Friday, August 14, 2009

Kitchen FAILS

It occurred to me recently that when I blog about delicious food I've made, it may give the wrong impression about my level of culinary ability.

In reality, I have plenty of failures in the kitchen. Sometimes they make better stories than the successes, even if the failures aren't accompanied by photos.

I had one rough cooking day at The Engineer's parents' house. I started the day by making coffee...coffee which ended up all over the countertop (including lots of grounds) when I put the full filter into the coffeemaker...without the filter basket. I then proceeded to make Slow Cooker Granola, which I can now assure you is not meant to be eaten blackened. In the evening, I made dinner, which turned out great...except the overcooked challah bread. Sigh.

Then there are the pork chops I made recently that couldn't have been more salty if I'd served them with a side of seawater. The heat-safe glass casserole dish that I caused to explode in my oven. The made-from-scratch cupcakes that were dense and welded to their paper cups. And innumerable failed experiments...too spicy, too overcooked, or too weird.

But cooking is just like any other skill worth learning--failure is part of the process. It's an important part of the process. So while you may not see pictures of charred cookies and undercooked casseroles, rest assured--my poor family is suffering through my failures in the kitchen. I think the good to bad food ratio is improving through the years, and I figure that's all I--and they--can ask for.

10 comments:

Unknown said...

That's good to know...I'm sure some of us were wondering if you were Betty Crocker's prodigy child lol. We all do it...but usually it doesn't make for pretty pictures!

Fannyfanackapan said...

The fun is in the failures!

Call Me Cate said...

I've had my share of failures as well. I'm sure we all have. I think next time I fail miserably, I'm going to take pics anyways and be bold about it.

Becky said...

I think one of my favorite FAILS was when I grabbed the wrong orange-colored box out of the cupboard and added it to my gravy, resulting in gravy SODA POP (I used baking soda instead of cornstarch). Why wait until Thanksgiving, when you can buy Jones turkey gravy-flavored soda at the store? Just make your own.

And your story about exploding the heat-safe casserole dish brings to mind another one of my failures. My husband's parents had recently passed away so we'd just spent the day with his siblings, sorting through their things, and we returned home with an antique glass dish. I didn't know where I was going to store it, so I set it on the stove temporarily. Then, when I was getting ready to prepare supper, I turned on the burner to heat it up while I grabbed the pan out of the cupboard...and you guessed it, the antique glass dish was on that burner (how I failed to notice that, I have no idea). It EXPLODED all over my kitchen. Oops. We never mentioned that to any of my in-laws, and thankfully no one has ever asked if we still have that dish.

Unknown said...

Ask your mom (who is a great cook!) about Eagle Brand milk gravy.

Barga said...

you know, i love to cook. Like, the kitchen is my palace, and I am king in there. Always remember, don't insult the king

2cats said...

I went to chef school.
I still have failures.

Anonymous said...

You are so right, Beth. I think the kind of experiences you describe are probably the kind that make some people throw up their hands and decide they just aren't meant to cook! But, you do get better with years if you stick with it -- however, you NEVER get too old to have a flop or two! (of course, I don't say that from PERSONAL experience, but some "old people" have told me that!) :)

Our Scoop said...

Love your honesty. Why is it that we don't take pics? We usually look back and chuckle a little?? I am the "smoke alarm" queen right now in our house. Oops :)

Rachel Cotterill said...

I wrote about a couple of my disasters back in January:
http://rachelcotterill.blogspot.com/2009/01/cookery-mishaps.html

But you're right, you learn by mistakes :)