2008 at 12:26 amHi Jenna. My baking story is from a few years ago when I was a newlywed. I love baking and was in the mood from something tasty. I was making banana bread and had sorted all my ingredients, dry together, wet together and got on my way. I started with muffins and I poured the mix into each little hole and was excited to see how the turned out. My husband came over and looked at me, asking why the batter was so gooey. I replied, in defense of the banana bread and my pride, they need to bake first! Well little did I know that he saw the bowl of dry ingredients sitting right next to me. I completely forgot to mix the wet and dry ingredients! SO I made a huge mess pouring little cupcake holders of wet banana mixture into the dry ingredients bowl. It was a lesson well learned 🙂
Tracy
October 23, 2008 at 12:44 amOne night I decided I wanted to make bread in our bread machine, to make things easier I just bought a mix at the store. After performing almost all of the steps off of the box I couldn’t find a packet of yeast to put in the bread. I asked my mom about it and she asked if I had misplaced it anywhere but I assured her that I hadn’t. I then smartly told her that the yeast must have been put in the mix to begin with. When the bread was done it came out looking really flat and dense, obviously there hadn’t been any yeast in the mix. During dinner I kept wondering about the yeast until when I was cleaning up and found the small package of yeast underneath the cardboard box that the bread mix came in. I guess mother really does know best!
Gingersnap
October 23, 2008 at 12:49 amMy story…one Thanksgiving we went over to my Dad’s house for the supper. There wasn’t any extended family gathering that year, but they did have over two couples that also didn’t have extended family suppers that year. I agreed to take my ‘signature’ cookie, my gingersnaps (although really they are soft ginger spice cookies :)). So…to keep this short, I totally forgot to add the ginger, so when all of the tipsy company bit into them during dessert, they all started talking, and saying things like, “Oh! these molasses cookies are delicious, but I really wanted to try one of the famous ginger cookies!” We eventually figured it out…but they were drunk-y and so it was TREMENDOUSLY funny, and I was embarrassed due to the company :). At least they were still scrumptious!
smjohnson30
October 23, 2008 at 12:53 amA few summers back when I still lived at home, I was in between undergrad and going to grad school, I came inside to make lunch for my dad, my brother, and me. We’d all been working out in the yard and were hungry for some carbs; opening the freezer I saw a Freschetta pizza that looked like it would fit my cravings just fine. I popped the pizza into my parents’ brand new oven, and saw a latch, and flipped that over as well….you know, to “lock” the pizza in there! Twenty minutes later when the timer went off, I tried to open the oven door, and it was literally locked shut! My dad came inside and informed me that I had turned on the cleaning mechanism! The oven door wouldn’t open for another solid 45 minutes until the oven temperature had cooled to a safe degee….when the pizza came out it was a pile of black soot!
Jenny
October 23, 2008 at 12:56 amMy crazy cooking story involves the beloved holiday which is Thanksgiving. Well, about two Thanksgiving ago I volunteered to cook dinner, and I wanted to go all out. You know, homemade mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and of course the TURKEY. Well, the day of Thanksgiving I felt ready to set out on my culinary adventure. Little did I know that disaster was about to strike. So, I’m in the kitchen when my darling younger brother comes in as I am stuffing the turkey. Well, he said he wanted to get his hands dirty and help me out, and because I was in the holiday spirit, (and completely overwhelmed), I said, “Of course you can help. Finish stuffing the turkey while I start on the potatoes.” Well, he finishes with the stuffing, and into the oven goes my maple orange brined turkey with cornbread chorizo stuffing. Soon family members start to arrive, and the turkey has been in for 1 hour when all of sudden . . . BOOM!!!!! Something had exploded in the oven and the oven was a MESS!!! I was completely baffled and did not understand what had happened. Meanwhile, family members are yelling, “What happened . . . What’s going on?” Well after some investigating, I found my brother’s watch melted into my beautiful stuffing. Apparently, he had not adjusted his watch and while he was stuffing the turkey it slid off his wrist. Obviously he hadn’t noticed. The watch’s battery exploded in the extremely hot oven, thus ruining the turkey. But it was still Thanksgiving, so we ended up ordering Chinese, which we ate with a side of mashed potatoES. Oh, how I love Thanksgiving =)
Kathryn
October 23, 2008 at 12:56 amI REALLY don’t know how you do it! I would have pigged out on all that good stuff you baked today. I know it’s your job, but man, I couldn’t stand smelling all those carbs all day and not eating them!! Good for you!
jenna
October 23, 2008 at 1:33 amKathryn,
Believe me, I want to eat it all. But then I figure I would probably get fired if I stuffed my face all the time. Everything I make we need for either lunch or dinner service…there’s no cake snacking going on!
Sarah
October 23, 2008 at 1:49 amOk, here’s my story…..I’ll keep it a quickie.
A few years ago I hosted a bridal shower for one of my girlfriends from college. I had a carton of strawberries in the fridge and last minute decided to dip them in dark and white chocolate for a little extra treat. They were a hit and when the time came for the bride-to-be to get married she casually asked me to dip some berries for the wedding reception. I agreed not knowing that she was purchasing over 500 strawberries!!! When my husband and I picked them up the night before the wedding we just starred at each other….yikes! We set up a “station” in our little kitchen…he washed and dried the berries, I dipped, he drizzled…it took all night and they were spread out everywhere but in the end all the berries were dipped and somehow transported to the wedding…which ended happily ever after!
Now when asked to dip berries I always make sure to find out just how many 🙂
Have fun reading all the stories!
LeeAnn
October 23, 2008 at 1:50 amMy husband would think it is so funny that I am sharing this!
On my husband’s birthday, I wanted to surprise him with his favorite dessert, kolaches. I used his grandmother’s recipe and I couldn’t wait to see the look on his face! It took me so long to make them and they turned out perfect! Well, I had placed them in the oven on a nice Plastic platter (trying to keep them hidden). The next day, I was making some other things for the birthday party that was happening that day. Yep, you guessed it! I warmed up the oven with that stinkin plastic platter of kolaches in the oven. I ran and got my husband and he had to scrap out hardened plastic from our oven. We had to throw all of the kolaches away. I felt horrible. But, I woke up the next morning and made some more!!!!!!!!
ttfn300
October 23, 2008 at 1:54 amhaha, have you seen my post with the mess i left in my kitchen after i left my immersion blender unattended while make roasted RED pepper sauce?!? still finding that all over… oops 🙂
one of the classics, though, my bf growing up always came over for meals, and one of my mom’s classic treats is a strawberry rhubarb pie… well i guess when you don’t eat alot of rhubarb, you can forget the name, b/c at some point she asked for strawberry rutabega pie and it’s been a running joke ever since 🙂
Meredith
October 23, 2008 at 2:06 amYay for weekends off!! This is going to be my first weekend off in a while, and I’m traveling to see my boy too 🙂
My crazy baking story happened when I was probably in 10th grade. I was spending the night at my best friend’s house, and we decided to bake chocolate chip cookies, but substituted M&Ms for chocolate chips. We couldn’t find any mini M&Ms at the store, so we decided to go for the regular sized peanut ones — these resulted in huuuge cookies! It was pretty late at night while we were baking, and my friend’s parents had gone to bed but her older sister was up. She gave us some “parchment paper” to put on top of the baking pans we were using to bake the cookies, and we put them in the oven and went off to watch tv. A bit later, we realized that the whole house was smoked up because it was wax paper, not parchment paper! We had to open all the doors and try to fan it out, but her father still woke up and came running out in his bathrobe thinking the house was on fire!!! We never baked those cookies (nicknamed the “monster cookies”) again!
Kirsten Cederberg
October 23, 2008 at 2:09 amI took a culinary class for my hospitality management degree and one night my cooking partner and I decided to try something new, so we made creme brule. Things started out well and the recipe was successful, but the disaster began when we brought out the torch to finish it off. My instructor decided to trust us and let us use it ourselves, so I thought I knew what I was doing. I started to torch the top of the creme brule and bent down towards the dessert so it would be perfect… well, I guess I got a little too close, because I accidently lit my pony tail on fire! I didn’t notice at first, but my partner did and I imediately went and put my head under the sink. It was a nightmare. Luckily, I just lost a few strands of hair, but my hair smelt like an ash tray all nigth long. On top of that our dessert was disgusting! Oops!
Lindsey
October 23, 2008 at 2:16 amHey Jenna! (and Ryan)
I was on the phone with my mom, telling her about your website and this contest, and she wanted me to put in an entry for her. 🙂 One Christmas a whole bunch of family and friends were coming over for dinner. Mom had pre-ordered a crown roast a couple days before and picked it up Christmas Eve. Christmas Day she opens it up and it is COMPLETELY rotten! In order to salvage Christmas dinner she ended up calling all the neighbors, family, and friends, and asking everyone to bring any pork chops or anything similar from their freezers. She then somehow tied/ propped it all up so it still looked like a crown roast, and she could still fill it with her apple sausage stuffing. 🙂
Anyway, just wanted to share a fun memory for my momma! Thanks for this opportunity, I just found your blog and am loving it! 🙂
Tracey
October 23, 2008 at 2:18 amFor my mom’s birthday, my sister and I agreed that we would each bake a dessert and surprise her with it – it would be a surprise because the only things we ever baked came from Duncan Hines boxes! We also placed a friendly bet over whose dessert would be better! A few hours before the birthday dinner, I tried to make my mom’s favorite cheesecake. I followed the directions perfectly and put it in the oven for an hour and 55 minutes. Well, I started to smell smoke and pulled out a completely burned cheesecake! Turns out the recipe said 55 minutes, not an hour and 55! Since I had no time. I ran to the grocery store and got this flower-covered cheesecake out of desperation. I arrived at my mom’s house and anxiously went over to see my sister’s dessert – she had come with the exact same store-bought cheesecake because she had messed hers up, too! After that, it back to Duncan Hines for us!
See Jenna, I’m hoping some of your baking wisdom can eventually help me!
linds
October 23, 2008 at 2:22 amhahaha I like this contest 🙂 Ok, so I started baking when I was pretty young but cooking was new to me and I just started learning how when I moved into my own apartment in 2nd year university. I thought I was getting pretty good and so I invited a friend over for dinner one night and figured I’d make roasted yellow pepper soup. Except that I had no clue what I was doing. I underestimated what I was doing so hugely that I thought 10 cups of soup would fit in a large frying pan. Yeah, ok. So after roasting the peppers, burning my fingers peeling the skin off- I realize I have no blender to process them. Ignoring this, I threw them in the frying pan whole and started adding broth and got to like cup 4 before I realized no way was this all gonna fit. I had chunks of pepper floating in broth. I started getting stressed out because my friend was coming over soon and I had been bragging about how good dinner was going to be, but now I was stuck with this mess and panicking and….. I just threw the soup out of the window. Yes, my 4th floor apartment overlooking the street. Just flung the whole mess out the window. I don’t know what I was thinking. We wound up going to her place for dinner.
jess
October 23, 2008 at 2:30 amMore unfortunate than crazy! For my 18th birthday my big present to myself was a nice Calaphon grill pan (I’m a bit of a dork- but that’s not the unfortunate part 😉 ) and it was my first time cooking chicken for my mom, and cooking on the grill pan at all. Now, I’m pretty much the cook of the household because my dad grills red meat- only- no sides dishes, and my mom burns pasta. I’m used to cooking fish, pork, steaks, etc. but for some reason chicken had always eluded me. I spent the entire day marinating it and salivating over it and talking it up to my parents. Finally, the moment arrived. Now, I love grill marks and figured the only way to get them was super high heat. Put the chicken on the hot grill pan, wait till grill marks form, flip- viola! So I dish Everything up to my parents and it looks gorgeous. Balsamic glaze, steamed garlic citrus green beans, the works. Not to mention those gorgeous grill marks. We all cut into the chicken (thoroughly coated with balsamic glaze) and take a bite, not really looking at it. Thank Goodness none of us swallowed!!! I had been so preoccupied with the presentation that I didn’t check to see if the chicken was cooked! Cue a bloody raw mess 🙁 Needless to say, though presentation may play a big role in how much you enjoy food (and Jenna’s food is Far prettier than mine- Ryan, you’re a lucky man), it is definitely not the Only determining factor!
jess
October 23, 2008 at 2:31 amp.s. my email address was wrong in the first post 🙁 got too over eager reminiscing about the story i guess, haha
Kimberly
October 23, 2008 at 2:38 amThis might not be ‘crazy’ so much as ’embarrassing,’ but when I was in high school I started cooking for myself so that I could enjoy quick, healthy meals. WELL, I decided that hard-boiled eggs would make a great easy breakfast, so one morning while rushing around, I placed an egg, shell and all, in the microwave. I set the timer for 5 minutes while I headed back to my room to continue getting ready for school. About two minutes later, I’m standing in front of the mirror, mascara wand in hand, when I hear an alarming crash from the kitchen. I rush out and see egg yolk, white, and shell splattered all over the kitchen counter, walls and floor (the force of the explosion had actually caused the microwave door to swing open.) The worst part was that I had AP English first period and could not be late, so I had to leave the carnage there for other family members to encounter all day as they walked into the kitchen.
P.S. Did I mention I didn’t do well in Physics?
Kathy
October 23, 2008 at 2:42 amHi Jenna! So my funniest cooking/baking story is definitely when I recruited my best friend to help me make an ice cream cake for my dad’s birthday. He isn’t that fond of normal cakes, but LOVES ice cream, and my best friend is also an AWESOME cake-maker, so I thought- what could go wrong? So- we made a beautiful looking ice cream layer cake and even decorated it with words on top, and then we put it in the fridge. Everyone thought it was gorgeous, but then th next day, when I took it out of the freezer to surprise my dad, the cake would just NOT cut! Everyone still wanted to try some cake though, so we ended up getting a MASSIVE hammer and started hammering a knife through the cake. It was the most hilarious 30 minutes of my life as we just hammered through this adorable looking little ice cream cake. My little brother actually video-taped us as we were doing it, so at least we have a funny memory from the cake 🙂 I haven’t tried to make ice cream cake again since that episode..!
Natalie
October 23, 2008 at 2:45 amI’ll keep it short and sweet….you can’t use olive oil when you make rice krispy treats 😉
yuuuuuuck!
Meghan
October 23, 2008 at 2:51 amAlthough this definitely isnt crazy it’s really the only humorous cooking story that I have!! Just to preface, this story used to embarass me SO much because it’s my mom’s favorite story ever and EVERYONE knows it..
Okay so I have always LOVED to bake (this really began because I loved to get messy..) I was about two and a half years old “helping” my mom make pumpkin bread by sitting on the counter trying to stir the ingredients. She picks up a spice bottle and begins shaking in the contents, I of course ask her “what’s that momma?” and she responds “nutmeg.” In my little toddler voice I say “I’m NOT a nut momma!!!”
haha ok so fun little story that STILL get tossed around today..and pumpkin bread IS my favorite thing to bake 🙂
caitlin
October 23, 2008 at 3:00 amhahaha i think jenny’s watch in the turkey should win!!!
caitlin
October 23, 2008 at 3:00 amand im glad you liked my waffles. 🙂
lora
October 23, 2008 at 3:03 amhey. so when I was 9, I decided for mother’s day that I would bake my mom a mud pie. My grandma is a great baker and always makes these mud pies for christmas! Well, I of course didn’t know what to do to make this pie, so I did as any 9 year old would. I went outside and piled actual mud into a pan. I then put it in the oven and baked it and put frosting all over it. Needless to say my mom didn’t trust anything I made for the next few years. We had a few problems with the oven after that considering mud was all inside it. This was a running joke in my fam and still is 🙂 My baking has def improved tho!
Emily W.
October 23, 2008 at 3:27 amAfter visiting your blog (and many others), I decided to try to bake something vegan (dreena’s famous homestyle chocolate chip cookies). My carnivorous family refuses to eat anything “wierd” (as they call it), so they are always reluctant to try my cooking. Well, the first time I made the cookies, I told my family about my vegan cooking excursion and they each tried a tiny bite and said they did not like them (lovingly of course!). About 2 weeks later, I made the same cookies; but told my family that they were just average choc. chip cookies (Since the last ones didnt come out well…”wink wink”). The whole batch was gone in about 2 days. My brother even asked me to make them again, so he could bring them to a friend’s birthday party. That is when I broke the news and no one believed me (still dont! haha). That just goes to show you that (although I am not vegan), vegan food can be just as tasty as the traditional varieties….with an open mind!!
Josie
October 23, 2008 at 3:56 amWhen I was a kid and lived next to a hayfield, my sister and I use to grind whole hay stalks into “flour,” mix it with water, and “bake” it in the sun in our kiddie bread pans. The crazy part is, we ate this bread, and it tasted delicious!
Erica
October 23, 2008 at 4:00 amOh my…I need a CREAM PUFF! Haha! Seriously we need to live closer! We have a spare bedroom if you decide you want to move and be our personal pasty chef…and we would have built in running buddies! Both with shin splints! lol!
And I think you were extra hungry today because you were eating what I couldn’t! Yesterday was crazy cause I couldn’t eat for those tests until 4pm!! And today nothing until the 2nd procedure was all over…St. Louis Bread Co. here I come (went)! So you were fueling up for me…thank you, friend! Love~e
Teddy
October 23, 2008 at 4:01 amaww i have no cool baking stories yet. but Congrats to those who win!!
Teddy 🙂
Katie K
October 23, 2008 at 4:14 amOk so my funny (not at the time though :)) baking story…
For my high school bake sale a couple of months ago I had to make 48 banana chocolate chip cookies (i have a great recipe if anyone wants it!) So after I finished all of my homework at 11:30 I started on the cookies. I finally finished around 1 in the morning and left the cookies to cool on paper towels on the counter. When I woke up the next morning I noticed crumbs in my bedroom…and on the stairs…and in the hallway on the way to the kitchen…and finally I found Murphy, our 5-year-old golden retreiver (who is obviously still a puppy) innocently snoozing in the middle of the kitchen floor. I panicked and rushed over to the counter to see if any of my cookies were left….the little (actually not little—80 lbs haha!) cookie monster ate 47 of the 48 cookies….guess he felt like sharing the last one with me!
Rachel
October 23, 2008 at 4:17 amEvery year at Christmas we bake cookies with my grandmother. We always use the same sugar cookie recipe from the Joy of Cooking cookbook. One year my grandmother decided to help out by making the dough early in the morning when she was up before everyone else. We keep all of our flour-like ingredients in big canisters on the shelf. When we started rolling out the dough after it had refrigerated for a few hours, we noticed it had an odd consistency. It turns out she had added cornmeal instead of flour. Sadly the cookies were nearly inedible, but it makes a great story.
Liz
October 23, 2008 at 4:18 amI attempted to make Ramen Noodles in the the microwave….with out the water…the end!
Lauren
October 23, 2008 at 4:34 amI have two short ones. though I know I won’t win, there are some great stories.
1. When I was 8 I wanted to make my mom her favorite breakfast, Creamcheese on toast, so I couldn’t find the cream cheese, but found sour cream and thought it was the same thing. Yeah, she still ate it politely and told me later on in life.
2. I used to cook boil in bag rice in the microwave. Once I was spacing and forgot to put the water in, it started a fire in the microwave, whenever we would use it after that, the worst burning smell ever would come out.
Megan
October 23, 2008 at 4:58 amI actually have two interesting cooking experiences. I was about 12 years old and my mom was working late. That meant I was in charge of cooking dinner for my brother and I. I decided I would make grilled cheese. I had seen my mom do it million times before and figured I could do it without a problem. I got out the bread, sliced some cheese, grabbed some butter, and a pan. I started heating the pan, spread the butter on the bread, and placed the cheese on the bread. I then placed the sandwiches in the pan and got cooking. Well, I put the buttered side on the inside of the sandwich and totally burnt the bread. The cheese was rock hard too. My brother to this day will not let me live it down.
My other story involves a smoothie, a spoon, and the smoothie ending up on the ceiling, cupboards, and floor. The smoothie was too thick for the blender so I put a spoon in there to loosen it. I loosened it a bit too much and sent smoothie everywhere. Again, my bro won’t let me forget that one.
(I swear I am a good cook though, really I am.)
bobbi
October 23, 2008 at 5:06 amwell I was tempted to make something up, but I know that honesty is the best policy or is it if you aint cheatin you aint trying:) any hoo..heres what I got. My BFF and I in like 6th grade decided to make some home made chocolate chip cookies from scratch and all, well so we thought. So we busted out all the ingredients and started cooking, we were so thrilled to be in our little aprons getting our hands dirty. When it came time to put the salt in, I thought it said 1 cup of salt but it said 1 tsp! We thought whatever. So we rolled out our balls and cleared out the bowl. When it came time to lick the bowl, it tasted HORRIBLE! The SALT had taken over. Us being ametures and all thought we could just put it all back in and add sugar (ya we were wrong) so the big lesson learned is salt can never be treated, and 11 year olds need hooked on PHONICS too!
Sharon
October 23, 2008 at 5:23 amHi Jenna! I have no crazy cooking/baking story but just want to say I love reading your blog everyday! I just found it the other day and Love reading about and seeing what you eat and bake all day! Yum-yum!!! And you are just a doll! Great stories!
Mariposa
October 23, 2008 at 7:32 amHi Jenna!!! wow… all those desserts are making me ravneous..!!!!
you are really loving this job huh??
i did pack my oatmeal for breakfast tomorrow with a few chocolate chips in my lunch bag.. maybe that will quiet my chocolate craving for a while! : )
here is my baking story, sorry it is a little long.. i put a link to the page its on because i didnt want to copy paste a novel. even if it doesnt win.. its still a rad story.. my grandmother is hysterical!
http://mariposa-whatdoieatnow.blogspot.com/2008/01/birthday-cake-that-wasnt.html
ashley
October 23, 2008 at 11:33 amI mismeasure and skip entire steps when I’m cooking or baking.. but that’s just an everyday occurrence!
The blender exploded at 7:30am? I think that automatically constitutes for a challenging day! Good luck with today!
Stacey
October 23, 2008 at 12:44 pmLol meatheads..okay on to my story..It was four years ago at Thanksgiving and I was preparing the food for my family. I decided to cook the turkey the day of (dumb idea)..soo after I had it stuffed and the oven preheated I couldnt find my dish to sit it in, so I put it on a huge party glass plate thinking it wouldnt matter, I was sooo wrong! The glass busted in the oven and there were glass chips and little glass splinters all inside the bottom of the turkey..luckily my family thought it was hilarious…I guess the thought of me cooking is funny enough alone. (By the way, we ended up using turkey sandwich meat as a substitute that Thanksgiving) I havent tried cooking a turkey since, thats the boyfriends job now 🙂
Sarah (now in FL)
October 23, 2008 at 12:47 pmI have burnt pizzas in every way possible. Keep in mind that I was in HIGH SCHOOL before my mom let me start using the oven, because she was nervous about my kitchen instincts. Anyway, here’s a run down of various ways I have attempted to cook pizza (I swear these are all true:)
(1) Place entire frozen pizza box, as purchased, in oven. Try to bake. Later, put out fire and endure uproarious laughter from family.
(2) The next time, remember to take the frozen pizza box off; leave plastic wrap and cardboard under-layer on. Later, put out fire and endure incredulous laughter from family.
(3) Remember to take the frozen pizza box and plastic-wrap off; forget about cardboard under-layer. Later, put out fire. Family doesn’t laugh, and looks worried.
(4) Try to bake tortilla pizza “on the rack” for crispy crust (like frozen pizza always recommends. And at 450 degrees, as take and bake pizza recommends. For 10 minutes, like take and bake pizza recommends.) Fail miserably; set off apartment fire detector; force neighbor to evacuate for 10 minutes. Never tell a soul (beyond neighbor) until now.
(5) Burn two pita pizzas in same apartment again, this time at 410 degrees, by forgetting it was in the oven because my boyfriend wanted to make out (even though I said our dinner would burn.) Become violently angry at boyfriend because now I have no more dinner options for us (and because I was starving), and attempt to throw pizza dramatically at him. Unfortunately, I accidentally release the entire pizza pan instead of dramatically flipping the pizzas off. The pan burns his leg and he becomes scared/afraid of my “violent tendencies.” Long discussion ensues and breakup is discussed.
(6) Obtain new “pizza stone” for wedding gift (with said boyfriend.) Ignore directions about prepping the stone in the oven, washing the stone appropriately, and covering it with cornstarch, thinking that now that I am a better cook, (I am) I know what directions to ignore. Also ignore directions about “making your own crust.” Begin to unroll refrigerated crust on pizza stone, which is circular. Find out that crust is square-shaped. Attempt to rebuild. Disaster. Crust is sticking to stone. End up finally pulling it off (having ruined stone in process) and dumping it as a mess onto a real pizza pan, dumping all ingredients in the middle. Calzone?
Sorry that was long but I had fun 🙂
Cyndi
October 23, 2008 at 12:52 pmMy twin sister and I were three years old. It’s Christmas eve and we remind my mother that we haven’t left cookies out for Santa. With no cookies in the cupboards, my mother decides to take us to the store to buy a box of brownie mix. Santa likes those better, she says. We come home and empty the brownie box into a bowl, only to find meal worms in the mix!!! My mother brought us all the way back to the store (with the wormy brownie mix) and bought a new box. Definitely the most interesting Christmas eve to date!!
Karen
October 23, 2008 at 12:59 pmIt was 7th grade home ec cooking class and me and my group of 4 other girls were making vegetable soup. We must have accidentally poured too much chunky soup in the sink because it got clogged. We told the scary home ec teacher what happened. She gave us all dirty looks and yelled, “Get the plugger!” She started plugging the sink with a toilet plunger. SLURP SLURP SLURP. I will never forget trying to contain my laughter with the other girls while the teacher plugged and made the most obnoxious slurping noises.
Jenna 2
October 23, 2008 at 1:18 pmI was living with a freinds aunt and i really wanted some shrimp for lunch. I always felt ackward cooking in her kitchen. but I was starving for some shrimp so I poured a bit of EVOO in the pan and got it SUPER hot, while that was heating up (on HIGH) 🙂 I was off in my own little world busy peeling and cleaning my shrimpies. After they were done I rinsed the shrimp off good with cold water and didn’t feel like getting the collander out to drain them so i just put my hand over them and drained *most of the water out. then I was ready to roll. I just plopped the shrimp and little bit of water in the pan and a HUGE flame of fire flew up into the air BURNING the microwave above the stove!!!!! here i am in a panic to get the fire out. THEN on top of it all the aunt was gone but her boyfriend was upstairs asleep. yeah he came down the stairs to me shaking, frantically trying to ‘fix’ the burn marks on the microwave and smoke detector going off!!! 🙁 so scary/embarrssing!! NEVER EVER add water and hot oil together!!!
Betsy
October 23, 2008 at 1:42 pmMy kids would love to win this! I might be able to get something for myself. I just don’t know how you work around all those goodies! I would gain a ton!
Story:
I really don’t have a bad baking story. I have made some blunders in the past, but nothing really exciting. One thing I did when I was a kid always sticks out in my mind. I come from a long line of coffee drinkers and my mom let me drink a cup here and there when I was little. I’d say I was about 7 and I was making my cup. I loved sugar so I put a few teaspoons in there, but it just wasn’t tasting right. Something was off but I just couldn’t tell what it was, so I figured it just needed more sugar! Come to find out, it wasn’t sugar I was putting in my cup, it was salt! YUCK!
Rachel Ann
October 23, 2008 at 2:07 pmThe first year I was old enough to help with Thanksgiving dinner I baked the pumpkin pie. I got confused and added Tablespoons’ worth of cloves rather than a fraction of a teaspoon and so we all took bites of the pie and then everyone’s mouth went numb and I wasn’t allowed to help with dinner again for years.
mg
October 23, 2008 at 2:08 pmwhen I was younger (about 5 or 6), my neighbors and I decided we were going to open a “restaurant” in our basement. Our signature dish was “soup.” This soup consisted of carrots and beef jerky in water – all cold and uncooked – just mixed together. We were proud of ourselves and thought it was quite good – to this day I still can’t eat beef jerky without remembering the taste of our soup and feeling sick!
Janelle
October 23, 2008 at 2:10 pmI was broiling tortilla strips for a soup garnish and the phone rang. This of course distracted me from the soon-to-be-burnt tortilla strips. Next thing I know, the oven has flames shooting out of it! I didn’t know what to do, so I started yelling for my hubby to help…but he was in the shower! After hearing how urgent my scream for help were, he came out, sopping wet, covered in suds, and loosely wrapped in a towel, and quickly used his towel to pull the tray of charbroiled tortilla strips out of the oven. As he ran to throw them outside, he slipped on the tile floor (remember, he is soaking wet) and dropped the tray on the carpet! The carpet started on fire, so I threw the area rug on top to extinguish it. The hubby was disgusted and stormed back to the shower, and we were left with a melted, charred patch on the carpet and no tortilla strips for the soup. We laugh now, but at the time I wasn’t sure our marriage would survive! Nothing an area rug and a new devoted attentiveness to all broiling activities can’t fix!
Kelly
October 23, 2008 at 2:12 pmHere’s a funny one for you…..when I was younger my mom went out one night and asked my dad to make me “Spaghetti-O’s”…..so he put the burner on and placed the unopened can on it and went to watch tv…..when suddenly, he thought he heard a gunshot from the kitchen, he went in to discover it wasn’t a gun shot, it was the can exploding….spaghetti-O’s and the orange tomatoe sauce was everywhere….handing from the wall, the ceiling….he tried to wash it off and it just made it worse…..so a quick trip to the store for a can of paint and up late trying to paint over it before my mom came home and freaked…:-)
Beth
October 23, 2008 at 3:01 pmI think Meghan wins with her nutmeg story – adorable… I’m still laughing! 🙂
EL
October 23, 2008 at 3:08 pmThis is more a serving disaster then cooking. My grandparents were known for enjoying the adult beverages (their wedding was actually delayed 2 hours because the bootlegger was late). One Easter, my grandfather was slicing ham for dinner and one of the guests requested seconds of the ham and red sauce. Everyone was baffled as to what red sauce the guest was speaking of, then they realized my grandfather had sliced off the tip of his finger and was bleeding on ham. Luckily, my aunt is a nurse and was able to bandage him up, but my grandfather was never allowed to serve food again.
Katie
October 23, 2008 at 3:27 pmThis story actually pertains to my mother. When she and my dad first got married, she wanted to bake him a layer cake for his bday. She used a boxed cake mix and put it in the oven. When she opened the oven after 30 minutes or so, all she saw were two GIANT cone shaped cakes. Yup, she thought you were supposed to use one box PER layer of cake rather than the correct one box split among two pans. She’s never lived it down.
runjess
October 23, 2008 at 3:40 pmDoes working with food make you hungrier? I get hungrier just looking at the pictures.
Amelia
October 23, 2008 at 3:42 pmMy crazy baking story involves wildlife! When I was 11 my mom and I baked cookies on a cookie sheet. These were the kind where the entire sheet is covered in one flat cookie and then we would cut it up into smaller cookies. We wanted to be able to sample a cookie before bedtime so my mom decided to put the cookies on the back porch to cool. A few minutes later we went outside to check on them and discovered a giant opposum sitting on the sheet, eating the cookies! It ran off and we brought the cookies inside. We could see tiny footprints where the opposum had been standing. My mom tried to convince me the other side of the cookies were fine, but, needless to say, I decided to skip dessert!
Heather
October 23, 2008 at 4:02 pmBreakfast for dinner? You mean BRINNER?? That was one of the best parts of the sorority house 🙂
I can’t think of any good cooking mishaps but these stories are cracking me up!!
Tina
October 23, 2008 at 4:07 pmOk, my story isn’t that crazy, but Mal and I still laugh about it!
So, I’m not much of a cook, but I wanted to make a special anniversary meal from scratch for Mal. I had a recipe for lemon chicken, which sounded like the perfect meal, but it was my first time cooking a whole chicken. I prepped the chicken, put it in the oven, and sipped on some wine with Mal while it cooked. The stupid bird took FOREVER to cook! The longer it took to cook, the more time I had to drink wine! 🙂 After a few glasses of wine, the chicken was finally cooked and tasted delicious. However, being buzzed up on wine (and spacey), I completely forgot to turn off the oven! Mal and I went to bed not realizing this, but woke up the next morning to a very warm apartment! Luckily, nothing bad happened to us! Mal still rags on me for this little “mistake.”
Catherine
October 23, 2008 at 4:50 pmOk I have two stories for you:
1. When I was younger my mom was out and, being the cook of the family, I got to be in charge of cooking to sausages for my dad, brother and sister’s dinner. I had my dad set up the grill for me and started cooking. A little while later they looked done so I brought them inside to eat. Then I cut into them and they were all red! So I took everyones sausages back and cooked them for a little longer on the grill. This went on for almost 45 minutes. I didn’t understand they were hard as rocks!! Finally my sister realized what was going on – they were HOT sausages… they had been cooked all along, just red from the hot peppers!! Too bad I didn’t let anyone else try to take a bite – they might have figured it out sooner!!
2. When I was little, maybe 8, my mom used to make homemade ice cream all the time in our ice cream machine. Well this time she let me be in charge of putting in all the ingredients. Well you know how you have to pour salt over all the ice cubes that go around the bowl in the middle?? Um, yeah… I poured it into the ice cream. Unfortunately nobody figured this out until the next night at dinner when we tried to eat said ice cream. Gross!!
Runeatrepeat
October 23, 2008 at 5:27 pmI am supposed to be working not reading all these stories, but I couldn’t stop! Very funny everyone 🙂
Rae
October 23, 2008 at 6:44 pmOk, have to throw my two cents in…loving the stories so far!!
I really got in to cooking in high school, and loved creating new recipes for my family to try. One day, I stumbled across a recipe online for Tarragon Chicken and thought it looked good, so I gave it a whirl. Well, I forgot the part where you’re supposed to read thruogh the recipe to see if you have all the ingredients….when I got to tarragon, I discovered that we had none, so I went looking for a substitute. In my 15 yar old mind, I figured if they sounded close, it would work….so I subbed in turmeric (a PICKLING spice) in my citrusy dish. Oops! My family, being the good sports that they are, actually ate the dish, though it was pretty wacky…and that christmas, I got several books on the theory behind cooking, as well as substitutions that can and cannot be made!!
LC
October 23, 2008 at 7:01 pmMy boyfriend and I were making chicken kabobs but we live in a tiny city apartment and don’t have a grill. So we decided to make them in the oven, and came up with the genius idea of resting the kabob sticks across a pyrex pan, if you can imagine that, and then putting the oven on broil to make sure they browned up nicely. The first batch was amazing and we sat at our table eating our dinner and congratulating ourselves on being real “chefs” while the leftover batch cooked. I’m sure you can imagine what happened next. I had just placed the finished kabobs in the pyrex pan on top of the stove and was reaching out to grab one, when the pan exploded into a million and one glass pieces. Luckily, neither of us were hurt (though we should have been) and now we know why they make broiler pans (only took me 25 years to learn that) and we might have a little longer to go before we can claim to be real chefs.
Biz
October 23, 2008 at 7:52 pmIt was my first Easter that I was going to cook everything at my mom’s house. I was so excited! I had made everything from scratch – a WW sweat potato/apple casserole, the customary green bean casserole, and of course, an apricot glazed ham. I had timed everything perfectly, so that I would put everything in the oven so that by the time we got home from church, everything would be just about done.
Well, we get home, and the oven is not on. What? Did I forget to turn the dang oven on?? Another glance shows that the oven is actually set at 350, but its stone cold. The oven died that day!
So we ended up going out for Chinese food because it was the only restaurant open!
Coolcat
October 23, 2008 at 8:50 pmI held a surprise birthday party for my best friend in 7th grade and baked a cake from scratch, made my grandma’s buttercream frosting recipe, iced it myself, the works. When it was cake time, my mom carefully took me aside and said she had bad news about the cake. Apparantly my jack russel terrier, Rascal, was able to stand on his back legs and reach the cake that was on the edge of the kitchen counter…and half of the cake was licked and eaten away. Luckily my friend thought this was just hilarious, and we ended up cutting off the side of the cake that Rascal had gotten to and still ate the untouched part. (Note: this is only one of the many things that Rascal has pulled off….his name fits him quite well.)
Mara
October 23, 2008 at 9:14 pmI’m probably too late for the contest, but I have to throw my story in! When I was about 19, my sister (then 15) decided to take on the daunting task of baking a wedding cake for my parent’s 20th anniversary. They had a hippie wedding back in the ’70s, so they never had a tiered cake. I agreed to help my sister, and next thing I know, I’m rolling out marzipan into huge sheets on our 2′ x 4′ counter, and then my sister screams OH MY GOD!!! I turned around just in time to catch her falling while holding the 14″ lower tier of the cake. I caught the cake, my sister broke the chair, and neither of us can look at marzipan to this day!
Julia
October 23, 2008 at 9:59 pmI know this probably won’t make the time limit, but I just wanted to share my baking disasters.
1. The first time I ever baked brownies was in 5/6th grade, and I wanted to impress my family. I got all the ingredients out, measured everything out, drop-spooned them onto the pan, got my dad to help me heat up the oven, the works!! 5-10 min later, I go to “peek” at my lovely cookies baking away….. but oh no!! All I see is a huge big puddle on the pan, with a few clumps of burnt sugar! I’m almost in tears as my dad pulls my drippy liquid non-cookies out of the oven. Re-reading the recipe, I discover I had used 1 1/2 tbsp of flour instead of 1 1/2 cups. Duhhhhhhh! (How I ever get it solid enough to spoon them onto the pan is still a mystery!)
2. I decided to bake Peanut Butter Brownies for my boyfriend and his housemates at his house. Problem is, his oven’s thermometer/temperature knob HAS NO NUMBERS ON IT. I don’t know if they all got rubbed off or what? I mean, who makes an oven without temperature control????? So I basically had to guess how much to turn the knob to 350 degrees. I’m a little skeptical, but say, “what the heck” and pop it in. Literally, like 5 min later, I smell smoke. I frantically take the brownie out of the oven and it’s charred on the outside, but gooey in the middle. I was about to throw it away when his housemate spooned up the goo from the middle and used it as a delicious ice cream topping! My brownie was salvages 🙂
Sorry, long post
Kath
October 23, 2008 at 10:27 pmNot really a disaster, but when the husband and I spent our first summer together in our first (sublet) apartment sophomore year of college, we made quesadillas with a jalapeno and cheese and broiled them for about 3 minutes. The jalapeno was still raw and we basically cried through our first home-cooked meal. He still likes spicy things; I now know better 🙂
Kath
October 23, 2008 at 10:29 pmMal and I went to bed not realizing this
Yeah Tina, we know what you guys were doing while the oven was on!!! 😉
Betherann
October 23, 2008 at 10:47 pmMy first solo cooking experience did not end well. My mother asked me to make a batch of tapioca pudding. And by “make” I mean mix up some hot water with a powder and let the pudding set. Easy enough, right? Apparently not. Instead of reading all of the box’s directions, I dumped all the pudding mix into the amount of water prescribed for a single batch — and the box could make 2-3 batches! Needless to say, we did not eat that super-concentrated tapioca! Another silly story involving an easy dish occurred with my first attempt to make Jell-O. This time, I followed the directions to a T — but still the powder wouldn’t dissolve, and the result was crunchy and (again) very concentrated. Ah well! Now I stick with instant mixes. At least when I mess those up, I won’t have invested a bunch of time in them!
HangryPants
October 23, 2008 at 11:07 pmThis is funny to me now, but years ago before I really started baking I wanted to make a pumpkin bread for Thanksgiving. The recipe required you to cook it in a coffee can, so I did. Well, it pretty much exploded in the oven. Dripped all over the sides of the can and the bottom of the oven. I am stubborn, so I left it. Eventually, I pulled it out and salvaged it by taking it out of the coffee can and putting in two loaf pans.
jenny
October 23, 2008 at 11:21 pmwell, i tried to bake my sister a birthday cake since i didnt know what to get her for her birthday. I decided to venture out and bake a vegan chocolate cake. I did A LOT of research and set out to bake the cake. My parents thought i was CRAZY to bake a cake with no milk, butter, or eggs. They thought i was even crazier when i put in drops of vinegar! anyways, i baked the cake. Once it was out of the oven, it was BEAUTIFULL. i was like HA, i told you so. Then i let the cake cool and everything. Hours later, i noticed the cake deflated . . . but i thought it was suppose to be like that. When i cut the cake, it was SO dense. it wasnt even cake it was like fudge. Although it tasted good, the texture was just TOO heavy. Apparently I mistaken baking soda for baking POWDER! my sister was nice and ate a piece of it, but i can tell she really hated it. lolss
angelcubbie
October 24, 2008 at 12:07 amMy infamous disaster that my family cannot even tell because they’re still mad to this day is when I was 8, I loved hot chocolate and my Mom made it for me all the time before I went to sleep. I’m an only child so once in a while my parents would go out on dates and leave me home alone without a baby sitter for a couple hours. Well, one such night, I was home alone and I suddenley had a desperate craving for Hot Chocolate but I had never made it myself. What was a girl to do? I decided the solution would be to throw a whole bunch of Hersheys Kisses inside a cup, about half a large bad, wrappers and all and stick it in the microwave. I didn’t put milk or anything in it and then I set the microwave for 30 minutes. I went to go watch Rugrats and forgot about it and, well, needless to say this did not make chocolate. It made a kitchen fire and I didn’t know what to do, so ran out of the kitchen and I called 911. My parents came home to a fire truck, a crying 8 year old, and thousands of dollars in kitchen damage. And I never got my hot chocolate. lol. It’s funny looking back on it, but my parents are still sore about the kitchen damage.
angelcubbie
October 24, 2008 at 12:07 ammeant to say *half a large bag
Fitzalan
October 24, 2008 at 1:29 pmWell I figured I would finally de-lurk. I read your blog daily (oh yes, and I have stolen your bangs from your picture because they look so fabulous!)
Anyway, my crazy cooking/baking store. Mine is more of simply a kitchen mishap:
I was having a cocktail party and I have spent about an hour and half the night before deseeding and chopping up watermelon into cute little cubes to freeze for a watermelon margarita I was going to serve. Right before the guest started to arrive, I remembered I hadn’t started making this, so I ran into the kitchen and poured in about 3/4 of a handle of vodka into my blender, some ice and the frozen watermelon. My blender simply couldn’t handle all this ice so I put in a spoon to help move things around. Eventually everything was smooth and I served up the margarita without tasting it. A few of my guest started drinking it with terrible looks on their faces. Eventually, my husband came up to me and told me that someone had let him know that there was something ‘woody’ about the margaritas. Well, apparently, when I stirred up the margaritas in the blender, the end of my wooden spoon was completely pulverized by the blender into teeny little wooden shards. I didn’t notice that most of the spoon portion had disappeared into the drink because I was in such a hurry. Needless to say, the drink got thrown away, but no one got splinters in their tongue or throat. My friends definitely still haven’t let me hear the end of this situation though.
Sweets&Sweats