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Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Don't you just hate it when...

In my Sunday Gratitude post I mentioned being grateful for the banana split ice cream because Thursday wasn't the best of days.

Here's the story of what happened on Thursday, well more like the almost week-long chain of events that led up to one of those "don't you just hate it when" stories.

Jen from Pinwheels sent me a recipe for ribs that I wanted to try. It's 2 parts: first you bake the ribs in the oven for 45 min to help get the fat out, then you put them in the slow cooker with the rest of the ingredients. It sounded like a great recipe and I just so happened to have ribs in the freezer!

On Mon I put the ribs in the fridge. On Tues I had MOPS but planned on putting the ribs in the slow cooker when I got home. I didn't get home until about noon, then forgot they needed to bake first. There was no way these would be done in time for dinner - unless we were to eat at 8.

On Wed we planned on having dinner with Overwhelmed so there was no sense in making them that day. They had been thawed in the fridge for a couple days now so I figured the meat needed to at least be cooked. I baked them on Wed to get that part out of the way so on Thur I could just put them in the slow cooker and I would finally be able to have these ribs!

Thur morning I had an appt then I was coming home to stick the ribs in the slow cooker before heading out to the commissary...our cubbards were almost bare! I got home later than I thought I would and couldn't get ahold of Joe to make sure he would be home to get Kayla off the bus. That threw my schedule off; there was no way I could get my grocery shopping done in time without being rushed to get home to meet the bus. Ok I'll just go this evening when Joe gets home from work. I've got the ribs in the slow cooker so dinner will be taken care of, if he gets home "on time" that will give me about an hour at the commissary and we'll be ready to eat when I get home. Sounded like a good plan!

Joe got home just after430 and I was getting ready to head out to the commissary. I went to check on the ribs to see how tender they were (yes I know you're not supposed to lift the lid when you're using a slow cooker, but I like to check to see how tender the meat is when it's almost done anyway!) I lifted the lid and thought, "hmmmm...these don't seem like they are very warm or anything." Something didn't seem right to me. I looked on the front of the slow cooker and yep sure enough I did have the setting on "low heat" so that was ok.

Then my eyes saw it. There just laying on the counter top mocking me was the plug. Not plugged into the socket.

All day long my ribs sat in the slow cooker, unplugged. I didn't even noticed there was no wonderful-smelling aroma filling the house like there should have been. I was completely oblivious to the fact the slow cooker wasn't even on. Sigh

There went dinner. Not only did I not have these ribs I had been planning for all week, but I had to throw the whole thing out because they were just sitting out on the counter all day long. I hate wasting food like that. I still needed to go to the commissary too.

Thank goodness we did have enough leftovers to scrounge up to eat that night; everyone ate something different, but at least there was that.

That was why when I saw the banana split ice cream at the commissary I just had to get it. I needed some ice cream Thursday night!

So please share with me a "don't you just hate it when" moment so I don't feel so alone!

27 comments:

Jodi said...

I had to giggle at your description of the cord lying there on the counter but only because I have done that sooooo many times myself. I chalk it all up to mommybrain. :)

Cate said...

We had guests one night, and I cooked something that was supposed to be served over rice. I made the rice in the rice cooker as usual, and plugged it in and turned it on and everything. When the timer went off the rice looked funny, and it turned out I had forgotten to put water in. Steamers don't work well without water.

Embarassing. Especially with company.

That ice cream sounds great.

Leslie said...

Oh, Michelle! I do hate it when...

And you'll get lots of comments on this, because you are sooooo not alone! You're in good company!

One of the first times I made rice I put it in a Pyrex dish on the stovetop. I opened the lid and it immediately blew up. I have no idea how I kept from getting a face full of glass. Todd was helping me pick up the shattered glass when we found a large piece with the words, "Do not place on an open flame." Duh. The next time I made rice I didn't cook it long enough. Todd ate a TON of it and we seriously watched his stomach expand...he threw up for most of the night. You can imagine my delight when Minute Rice came out with boil-in-bags.

I have way too many of these to name...

I'm so sorry you had a bad day!

:)

Pamela said...

Michelle, when we were newlyweds, we invited our first couple of friends over for dinner, all we had was a card table to eat on. I wanted to serve a pie, even though I didn't have time to make it from scratch, so I baked a Mrs. Smiths ready made pie. After our friends raved about the pie being so good,they asked me if I made it from scratch, I replied, "I baked it myself". Yes, I know, I know. Everything would have been fine, however, my hubby walked over to the trash hours later and slowly, and very dramatically pulled out the pie box and said "Pamela, what's this"? I never turned so many shades of red before! *sigh*

Anonymous said...

So been there! I totally Just Hate It When ... hehe glad it all worked out and that the ice cream was there to save the day!

Jen said...

Just last night I roasted a chicken in the oven upside down. I was a vegetarian for a long long time and so I've never roasted a chicken before, and hubby wasn't home. He's usually the meat-cooker in our house. Still tasted fine, but looked really, really weird. I can't believe I'm even telling this.

Anonymous said...

Well your story reminded me of mine. I did the same thing and didn't even notice. I was doing a pot roast and had a lot of running around to do. when i got home i noticed no good smell coming from the slow cooker. I couldn't believe it, I forgot to plug it in. So like you we all had left overs.When I do something like that it reminds me of your mom when she always said I'm loosing my mind.I think once you have kids ,Moms seem to do it a lot. Moms always have a million thoughts going on inside our heads.

Carole Burant said...

Oh dear, lol, you certainly aren't alone in doing something like that! Many years ago I was having company and had put a huge roast beef in the oven to cook while we all went sightseeing, figuring when we got back it would be almost cooked. I had set the timer for it to begin at a certain time. When we got home, I noticed right away there was no aroma greeting us...I had forgotten to push down the button to get the timer activated. We ordered in pizza! lol Hugs xox

ChupieandJ'smama (Janeen) said...

Yes, I do hate it when I do stuff like that. On Christmas Eve, my hubby likes to fry fish (a tradition from his family), but since I don't eat fish and Jason can't I try to make something for all of us. I usually make pasta and I wanted to try a traditional Italian pasta dish. It called for sauteeing veggies and then adding diced tomatoes and cooking until the liquid had reduced. I did this, but I also had 1,000 other things to do so I also cleaned some things, wrapped presents and went back to stir periodically. The directions said stir continually and they meant it because my diced tomatoes scorched, badly. It was either throw it out and eat nothing or continue with burnt tomatoes. I continued and it wasn't bad, but you could tell it was a little off. Just trying to do too much at once. Sometimes I OVER-multitask. Merry Christmas, here's your pasta with blackened tomatoes.

Anonymous said...

Oh boy can I relate one thanksgiving our turkey was spoiled and of course with stores being closed we could not go back to the grocery store so we ended up ordering Swiss chalet chicken. lol

TJ said...

ever got in the car and it wouldn't start...and you call your hubby that points out look you are out of gas?????
(((hugs))) it happens to the best of us!!
:-D

tracey.becker1@gmail.com said...

Just ONE story? Seriously, I could write a book.

Ok. How about on last Christmas Eve, when I forgot to put salt in the pie crust and thought that the basil was oregano when making the sauce for the lasagna? And I noticed these problems WELL after the food had been started in the oven. (At least they still tasted decent. Just different.)

Cheryl Wray said...

OMG; that is just TOO funny! And I have to say that it sounds EXACTLY like something I would do!! Don't feel bad . . .
But boy those ribs sound like they would have really been good!!

Andrea@Sgt and Mrs Hub said...

I wrote yesterday how I had one of those moments on Sunday night...poured a whole bottle of sauce that had never been sealed over our chicken parmesaen. We also had leftovers. Thanks for sharing- it made me feel better to know I am not alone!

-Andrea

Anonymous said...

Okay I have done that before, so I feel your pain.
-K.T.

Calico Sky said...

Don't worry sweetie, those things happen to me all the time, and it is always better to be safe than sorry with meat and dairy!
For me my always 'don't you just hate it when' revolve around more than one thing going wrong at once. I can cope with one or two things a day, not more. Here is my 'don't you just hate it when' last week...
'You have a 6 week stint between pay days (because we are paid early in Dec for Christmas) and not paid again until the end of Jan, and a thief steals your account details and spends the money you had earmarked to send for your homestudy, and then a day later you leave your bag unattended and your credit card is stolen, meaning you have nothing in account as it had to be closed and the bank will take 2 weeks to pay back what was stolen, it has been 5.5 weeks since pay day and you can't even put anything on credit'....
yup that's my don't you hate it when moment!! :-)

Barb said...

Look how many comments you're getting on this Michelle because we have ALL done this. I guess my worst story is when I went to the trouble to make homemade peanut butter cookies, baked the whole batch and finally figured out the reason they were awful is because I forgot to put the peanut butter in. But tossing those cookies out wasn't as painful as having to toss out expensive ribs. Poor you.

But....I'll bet you'll never forget to plug the slow cooker in. I know I'll never forget to put the peanut butter in my peanut butter cookies again! LOL

(I lift the lid on my slow cooker all the time. I totally ignore that rule. :-)

Mrs. Mac said...

I like the idea of banana split ice cream "therapy"! I "hated" it when 25 years ago I saw my husband take out "my" jug of plantfood water ... It was really "his" jug that I'd been adding liquid Shultz fertalizer too (He used it to make saline solution for his contact lenses (way back in the day) OOPS!

Linda said...

You caught me off guard Michelle. I know I have had dozens of those moments - but my little brain can't come up with one right now. If I think of one later I'll scoot right back here and let you know.
However, I heartily agree that banana split ice cream is the perfect rememdy :)

Anonymous said...

I usually either forget to turn the oven on and pay no attention to what temp I set it to. So not good. :) Luckily I have a bf who enjoys cooking. Hehe. :)

Unknown said...

Been there, done that :) I wondered why my crockpot wasn't heating up, and there was the plug...not in the socket!!

I hope the ice cream made you feel better. You should have got out 3 spoons and ate ice cream for supper :)

Sue Seibert said...

Oh, man, have I done things like that before! Sometimes you just have so much to do, you've got to forget something!

Hope this week is less harried and goes much better.

Beck said...

That's AWFUL! What a disappointment! But everything worked out and it was just one meal, right?

jennifergg said...

I'm really sorry...I hope you'll try it again (I feel somehow responsible!)

Here's my story: first Thanksgiving in our new home, first time cooking for the inlaws. Also, first time managing all this with a new baby, six months old. So I got everything together as best I could, the meal was fine, almost over, I get out the pumpkin pie, let out a sigh of releif, and then, ACK! I forgot to put the sugar in the pie. It was horrible! Even the dog wouldn't eat it!

Tammy said...

I have done way too many things like that to even come up with just one! :)

smileymamaT said...

Ohhh noooooo. I have done the exact same thing, with beef stew, in the slowcooker. Once, on my first Thanksgiving at my house, with my mother there and all, I took the turkey out of the oven--and while slicing--said, What's this plastic bag inside??? Obviously, I learned about giblets that year...
-T

Overwhelmed! said...

Oh, I've had those unplugged appliances mocking me too...when I try to toast a bagel is when it seems to happen the most!

Sorry you had to throw out the ribs, but at least you got ice cream! :)

Thanks for stopping by to check out my WFMW travel tip post. I do appreciate it!