Kiwibarb  wrote a blog and called it  “Cooking Catastrophes”   That got me thinking and wondering if I ever made cooking mistakes. Well, ummmm, Oh yeah,  I remember the time I was in my teens and decided to fix a simple dinner so Mom wouldn’t have to add cooking to her long day. First things first so I went out to check the mail. Lo, my Good Housekeeping magazine came.  I grabbed the ground beef from the refrigerator and put it in a light weight pan and started to brown it.  About that time Mom walked in and asked what I was fixing.  

“Macaroni and hamburger,” I replied

Mom went to change her clothes then returned to the Kitchen and there I was slaving over the hot stove with the GHmagazine turned to one of their regular features, “My Problem and How I Solved It” in my left hand and my right hand stirring the ground beef and both eyes on the article. Mom tapped me on the shoulder  and I jumped and somehow hit the long handle of the pan.  You guessed it, the dog had a hamburger feast and the humans mac and cheese.

Mishap 2 tells the story of my first and last attempt to bake chocolate brownies in the microwave.  I knew all about microwave ovens(I thought) since they were common in college dorms.  That summer found me pretty cocky, after all, I just finished my first year of college. Mom had a box of brownie mix so I followed the directions for microwave oven. Bake for 10 minutes then let set for another ten.  For good measure, I baked them for 12 minutes and checked. Still doughy so set the timer for another ten minutes. Well, to make a long story short I kept the resetting the timer about 5 times before I gave up and took the brownies out. By then they still had a mushy center. I put the pan on the counter and just went out for the evening.     When I came home that night, there was a note by the brownies from my brother.  He wrote, I’ve heard of petrified wood but never heard of petrified brownies.”

Mishap 3, It was the first Thanksgiving with my husband and step daughter. I was planning a turkey dinner with all the trimmings. I cleaned and rinsed the turkey stuffed it with a recipe from the GH magazine. When I took the turkey out of the oven and was putting the dressing in a bowl. I found a bag of turkey organs.(liver,kidneys,neck)  I looked at Paul

“where did this come from?” I asked.

Didn’t you clean it?

“Yeah, I ran water over it but nobody told me to check inside.  That’s gross.”

From then on my Dear Hubby prepared the turkey.

Mishap 4 was using two cans of jalapeño peppers instead of mild green chilies but I’ll forego that one. Ha  Telling the world about 3 cooking disasters will probably suffice without me confessing all my kitchen flops