Food Disasters

I’m sure you’ve had food disasters; a recipe you followed that came out badly, a new restaurant that you tried and you hated the food. You are not alone. Here are some of the food disasters we’ve had over the years. Misery loves company – Enjoy these cooking disasters.

Blackened Chicken We opened the door to see our landlord holding a plate with several lumps of charcoal that used to be chicken. Since we had been rehabbing our apartment all day, he volunteered to cook our chicken on the grill after he finished cooking his steaks. He apologized profusely for the overdone chicken. He was baffled why the chicken burned. He was an ex-priest and just learning housekeeping skills. It seems he didn’t know the grill he had set to high for the steaks was too high for the chicken. He also left the lid open and then left for a few minutes and when he got back the chicken had caught on fire. Thank heavens there was a Popeye’s Chicken across the street.

A New Twist to Ground Beef Casserole

I was a teenager and decided to fix dinner for my little sister and myself. We picked a ground beef casserole with biscuits from my mother’s cookbook. We were excited to try a new recipe. I followed it step by step. Or so I thought. It came out of the oven as a glob of red mush. It turns out I must have missed the step that the biscuit batter was supposed to be dropped on the top of the casserole, not stirred in. We ordered pizza.

A New Smelt Recipe

Our friends complemented my husband on the smelt he caught, battered and fried for our dinner. During college he was a line cook in a seafood restaurant so he did a great job with the batter – light and crunchy. As we munched on the tiny morsels, we marveled that this batch seemed particularly sweet. Wondering at the sweetness my husband said, “I used the flour in the sifter – did you have anything else in the flour?” Oops! No wonder the smelt was so sweet – the sifter was full of powdered sugar from the cookies I made this week. We all laughed and finished off the smelt. I really wasn’t that bad.

Well done pizza

We were moving and didn’t have time to fix dinner. We dropped by a pizza carry out restaurant for dinner. It had three tables and one teenage waiter who doubled as the pizza chef. A father and his 8-year-old daughter sat in the table next to us. We ordered an appetizer and waited for a long time. The father and daughter were also wondering what happened to their order. About 15 minutes later the waiter brought their pizza. The cheese and sausage was blackened and the pizza looked dry. When the daughter asked why it was so dark the waiter said, “It’s a well-done pizza.” It’s no surprise when the dad asked the girl if she still wanted the pizza, and she tearingly said, “No, daddy.” I’m amazed they stayed for the young man to make them another pizza. Maybe they were in the same boat as we were – hungry and no place else to go.

Holey Pan

I had harvested a lot of tomatoes. My husband doesn’t like tomatoes so I made tomato sauce. We had a hard day, so we put the pan of tomato sauce in the refrigerator. We were busy the next day too, so the pan still sat in the refrigerator. On Sunday night I had to finish the tomato sauce, since I had to go to work the next day. When I pulled the pan out of the refrigerator, there was a red puddle in the refrigerator and tomato sauce oozed to the floor. The pan bottom was riddled with holes. We threw the sauce out. We learned a lesson. I learned you shouldn’t use an aluminum pan for tomatoes.