Flat Tires in the Kitchen



L

-L.

Guest
Have you ever been madly cooking, on top of your game - and then BAM! -
a "flat tire" - no pepper in the grinder, just ran out of the right
kind of vinegar, need tomato puree and all you have is diced, etc.?

What's your most frustrating "flat tire"? No pepper in the grinder or
forgetting to buy a spice I need is mine, I think. Either that or
dumping in too much of something (herb/spice) by accident.

-L.
 
On Mon 21 Feb 2005 11:52:34p, -L. wrote in rec.food.cooking:

> Have you ever been madly cooking, on top of your game - and then BAM! -
> a "flat tire" - no pepper in the grinder, just ran out of the right
> kind of vinegar, need tomato puree and all you have is diced, etc.?
>
> What's your most frustrating "flat tire"? No pepper in the grinder or
> forgetting to buy a spice I need is mine, I think. Either that or
> dumping in too much of something (herb/spice) by accident.
>
> -L.

I usually have everything on hand, but age is creeping up on me and I
sometimes forget to add an ingredient. On several occasions I have left out
the vanilla extract in a cake batter. On a recent foray into baking
cranberry bran muffins I forgot both the oil and the egg. Actually, they
turned out almost the same and were surprisingly good...AND lowfat! :)

Wayne
 
"-L." <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Have you ever been madly cooking, on top of your game - and then BAM! -
> a "flat tire" - no pepper in the grinder, just ran out of the right
> kind of vinegar, need tomato puree and all you have is diced, etc.?
>
> What's your most frustrating "flat tire"? No pepper in the grinder or
> forgetting to buy a spice I need is mine, I think. Either that or
> dumping in too much of something (herb/spice) by accident.
>
> -L.
>
Tired & a long day,,,,,I forgot to put the rice in the cabbage rolls!
 
On Tue 22 Feb 2005 12:57:12a, sandy wrote in rec.food.cooking:

>
> "-L." <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
>> Have you ever been madly cooking, on top of your game - and then BAM! -
>> a "flat tire" - no pepper in the grinder, just ran out of the right
>> kind of vinegar, need tomato puree and all you have is diced, etc.?
>>
>> What's your most frustrating "flat tire"? No pepper in the grinder or
>> forgetting to buy a spice I need is mine, I think. Either that or
>> dumping in too much of something (herb/spice) by accident.
>>
>> -L.
>>
> Tired & a long day,,,,,I forgot to put the rice in the cabbage rolls!

Ah, cabbage wrapped meatballs! They're pretty good, too.

Wayne
 
"sandy" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

> Tired & a long day,,,,,I forgot to put the rice in the cabbage rolls!

I had to make dinner for someone who is an excellent cook ... I
did not know my way around a kitchen, I was maybe 20. I was
nervous as hell. I decided that one of the dishes would be
ratatoulle, don't ask me why, I'd never had it. Well, first I accidentally
knocked the lemon juice right down the drain. I didn't have any more
lemons. Rattled, I then made the rest of the dish with one exception.
I completely forgot to add the herbs and spices.

Talk about one dull dish.

nancy
 
-L. wrote:
> What's your most frustrating "flat tire"? No pepper in the grinder or
> forgetting to buy a spice I need is mine, I think. Either that or
> dumping in too much of something (herb/spice) by accident.
>
> -L.

Oh, I have a couple. Reaching for the balsamic vinegar I accidentally
grabbed the bottle of Worcestershire sauce. Hmmm, oh well, it was a
marinade so it really didn't matter.

I made polenta - cornmeal mush, basically - not to be chilled, sliced and
pan-fried, just polenta to serve along with pasta and sauce. My guests
(family members) thought it was couscous. Apparently it was a tad too
grainy, but since they exclaimed over the 'couscous' I didn't bother to
correct them :)

Jill
 
"-L." <[email protected]>, if that's their real name, wrote:

>Have you ever been madly cooking, on top of your game - and then BAM! -
>a "flat tire" - no pepper in the grinder, just ran out of the right
>kind of vinegar, need tomato puree and all you have is diced, etc.?
>
>What's your most frustrating "flat tire"? No pepper in the grinder or
>forgetting to buy a spice I need is mine, I think. Either that or
>dumping in too much of something (herb/spice) by accident.

I was making ginger snaps and found out when the dough was almost all mixed
that I didn't have any ginger. Called my mom and asked this highly
intelligent question. "Can you make ginger snaps without ginger?" A day
that will live in infamy.

Carol
--
"Years ago my mother used to say to me... She'd say,
'In this world Elwood, you must be oh-so smart or oh-so pleasant.'
Well, for years I was smart.... I recommend pleasant. You may quote me."

*James Stewart* in the 1950 movie, _Harvey_
 
On 2005-02-22, -L. <[email protected]> wrote:
> Have you ever been madly cooking, on top of your game - and then BAM! -
> a "flat tire" - no pepper in the grinder, just ran out of the right
> kind of vinegar, need tomato puree and all you have is diced, etc.?

mise en place
[MEEZ ahn plahs]
A French term referring to having all the ingredients necessary for a
dish prepared and ready to combine up to the point of cooking.

nb
 
notbob wrote:
> On 2005-02-22, -L. <[email protected]> wrote:
>> Have you ever been madly cooking, on top of your game - and then
>> BAM! - a "flat tire" - no pepper in the grinder, just ran out of the
>> right kind of vinegar, need tomato puree and all you have is diced,
>> etc.?
Blender Hollandaise - forgot the egg.
Why in hell isn't this thickening??
--
http://www.rupert.net/~solar
Return address supplied by 'spammotel'
http://www.spammotel.com
 
-L. wrote:

> Have you ever been madly cooking, on top of your game - and then BAM! -
> a "flat tire" - no pepper in the grinder, just ran out of the right
> kind of vinegar, need tomato puree and all you have is diced, etc.?
>
> What's your most frustrating "flat tire"? No pepper in the grinder or
> forgetting to buy a spice I need is mine, I think. Either that or
> dumping in too much of something (herb/spice) by accident.
>
> -L.
>

There was that pot of chili I made once where instead of 1 t. cayenne
and 3 T. New Mexico chile powder I reversed them. The horror.

Being out of something I always have like garlic, onions or salt drives
me batty.

Jessica
 
Damsel in dis Dress wrote:

> I was making ginger snaps and found out when the dough was almost all
mixed
> that I didn't have any ginger. Called my mom and asked this highly
> intelligent question. "Can you make ginger snaps without ginger?" A
day
> that will live in infamy.
>
> Carol
> --
> "Years ago my mother used to say to me... She'd say,
> 'In this world Elwood, you must be oh-so smart or oh-so pleasant.'

hee hee...I like that!

-L.
 
In article <[email protected]>, Wayne Boatwright
<[email protected]> wrote:
> the vanilla extract in a cake batter. On a recent foray into baking
> cranberry bran muffins I forgot both the oil and the egg. Actually, they
> turned out almost the same and were surprisingly good...AND lowfat! :)
>
> Wayne

Weren't they like rocks?
--
-Barb
<www.jamlady.eboard.com>; Sam pics added 2-7-05
"I got the motive, which is money; and the body, which is dead!" - Rod
Steiger as Sheriff Gillespie, "In the Heat of the Night," 1967.
 
On Tue 22 Feb 2005 08:57:53a, Melba's Jammin' wrote in rec.food.cooking:

> In article <[email protected]>, Wayne Boatwright
> <[email protected]> wrote:
>> the vanilla extract in a cake batter. On a recent foray into baking
>> cranberry bran muffins I forgot both the oil and the egg. Actually, they
>> turned out almost the same and were surprisingly good...AND lowfat! :)
>>
>> Wayne
>
> Weren't they like rocks?

Surprisingly, no, but the recipe does call for 1 tablespoon of baking powder,
and All-Bran makes a loose-texture muffin anyway.
 
There's a charming story in one of the "Little House" books by Laura
Ingalls Wilder. She's young (still in her teens), newly married, and
cooking for the hired help who have come to harvest the grain (who are
all considerably older than she is). She discovers that helping her
mother and being in charge of the whole hotel are 2 different things.
She serves a pie that she's completely forgotten to put any sugar in.
One of the men at the table lifts the crust off the pie, puts a spoonful
of sugar from the sugar bowl on the fruit before replacing the crust and
makes a comment about how that's the best way to make pie so each man
can choose the right amount of sugar on it for him. Then he winks at
her to let her know that he knew it was a plain mistake. She's mortified.


As for me, I make so many of these types of small errors in the kitchen
that I wouldn't know where to begin listing them. I go back to the
recipe and check and recheck. A lot of times I find that the error
leads to a new creation that isn't half bad.


--Lia
 
How could I have forgotten the time when I was in charge of making the
Thanksgiving gravy, and used powdered sugar instead of flour? I was at my
dad's, and the Tupperware containers weren't marked, and looked just the
same.

Carol
--
"Years ago my mother used to say to me... She'd say,
'In this world Elwood, you must be oh-so smart or oh-so pleasant.'
Well, for years I was smart.... I recommend pleasant. You may quote me."

*James Stewart* in the 1950 movie, _Harvey_
 
"Damsel in dis Dress" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> I was making ginger snaps and found out when the dough was almost all
mixed
> that I didn't have any ginger. Called my mom and asked this highly
> intelligent question. "Can you make ginger snaps without ginger?" A day
> that will live in infamy.

Well, sure, but then they're just snaps....:)

Bob M.
 
I bought a new pepper grinder about a year ago. Its primary appeal was
its "easy fill" character: the clear plastic top simply unscrews from
the grinder bottom, so there's a good size hole to dump new peppercorns
into.

Except that the second or third time I tried to fill it the damn' top
wouldn't unscrew! I've tried the rubber holder-onners, even tried
vise-grips (but they're too small to tighten down).

I've also tried soaking the (plastic) screw ring in hot water... no
help.

At this point I'm reduced to using pre-ground pepper, which EVERYONE
knows is not a good alternative.

Short of breaking the top off, I'm out of ideas as well as out of
pepper.

Scrooge

(PS: Obviously any ideas will be welcomed. I do love freshly ground
pepper.)
 
In article <[email protected]>,
"-L." <[email protected]> wrote:

> What's your most frustrating "flat tire"? No pepper in the grinder or
> forgetting to buy a spice I need is mine, I think. Either that or
> dumping in too much of something (herb/spice) by accident.

No milk for waffle batter in the middle of mixing it. Somehow just
slipped our minds that we were out. We used more butter. They were the
crispest waffles ever, more like fried. ;)

Regards,
Ranee

--
Remove Do Not and Spam to email

"She seeks wool and flax, and works with willing hands." Prov 31:13

See my Blog at: http://arabianknits.blogspot.com/
 
On 22 Feb 2005 11:41:13 -0800, "scrooge" <[email protected]> wrote:

>
>I bought a new pepper grinder about a year ago. Its primary appeal was
>its "easy fill" character: the clear plastic top simply unscrews from
>the grinder bottom, so there's a good size hole to dump new peppercorns
>into.
>
>Except that the second or third time I tried to fill it the damn' top
>wouldn't unscrew! I've tried the rubber holder-onners, even tried
>vise-grips (but they're too small to tighten down).
>
>I've also tried soaking the (plastic) screw ring in hot water... no
>help.
>
>At this point I'm reduced to using pre-ground pepper, which EVERYONE
>knows is not a good alternative.
>
>Short of breaking the top off, I'm out of ideas as well as out of
>pepper.
>
>Scrooge
>
>(PS: Obviously any ideas will be welcomed. I do love freshly ground
>pepper.)

Have you tried soaking the *whole* thing in warm, sudsy water? It's
worked for me on certain occasions in the past.
 
"-L." <[email protected]>, if that's their real name, wrote:

>Damsel in dis Dress wrote:
>
>>"Can you make ginger snaps without ginger?"
>
>hee hee...I like that!

Thanks! ;)

Carol
--
"Years ago my mother used to say to me... She'd say,
'In this world Elwood, you must be oh-so smart or oh-so pleasant.'
Well, for years I was smart.... I recommend pleasant. You may quote me."

*James Stewart* in the 1950 movie, _Harvey_
 
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