Cooking Catastrophes

The writing prompt over at Absolutely Bananas for this Monday is cooking catastrophes! I don't have many bad cooking stories since I tend to stick to what I know I do well. I am good at following a recipe but if I stray or try something on my own, the food is more likely to suffer from lack of flavour then to taste bad.

The first cooking error I can think of was when my husband and I were dating. I was at his house and thought I'd try a recipe for him and his family. I think it was some kind of broccoli and mushroom side dish. I can't remember the exact measurements but it called for about a cup or so of chicken soup base. I didn't realize at the time you were supposed to mix up the powdered soup base with water and make a cup that way. I just dumped a cup of the powder in. Ya, you can imagine how bad that was, it was ssssooooo salty! My future father in law kept telling me it wasn't bad and he ate his whole serving! What a sweetheart, really, they were probably all wondering what their son was getting in to!

Okay, the next one happened just after I got married. I was only 18 and hadn't done much cooking but I was armed with my mother in law's recipes so how could I go wrong? I decided to make a dessert (brownies or a cake, can't remember) and it was time to try my MIL's amazing icing. I followed the recipe exactly as written and didn't think much of it. While stirring, I realized something didn't look right, and it didn't taste right either! I called my MIL and she laughed and realized she had written flour instead of icing sugar on the recipe. DUH!! An honest mistake right? You'd think I'd have the brains to realize the mistake and correct it. I mean what is icing without sugar?

Luckily I have managed to not poison anyone or make anyone gag (well, my kids might disagree!), that is about the worst of it! What is your worst cooking catastrophe? Write about it and link up at Absolutely Bananas or read more cooking catastrophes!