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?
Not even gonna start on all my kitchen disasters, would take all day.
WOW they charge for childcare at 24Hr Fitness there? Ridic! I too am a 24Hr fitness member but pay like $25/month for access to all of them (there are 4 within 10miles of me). That includes their childcare too. I knew things were more $$ in CA but that’s crazy!
Poor, poor caramel sauce ~Sniff~
I find that whenever anything glass breaks, the pieces go everywhere. Further than I expect, and in, behind, or under things I wouldn’t think of.
Amazingly, while I was on vacation in Barbados for 2 weeks, barely 1 swear word came out of my mouth – or entered my mind for that matter. During the flight, in the airports, dealing with airline staff, security screening, and going through customs with other passengers is a whole other matter though. Some choice words were thought / spoken / muttered throughout.
I had my first kitchen fire about a year ago while making caramel corn – hurray for baking soda and it’s fire squelching ability!
Otherwise my daily clean up of my husband’s cooking is the extent of the kitchen “ughs”. He has gotten a lot better, cleans as he goes, doesn’t use every pot / pan in the house and I have learned to cherish “soaking” dishes / pots / pans while we get outside for a walk. The dishes will still be there, and be easier to clean :)
Oh no! I ‘frigging’ HATE dropping things! Especially sticky sauces etc; nightmare.
And that mango ginger maple tofu looks phenomenal. Thanks for the dinner inspiration!
Ahhh! That totally just happened to me! I was washing my makeup brushes and the bowl with the baby shampoo in it, slipped out of my hands and shattered everywhere!
I am a voiceover artist- the only time I swear is when I mess up a line- bad thing is EVERY swear I say is recorded! LOL
Have a great day!
Oh no! I hate when things like that happen :( I hate cleaning up and I hate wasting food! I would have been cursing up and down, haha.
Oh my gosh, I drop things all the time! The worst was when I dropped a brand new glass bottle of maple syrup! What a mess, sticky sugary maple syrup and glass shards all over the kitchen. Happens to the best of us!
Ohh no that is a nightmare to clean up, I dropped an entire bag of chia seeds on the floor a few months ago and we are still finding them.. unfortunately they stick to just about everything!
Yikes, so sorry about the clean up job, I can only imagine the fun of that sticky mess!
1. Yes, I try to moderate it and not swear at work. But profanity happens at home or out with friends. :-)
2. Oh yes, plenty! From the coffee pot backing up, something sticky spilling on the top shelf of the fridge and running all down it, tomato sauce jars falling out of the fridge door, etc. – loads of fun.
I’d like to say no…but yes I definitely swear. Sometimes only certain words will do the trick for my mood.
The last time I made a HUGE mess was when I was a teen. I was trying to get a jar of pickles open and I couldn’t for the life of me. I got so frustrated I started chanting “please…open…now” while banging it on the counter. Well….see glass breaks if you hit it hard enough! Pickles, pickle juice, and glass went everywhere. Then I saw that my mom was pulling into the driveway and I freaked that she would be mad about the mess, so I grabbed the garbage can and started shoveling the whole mess into it. I was getting cut to heck and getting pickle juice into my wounds. Then my mom came in and said “what in the world is wrong with you?” and busted out laughing.
My first thought was “oh no the caramel sauce!!” But you live close to TJs, so….lucky.
Kitchen disaster should be my middle name, seriosly. I’ve almost burned my house down from small fires in my stove and toaster oven, I’ve exploded eggplant in my oven, I’ve dropped and shattered many many glass jars, and just yesterday I opened a bag of alfafa seeds for my sprouts, which I store in a glass jar, and it ripped and those TEENY TINY went everywhere. Literally, everywhere. I am sure I will be finding them until I move out.
I honestly don’t swear much. I guess I do sometimes when I’m with others my age…but I just don’t think it sounds nice. Oh but I swear like a sailor when I’m singing along to Eminem ;)
Averie… I cannot tell you how much I sympathize! The amount of times I’ve INJURED myself in the kitchen is enough to attest to how many disasters I’ve had! But you know what? If you’re not experiencing kitchen disasters, then I figure you’re really not spending very much time in the kitchen. As true foodies, it’s bound to happen. That’s how we get our hands dirty.
And as far as cursing goes, I used to NEVER curse. That kind of all changed when I met my potty-mouthed soul mate… When you begin growing together, it’s hard not to share mannerisms! I’m not complaining though… it’s a reminder to me that Scott and I go together (Yes, I love a “Scott” just like you!). :)
Not sure if I’ve ever commented before, by the way, so FYI: I love your blog! Especially lately since I’ve started a more raw diet. Thanks for everything you do!
hey averie!
i am the queen of kitchen disasters and have had my share of messes to clean up (both at home and in an industrial size kitchen). i’m also a bit of a messy cook. eep! :-)
one tip about working with glass and hot food: make sure the glass is the same temperature as your hot food before adding the hot food to it. this will avoid (minimize) the occurrence of glass cracking. i can my food and have the glass canning jars heating in the oven (at 200F I believe; not that hot) before I fill them with hot food to be canned. the tricks:
1. make sure the glass can be heated
2. put the room temperature glasses in the oven while the oven is OFF, to allow the glass to heat up as the oven heats up
3. handle with potholders!!
xo
Sabina
My worst kitchen disaster was more like an entire-apartment disaster. My former roommate had an adorable dog that unfortunately had separation anxiety. One day we came home and the dog had gotten into the cupboard and found an un-opened package of coffee. She tore through the whole thing and we had coffee grounds ALL OVER our apartment, all ground into the carpeting, too. She ate a lot of the coffee so was incredibly hyper and sick all day! No matter how much we vacuumed, our apartment smelled like Dunkin’ Donuts Hazelnut for months (which actually wasn’t so bad) :)
Oh I have a few choice words to say when things fall and break :) especially if it was sticky caramel sauce. I can vouch for the small cupboard space. Ours are so small that I have to leave stuff on te counter. I hate it!
omg what a mess. That’s not funny :(