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I screwed up chocolate milk once. I used unsweetened cocoa powder instead of the chocolate milk mix. Embarrasing at the time, but I learned my lesson pretty quickly.
Posts: 681 | Registered: Feb 2004
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I burn popcorn from time to time. The popcorn button on my microwave cooks the popcorn too long, so I usually have to stop it after a certain time. If I don't, the whole bag more or less burns.
Posts: 1960 | Registered: May 2005
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I have the opposite problem. The microwave never cooks it long enough. I always get half a bag of kernels.
Posts: 1164 | Registered: Feb 2006
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quote:Originally posted by Jeesh: I have the opposite problem. The microwave never cooks it long enough. I always get half a bag of kernels.
I'm more in this camp than in the overcooking one. I tend to under-toast bread, lest I burn it and then refuse to eat it. And I can never get the timing right on popcorn.
Boiling water, though... can't say I've screwed that up. Sure, I put my hand on the burner when I was about five, but I'm normally hungry enough to watch the dang pot boil so I don't miss it. Posts: 3932 | Registered: Sep 1999
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Mac & Cheese... only once when I overcooked the noodles and made them a mass of mushy starch.
I happen to like burnt toast. Not sure why. I also like my hamburgers well, well done... almost charred. Same with hotdogs. (The only way I'll eat them other than barbecued.)
Posts: 822 | Registered: Jul 2001
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quote:Originally posted by larisse: I also like my hamburgers well, well done... almost charred. Same with hotdogs. (The only way I'll eat them other than barbecued.)
Charred burgers? It's almost blasphemy! I much prefer mine an almost-medium/medium-rare.
I was thinking about messing up food, and I realized that I never actually learned how to make bacon, so I normally screw that up. I've gotten to the point where I just omit it from the breakfast menu. Posts: 3932 | Registered: Sep 1999
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Back in Canada, I ended up getting an electric auto-off tea kettle. It was the best thing ever. Only problem was I still never quite got around to making my tea... Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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The secret to not burning or undercooking popcorn is on the bag. You have to listen to it as it pops, and if you can count to 2 or 3 in between pops, it's time to stop the microwave. If you leave the door closed for a little while, it might pop a few more kernels because of the heat built up. (If you can count to JUST under 2 seconds several times, you're probably counting too slow.)
Only time I burn or undercook popcorn is when I use the popcorn button. By the way, usually people who use the popcorn button properly have reset it according to what kind of popcorn they have.
Anyway...
I have messed up mac & cheese. Sometimes I overcook it. I hate al dente pasta, so I shoot for just past that.
My favorite easy variation for mac & cheese is to omit the milk from the recipe and add a can of diced tomatoes. Yummy.
Posts: 2880 | Registered: Jun 2004
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I mess up soup. I don't know what I do to it, but half the time it comes out completely wrong. The outside edges will be burnt crispy, while the middle portion of the soup becomes a congealed, disgusting blob. It's rather ridiculous.
quote:The secret to not burning or undercooking popcorn is on the bag. You have to listen to it as it pops, and if you can count to 2 or 3 in between pops, it's time to stop the microwave.
Katarain's got the right idea about popcorn. Stop relying on the little buttons and you will get a much better result.
prolixshore: Are you stirring the soup as it cooks? Especially if it's a gloopy soup, you will need to stir it so you don't get an unevenly heated product.
I tend to make real macaroni and cheese (with, you know, cheese and pasta and milk). I find the boxed kind absolutely disgusting.
Posts: 8473 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Lindsay and I went camping with a friend a couple months ago, and I was in charge of preparing the Macaroni.
We didn't have a strainer as we were only using a camping stove and small pot. I am holding the pot upside down while pressing the lid to the pot, so as to let the water drain. It was draining VERY slowly, so I pull the lid away from the pot a little, forgetting the power of gravity. Everything in the pot fell into the woods and everybody was starving. It was nice.
On a side note, A guy we were camping with doesn't like to use milk in his Kraft dinner. He finds it is pointless.
Posts: 1572 | Registered: Jan 2004
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We've had mac 'n' cheese come out kinda bad because it was expired (clumpy cheese), but I can't recall that it was ever ruined due to preparation. Of course, I'm really not a picky eater (as evidenced by my consumption of mac 'n' cheese, if you ask me -- I'll even eat Easy Mac), so maybe I've ruined it and I neither noticed nor cared.
Posts: 6213 | Registered: May 2001
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Not only have I burnt toast, I've had toast go up in flames. The heating element in my parents' toaster oven is waaaay too close to the rack. . .or at least that's the story I'm sticking to.
Posts: 650 | Registered: Mar 2005
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That's nothing. Ask me how many times I let the oven on for the night. Or the time I forgot I was frying chicken. Or the times I forgot I was boiling water for coffee. Or the times I've forgotten the stove was on for no apparent reason.
I'm a danger to myself and those around me.
Posts: 3389 | Registered: Apr 2004
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I once burnt a cardboard pizza box in the oven by accident. I had turned the oven onto preheat to cook a frozen pizza. My father had left a pizza box (with a few slices of pizza in it) in the oven the previous night. I had no clue it was in there until smoke started coming out of the oven. Bad smell, big oops on my part. Now I check every time before I turn the oven on. Posts: 1960 | Registered: May 2005
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You also reminded me of the Oreo cookies in the styrofoam cup inside the microwave. The smoke and burnt cup (it caught fire) made the fire alarms ring like heck and the cops came. It was during yearbook camp. The program director wasn't too happy.
Posts: 3389 | Registered: Apr 2004
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If I eat a lot of Ramen in a month, then have my first Macaroni in a while, I'll often cook it for 4 minutes instead fo 8 out of habit. And then don't realize it until I'm eating it.
Posts: 1907 | Registered: Feb 2000
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In a story going back about 30 years, my brother and I were home alone, and I was making Kraft macaroni and cheese.
Recently we had gotten into modifying food, like adding spices to Ragu sauce or chili, so my brother decided to be inventive with the mac and cheese.
He added cinnamon. Don't ask why.
I shook the plate into the garbage, and it wouldn't come off the plate. My brother acted like that was some kind of divine intervention that prevented me from throwing out his masterpiece. I did eventually scrape it off and throw it out. I don't remember if he actually ate some or not. I didn't.
For some time after that I was convinced that cinnamon had certain cementing properties. Nowadays I think we must have just made a particularly dry mixture that day.
Does anyone make homemade macaroni and cheese? Or is this whole thread about the boxed kind?
Posts: 3735 | Registered: Mar 2002
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I broke a chocolate cake. The chocolately sludge wasn't bad, but the Home Ec teacher couldn't in good conscience give us a good grade for a cake unrisen.
Posts: 1156 | Registered: Jan 2004
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It's almost blasphemy! I much prefer mine an almost-medium/medium-rare.![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
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