Beware of flying bad words!!!
- Kitchen Nightmares

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

My inspiration for this post comes from our cousin, Kim.. her post this afternoon really just spoke to me.


Kim is going through a bit of a kitchen nightmare today. From her FB posts I can tell the day started out quite well with a visit to Kitchen Art to pick up newly sharpened knives. But, then it was all down hill her mandolin slicer broke, a light burnt out, and her chef'n spatula snapped. (I'm sure she'd be happy to accept donations of new items - including a new fridge)

I too have had these nightmare-ish kitchen days. So I thought I'd share in some of my (least)favorite kitchen stories.

Red Velvet Chocolate Cake - this cake still escapes me. I have tried two recipes and both have failed. The first, a Red Velvet Chiffon that looked like a baby hot pink nightmare (complete with a gooey edge). The second batch, a cupcake version caved in. I may or may not have had quite a few beverages before attempting this and I might have left out a key ingredient.

Gingerbread Cookie Dough - My food processor motor died while making this holiday staple. It came to a screeching halt while I was carefully adding molasses. I held onto it for another couple months hoping it would magically work. And, it did -- if you twisted it backwards a few times, it could process air like a champ for about 5 seconds. (Recently replaced with the KFP750 in White thanks to a gift card I won at work)

Stove top of melt-y-ness  - it is a REALLY good thing my husband has some experience fighting fires. Our flat-top stove top sits between the wall mounted oven and fridge. There isn't much counter space.....

We have melted the following items (there are probably more - don't judge)

Food packages - The Blue Box & Brats? It began with a hot mess of melted plastic (the brats were in a plastic bag), a trip to the store, scraping off the stove top, and an awful stench.

Plastic Containers - I had purchased this fantastic set of plastic storage containers to house delicious leftovers. And, well they melt really quickly on a warm burner. We have since switched to glass containers, but the lids are plastic.... and yes I'm pretty sure I've spent the night before Thanksgiving frantically scraping off a plastic lid from my poor stove-top :(

Rubber Spatulas - I have murdered two spatulas, once by placing it on a warm (but not on) burner, and the other time while cooking with a roommate. We both noticed the spatula kept getting smaller and smaller as we cooked. It seemed so odd, sure enough the darn thing had melted into the sauce.

I've learned that the key to removing the melted plastic goo is speed, water, a metal tool, and prayer. And, that value priced plastic melts REALLY fast.

The best solution however is to just make sure plastic NEVER touches the stove top.


So, please join me in telling Kim that she is not alone, and it will get better by sharing your kitchen nightmare(s).

3 comments:

GracefulHoneybee said...

A couple of Christmas's ago I decided to try my hand at peanut butter fudge. I had no candy thermometer, so I just tried to go by the consistency that the recipe said it should be. Big mistake. I ended up with a huge soupy mess that never set up. And somewhere along the way, I let the mix get too hot on the stove and molten sugar popped up and hit me in the eye. I had a huge welted burn under my eye just in time for Christmas dinner!

I have also, EVERY YEAR, burned through a hand mixer making the 100 dozen or so cookies. Last year my awesome hubby got me a stand mixer lol. I don't think he could handle another trip to walmart at 2am.

Jennifer Whitt said...

Thank you so much for sharing - don't you just die when kitchen appliances decide to fail mid dough?

Also, I LOVE your tutus - do you make them for "big girls" .... you know 26 year olds who think it would be a fantastic idea for a birthday outfit...

(if you haven't seen them check out this link - http://honeybeememories.blogspot.com/p/tutus.html)

GracefulHoneybee said...

Thanks Jen!

I sure can! The waist on all my tutus are elastic and stretch up to 32" comfortably. My 10 year old wears them easily. I can always custom make anything size-wise or with custom colors too! :)

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