Sometimes no matter what you do....
 

or plan for dinner you just screw things up.

That was me tonight for dinner, the simple dinner of hamburger
helper (hubs choice for dinner), was mexican taco, I ALWAYS add
a little extra seasonings (usually chili powder and Mrs. Dash sw chipotle).

But tonight I wasn't paying attention and grabbed the stupid jar
of ground cinnamon. I got most of it out but there is still enough
of the cinnamon to slightly taste it.

We shall see how it turns out.

Ugh!! I made stew last week (using left over Pot Roast) and put WAY too much fresh ground pepper in it (and I LOVE a lot of pepper!). On top of that I made it in the "wrong" pot - one that does not regulate heat well and the bottom burned and gave the whole stew a "burned" flavor. To top it all off ... I invited the neighbors for dinner!

Certainly not one of my finest moments.

Hope yours is edible!

Nope is was totally horrible. After 3 bites we both agreed
that it left a nasty after taste in the mouth.

Panda Express to the rescue tonight.

Or there was the time my mom put salt in the cream puffs recipe instead of sugar... to this day, we can't figure out how THAT happened!

Sorry that happened but I am sure we can all relate to some cooking experience that didn't turn out to good.

Years ago (over 20) I used to make cornbread from scratch.....well (if I remember right) it called for 1/4 cup of sugar and I put "1" cup of sugar and I didn't realize it until I took the cornbread out of the oven...I wondered Why it had such a sheen to the top....we sat down to eat and tasted the cornbread and boy was it sweet. If you haven't ever had cornbread cake you should try it.....it really wasn't all that bad. HA!!

Ha! Murphy's Law gets us all. I was cooking for a group of campers and grabbed a box of cornstarch to thicken rhubarb pie filling. As soon as I added the 1/2 cup, foam bubbled to the top of the pot. Aaargh! There was new packaging and the cornstarch and baking powder containers were almost identical. What a waste of pie plant and sugar and baking powder.

Have you ever made a home made vanilla cake, and frosted the cake with boiled icing? YUM! Except, when a 10 and an 11 year old aim to surprise the family with dessert by seeing a "7" instead of a "1" handwritten on the recipe card for the 'cups of sugar'. We poured that hot stuff over the cake, and what didn't soak into the cake formed a rather smooth outer 'shell' to the cake. When our mother came home she was none too happy to find her sugar all gone. She did insist we try to eat the cake. Over 40 years ago and we still laugh over that.

When dh and I were first married, we ate very frugally. One night, I was fixing hot dogs and as I was draining them, they went slithering down the drain.

My daughter grabbed the cinnamon a few months ago and dusted her deviled eggs with that instead of paprika!!! Her hubby, who LOVES deviled eggs, ate them anyhow!!!

One day I made no bake cookies with crispy chinese noodles, unfortunately I used the GARLIC flavored noodles....they were DISGUSTING!!!!

I've not (yet) had such an experience, but my husband has had his share. He likes to substitute things with disastrous results. The first was when we were out of dishwasher soap, and he didn't see anything wrong with using liquid dish soap in its place. Yes, he filled BOTH detergent cups full of Dawn and started the dishwasher. I walked in the house and stood there, aghast, staring at the 4 foot high wall of suds oozing out of my kitchen.

The most recent substitution was when I went on a quilt retreat. He decided to make pancakes for the kids. He found my recipe for the mix (I don't use Bisquick, I make my own) but he either couldn't find the baking POWDER, or he thought it was the same as baking SODA. So he put in 2 tablespoons of baking soda. The kids were soooo happy to see me when I got home...

I was around 8 the first time I made cookies. I mistakenly used salt instead of sugar (not sure how that happened) and didn't realize it until after they were made and a friend of the family ate 1. Poor guy choked it down so he didn't hurt my feelings!

Diannia

My problem stems from when I change brands or bottles of spices, remember how some spices have small holes and other spices have a lid you can dip your spoon into. I always forget and grab the new bottle without checking the hole size, I once put in 1/2 a bottle of some spice. I forget which. I scooped off as much as I could and put it into another bottle, then realized I had the completely wrong spice-I think it was cinamon instead of what ever I was looking for. Dh came down stairs and asked me why I was washing the already cooked chicken.

In chinese cooking cinammon, ginger, anise is for savory foods-Dh won't eat anything sweet with cinamon....it's just not right to his taste buds.

It happens to all of us. Good thing you had a carry out place near by. Thanks for sharing.

Once I ate at a friends house and she was a new cook. The recipe called for 2 cups chopped red peppers-with the understanding it was sweet red peppers. She went to the market and picked up the only red peppers she could find-those fireary hot ones. We make sure to eat before we go to her house for meals.

I simmered and babied a big pot of chicken broth all day, the Alton Brown way. When it was time to drain the broth I poured it in a strainer and the delicious broth ran down the drain. That was the most wasted day of my life.

Sorry, but that sounds too funny...... Slithering hot dogs.

Oh I have had MANY bad experiences in the kitchen and cooking
but I honestly think the worst one was last nights mishap.

When I was doing dishes I saw that hubs even tried to cover the
nasty taste with ketchup, of course he puts that stuff on ALMOST
everything INCLUDING peanut butter and velvetta cheese sandwiches.

My sister and I wanted to make our sick brother some applesauce but recipe called for twice as many apples than we had. I said we could make half the recipe and we put all of the ingredients in a pot and kept stiring and stirring bit it never got thick. Problem was that I put in half of the apples, half of the sugar and all of the water.


Many times I've added too much herbs or spices to a recipe because I just opened the jar and shook it over the food. Half of a spice jar of red pepper flakes is a litttl too much for any dish.

When I was first married, tried to impress new husband and made burnt pork chops. Well thought if I put tamotoes it would cover the burnt. Almost 44 years later, he still reminds me of it, when I make port chops.

I've done many things over the years but a couple stick out. We I was a teenager many years ago a GF and I decided to make a tiered cake from scratch for my parents 25th wedding anniversary party. We had to make to recipe twice and forgot to put the baking powder in both times. It was tasty but like eating rubber. Another time when I was 10 or 11 I decided to make biscuits for dinner. I rolled them out like piecrust. My father always kidded me about making crackers. Then last night I turned on the wrong burner and burnt the burner cover. Luckily I was still in the kitchen when it happened.

Oh how that is so easy to do. Especially if you've got quilting project's on the mind.

A very funny thread to read first thing in the morning! My DH cannot stand Hamburger Helper so if I want to go out to eat I just set a box of HH on the counter and when he comes home from work and sees that box on the counter, he always announces that he wants to go out to eat!!! He doesn't even know that I threw away the contents of the HH box years ago because it was so old!

When I was a little girl it was so fun to help Grandma make cookies. She told me to get the little brown bottle of vanilla out of the cupboard. So I did. When the cookies were tasted everyone asked if it was a new recipe. The taste wasn't bad, but not the same. We finally figured out I got a different little brown bottle....cough syrup!

These are all hysterical, but this one made me PMP with laughter! I used to get the same result when I told hubby I have some chicken in the freezer...he always says, "Oh, slimy chicken....let's eat out!" Still would say that, but retired folks can't eat out so much, so I get creative cooking the chicken, and he eats it.

What joy! I have laughed and laughed.
Try a little cinnamon, raisins and cooked rice in stuffed bell peppers. It is different, but good.

I make turkey carcas soup with the Thanksgiving and/or Christmas turkey. One year there was lots of snow on the back porch, so I set the pot of broth on the back porch to cool. Before I could stop him, the neighbor's Golden Retriever was slurping it up with great enthusiasm - and a thanks Joanne look at me.

I once made a carrot cake to take to the office for my secret pal's birthday. I used 2 pounds of carrots instead of 2 cups. It was the moistest cake I've ever made, there was no carrot taste, they barely showed and everbody loved it. I swore if I ever made one again I would use the 2 pounds of carrots. Happy mistake.

I'll have to try that. I usually just tell him whatever he wants to cook and that does the trick.

When the kids were young, my husband decided he would make cinnamon toast for breakfast. Me and the kids were in the living room, and suddenly we all started coughing, and our throats were burning. We had to open the door and go outside. I thought he had burned the toast in the broiler, but when I managed to go in and investigate, we realized he had grabbed the cayenne pepper instead of the cinnamon. That stuff will hurt you when it starts burning under a broiler.

I am a fairly good cook-BUT-I have made a couple of the worst dish ever. I tried to make a casserole and I have no idea what I did wrong, but even the dog wouldn't eat it. Now that is bad!!:eek:

When I was first learning to cook I decided to venture into make some kind of bread( not even sure exactly what now). It called for 4 cups of flour, so adding a little at a time I reach 4 cups and it's just not gettin any thicker. Cup after cup and the texture is staying the same, quit liquidie and not dough like at all. After adding 12 cups of flour I decide to give it a taste and see how things were coming along. It was far to sweet for bread...almost like satin pure icing sugar... I wonder why. LOL! Lesson learned now I defanitly know the difference in aperance and feel of icing sugar and flour! Lol

What a great idea. My DH hates HH too, will have to try it soon.
When we were first married, my husband worked up to 18 hours a day. I packed his "lunch" in a grocery bag. I mad the most perfect looking fried chicken with large drumsticks and sent enough to feed his coworkers. I did not know that you were supposed to thaw out the chicken before you fried it. The guys bit into the picture perfect chicken and it was still bloody raw in the middle. That was 31 years ago and every time we see his coworker, he reminds me of that chicken.

i know what you mean. Yesterday was the start of a very bad long day....I started it off by falling in the garage and skinning my shin about 12 inches long. Go to school and misplaced an important paper, kids were wild, last day fun of course and my little guy with bipolar disorder and other issues was on a tear. I finally get all the kids gone except one........she was picked up 2 hours late!! Then lunch was cold (hot meal) and meeting ran long. But alas, we get to work in our rooms to finish up and turn in keys. Guess who still has keys???!!! I couldn't figureg out, paperwork or the computer work, so i worked on putting toys and books away. I stayed till 4:30, went home exhausted and hot AND in pain.........to cry and get a cooling shower. took a sleeping pill at 7 and slept till 3, took another sleeping pill at 3 and slept till 7. Hope today is better. I won't have kids at least. Thanks for listening to me vent.

I grabbed the maple syrup flavoring instead of vanilla (same type of jar) when I was making brownies....when they were done they looked llike brownies, smelled like brownies, chewed like brownies, but tasted like pancakes....ughh!
Julie

Last year we saw a great recipe on the Today show for grilled brisket slowly cooked. The recipe called for a coarse ground pepper and kosher salt rub. The salt was supposed to be 1/4 cup and I think I used a cup. The brisket was supposed to take about six hours to cook. Because of too much salt it was done in two hours and was as tough as leather!

oh man how we all could write a chapter on cooking/baking horrors in our lives.. LOL I know I have had a few !LOL

DH made simple goulash one night. Hamburger, macaroni, onions, salt, pepper, tomato juice, chili powder, right? Okay, I noticed it smelled a little funny--a little sweet. I took one bite and said, "You put ketchup in here!" Instead of going to the pantry to get the tomato juice, he'd used only ketchup. I couldn't eat it as ketchup is not my cup of tea.

As a young newlywed who thought she knew how to cook, I decided to make spaghetti with homemade sauce for supper one night. While making the sauce, I realized I didn't have any bell peppers, so decided to substitute a few jalapeno peppers that I had on hand. Even though DH and I were both born and raised in Texas, eating Tex-Mex food all our lives, that spaghetti was so hot neither one of us could eat it! That was 38 years ago and he still reminds me of it now and then.....and I use spaghetti sauce from a jar now.

I love popcorn & sprinkle the butter flavor popcorn seasoning on plain popcorn. Getting set to watch a good movie, I got my chocolate, got my Diet Pepsi, made my popcorn, grabbed my popcorn seasoning off the spice shelf & liberally seasoned it. First bite I almost choked...coudn't even swallow it. I'd used garlic powder!! Ewwww!!!! Thank goodness I was home alone...never told anyone!! I'd still be hearing about it!

My DH did the same thing about a year ago. It's all too easy to do if they are stored in the same type & size of canister and you're busy thinking of other things at the same time :-(.

I have made cooking taboos too but the one we all remember is My aunts pumpkin pie and she forgot the sugar. My mom put cinnamon on the deviled eggs one time too!