Cooking Blunder
My friend and I were talking about cooking today and I remembered a story from our first year of marriage that I thought was funny.
My husband and I had been married for just a few months and we decided to invite our first dinner guests over. I looked through all my recipes thinking of the best one I could possibly come up with (I should note here that my mom is one of the best cooks EVER). I decided on a Stuffed Shell recipe that looked very tasty and pretty easy.
We went to the grocery store and got the ingredients for the recipe. I cleaned our tiny apartment and was ready to go about making the recipe. At this point in our marriage we thought it was great fun to cook together, so Ben was busying himself in the kitchen doing this and that. I begin making the Stuffed Shells and got to the part where it says 3 cloves of garlic. Having never really cooked that much (again..Mom is the best cook EVER), I had no idea what a clove is. I quickly searched my one cook book to see if it gave me any hints, but found nothing. I should have stopped and called Mom, but that would have just been too easy. So, I ask Ben (makes sense since he has never cooked a meal in his life, right?):
Me: “Ben, what is a clove or garlic? Is it this whole thing or the individual things inside it?”
Ben: “Um…I don’t know. I think the whole thing. Now remember, you can never have too much garlic…Why don’t you use four of these things?”
Me: “Are you sure?”
Ben (in his Cotten way with all the confidence in the world): “Yeah”
So, we go about mincing 4 bulbs of garlic, not cloves, but BULBS. I thought it smelled strong, but we proceeded to mix it in and stuck it in the oven. As it was cooking the smell of garlic grew stronger and stronger. I knew then that we had guessed wrong! We had a tiny apartment and the smell of garlic quickly became unbearable. All of the windows and doors came open, but we could not escape it. I was mortified that not only was my food going to be awful but my apartment smelled of garlic.
The couple came over and graciously ate the meal I had made. I profusely apologized, but they lied and said everything was wonderful! It took about 2 weeks to get the stink of garlic out of our house. It is now one of the favorites in my house, but we always retell the story when I make it.
Any funny cooking blunders that anyone else has done or am I the only one??
Technorati Tags: cooking, mistakes, entertaining, funny, bloopers, memories
“In his Cotten way…”? I have no idea what you mean by that, Dear.
It’s true that every time you make that dish (now with the correct amount of garlic) we tell that story. I think when we moved away from that apartment the draperies still smelled of garlic.
And let the record show: YOU are the best cook EVER. Your Mom is good too. ;-)
Posted on September 20th, 2007 at 1:05 pm
We don’t even want to go there… As Denny puts it, the kitchen is the room I must pass through to get to my car! Great story Heather.
Posted on September 20th, 2007 at 2:04 pm
Ask Martha about steak fingers!
I don’t know if this counts, but I had sardines last night at midnight, and left the unrinsed can in the trash overnight.
She almost killed me, it smelled so bad this morning.
Posted on September 20th, 2007 at 2:27 pm
I have too many cooking blunders to write in one comment. But the first thing that came to mind was when I made Sausage and Kale Soup. Ew, it even looks gross written down.
I thought it would be a warm, comforting, healthy soup on a cold winter night. It actually made Joseph throw up. Ha!
I don’t think either of us will ever eat kale again.
Posted on September 20th, 2007 at 4:15 pm
I am laughing at some of these comments…Honey, aren’t you so sweet about the cooking thing all though we both know that isn’t true! Priscilla, we were laughing so hard at your comment! Too Funny! Martha, I’m sorry :) Jessica, Kale? Well, at least you were brave enough to try it…he actually threw up???
Posted on September 20th, 2007 at 8:14 pm
I laughed so hard now! That was really funny! I’m linking this in a post…!
Posted on September 21st, 2007 at 5:29 am
In Germany, we had the opportunity (read “shaking in my shoes”) of hosting Victor’s boss and others at Thanksgiving one year. I decided to wow them with a special Pecan Mocha pie. The recipe was from Southern Living so it couldn’t be bad. Well, I learned that night how to interpret recipes. “1/4 cup coffee” should be translated “brewed coffee”, not coffee grounds. I also consulted my experienced kitchen assistant, Victor and we concluded that we should use coffee grounds. We didn’t have a coffee pot, so it really wouldn’t have mattered. The pie smelled like burnt coffee as it was baking, which should have been my first clue not to serve it. Our guests graciously sampled the pie and smiled through the crunching of coffee grounds with every bite. We still laugh about it every year around the holidays.
Posted on September 26th, 2007 at 10:15 am
That is so funny, Susan! I don’t think I have made anything with coffee in it, so I will have to remember that one! Great story.
Posted on September 26th, 2007 at 10:39 am
I am still laughing.All these comments are great. While i was reading all this I thought of the first time I cooked spaghetti. Now, for the people that don’t know me I am from San Antonio ,Texas where in my home we ate tacos for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I did not know what a casserole was till I met my husband (he is from VA.).
So here we are going to make a spaghetti dinner for HIS brother and wife. Also they were our pastor at the time. I made the sauce I got a recipe out of a cook book that belonged to my husband. I thought, “Okay I can do this”. It came time to measure the noodles, yes measure. I thought, “well four people four pounds of noodles.” Yes I did I put FOUR pounds of noodles in a pot OH MY I HAD NOODLES TO FEED THE WHOLE WORLD! Bruce and I had a mess! I kept on tring to find bigger pots .I have many stories that even my kids will never forget. “Want a taco”.
Posted on September 26th, 2007 at 9:20 pm
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Posted on September 27th, 2007 at 1:33 pm