I will never again . . . (Part 2)

[Suzanne F]

Mine for this week (and it's only Tuesday! ): overload the fridge with jars of homemade condiments/conserves/leftovers etc., and NOT remove the ones in front while pulling out one from the rear. Oh! my lovely last-of-the-season plum compote.

But I'm lying, because I know I will indeed do that again. And again. And again.

[peppyre]

Well Kevin72, I too seem to be on a roll. I burnt myself again last night. This time I missed the potholder completely and it was in my hand. Nothing like having the delicate skin of the web of your thumb sizzle on a pan that's been in the oven at 425 for over an hour. I'm hoping that's it and I won't burn myself again for another 6 months. I'm not holding out much hope though.....

[Kevin72]

That was in fact one of my "streaks" a few years back. Sear something off in a frying pan, then finish it in a hot oven. Remove from oven with gloves, place on burner. Remove gloves, then grab handle. A week later, just as my burns were clearing up, I did the same thing again! Now whenever I do this method I just tie a spare rag on the handle as soon as it comes out.

[naguere]

Put four large loaves in the hot oven, then pull closed the glass lid to cover the top burners, this I found cuts off all gas to the stove.

the dough didn't exactly push the door open, but it was quite a sight.

[alexw]

Ok this was a long time ago, using a gravity slicer to plough through some Roast sirloin for vast sandwich party. About half way through the blade was sounding rough against some trapped beef debris. so I carefully swithed off, moved left hand to remove the obsruction with my right hand very carefully placed over the "ON" switch.

you guessed it, 7 stitches, thankfully the blade was set quite thin, so only buried itself into flesh and not bone.

still scarred 13 years later, fingernail looks like a girl, lesson learned.

Alex.

[Sleepy_Dragon]

I got to visit the emergency room today. Didn't properly curl my fingers while slicing a baguette and sliced myself going right through the middle of the nail on my middle finger with a serrated knife.

Got to see Jaded Triage Nurse, who said I needed to work on my knife skills. Gee thanks!

It was quite an ordeal in the ER: two fresh and eager interns accompanied the doc, who turns to them and asks if either of them have done an injection of anesthetic into the webbing between fingers before. Both shake their heads. Thankfully the doc goes first, but shows them what to look for: "Insert the needle here and keep going until you hit bone... hear that clicking sound? *wiggle wiggle click click* That's the bone, now go a little deeper..."

They needed to shoot up my finger six times like that in order to numb it enough to insert scissors under the fingernail and cut it away.

So now I have a metal splint on my middle finger, left hand. And due to the pressure of blood in fingertips, I have to hold it above heart level to avoid more pressure and pain. This makes me look like I'm just flipping off everybody I pass by. Of course, many of my fellow culinary students think that's awesome.

After the ER, I went back to class to attend lecture at least, and chef says "You know what you did wrong, right?"

At least for the next two days I rotate to sous chef. "Magic Finger says clean your station!"

Pat, typing one-handedly

[little ms foodie]

uggggg, Pat you just made my stomache turn!

Well I'll add mine stupidity to the list.....the other night while roasting a turkey breast in my beautiful Emile Henry roaster with ribs on the bottom I decided that I should have a little stock in the bottom of the pan. Pulled out some homemade chicken stock and feeling very smug about the whole thing proceeded to add a few spoonfuls of the nice (cold) gelled stock to my big porcelain pan.........CRACK, SPLIT, BREAK.

Goddamnit!!! I completely ruined my pan and had no one to blame but myself! And I have been comunicating with EH only to find out that my particular pan is discontinued.

Can not tell you how pissed off at myself I was/am!

[lia]

I will never again NOT pay attention to what spice I'm grabbing off the spice shelf...

Because you know what? Celery salt just doesn't taste as good as cinnamon in French Toast.

[eunny jang]

Pulled out some homemade chicken stock and feeling very smug about the whole thing proceeded to add a few spoonfuls of the nice (cold) gelled stock to my big porcelain pan.........CRACK, SPLIT, BREAK.

Goddamnit!!! I completely ruined my pan and had no one to blame but myself! And I have been comunicating with EH only to find out that my particular pan is discontinued. 

Can not tell you how pissed off at myself I was/am!

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I've done that. I was merrily stirring together batter and cooking bacon for cornbread. I put the bacon in the Pyrex 8x8 I was planning to bake the bread in, on the burner, pleased with myself for cooking the bacon, preheating and greasing the pan all at once. I'm bending over to grab some eggs, and I hear this very loud but oddly muffled BOOM, followed by the tinkle of glass shards raining down on my counters.

It was just a five-dollar dish though - I'm so sorry to hear about your EH

Edited October 16, 2004 by eunny jang (log)

[Jinmyo]

I'm so sorry to hear about your EH

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It was objecting to the turkey breast, the most sinister of all meats.

[tejon]

It was objecting to the turkey breast, the most sinister of all meats.

I thought that honor went to boneless, skinless chicken breasts?

I will never again forget that fresh pineapple will not set up, no matter how much gelatin I throw at it. It made a lovely mango/passionfruit/pineapple sauce, but was not what I needed to set into the top of my cake.

[NulloModo]

Hehe, I don't get the hate for boneless skinless breasts. If you want to make chicken tenders, or a chicken curry and not deal with picking bones out as you eat, or chicken enchiladas, or any other chicken dish where you just don't feel like dealing with bones, what else woudl you use? Well, boneless thighs are nice, I will give you that.

Does anyone sell boneless chicken breasts with the skin still on? I would love that, but haven't found them anywhere.

[jackal10]

I thought that honor went to boneless, skinless chicken breasts? 

I will never again forget that fresh pineapple will not set up, no matter how much gelatin I throw at it.  It made a lovely mango/passionfruit/pineapple sauce, but was not what I needed to set into the top of my cake.

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Heat the pineapple (bring to the boil and cool) first to destroy the enzyme that eats the gelatine

[Jinmyo]

Does anyone sell boneless chicken breasts with the skin still on?  I would love that, but haven't found them anywhere.

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Your butcher can do that for you. But it's quite easy.

Skinless/boneless chicken breasts are insipid.

Skinless/boneless turkey breast is sinister.

[kuan]

Dump Marinara sauce in a perforated steamer pan.

[little ms foodie]

Your butcher can do that for you. But it's quite easy.

Skinless/boneless chicken breasts are insipid.

Skinless/boneless turkey breast is sinister.

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Hey! that turkey breast had it's bones, leave it alone..... it's just a dumb bird!

And I LIKE roasted turkey breast, what wrong with you....don't you love a good turkey sandwich?? Crazy talk I say!

[rosebud]

I've done most of the things on this thread, except for those which require a pressure cooker or microwave oven (except at my mother's house regarding heating up mugs of milk for Tom and Jerry's--she never did understand how I could use up so much T&J batter! ). Exploding potatoes and eggplant...and the only time I've ever had to go to the Emergency Room was when I cut the palm of my hand open trying to get the backbone out of a duck (this was for a dinner party, of course!).

I have Tiramasu stories--I make a killer Tiramasu and it is always a requested dish at large gatherings. The E-E-E-W-W-W-W factor: While I was cooking for a dinner party I noticed that I had lost a fingernail somewhere along the line. Do you know that I got the prize? Yup, noticed something crunchy in my portion of Tiramasu. I knew exactly what it was and could not imagine how I got lucky enough to get my own body part and no one was the wiser. I just looked to heavens and said, "THANK YOU!"

Last Christmas I was going to make Tiramisu for the large crowd of people who always gather together for Christmas Day. Now, this is a dish which has raw eggs and no one has ever gotten salmonella poisoning from what I have made. But, THIS time I decided to spring for the "pasteurized" raw eggs. I found out that pasteurized eggs white DO NOT WHIP. So, there I was on Christmas Day when even the local Safeway was closed and the 7-11 was entirely out of eggs, and had no usable eggwhites. Fortunately, after several desperate phone calls, one of the local foodies who was going to attend the same gathering had some extra eggs which he dropped off at my place.

I have not set my kitchen on fire yet, but there is still time.

[torakris]

I just did a stupid kitchen blunder minutes ago.

I had been saving the last bits of kimchi in the refrigerator to make a kimchi fried rice for lunch today, one of my favorite lunches. I did all the prep, got the vegetables ready, kimchi chopped, heated the oil in the pan, when all of a sudden I rembered I didn't have any rice.....

[winesonoma]

Hehe, I don't get the hate for boneless skinless breasts.  If you want to make chicken tenders, or a chicken curry and not deal with picking bones out as you eat, or chicken enchiladas, or any other chicken dish where you just don't feel like dealing with bones, what else woudl you use?  Well, boneless thighs are nice, I will give you that.

Does anyone sell boneless chicken breasts with the skin still on?  I would love that, but haven't found them anywhere.

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Slip you fingers between the breast meat and the bones and peel it off. Simple. Knives are generally not needed

[RSincere]

I did all the prep, got the vegetables ready, kimchi chopped, heated the oil in the pan, when all of a sudden I rembered I didn't have any rice.....

I do something similar, quite often. I'm planning on making stir fry with rice, or anything with rice...I'll have the stir fry or other item nearly finished when I realize I haven't even started the rice. So the stir fry sits and congeals while we drum our fingers on the table...

[Suzanne F]

Not that this is something I would never do again . . . well, maybe it is, sort of . . . but it is another rice story: I recently "liberated" a very, very large plastic jar from someone's discards. I washed it out carefully, and used it to store the 10 pounds of rice I bought. Little did I know that there was a crack in the bottom of the jar, and the water that collects on the counter where the jar sat would seep in. The worst of it is that it did NOT ferment and give me sake; it just got moldy. So I guess I will never again use storage jars I have not fully tested.

[mighty quinn]

i will never make chicken salad for thirty after two martinis and a presidential debate. fortunately i was able to control the bleeding myself. people at the party the next day kept asking me why i didn't get my finger stitched and i said that there wasn't anything LEFT to stitch-good thing they didn't ask where the piece of finger went!! (kitchen scene was not unlike dan akroyd/julia child)

[takomabaker]

I'm so glad I'm not the only one who's done that, except I was trying to keep the oven steamed while baking bread and it exploded all over the inside of my oven.

And cracking eggs directly into the Kitchenaid, rather than pouring them in from a cup. I ruined a batch of Brioche that way.

I've done that.  I was merrily stirring together batter and cooking bacon for cornbread.  I put the bacon in the Pyrex 8x8 I was planning to bake the bread in, on the burner, pleased with myself for cooking the bacon, preheating and greasing the pan all at once.  I'm bending over to grab some eggs, and I hear this very loud but oddly muffled BOOM, followed by the tinkle of glass shards raining down on my counters. 

It was just a five-dollar dish though - I'm so sorry to hear about your EH

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[patti]

Does anyone sell boneless chicken breasts with the skin still on?  I would love that, but haven't found them anywhere.

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Yes, you can buy bags of individually frozen boneless chicken breasts with the skin still on. I don't recall the brand, except to say it's not Tyson. Are you Wal-Mart averse? I bought them there or Albertson's.

[Daddy-A]

... add sugar to whipped cream without first making sure it's not salt

This happened at a Thanksgiving dinner when my eldest was 4 ... and bless his innocent little soul, while I was busy being upset, he suggested we use the salty whipped cream on the mashed potatoes! Yummmmmmmmmmmmm!

A.