Penny For Your Thoughts By: Nancy Whitaker
Loving food and the kitchen came to me at a very young age. I tried to imitate my grandma’s cooking, but she really did not write very many recipes down. What a time I had when I first got married.
My husband was used to his mom’s cooking and I tried hard to prepare food the way she did. I soon learned not to put macaroni in chili or mayonnaise dressing on a head lettuce salad like my grandma.,
One day this newlywed decided to make a pie. We had a mulberry tree, so I picked some and proceeded to make the pie. I wanted to surprise my husband when he got home. When he got off work I was excited to show him my delicious masterpiece.
He cut himself a piece, then quickly spit it out. I had not taken those stems off the mulberries. But, I guess I thought they would bake and just fall off. I cried over the pie, but I never did try to make a mulberry pie again.
I sort of like liver and onions, so one day I was making it for supper. I decided to pull a trick on my kids and trust me they never forgot it. I was cutting up the liver and my hands were all bloody from it.
I went into where the kids were playing, along with my dripping bloody hands and hollered to them I had cut myself. Bad mistake! I think it scarred them for life. They were all scared and cried. I should not have done it, but at the time I didn’t think anything of it. It was just liver!
Through my years of cooking and eating, I learned to never ever put beans in a pressure cooker. I was making ham and beans for supper one afternoon and had them in a pressure cooker. The rattler on the pressure cooker was shaking and the kids and I were relaxing and rehashing the days events. The next moment, there was like a big explosion, part of the pressure cooker’s lid flew off and beans began shooting all the way up to the ceiling.
We took cover and waited till the beans had stopped shooting and then we sadly looked up and saw what was supposed to be our dinner. (supper) Beans were stuck on the ceiling.
Today, my kids are all on their own and they don’t see mama’s kitchen disasters.
However, my latest incident involved Hasselback potatoes. I had never made them and they did look good. I cut the potatoes like they were supposed to be and inserted lots and lots of butter into the opening where the potatoes had been cut. I put them on a cookie sheet and into the oven. Approximately 10 minutes later, my smoke alarm went off. Ding! Ding! Ding!
Of course I was too short to shut it off, so I decided to deal with the fire. I actually saw flames coming from the oven and shooting out from the back burner. The butter had melted and ran from the flat cookie sheet and into the ovens electric coils. Yes, the butter was on fire.
I shut off the oven and opened it. I quickly forgot the rule to never throw water on a grease fire. Well, I got the fire out, then took a broom and shut off my smoke alarm. My potatoes wound up the trash. Never put Hasselback potatoes on a cookie sheet or a pan without sides.
Well I still poke around in my kitchen and cook and bake. I read recipes off the computer and usually will try anything different.
The other day I was looking at a recipe for Minestrone Soup. I looked and googled where I could buy this bean or pasta called minestrone. I knew I could not make the soup without minestrone whatever it was. (I had never tasted or cooked it before)
As I researched further, I found out that minestrone was not an ingredient, but an Italian word I think for soup. So I can make minestrone without the minestrone?
Have you experienced cooking disasters? Do you try eating different kinds of foods? Tell me about them and I’ll give you a Penny for your Thoughts.
