Have you ever "MacGyvered" a meal?

[LPBeier]

The latest ads for Dinner:Impossible with Robert Irvine use the line "this chef doesn't just prepares meals, he McGyver's them".

For those of you too young to remember, McGyver was a TV show with Richard Dean Anderson. He was an agent of some kind and got out of sticky situations using common items and creativity. Now, even Webster's New Millenium Dictionary has a definition:

Main Entry: McGuyverPart of Speech: nDefinition: any person who handily uses everyday objects to find a way out of a dangerous or difficult situationEtymology: based on the television show and character of this nameUsage: also used attributively and as a verb




I have many examples but I think that the one that best fits the definition was just after DH and I got married and we were having our combined families for dinner. I had this beautiful baron of beef roast and put it in early because my plan was to make beef dips so it didn't need to be hot. Well my first indication that something was wrong should have been the night before when I was stirring a pot with a metal spoon and went to turn the heat down and got a huge electrical shock. So, when I checked the roast after an hour and it was barely warm, I should really have been aware that the stove wasn't working properly. But it wasn't until 2 hours later, with only another 2 hours before guests arrived that I finally figured out this roast was NOT cooking. It was brown on the outside but totally raw when it should have been done or close to it. There was snow on the ground so the BBQ was out and my other option was a very tiny toaster oven. We didn't want to use the top of the stove because of my shocking experience. So, we ended up cooking it in a covered roaster on a small butane burner we have for camping. We used 5 cans of butane to finish it off!!!! I even made my gravy on it afterwards and everyone was raving about the meal. We never let on. However, that same day my Dad surprised us with a sizeable cheque as a wedding present and the very next day we went out and bought a new stove with a wonderful convection oven!

Have you ever had to Macgyver something?

 

[suziquzie]

My oven broke last winter, I made lasagna on my grill

 

[LPBeier]

Macgyver would be proud of you Suzi......and so am I!!!

 

[suziquzie]

awwww thanks! ... but all the credit for that one should go to Andy M! I used the thing for an oven for about 2 weeks!

 

[2belucile]

I once invited some friends for dinner, tried to make a cheese souffle, I still don´t know what happened, it finished off as a very nice cheese sauce for the vegetables!!!

 

[LPBeier]

I once invited some friends for dinner, tried to make a cheese souffle, I still don´t know what happened, it finished off as a very nice cheese sauce for the vegetables!!!

Most people would have not used it at all! I am sure it was delicious.

 

[pacanis]

Have you ever had to Macgyver something?

One, when I was being held captive, I made a parasail out of some nylon material, my bootlaces and a wall fan...... No wait, maybe I saw than on MacGuyver....

 

[LPBeier]

Pacanis, have you never had to be creative to get yourself out of a bind when cooking?

 

[pacanis]

No, not that I can think of. Even when I've cooked for friends or family, things have always gone as well as expected. Just lucky I guess.
Wait, one time (seriously) I ran out of propane for the grill. I had charcoal, but not a charcoal grill....... don't ask me how that comes about..... so I took a piece of thin sheetmetal and knocked a bunch of holes in it with a hammer and screwdriver, set it on a couple bricks layed flatways and set my charcoal on that to light. Then I turned four bricks on end and set the grate from the propane grill on them. It worked for a makeshift grill to finish whatever it was I was cooking.
I don't know how creative that was..... I was just hungry

 

[Andy M.]

No, not that I can think of. Even when I've cooked for friends or family, things have always gone as well as expected. Just lucky I guess.
Wait, one time (seriously) I ran out of propane for the grill. I had charcoal, but not a charcoal grill....... don't ask me how that comes about..... so I took a piece of thin sheetmetal and knocked a bunch of holes in it with a hammer and screwdriver, set it on a couple bricks layed flatways and set my charcoal on that to light. Then I turned four bricks on end and set the grate from the propane grill on them. It worked for a makeshift grill to finish whatever it was I was cooking.
I don't know how creative that was..... I was just hungry

Hmmmm. Just thinking. Could you have built the charcoal fire in the gas grill?

 

[Andy M.]

I made a recipe of shu mai (siu mai) and needed extra steamer space so I put some water in my wok, set two chopsticks into the wok horizontally so they were supported above the water level by the cruved sides of the wok. I set a plate of uncooked shu mai on the chopsticks, covered the wok and steamed them to perfection.

 

[pacanis]

Hmmmm. Just thinking. Could you have built the charcoal fire in the gas grill?

Something must have had me thinking not to. Whether I didn't want to deal with the ashes afterward or the burner arrangement.... I don't remember. That was back in the mid-eighties. I think I still have that same bag of charcoal, too

 

[Andy M.]

Maybe it's time to celebrate the 25th anniversary of that fateful day.

Why not spend the weekend trying to get that charcoal to ingnite?

 

[LPBeier]

Cooking at camp last year for 600 people brought a lot of challenges; however I think the one that most fits this thread is when our cooler motor was freezing up because of the heat outside and all the walking in and out of it to prep the meals. DH and I lived right underneath the kitchen (with its own set of challenges) and one of the other cooks asked if I had a hair dryer in my room. I ran and got it and he used it to melt the ice out of the motor so we wouldn't have to shut it down and risk losing both time and food!

 

[LPBeier]

Maybe it's time to celebrate the 25th anniversary of that fateful day.

Why not spend the weekend trying to get that charcoal to ingnite?

With or without matches?

 

[pacanis]

Are you saying charcoal goes bad, Andy? I don't think it's ever gotten wet....
I remember now I was cooking chicken wings. It's alllll coming back to me (lol)

 

[LPBeier]

Do you know that even the "real" MacGuyver used food? There is a site on Wickipedia that actually lists all the things the character did? Here is an excerpt from the pilot episode.

MacGyver plugs a sulfuric acid leak with chocolate. He states that chocolate contains lactose and sucrose (chemically C12H22O11), which are disaccharides. The acid reacts with the sugars to form elemental carbon and a thick gummy residue.

Hmmm, I may never look at a Hershey bar quite the same again.

 

[Andy M.]

Are you saying charcoal goes bad, Andy? I don't think it's ever gotten wet....
I remember now I was cooking chicken wings. It's alllll coming back to me (lol)

Charcoal is hygroscopic, it attracts moisture. So just sitting in the bag for 25 years it will probably have a high moisture content and be hard to light.

 

[pacanis]

Bummer.
Maybe it will still be OK for cave drawings......

 

[DaveSoMD]

Does this count????

I was making oatmeal cookins one time and miss read the recipe. I didn't have enough oatmeal and or any raisins so I substitued instant brown sugar and cinnamon oatmeal but the dough was too thick, so I added in bananas to loosen it and then I added butterscotch chips to replace the raisins.

I manage to save the cookies and created a new recipe.