I will never again . . . (Part 4)

[liuzhou]

2 minutes ago, Anna N said:

That is awful. How bad is the burn?

 

Looks worse than it feels. Fortunately, I was able to get under a cold tap in seconds. Thanks.

Memo to self: Pay attention to detail.

[cakeslover]

I will never again juice a leek. I got a very bad indigestion because of that.

[Kerry Beal]

I will never again add some high test brandy to sautéing mushrooms sans exhaust fan.

 

A little sizzle, a big flame, smoke alarm, new cat flying, husband furiously fanning - strangely the usually noise averse child just watched with a rather amused look from her wheelchair.

[JeanneCake]

oh wow, you guys!!!!

 

As I read most of these, I was say "ow, ow, ow, ow" and sympathy-cursing right along with you.

 

The only thing I can add is once, when I was making lunch for the little guy (back when Annie's Mac and Cheese had different flavors like Mexican, Alfredo, etc) and it was time to add the butter and milk; I just dished up some butter from a bowl near the stove and gave him a bowl.  He scrunched up his face and said it was awful and could he have something else.  Sighing, I made him a plain version and my husband said he'd eat the other one.  He took one bite and agreed it was awful.  I looked at the stove and realized I used passionfruit buttercream instead of butter.

 

15 years later, they still won't let me forget it.

[haresfur]

My DB will never again wrap a bamboo steamer up in plastic to keep 6 legged critters out after cleaning and seemingly drying (I hope). However we may have discovered new media for culturing fungi.

[Darienne]

Our early morning coffee is partly set out the night before in our elegant Hamilton Beach coffee maker.  DH puts in 6 'cups' of cold water.  Sets out a filter and the caff coff cannister.  In the morning, I put in the filter, add the coffee grounds and hit the on button.  Done.

So what could possible go wrong...go wrong...go wrong...???

I forgot to check for the evidence of water and turned on the machine.  After a few minutes I notice that no coffee was coming out.  So I did my usual: turn off the machine, take the carafe and partly fill it with cold water, pour the water into the machine...etc.   It's always worked before...

 

This time I guess the machine was hotter than usual...or the water colder...or something...  As I added the water, the entire filter full of coffee simply blew up into my face, the walls, the counters, everything sitting on the counter, the floor..you name it.  Scared the daylights out of me.  Left the water compartment of the maker full of grounds.   Took me a long and unhappy time to clean it all up.  And then I still had to make the coffee...

Meanwhile, his Lordship slept on through it all.

 

Note to self writ large:  Always check the water compartment in the coffee maker...

 

 

Edited February 22, 2016 by Darienne (log)

[BeeZee]

Darienne, reminds me of an incident from working in a small office...it was me, another girl, and a husband and wife. The husband was always very dismissive and had a quick temper, we were all a little uneasy around him. Nobody could tell him what to do, and he didn't want to believe his wife when she warned him not to rinse the hot coffee pot with cold water...at least his mess was confined to the sink.

[Darienne]

1 hour ago, BeeZee said:

Darienne, reminds me of an incident from working in a small office...it was me, another girl, and a husband and wife. The husband was always very dismissive and had a quick temper, we were all a little uneasy around him. Nobody could tell him what to do, and he didn't want to believe his wife when she warned him not to rinse the hot coffee pot with cold water...at least his mess was confined to the sink.

Many replies spring immediately to mind and in the interest of peace and good tidings, I'll leave all of them untold.

[blue_dolphin]

@Darienne - Oh, the pain of that annoying cleaning operation, performed in a pre-caffeinated state.  Ouch!  I also must confess that I once did the same thing, with no one to blame but myself 

[Porthos]

2 hours ago, Darienne said:

Our early morning coffee is partly set out the night before in our elegant Hamilton Beach coffee maker.  DH puts in 6 'cups' of cold water.  Sets out a filter and the caff coff cannister.  In the morning, I put in the filter, add the coffee grounds and hit the on button.  Done.

So what could possible go wrong...go wrong...go wrong...???

I forgot to check for the evidence of water and turned on the machine.  After a few minutes I notice that no coffee was coming out.  So I did my usual: turn off the machine, take the carafe and partly fill it with cold water, pour the water into the machine...etc.   It's always worked before...

 

This time I guess the machine was hotter than usual...or the water colder...or something...  As I added the water, the entire filter full of coffee simply blew up into my face, the walls, the counters, everything sitting on the counter, the floor..you name it.  Scared the daylights out of me.  Left the water compartment of the maker full of grounds.   Took me a long and unhappy time to clean it all up.  And then I still had to make the coffee...

Meanwhile, his Lordship slept on through it all.

 

Note to self writ large:  Always check the water compartment in the coffee maker...

 

 

When Hamiton Beach brought out their Brew Station coffee makers I was an instant convert. No water, no problem. You fill the reservoir using some other pitcher since the caraffe is built in. Our Brew Station sits next to the sink and the reservior is easily filled from our faucet-on-a-hose.

 

I have, on more than one occasion, watched clear water stream into my coffee cup and realized that I put the water in but forgot the coffee.

[BeeZee]

3 hours ago, Darienne said:

Many replies spring immediately to mind and in the interest of peace and good tidings, I'll leave all of them untold.

it still makes me smile...comeuppance in spades (he was a man who MUST HAVE HIS COFFEE). To this day I wonder if the look of disbelief (as I sat across from the kitchen alcove, I witnessed the incident) was due more to the fact that it happened...or the fact that he realized his wife was correct!

[Darienne]

Good heavens, I seem to have returned already.  I was streaming along, making two Moussakas and all was going well.  I was just finishing up the double batch of Bechamel sauce to pour over the tops of the casserole dishes and realized that I had forgotten to add some salt and pepper.  Salt added.  OK.  Pepper added.  Oh....

 

I had just replenished the ground pepper container and had neglected to tightly fasten down that little piece of white plastic with the holes in it which goes under the cover. 

 

An entire container of fresh ground pepper right into the sauce.  Frantic scooping out ensued.  Could I get enough pepper out of the mixture quickly enough to stave off the damage and loss of time, energy and ingredients?

I did.  I succeeded and the sauce was back in business...a little peppery perhaps...??? 

But now I am wiped out and have to have a cup of coffee and spend some quiet moments on the time-gobbler.

[Thanks for the Crepes]

Been there, done that @Darienne.   Usually with these new-fangled tops that have flip-up flaps built into the screw on lid. I just blithely unscrew the whole lid, and attempt to shake through a non-existent sifter, and wind up dumping. Doh!

 

Glad your moussakas came out well.

Edited March 17, 2016 by Thanks for the Crepes (log)

[Darienne]

OMG.  I'm back again.  I can't believe it. 

OK.  I have no 8"x8" metal pan.  I don't know why.  I just don't.  However, I do have one of those horrible green floppy silicone abominations which is 8"X8".  (photo of horrible green pan)  And I keep on talking about buying a proper metal pan.  In fact, just yesterday I finally put it down on the grocery list.  "Buy a proper 8"X8" metal pan".

However, today I needed a pan, oh, about 8"X8" to roast a smallish amount of corn in the oven for this dish, Southwest Potatoes, I was serving tonight and right...brought out the silicone pan.  Oiled the corn, into the oven it went.  Then it was ready to bring out.

 

On went the oven mitts and then Mrs.-Stupid-who-never-learns-it-seems lifts out the pan by its corner...just the way you could lift out a metal pan...its corner...and the corn all falls out on the oven door.  Thank heaven for the door or the corn would have been in the compost bin tout de suite. 

 

BTW, the Southwest Potatoes are hardly traditional Mexican food, but boy are they delicious!

 

[ElainaA]

@Darienne Oh man, I can see myself doing that!

[Thanks for the Crepes]

 Yeah, I haven't bought any silicone bakeware because of negative stories I've read on eG. I'm glad you were able to salvage the corn @Darienne, and the your Southwest potatoes came out well. 

 

I don't have an 8 x 8 metal pan either because I have a vintage Corning ware one when it was still made in NY, USA. I'd go with metal too, if I had to buy one now. Mine is currently occupied by the last two slices of a lightly sweet yellow cake with dark chocolate butter cream frosting I made the other day.

 

Bonus, I sent an extra slice with the husband's lunch today for his favorite man who works for him, and husband came home tonight saying how much Donnie appreciated it because it was his birthday! Neither my husband nor I had any idea, and the reason I sent it was because I did know his wife, who's the cook in the family, is out of town. I also sent my meatloaf recipe yesterday, because he asked for it after tasting a piece of my husband's lunch sandwich. He's making it tonight. This guy did the heavy lifting helping us older folks bury our beloved cat, so as far as I'm concerned, he can have any dang recipe he wants. 

 

Fortunately, *fingers crossed* I do not have a kitchen misadventure of my own to report just now, but unfortunately, I'm sure that I will be adding to the discussion in the future. 

[Darienne]

I do have a lot of 9"X13" pans of both pyrex (the discontinued kind, of course) and metal.  And several of several sizes of metal pans.  And many pyrex ditto.  Most of the pyrex bought at our favorite second-had store in Moab.  But many of the pans are currently occupied in the freezer...I make more than one of whatever I am making and then store them away for visitors.  Or later eating.  And still...no 8"X8" square metal pan.  Very strange.  But it's coming...

 

And yes, I hate the silicone stuff...all mine is given away, mainly to second-hand stores...except for the one.

Edited March 22, 2016 by Darienne (log)

[Darienne]

Once again I find myself back here.  This morning I made DL's Buttercrunch Toffee as an inclusion to be put into vanilla ice cream.  p.200, The Perfect Scoop.  And once again (and again and again) I forgot to put in the soda and the vanilla at the end of the cooking process. 

I had them RIGHT beside the burner.  I have not one, but two, blue stick'ems on the adjacent page with notes in LARGE PRINTING:  DO NOT FORGET THE SODA & VANILLA.  and once again...well, you know.  (It doesn't ruin the outcome...but it doesn't help it either.)

 

So I have come up with yet another aide memoire.  I have cut out a section of Staples white mailing labels, leaving on the protective backing, written on each label:  Soda & Vanilla, and intend to stick a label on my backing sheet each time I make the toffee.  The labels will be kept in the DL book.  ...could use a larger label and darker printing.

 

I will be grateful for any additional ideas....

(Mock-up)
 

Edited April 15, 2016 by Darienne
addition (log)

[Okanagancook]

Maybe put the sticky label on the top of your stirring hand!

[Darienne]

So it is turning into 'ONE OF THOSE MORNINGS'.  I then forgot to put the dasher into the ice cream mixture, leaving me with a ICE-100 bowl full of frozen mixture.  And the toffee was so hard that I had to use a hammer on it.  And then I saw two dog hairs disappear into the ice cream mixture.  (That's OK.  My overnight guest is a two-dog person also, with said dogs,  and she has just lived through a week of unbelievable heck fighting with hospital administrators over her 100-year old Father who is in ER, since Sunday, with a broken pelvis and they wanted to send him home today.  The entire story would make you weep.  No, I am not kidding.)

 

OK.  Deep breaths.  Calm down. 

[kayb]

...balance a six-pound frozen Boston butt on the edge of the chest freezer while excavating for something else, only to knock it off with my elbow, squarely onto my bare big toe.

 

I may not wear shoes for a week. Thank God it's summer. I can get by with sandals.

 

I am also about to buy an upright freezer. Need more freezer room anyway.

[scubadoo97]

On June 6, 2016 at 11:57 AM, kayb said:

...balance a six-pound frozen Boston butt on the edge of the chest freezer while excavating for something else, only to knock it off with my elbow, squarely onto my bare big toe.

 

I may not wear shoes for a week. Thank God it's summer. I can get by with sandals.

 

I am also about to buy an upright freezer. Need more freezer room anyway.

I know the feeling.  Had a frozen container of Cuban black beans fall out of the upright freezer on my bare toes while rooting around in the freezer not long back.  Ouch!!

 

Hope yours toes are okay.  Feel better soon 

[kayb]

The toe has now faded into the background, as I now have a broken tibia and fibula and a torn-up knee. Same leg. I'm contemplating mid-thigh amputation. 

 

As kitchen duties will be suspended for a while, I will be counting on eGullet for my food fix for a while.

[Smithy]

@kayb, damn! Mend quickly.

[Shelby]

4 hours ago, kayb said:

The toe has now faded into the background, as I now have a broken tibia and fibula and a torn-up knee. Same leg. I'm contemplating mid-thigh amputation. 

 

As kitchen duties will be suspended for a while, I will be counting on eGullet for my food fix for a while.

What????  Woman, how did you do that?  I, too, hope you mend fast.  Your garden needs you.