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Holiday Cooking Mishaps?

jglass

jglass

New member
What was your worst holiday cooking mishap?

For me it was the year Jon and I decided to have a goose for Thanksgiving :eek:
It was so bad his Dads dog wouldnt eat it lol. That was about 9 years ago. Thankfully my cooking has gotten better. I wouldnt try another goose ever. Way to fatty bleh! I had to keep emptying the fat from the roasting pan I had the goose in. It was awful.
I love a 6-7 pound duck for just the two of us.

A friend of my husband who is also blind ordered one of those pre-made Thanksgiving dinners from Krogers (I think). He took a cab to the store to pick it up and when it got it all home the turkey and ham were still frozen. They were supposed to have been cooked ready to eat. His wife is also legally blind and their only child was like 9 at the time.
 
Back after I was first married living in Texas we decided to make a turkey without removing the giblets and neck from the inside cavity :eek:
:eek:

We never knew, but learned real quick LOL
 
ricksrealpitbbq said:
Back after I was first married living in Texas we decided to make a turkey without removing the giblets and neck from the inside cavity :eek:
:eek:

We never knew, but learned real quick LOL
Click to expand...

We did that. Plastic wrap and all. The whole turkey had the smell of plastic.
 
I saw a lady on tv who used to work the butterball hotline and she said tons of people forget to remove the giblets.
 
Many don't remove the package in the cavity - if the paper wrap gets baked - it's not so bad - if the plastic gets baked and starts to melt - you have to chuck the turkey because of the poisons from the plastic that have leeched into the turkey.

My turkey rememberance: OldFashionedHomeCooking: BAD TURKEYS
 
Family gathering many years ago for Thanksgiving. My Aunt made a reservation with a store to get the largest fresh turkey they had. When they picked it up they learned it was over 25 lbs. At home all the usual preparations were done to it and I remember the ladies commented about it hanging out over the sides of the roasting pan and laughingly commented "what if it doesn't fit in the oven?" Nobody laughed and they immediately took the bird over to the oven....it did not fit!

After the tears, etc., the roasting pan was put on blocks to keep it just off the lower burner, a leg and wing was cut off so the bird could be tilted sideways, which was enough to get everything in the oven and the door closed. Dinner was about 3 hours late and some people got their favorite burnt pieces, but it was a success in the end and gave the family something to talk about for many years.

Moral: If you reserve a bird, make sure you specify a maximum size/weight. :D :eek:
 
That is too funny CanMan!!! I feel for them, but reading it post traumatic ordeal it sounds funny!

I made a Ginger Bread House one year, it was GREAT so pretty we took pictures of it! No sooner had I put the camera away walked back into the kitchen to admire it some more and the darn thing collapsed...right before my admiring eyes :eek: My neice who loved my cooking was delighted, all she wanted to do was eat it anyway so that was the perfect opportunity for her to cut loose on her some gingerbread;):):D
 
After hearing all of this I think I will do a meatloaf. :rolleyes: Just shape that sucker like a turkey. Everyone is stuck on the football on TV so they would probably never know.
 
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Meatloaf is good. :cool: I could never get my meatloaf to hold a shape to make a turkey, but I could do it in SPAM perhaps.....Turkey SPAM?
 
I'm not going to stand it up but just on its side. Now that spam looks like the plan now. Just get one of those cookie cutter thingies shaped like a turkey and whack off a turkey shape on each slice. Throw in a coupla "Moon Pies" a few RC Colas and dinner is done :D

Something tells me that if my wife reads this I won't be allowed near the kitchen on Thanksgiving.
 
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One year, my aunt didn't know that we stored our cereal boxes in the oven when it wasn't being used (we didn't have a pantry). She turned the oven on and caught the cereal boxes on fire.
 
You guys should have seen the salad my FIL came up with one year. He cut up a head of lettuce and threw it in a bowl. He used generic diet red dressing and took a can of salmon and tossed it on top. It was so bad lol.
A few months later he decided to make salmon cakes. He put a can of those diced carrot, potatoes and peas inside the salmon cakes. I just plain old told him that one was really bad lol. He loves to cook but he does get a tad strange at time with the things he puts together.

Like a dummy I put a chicken in the rotisserie once and forgot to take my little spice rack back off the top of the rotisserie where I had put it. Well a few min later when I smelled rubbed melting I realized what I had done. I raced in there and got it off but not before the swivel base on the spice rack was ruined lol. Somedays I do things on autopilot and do not pay attention like I should. Thankfully it didnt hurt my rotisserie.
 
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The Christmas Dinner That Wasn't

Several years ago all the inlaws, parents, grandparents ect had requested that since they all loved my homemade pasta that I do an Italian Pasta Christmas Dinner. No 7 fishes stuff. I made Lasagna, manicotti, ziti, Homemade strombolis and Italian bread loaves. We had several platters of deli meats and cheeses. I went all out. My wife made all types of Italian pastries, cookies, and even filled chocolates. We made everything at home and then loaded it up and brought it to the inlaws house to heat up again to serve.
We set the table. It was beautiful with all the different types of pastas and breads. We had side tables with everything else set up. Everyone sat down to the table and a blessing was said. My mother inlaw decides it's just a bit warm and decided to pull the chord to the ceiling fan over the dining room table.
No, the ceiling fan didn't fall onto the table wounding all the dinner guest, lol. I had installed it.

Here is what happend. I should inform everyone that my inlaws get into hobbies and go way over board. Well they had become interested in pet birds. They ended up buying a few.... A few more,,,, a few more and more and more. I think by the time all said and done with they had close to 200 birds of every type imaginable in there home. Birds lay a lot of eggs too. Stepping into their home was like going into a tropical rain forest. Sqawking and screeching. I hate birds indoors..
Well with birds comes molting. The fine feather dust gets people very sick and causes severe lung infections to many. The dust settles everywhere.
Well, back to the cieling fan. I was sitting there watching the blades start to turn. It was almost like slow motion as the cloud of feather dust started swirling in a down wards motion towards all the food on the table. My jaw just dropped as I watched everyone grabbing for the food only to be to late. Everything that I had spent days preparing was ruined.
 
IC your story is so funny, not really, but in a sad kind of way it is! All those birds inside OH My Gosh, I would have a coronary! Birds carry a disease called psitticosis that is not good (as you mentioned it gets in the lungs) I'd of been scarred to death of catching it! Anyone purchasing a bird to keep in their home should have their birds stool tested at their local vet! I am a bird lover, but because they are so messy I can't tolerate even a parakeet in my house anymore :( And all my life I dreamed of having an Aviary of my very own:eek:
 
Wow- many great stories, all! :)

Having cooked in commercial kitchens for years- I can tell a few good stories too- however, we in the culinary union are sworn to secrecy and prohibited from ever sharing bad secrets that might turn folks' stomachs so badly that they never eat out ever again! Ha! :)
 
I had a neighbor once who forgot to turn the oven on and when she went to check the turkey it was still frozen! needless to say they had no turkey that Thanksgiving!
 
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