Cupboard space is at an absolute premium in my urban San Diego kitchen.
So when I went to “push” a bag of sugar back into the cupboard, it “pushed out” a jar of caramel sauce.
It was one of those in slow motion moments.
And it just went splat and shattered when it hit the travertine floor.
The first words out of my mouth were, “Oh Fu*k!” “Oh Fudge!” . And I don’t mean vegan fudge.
Nothing quite like cleaning sticky caramel sauce with shards of glass embedded in it off the floor. And then hauling out the broom, dustpan, mop, and vacuum and cleaning the floors 17 times just to make sure I got all teeny tiny glass shards cleaned up.
Because I swear, this glass was like dust.
Just beautiful, dusty, razor shards. Everywhere. Countertops, the floor, it just multiplied.
I uttered many choice words during the hour long cleanup session. Just what I had planned on during my busy day, of course.
In the end, I was not as upset that I wasted a perfectly good hour. I was not upset that I had to clean sticky, gooey, runny caramel with glass shards embedded in it and use an entire roll of paper towels in the process.
No, I was quite ticked that a perfectly great jar of caramel sauce was wasted! Good thing TJ’s and the grocery store is my second home and I can pick up another jar soon.
You may want to know that I was putting away the sugar because I was making a Microwave Blueberry Banana Oat Cake
An hour later, I finally got my oat cake.
From my last post about Quitting the Gym, I am so glad the post resonated with so many of you. Thanks for the awesome comments! Some of you really derive benefit from your gym memberships and that’s great.
For others, not so much. It was refreshing to hear just how many of you have also quit going to the gym, or would like to quit your gym membership and do other things like walks or runs outdoors, or yoga.
And for me, it was time to move on from the gym and get my workouts accomplished other ways. And in much more efficient ways. Life changes, our needs and desires change, and it’s important to stay flexible and roll with the punches of life. I’d rather do yoga at home than lift and grunt in the gym these days.
Questions:
1. Do you swear?
Yes, I have a potty mouth and although I try not to write swear words on my blog, in real life, yes, I do swear. Good thing I was the only one home while dealing with broken glass, sticky caramel sauce, and a few F-bombs dropped.
2. Have you ever had a kitchen disaster? Any spills, breaks, cracks, leaks, dropping things, burning things, fires, etc?
I have had plenty.
Setting off the smoke detector by accidentally burning tofu in the oven that I swear went from raw to charred in the span of 4 minutes. My house stunk like burnt food (carbony/charcoaley) + decomposing soybeans (tofu) for days. It was nasty.
Thankfully the Mango Ginger Maple Tofu turned out, in the end.
Then there was the time last summer when I had a gallon of hot, sugared, brewed tea in a glass jar waiting to cool off because I make my own komboucha at home.
Well, the jar cracked and a gallon of hot, sugary tea went all over my countertops, into 5 kitchen drawers with utensils, silverware, pots and pans, dish towels, you name it. Pretty much every single gadget, utensil and daily-use items in 5 very full kitchen drawers were soaked in sugary tea. Not to mention it was all over the floors.
The immediate cleanup took about 3 hours, but for months later, I was finding sweet tea droplets on handles of spatulas and on the sides of drawers. It was a nightmare! Since then, I only use tempered glass. I know Jessica has even had exploding Pyrex all over her oven so glass isn’t foolproof.
And then there was the time I almost burnt Roasted Coconut & Ginger Peanut Butter Carrots
Nothing quite like the smell of charred peanut butter. Good thing I caught these just in time and that Scott likes well-done food.What are some of your kitchen disasters?
on no!!! I have dropped and broken so many things and cried over it. I hate wasting things, especially food, but sometimes it happens. Sucks, but hey part of life.
Remember me!? I’m still here reading I promise! Life is just chugging along! I have quite the potty mouth. Luckily, my boss does too, so it’s not really a problem. I really should try to nip that in the butt, but I just can’t help it.
When this happened to me (it was a jar of applesauce), I found a piece of glass a few days later on the counter behind my stovetop. I couldn’t believe a jar hitting the floor sent a piece of glass up onto my countertop!
I don’t know how…but I definitely made a smoothie without putting the lid on my blender. The dangers of breakfast at 5am I guess!
I don’t swear much — but every once in a while they blurt out. Usually I just keep them inside! And if you get me ticked off enough I’ll let it all out.
Averie I feel for you with that caramel sauce — I hate stuff breaking. I hate wondering if I cleaned everything good enough, or if I’m going to end up with a big hunk of glass in my foot. I’ve dropped entire blender containers full of smoothies (thankfully the blender didn’t shatter but I had smoothie EVERYWHERE), beers have fallen out of the fridge, a container of flour fell out of the cupboard (that was one of the worst spills for me). It sucks!
I swear you have my life these days! 1st computer trouble and then glass shards everywhere! Just the other day, my daughter grabbed my glass off the table and dropped it onto our tile floor! Thankfully she wasn’t hurt, but I do understand the cleaning the floor a zillion times—the pieces were everywhere! It was sad about the caramel though. :)
I swear & swear & swear. I used to be a sweet girl but then I played the bass & hung out with bass players & learned to curse like a sailor. People know I am not really being myself in F** isn’t used as a noun, adjective & verb in a visit. I try to keep my trap shut, but with proper training, I sound like one the boys.
This is truly tragic!! Broken caramel sauce… OH NO!! :) I can imagine how long it would take, not a fun job.
Oh no!! I would have been more upset that I lost a bottle of sauce too! I don’t have a potty mouth – I try not to curse!
First off, I curse like a freakin’ sailor! Second, I am a kitchen disaster. I have spilled, burned, broken…just about anything and everything. Sorry about the caramel.
I always freak out when I smash glass, because I’m never sure I”ve swept it all up! With this, though, I’d probably by licking the caramel sauce of the floor regardless of splinters :P
Oh girl you know I swear ;-) I am such a klutz that I have broken my fair share of “things” in the kitchen. I’ve suddenly become prone to burning myself recently. Not sure what that’s all about. Guess it’s better than cutting myself chopping veggies and such.
I’ve also lifted the little flap on our burr coffee grinder while it was running…yep it sprays ground coffee Everywhere!
I do swear…I have been trying to quit for years ;) My husband can have a real potty mouth, my Mom’s face was priceless the first time he said F*(K in front of her when we were dating…now it doesn’t faze her at all.
Hi :) I have started following your blog recently and I really enjoy it :) Your kitchen disaster made me smile a bit ;) I’m sure it wasn’t funny at all for you when you had to mop sticky sauce off the flour, but it reminded me of several of my own “achievements” in the kitchen, which are actually one of very few things that make me swear ;) Just yesterday I was making crackers inspired by one of your recipes. So I put flax, safflower and pumpkin seeds into my food processor and started processing WITH THE LID HALF-OPEN. How clever it was of me :D Of course, the seeds were flying all over the kitchen. And yes, I did swear :) Not all of them flew out of the blender though, and finally I managed to make the crackers which turned out delicious :)
Oh no, what a sticky mess. It actually looks like one of those trick fake ones. Too bad it wasn’t! I’ve had the same thing happen with a non tempered giant glass stein while steeping tea for guests last summer. It cracked and started running everywhere, doesn’t sound like as big of a mess as your kombucha tea though. I go through periods where I break lots of things in the kitchen. Thankfully my husband likes well done food too. I don’t at all, so he always gets the dark grilled daiyas ;)