Kitchen Disasters

[Gerrycooks]

Perhaps we can have a new area for kitchen mishaps.
I have been cooking since I was about 10 and have not had many kitchen disasters until recently. I got my double boiler stuck because I did not remove the top pot soon enough when I was done melting chocolate. I tried to reheat the pot and it launched the top pot straight up. My stainless steel microwave door above the stove was dented as well as my head when the pot hit it. I understand why it happened (pressure) and really feel stupid. From now on I will use a bowl over a pot so this can't happen again.

[licia]

I certainly can't top that, but mine was very embarrassing. My mother in law lived with us the last year of her life. She had cancer and didn't feel like doing anything in the kitchen, but enjoyed watching me cook and keeping me company. We were having quite a few people for dinner(a reunion type thing) and I was making a great number of side dishes, among them potato salad, and a fruit salad. One was on the counter to the left of the sink, the other on the right side of the sink. I started to make the fruit salad and mistakenly emptied the coconut in the potato salad. I picked and picked and never did get all the small bits out of it. Everyone kept asking "what is the different taste in this salad"? Nobody wanted my recipe!!

[Constance]

I've had so many I don't know where to begin...from my "chain saw meatloaf" (made a mistake setting the microwave and set it for 2 hours instead of 20 minutes, then went and had my bath)...to little green worms floating up to the top of the water when I was cooking broccoli out of my fall garden for Thanksgiving dinner...to the Lucille Ball type episode when I used 2 packages of out-dated yeast instead of one and my pizza crust almost blew the door off the oven...to wheat bugs in my pie-crust (my first husband demanded pies for a coaching banquet to which wives were not invited...the pie was a big success and everyone commented on the "nutty" flavor...
I could go on, but you get the idea. My kids always said I was just like "I love Lucy".

[Gerrycooks]

I was making chocolate cups to hold dessert by dipping balloons in melted chocolate. The chocolate was too hot and as I removed the balloon it exploded. I took a direct hit of melted chocolate to the chest. My kitchen also had chocolate all over.
It was kind of funny and not as dangerous as my exploding double boiler.

[kitchenelf]

Moved to "Food Talk"

Hi GerryCooks - sounds like you are on a mission to be on America's Funniest Home Videos - lol I can see the balloon going and the chocolate splattering!!! Anytime you want to start a discussion about kitchen mishaps feel free. Oh wait - I think you already did!

[urmaniac13]

Once while I was pressure cooking my meatloaf I forgot to turn down the heat, then decide to take a shower. When I came out I saw smoke filling the kitchen, the bottom of the cooker was scorched and I nearly killed it. However the meatloaf got a real nice "smoked flavour" in the end which I could never produce in any other way... I wish I could do that again if I didn't have to risk ruining the pressure cooker...

[Andy M.]

When I was first on my own after divorce, I was learning to fend for myself in the kitchen. One night for dinner I was frying up a can of corned beef hash and thought a sunny side up egg would go nicely on top. I didn't have another frypan so I broke an egg into a dish and popped it into the microwave.

A minute or two later there was a HUGE bang and I nearly had a heart attack!

It took me hours to get all the tiny little bits of exploded egg out of the little vent holes inside the microwave!

You can bet I never did that again!

[hellschef]

while coming out of the walk-in one day, a prep chef was coming in with a sheet pan on his shoulder holding and bracing with a hand beneath and another behind, while talking over his shoulder, and ran it straight into my mouth and K.O.ing me temp. All i could hear when i came out was poor Wally fretting wether or not i was gonna kill him! lol, the whole time they completely forgot good ol' chef laying flat on his biscuits in the cooler.. ahh good times... good times

[Gerrycooks]

Thanks everyone for the great stories. It makes me feel better knowing I am not alone in my mishaps.
I have a habit of pressing one number on the microwave keypad ie. 2222. I did this one day to soften a container of Whipped topping. I forgot it in the microwave and when I finally remembered it the container was melted as well as the whipped topping. There was one large white pool on the bottom of the microwave.
I still have't learned to use precise times because it is easier to keep hitting one number.

[Home chef]

Well, I don't have any one episode to talk about but I can tell you that my wife is such a bad cook she can actually burn water.