What household chore have you got completely wrong?

As a teenager I started to take an interest in cooking. Found a recipe for a chicken casserole and told my Mum I would make Sunday dinner for the family (8 of us) while she visited my Gran. Unfortunately, I didn't appreciate that a flameproof casserole shouldn't go on the hob, so not just 1, but 3 pyrex casserole dishes cracked and spilled their contents everywhere! My poor Mum was, surprisingly, quite understanding.

No, you're not.
You doze in front of the telly then the noise of the exploding eggs wakes you up.

Please tell me I'm not the only one who has put eggs in a saucepan to hardboil, looked at the clock and thought to myself (forcefully) right, don't forget to come back into the kitchen in 10 minutes.....

...need I say more?

Just remembered another disaster. We’d been married 3 years and had saved to buy a G plan 3 piece suite replacing finally one we’d been given (albeit gratefully received). The new one had paler cream and coffee coloured fabric (70’s!) and the cushions were handily reversible.

One autumn day while himself was at work and baby asleep I decided to wash one side of the 5 cushions by gently scrubbing with a cloth & detergent. So far so excellent. Then I carefully arranged them flat side facing the gas fire to dry …..

Oh my giddy aunt! The horror to return and find them all badly singed to a dark brown. Good job they were reversible …. 🫪

When I was engaged I invited my best friend and her fiance to a "dinner party" that I decided I would do as my parents were out for the evening. After a week of reading all my Mum's cookery books I decide I'm going to make Osso Bucco. Of course I chose the meal with the most difficult ingedients to source - around 1970 I guess. Up to that point spaghetti on toast was probably my limit.

All was well, prawn cocktails went down a treat. Serve up the Osso Bucco and half way through my girlfriend's fiance started making funny faces - kind of a cross between pained and puzzled.

He said "I think I've got a teabag in my dinner" - and pulled out of his mouth the bouquest garni I had searched high and low for but forgot to take it out before serving.

Of course from then on, whenever we were out together it would be "tea bag with your hamburger/chicken/kiev/apple pie?". To this day if I'm with my girlfriend she never fails to ask me if I'd like Osso Bucco for dinner.

Expecting friends round for dinner. I’d measured the couscous into a saucepan but got distracted before adding the water. I managed to burn a hole in newish Neff induction hob.

Many years ago, when living in my house which had carpets on hallway, stairs and all bedrooms - I purchased one of those carpet cleaners. You put clean water and cleaner into one part of it, and once carpets call nicely cleaned the filthy dirty water is in the second cylinder, ready to be poured away.

So, I did a good job, really going over all the carpets, then - stupidly - started to removed that cylinder with dirty water in bedroom, (should have taken it into bathroom). Got muddled with clips resulting in cylinder falling out and spilling that horrible dirty water all over carpet!!!!!

Oldnproud

I read a hint for getting roast potatoes extra crispy by rolling them in couscous after hoiling but before roasting.

I'd never used couscous before, and the hint didn't say anything about having to cook it first.

Needless to say, the 'crispy' potatoes were inedible.

I just laughed at this one!

Moved into first ever flat, sharing with two girlfriends and we decided to do roast chicken for us and the boyfriends. None of us knew that in those days chickens contained a plastic bag full of giblets, so we cooked that too. Weird smells and melted plastic resulted. We would have eaten the roasties instead, except they hadnt been par boiled and were like rocks. The wine went down a treat with cabbage, sliced white bread and marg.

Well, these are great, everyone.
Many of these are very familiar to me.

One of the funniest was when I and a colleague were sent out one day to prepare school dinners in a tiny, purpose-built 'pod' in the school car park, after the cook walked out without warning.

Facilities were limited, so we had to make the custard in the microwave oven.
We didnt watch it carefully enough, and turned around several minutes later to see something resembling a tidal wave of custard pouring out of the microwave, flooding over the top then down the sides of the shelf it was on, then running across the floor towards the door.
How one single jug of custard could possibly expand into a lake, I don't know, but our initial shock and disbelieve soon turned into hysterical laughter 😀

Xmas Lunch - invited a couple who were celebrating their first Christmas ever in this country - forgot to turn the oven on.
Fortunately I had other snacks to tide them over till the Turkey and trimmings were ready. How embarrassing !
Absolutely true story !

😁

JenniRen

Oldnproud

I bet I'm not the only person who has lost cooked rice / spaghetti/ peas down the sink by carelessly grabbing the wrong thing for draining them!

Or pouring the stock down the sink instead of straining it into a jug!

Ah yes, done that one too!

Then there are the baking incidents where I have realised too late that the eggs or some other essential ingredient is still sitting on the worktop.

Oldnproud

I bet I'm not the only person who has lost cooked rice / spaghetti/ peas down the sink by carelessly grabbing the wrong thing for draining them!

Or pouring the stock down the sink instead of straining it into a jug!

A basic one, changing duvet covers, I get there in the end but I feel worn out afterwards

I bet I'm not the only person who has lost cooked rice / spaghetti/ peas down the sink by carelessly grabbing the wrong thing for draining them!

I read a hint for getting roast potatoes extra crispy by rolling them in couscous after hoiling but before roasting.

I'd never used couscous before, and the hint didn't say anything about having to cook it first.

Needless to say, the 'crispy' potatoes were inedible.

kittylester

Just after we got married DH spilt curry on a new Aran sweater. I put it in the bath to soak.

🤣

I must have been about 4 when I put my toy plastic ( bakerlite) iron in my granny's range to heat up just like she did with her cast iron one. It didn't do it much good!!

Decided that the inside of the cold tap over the kitchen sink looked grotty - I was very small and could see upwards into the tap - so I gave it a good old squirt of washing up liquid and left it to soak.
Mum ran the tap to make a cup of tea and was puzzled as to why the kettle was suddenly spewing out copious soapy bubbles when it came to the boil………I was only trying to help 😂😂🤷‍♀️

Faraget

Cooked oats o simple in the microwave didn't put milk into managed to set microwave on fire when I was 9

Scrambled eggs, in the days my boss insisted I cooked it on a water bath, forgot to put water in the bottom saucepan. My goodness did she shout at me, as she could smell it downstairs but I could not.

I made marrow chutney but forgot to rinse the salt off before cooking.

Many years ago one of my son’s friends came into the kitchen and told me he had been stung by a be. As husband was a be keeper at the time I reached for what was called Stingoes I think it was called. Gave a quick squirt and sent him back out. Only when I came to put it away did I notice I had used the early version of Neutrodol. Lad said he felt fine when I asked. The mum asked me what I had used as her son usually reacted badly to stings. You never know what products have alternative uses. Or is it the placebo effect !!

At the age of 16 My daughter didn’t put any water in the egg poacher pan and wondered why it caught fire . We had gone on holiday to Cyprus and left her in charge of the house. We still remind her at the age of 45.