Would you like some meatloaf with your oregeno?

[flutterbee]

For homework from the tutor, Wynter had to double a meatloaf recipe and cook it. They're working on fractions and her tutor is using this as a real life lesson.

Wynter had written down on a piece of paper all of the ingredient
measurements because she had to double it. I was defrosting 3 pounds of
hamburger in the microwave while she was mixing everything together...took her forever, but she was doing good.

She got out the oregeno and had trouble opening it because it was a new container. I helped her get it open and went back to the meat. Then I looked over and she's pouring the oregeno into the measuring cup! I said, 'What are you doing?!' She replied, 'Measuring the oregeno.' I asked, 'How much do you need?' She said, 'A cup.' (!!!) Oh, honey, no you don't. The recipe called for 1/2 tsp and when she doubled it she had written 1 cup instead of tsp!

I laughed so hard, I peed. I tried so hard not to laugh, but it only made me laugh harder. I could hardly get the oregeno back into the container I was laughing so hard. At first she was laughing with me, then she got mad at me cause I wouldn't stop laughing and stomped into her room.

It was sooooo funny. I've never seen anyone measure oregeno in a measuring cup before. I still laugh when I think about it. I've bitten my lip until it's bled. ROFLAO

Guess you had to be there...... That would have been some strong tasting
meatloaf, huh?

 

[Andy]

That is hilarous! Is there even a cup of oregano in the container it comes in?

When I was growing up, my sisters and I had a special spot in the woods that we would dump our cooking mistakes.

Oh how I love cooking stories!

 

[mstang67chic]

Oh how I love cooking stories!

Nothing quite like that cricket butter soup!

 

[Hound dog]

I'm laughing right along with you. I doubt I could've held it together any better. Too funny, and too cute.

Reminds me of cooking with my girls. OMG did we have laughs! Still do on occasion. Makes me sort o' miss those times.

Someday I'm going to attempt my aunt's meatloaf with sweet peppers in the center. Lord that was delicious. But I've yet to come up with a way to get the peppers on the inside.......or to get my family to try it once it's cooked. lol

Might want to let her peek at the thread tomorrow so she can see she's not the only one who makes cooking mistakes.

Heck, my Mom blew UP boiled eggs tons of times before she learned to watch the darn things. (she got sick and tired of cleaning them off the ceiling. lol)

Hugs

 

[flutterbee]

Show her this thread?!!! Are you kidding???

I'm not allowed to tell anyone this story. If she found out....well, let's just say I'd have to move out.

Wait....that might not be such a bad thing.

She doesn't like the meatloaf, so now she is acting in true difficult child fashion. She flopped down on the floor in front of the fridge and hit the fridge. Then she got up and sat down at the table and thumped her head down onto the table. She can't do anything right, she says. Tastes fine to me.

I haven't made meatloaf in a few years. I like it ok, just not well enough to make it that often. However, she had it at my brother's last year and was so excited about this. I told her to email her aunt (my sister in law) and get her recipe and we'll make it that way.

However, there is no consoling her right now. The world is going to end. It's so frustrating how disappointment for a difficult child becomes all consuming. There is nothing I can do or say without getting snapped at.

Then, the cornbread she made - she had to 1/2 that recipe - was done. Timer went off and she didn't move. Typical difficult child fashion. I got up and got it out. We made them in a cupcake pan because at 1/2 the recipe, the loaf pan was too big. She says they're no good either. Tastes like cornbread to me. I don't care for cornbread and never make it - let alone from scratch. So, now she's off to pout and be miserable.

I thought cooking with your kids was supposed to be fun.

Then I go outside and Mr. Raccoon makes an appearance. I saw him and made some noise and he started heading right for me. You know what? It's MY freakin' patio, buddy. So, I started stomping around and making a lot of noise. He changed his mind. After the way this turned out with difficult child, I'm not in the mood for another difficult child - human OR animal.

 

[Hound dog]

Sigh. It's a shame when they take it so to heart like that. Thankfully neither easy child or Nichole were that way with cooking. BOTH were that way with other things, too many other things as teens. But now they do look back and have a good laugh at themselves.

I bet you scared the heck outta that raccoon though! ROFLMAO!!

 

[flutterbee]

It's just the change from one extreme to the next. One minute she's having fun, is in a good mood and bubbly and the next - because of one small thing - everything is terrible, horrible and miserable. There is no in-between for her. I always feel like I've just been run over by a truck when it happens.

 

[flutterbee]

Adrianne, this is for you so you'll know what we're talking about when we mention cricket, butter soup!

http://www.conductdisorders.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10027

 

[witzend]

I remember when M decided that he really liked cinnamon. He hid under the coffee table in the living room with the can. Like we were never going to find him there! All of a sudden we heard him sputtering and coughing and there he was with cinnamon all over his face trying to wipe it off on his clothes and and tears were streaming out his eyes!

Yes herbs taste good, but not in large doses!

 

[meowbunny]

Poor Wynter. I used to hate when mine tried a new recipe. It was never good enough and there were always the sulks and pouts. She'd seen me foul up enough recipes to know it's no big deal and certainly not the end of the world. Simply remember what didn't taste right and change that the next time. Have mini-temper tantrums just isn't acceptable.

One thing I did find that seemed to help was both of us trying to pinpoint exactly what wasn't "right." Could it be fixed with something as simple as salt? Great, then it was edible now. Did it need more garlic? Garlic powder now and a note to add more to the recipe. And so on. It seemed that the problem solving would get her mind off the "failure" and on to way to rectify it. Sometimes there wasn't a solution and then it was blamed on a bad recipe. Once I even tried making the same thing she did -- hers was bad, mine was awful. That was a seriously bad recipe!

What I'm trying to figure out is 1/2 tsp doubled = one cup. That had to be a HUGE can of oregano.

 

[Abbey]

Ahhh...I loved cooking with my mom, and what a great way to make it happen. Sorry she was in a huff. Just tell her that I tasted the oregano in Nevada.

To this day, I still call my mom for cooking advice. She is an excellent old-school cook.

Abbey

 

['Chelle]

Meatloaf, I find, is a very personal thing for taste, and usually nothing is ever like mom's (or whoever's meatloaf you tasted and liked first). I like the idea of going over the recipe with her and figuring out what about it she didn't like. Maybe it was the oregano in it she didn't like. Getting the recipe of the one she did like is a great idea, and then you can go over the two for differences and decide why she didn't like the one she made. It would be a good lesson for cooking, where you can show how you can add or take away spices/herbs and make a recipe more to your own tastes. That's the bad thing about asking my mom about cooking. Like my grandmother, she never measures anything. Just adds what looks about right for taste. I do the same for a lot of things, my spaghetti sauce never tastes exactly the same as I don't measure.

I know I feel bad when I try a recipe and it doesn't quite turn out as tasty as I thought it would. Made chicken & dumplings from a recipe not too long ago, and while it was ok I wouldn't make it again (dumplings were great, didn't like some of the herbs in the chicken part). Sorry she let it get her so upset. Just let her know it happens to the best of cooks too. It's all a learning process in what you like for flavors.

 

[DammitJanet]

Never heard of oregano in meatloaf before..hmmm. I just use Hunts meatloaf sauce and bread crumbs...but maybe there is oregano in them? LOL.

Speaking of my worst meatloaf experience. There used to be this show on in the mornings kind of like Regis. It had guests and they showed you how to do a few recipes. Well..one day they did one with Grape Nut meatloaf. Ok...it sounded really good on TV. Grape Nuts and Maple syrup I think. (This was probably 20 years ago...lol) I wrote it all down and followed it to a T. We all sat down to dinner that evening, bit into it and everyone spit it out immediately. It was gross!!!

I threw it outside for the dogs to eat and even they wouldnt touch it!

 

[Shari]

Maybe you can make an angel food cake sometime, and grease the pan.

That turns out interesting...

 

[Abbey]

I threw it outside for the dogs to eat and even they wouldnt touch it!

Now that had to be some pretty darn bad meatloaf.

Abbey

 

[KTMom91]

This reminds me of Miss KT's macaroni and cheese soup...since the box said "makes two cups", she took that to mean you would add two cups of milk instead of the quarter cup or whatever the directions say. She threw out the first batch before I knew about it, then immediately did the same darn thing to a second batch, and got mad when I suggested she read the directions.

 

[flutterbee]

Ewww, Janet. Maple syrup? There is just something terribly wrong with sweet meat. I don't do honey baked ham and I don't do the ketchup and brown sugar combo on top of the meat loaf.

It gets better. She was supposed to triple a chocolate chip cookie recipe. difficult child is on this kick of being completely different from me and so could not use my recipe for cookies which makes a reasonable number. She had to use the recipe out of one of the cookbooks. She's got the oven preheating and is getting ready to get started while I'm on the computer in the kitchen so I can supervise, but not take over. Then she asks, "What does, 'Yield: 11 dozen' mean?" It means you're not tripling that recipe. Why not, she wants to know. Because if you triple it you will make 33 dozen cookies. How many cookies is that, she asks. Almost 400.

What in the heck am I gonna do with 400 cookies?!!! And don't say freeze them because my freezer is so full as it is that you have to jump back when you open the doors to protect your toes from whatever is falling out.

I told her to just write down what the recipe would be is she tripled it and that would have to do. She was not happy. She'll get over it.

 

[Andy]

Heather, Thank you for the butter cricket soup thread. Oh so funny!

difficult child learned what would happen if you make microwave mac & cheese without adding water. You get a large POP, mom's mixing bowl (one of her favorites of course) shatters to little pieces, and the macaroni is pitch black. He just couldn't understand how I could stay so calm about that one!

When I was young, my sisters and I were always cooking something. One day my mom was not in a good mood (she was usually more understanding). We had made a cake that was very liquidy. "Did you use a measuring cup to measure the water?" "No, mom, we used a coffee cup." "Do you know that a coffee cup holds more water than one cup?" "Yes, Mom." "Show me how much you put in" So, we take the coffee cup, fill to what we usually use for one cup and give it to her. "O.K., I will show you how much water you actually used." Mom pours it into the measuring cup. EXACTLY one cup!!! Somehow we managed to make a quick exit!
To this day we don't know what happen - I think there may have been more than one cook adding a cup of water.

 

[flutterbee]

And if you reheat Pizza Hut chicken wings in the microwave in their original packaging, you get a fire! Nothing like hearing your child yell, MOM!!! FIRE!!! Actually, difficult child handled that much better than I did, although it was 6 months before she would use the microwave without having the fire extinguisher close at hand. hehehehehe

Apparently, Pizza Hut uses foil paper in their packaging.

 

[trinityroyal]

And if you reheat Pizza Hut chicken wings in the microwave in their original packaging, you get a fire!

I had that happen with a bra once.
I know...this needs some 'splainin.

When I was in university, I lived in an apartment on the top floor. The laundry room was in the basement, so sometimes I just washed things by hand in the sink. I was running late and all of my "foundation garments" were still wet, hanging on my little clothes rack.

So...I thought I'll just pop one in the microwave for a few seconds to dry.

Well...I must have entered an extra zero or something, because a minute later I smelled burning, and there was my bra. In the microwave. In flames.

Never did THAT again.